(Bloomberg) — North Macedonia’s central bank governor said the lack of progress in talks to join the European Union is driving away investors.
The former Yugoslav republic of about 2 million has been waiting for almost two decades to start membership negotiations with the EU. Looking at past experiences with other economies, it’s clear that accession would bolster the economy, Governor Anita Angelovska Bezhoska said.
“But the lack of progress is a hurdle for investors, who still wait to see some momentum in the talks,” she said in an interview in Split, Croatia. North Macedonia’s gross domestic product is at 40% of the EU average and the country needs more technology and innovation to increase productivity, Bezhoska added.
About 60% of Macedonians support EU membership, but the number of respondents who said the country will never join the bloc has grown to 30% from 23% in 2014, according to a poll last year by the Institute for Democracy in the capital Skopje and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
The EU gave the landlocked Balkan country formal approval to begin accession talks in 2020, but the move was blocked by a spat with Bulgaria. Now Brussels requires North Macedonia to amend its constitution to mention Bulgarians among other nationalities living in the country.
The change is deeply unpopular with the public, but will need to be addressed by the next government that emerges after a general election in May.
North Macedonia has tried since 2005 to begin the accession process, forging a power-sharing agreement with its Albanian minority population. It managed to resolve a long-standing naming dispute with Greece and joined NATO in 2019.
However, the talks with Brussels have seen no progress and the central bank “isn’t factoring in positive effects from potential membership or from acceleration of the EU accession process” in its macroeconomic projections, according to the governor.
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