North Macedonia / The EU and Council of Europe action against Economic Crime in North Macedonia has been supporting the public authorities in North Macedonia in conducting the national money laundering and financing of terrorism risk assessment (NRA) since September 2023. This assistance resulted in the finalisation of the NRA process during October in a meeting with representatives of all 10 working groups that participated in the risk assessment process. The meeting facilitated substantive discussions and provision of advice for completing the outstanding issues in the assessment report.
The final report will be submitted to the Government for adoption. Once adopted, it will serve as the basis for preparing a National AML/CFT national strategy and its accompanying Action plan. The Action will continue its guidance and support to these efforts.
The national money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment is crucial for North Macedonia as it helps to improve the understanding of the authorities and private sector participants of money laundering and terrorist financing threats and vulnerabilities. It will help them to better allocate their resources to their respective supervisory, enforcement and compliance efforts more efficiently. Ultimately, implementation of effective anti-money laundering and countering financing of the terrorism measures informed by the NRA results help safeguard the economy, enhance national security, ensure complience with the international standards and boost investor confidence. It plays a vital role in combating financial crimes.
The process of assisting public authorities in the assessment of the national risk of money laundering and financing of terrorism in North Macedonia was initiated with a workshop on 20 September 2023, bringing together the key representatives from public authorities and private sector to update them on the applied methodology for conducting the national risk assessment, and to guide them through the process of data collection and analysis.
As the NRA process progressed, the Action against Economic Crime in North Macedonia continued supporting public authorities in the field, by providing advice in analysing the collected data and drafting of the report. In this context, over 50 representatives from public and private sector came together during 5-7 June 2024 in Ohrid, in a workshop, to jointly analyse the gathered data related to money laundering, financing of terrorism and proliferation. During the three-day workshop, the representatives worked together in analysing the data and preparing reports for separate modules of the methodology. The Action supported the process by providing expertise and guidance for analysing the collected data and drawing conclusions in a form of a draft report. As the next step in its technical assistance, the Action gave support to the working groups in consolidating the first draft NRA report by providing recommendations and comments for its improvement.
This initiative was implemented by the Action against economic crime in North Macedonia, within the framework of the European Union/Council of Europe joint Programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye (Horizontal Facility III).