About this event

Spread across eight policy areas and to be implemented over a three-year period, structural reform measures included in the ERPs are set to tackle the most important structural obstacles to competitiveness and inclusive growth of a country. As an important prerequisite for ensuring their successful implementation, not only that each of the measures has to be well-defined and sequenced, but they also need to be realistically and consistently costed, while the funding for their implementation needs to be secured in the medium-term budget process.   

Taking this into account, this event will provide guidance for officials working on preparation of structural reform measures on how to practically use the Methodological Guidance for Costing of Structural Reforms (Costing Guidance) to ensure adequate estimation of their implementation costs and their presentation in the ERP. It will complement the European Commission‘s Guidance for the ERP 2020-2022, while answering the specific learning needs identified in North Macedonia.

The overall objective of this event is to strengthen the skills needed for assessment of fiscal implications of structural reforms, which is expected to result in more realistic cost estimates and reduced delays in their implementation.

More precisely, at this two-day event, the officials from line ministries and the Ministry of Finance will appraise the compliance of already drafted costs of structural reforms with the Costing Guidance, to make needed improvements and/or clarifications which will ensure their readiness for inclusion into the 2020 - 2022 ERP. While taking a problem-solving and participatory approach, the focus of this event will be on the assessment of costs and funding sources of the draft structural reforms from all eight policy areas, while the drafted descriptions of structural reforms will be reviewed only from the perspective of providing sufficient information for doing proper costing.

This event builds on the knowledge shared and lessons learned during the introductory event delivered earlier this year in North Macedonia and continues efforts aimed at building institutional capacities for applying the methodology. It will be organized at a location away from officials’ daily business operations to stimulate coordination and team work between actors relevant to the ERP preparation process.

This event is implemented as part of the CEF’s regional project “Strengthening Line Ministries’ Capacities to Assess Fiscal Implications of Structural Reforms”.

What will you learn?

This event will be highly participatory and oriented towards practical implementation of the Costing Guidance to structural reforms to be included in the next ERP. By attending this event, the participants will have a possibility to appraise the drafted costs of their institutions’ structural reforms, while getting assistance and advice on prospects for overcoming the main costing challenges.  

In particular, upon the completion of this training, participants will be able to:

• Appraise benefits and determine methods for integrating structural reforms outlined in the ERP into the country’s budget preparation process and medium-term fiscal framework
• Examine elements of the European Commission‘s Guidance for the ERP 2020-2022 relevant to costing of structural reforms and their financing
• Understand the principles of Methodological Guidance for Costing of Structural Reforms and how to practically implement it in preparation of inputs for the ERP
  • Clarify differences in concepts of „additional costs“ and „base year“
  • Distinguish  ,,direct“ and „indirect/secondary“ cost implications
  • Categorize different types of expenditures (e.g. subsidies for investments, earmarked transfers to local governments)
  • Realistically plan funding sources and their availability (e.g. sector budget support sources conditioned on performance)
  • Minimize the use of „to be determined“ funding sources
• Assess how to streamline the process of cooperation and information exchange between line ministries, the Ministry of Finance Budget Department, and the ERP Coordinator.

Who should attend?

Invited to participate are the officials involved in the design, costing and budgeting of structural reforms outlined in the ERP, which include: 

• National ERP Coordinator
• Members of the working group for the ERP preparation
• Officials working at the finance and policy departments of line ministries
• Officials working at the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance
• Policy planning experts from the government’s policy coordination body and/or Prime Ministers’ office.

Since this event builds upon the introductory course organized on May 23 in Skopje, participants who attended the earlier event will be considered first in the selection.

Lecturers

The learning initiative will be delivered under the guidance of:

Saša Jazbec -  Ministry of Finance (MoF), Slovenia

Anto Bajo - Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Silvana Mojsovska - CEF expert and full-time professor at Institute of Economics, University of “St. Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje

Practical information

The event will take place in Skopje on October 17-18, 2019. It will be delivered in Macedonian and English language and interpretation will be provided.

Participation at this event is by invitation only. Applications need to be submitted no later than October 3, 2019 at this online application form. Selected candidates will receive the confirmations by October 10, 2019.

For more information please contact:

Ms Nina Agić: +386 1 369 6130; nina.agic@cef-see.org

Ms Mojca Petrovič: +386 1 369 6191; mojca.petrovic@cef-see.org

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: