---

As a part of the regional IPA project titled Programme for Strengthening the Central Bank Capacities in the Western Balkans with a view to the Integration to the European System of Central Banks, the Deutsche Bundesbank organised a High-Level policy workshop on August 31, 2021, in a virtual format. The Vice Governors of the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG) and senior representatives of the central banks of the Western Balkans attended the Workshop.

Mr. Burhard Balz, Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank and Mr. Florian Hauser, senior representative of the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, opened the Workshop. The panellists were representatives of the central banks of Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Lithuania. The workshop topics included the criteria and main applicable standards in ensuring central banks’ independence and different models for its implementation, the accountability and transparency principles, and challenges posed by climate change to central banks’ governance. The workshop participants agreed that ensuring central banks’ independence is vital for the stability not only of the monetary system but the economy as a whole.

It was also an opportunity for representatives of the CBCG and the central banks of the region to exchange experience with their colleagues from the ESCB on the application of different governance models and new challenges in circumstances of a changed economic environment.