Macedonia launches EU-funded project to toughen measures against money laundering

Macedonia launched Monday a project aimed at enhancing the fight against economic crime, money laundering and terrorism financing.

"The project worth around 1.35 million euros (nearly 1.4 million U.S. dollars) is funded by the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) as part of the Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey," EU delegation office here said in a press statement Monday.

The EU/Council of Europe Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey is a three-year program launched in April 2016.

It is aimed at assisting the EU candidate countries in implementing European standard in three priority areas, namely ensuring justice, fighting corruption, economic and organized crime, as well as combating discrimination and protecting the rights of vulnerable groups.

At the press conference, Macedonia's Minister of Finance Kiril Minoski told reporters that the fight against organized crime and corruption was one of the main priorities of Macedonia.

He stressed the need for application of national and international measures and regular monitoring of their application in order to set up an effective system to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing.

On his part, Head of Operations at the EU Delegation to Skopje Jaromir Levicek said fight against organized crime and money laundering was one of the key demands for accessing the EU.

He also invited all parties to work together in order to curb money laundering.

Meanwhile, head of Cooperation at the Council of Europe Program Office Skopje Monica Martinez said Macedonia had made a remarkable progress in terms of the prevention and fight against terrorism, money laundering and corruption. Endit