Conference Paper

The regulation of professions that provide services to the public is necessary to ensure the quality of their services and to protect the interests of their users. However, it can have some adverse effects such as eliminating or restricting competition and reducing transparency. Therefore, establishing a balance between the interest that is supposed to be achieved by regulation and the need to allow competition is becoming more obvious. This is particularly evident when applying regulatory standards in small economies. While the main principles of competition and regulation as developed in major economies are suitable for small economies, their application should be different due to the characteristics of small and limited markets. This chapter will cover three professions ‐ lawyers, accountants and architects, as the most numerous and longest present in the Macedonian market. In the review of the regulation of these professions in Macedonia, a comparison is made with those of the ten new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE‐10). The purpose of this chapter is based on the comparison and experience of the operation of the regulated professions and industries in Macedonia, and to make recommendations for establishing regulatory systems that will enable protection of the public interests and development of these industries