CEF Annual report 2021

26 CEF BUSINESS REPORT 2021
LEARNING PROGRAM 27
VOICES
FROM THE REGION
Participation in this workshop helped me understand the new approach
for costing of structural reforms, and how these reforms will
gain value after costing them according to this approach.
— VALION CENALIA, MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMY, ALBANIA
At present, I am trying to apply all the acquired knowledge in preparing
the ERP in the Republic of Srpska. It is crucial to work on
yourself and to improve yourself through constant learning. The
CEF is a perfect place for gaining new knowledge, practices and
ideas that are applicable in my everyday duties.
— JELENA POPOVIĆ, MINISTRY OF FINANCE OF REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA,
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
The learning initiatives of the FISR project, organized by the CEF,
have improved several aspects of my work and have made a great
contribution to the overall ERP process as well as my personal
achievements.
— ZANA RADONIQI, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, LABOR AND TRANSFERS, KOSOVO
Being new to this area of work, it was very useful to get an overview
of how things work in practice. The course also gave me ideas how
to apply some of the discussed subject matters in my line of work.
— MARKO BJELICA, MINISTRY OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, MONTENEGRO
I would like to thank the CEF team for their FISR learning and knowledge
sharing activities in the past two years that have improved
our capacities for streamlining the ERP coordination process, better
identification of structural challenges and easier, smoother
drafting of reform measures, which has ultimately increased the
quality of the Economic Reform Programme of North Macedonia.
— ANDRIJA ALEKSOSKI, MINISTRY OF FINANCE, REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA
The structure of webinars was in line with the defined goals and
my personal needs in the area of programing and budgeting of the
ERPs. I learned a lot from the experts and I will use their recommendations
in my further work in the area of the ERP.
— SLOBODANKA MARJANOVIĆ, MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, SERBIA
The CEF online training course highlighted the key challenges of
our structural reform agenda on the ERP. It encouraged me to improve
the process and share relevant information to the authorized
officials in Turkey. Me and my colleagues are eager to improve the
policy-making process in the best way.
— FUNDA BOZKURT, PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
OF STRUCTURAL
REFORMS (FISR)
FISR is a multi-beneficiary project
implemented by the CEF and funded
by the EU. The project is targeted
to the EU candidate countries and
potential candidates in the Western
Balkans and Turkey. It aims to
strengthen the analytical capacities
needed for a comprehensive assessment
of fiscal implications of the
structural reforms, promote greater
fiscal policy coordination among relevant
authorities, and stimulate the
exchange of good practices in the
region. It was launched in 2019 and
will end in April 2022.
In 2021, the project continued to
support the ERP process through
numerous learning activities, policy
dialogues, and knowledge products.
We facilitated regional inputs into
amending the European Commission’s
(EC) ERP Guidance Note, thus
securing the bottom-up approach,
and organized the launch of the
ERP process each year.
GOING LOCAL
In the autumn of 2021, we returned physically to the
beneficiary countries and delivered five face-to-face
events. The positive feelings of reconnection and
sense of community were reinforcing for both the
country teams and the CEF colleagues and experts.
We delivered 20 in-country customized learning initiatives
in the local languages of participants from
the seven project countries. The focus was maintained
on the costing and budgeting of structural
reforms, while in 2021, it was complemented with
strengthening the capacities for engaging the external
stakeholders in the ERP and estimating the
impact assessment of reforms.
At these events, we provided the combined teams of
line ministries and finance ministries with an online
environment and a platform for connecting, exchanging
knowledge, and solving problems together.
DISCOVER MORE
We invite you to experience our enriched learning offer by visiting:
• Everything you wanted to know about structural reforms:
https://www.cef-see.org/fisr-everything-about-sr
• DIGITAL STORY TELLING:
https://centerofexcellenceinfinance.exposure.co/
• LINE MINISTRIES PORTAL:
www.lineministries.org
GOING REGIONAL
• PUBLICATIONS:
www.cef-see.org/publications
12 regional events we organized in various formats:
online, face-to-face and hybrid, including
workshops, online courses, webinars, a high-level
policy dialogue, and meetings for launching the
ERP cycle.
We tackled topics that are in direct support of the
ERP process, especially exploring a post-Covid-19
vision for the ERP process, performance-based
budgeting, monitoring structural reforms, as well
as topics around the accounting related to structural
reforms. We also worked on increasing the
capacity for policy drafting and negotiation, exploring
how communication can support reforms,
and integrity in the implementation of reforms.