This is how we do it: bank training for EU hopefuls

02/02/2010

About 150 financial watchdogs from Turkey and seven Western Balkan nations hoping to join the EU will participate in a training programme.

(EurActiv - 20/01/10; AFP, DPA, Bloomberg, Europolitics, European Central Bank - 19/01/10)

National central banks of the 14 eurozone countries will also participate in the programme. [Getty Images]

The first of several training events by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) for bank and fiduciary authorities in nations seeking bloc membership began on Tuesday (February 2nd) and will run through Thursday.

"The stability of the banking systems in the countries concerned is of utmost importance in achieving sustainable economic growth," said outgoing EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, who becomes EU commissioner for economic affairs this month.

The two-year project is an intensive regional training programme for 150 core supervisors from EU candidates Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey, and potential candidates -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

"The aim of the programme will be to strengthen macro- and micro-prudential supervision in the Western Balkans and Turkey," the ECB explained.

The EU will provide 2.65m euros for the two-year project. National central banks (NCB) of the 14 countries in the eurozone will also participate. The ECB plans to solicit the involvement of a number of European and international institutions, including the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the European Parliament, the Financial Stability Institute, the IMF, the Joint Vienna Institute and the World Bank.

Also envisioned are three policy workshops for decision-makers from the Western Balkan countries and Turkey to be held this year. The first -- a three-day event -- opened on January 27th.

"By the end of the year and following up on the regional training programme, the ECB will support the implementation of specific national measures," said the Frankfurt-based bank in a statement.

Those measures, the ECB said, will be defined in an agreement with the 14 NCBs already in the eurozone, along with international financial institutions and participants in the training seminars.

ECB executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said the new programme would help make macro- and micro-prudential supervisory institutions in the EU hopeful nations aware of the current EU response to the global recession.