New IMF Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe to Join the CEF

Mr. Steffen Normann Hansen will join us at the CEF next week in the position of IMF Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe. The CEF therefore continues to host two IMF FAD advisors and their support staff, whose efforts are funded by the Japanese government. Mr. Hansen is a Danish career…

IMF Publishes New Paper on the Importance of Budget Institutions

Last week, the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department published a Board Paper on Budget Institutions in G-20 Countries. In this context budget institutions are defined as the structures, rules, and procedures that govern the formulation, approval, and execution of government budgets. These institutions include…

Exploring Ways to Enhance Cooperation with Risk Management Platform

We attended the recent Plenary meeting of the Risk Management Platform which was established in 2007 under the Fiscalis Programme, with the purpose of providing a permanent communication and information exchange among risk management experts from all participating EU Member States.On the occasion, we…

Danube Strategy- Meeting of the PA10 Steering Group

The Steering Group of the Priority Area 10 dealing with institutional capacity and cooperation in the Danube region met for the 6th time in Ljubljana on May 9, 2014. Representatives from 10 Danube countries and European Economic and Social Committee reviewed the work done in 2014 and plans for the second…

SPB Newsfeed: Bringing a Medium-Term Perspective to the Budget Process–The Way Forward for SEE

Many budget decisions have impacts that extend well beyond the current budget year. To make rational budgetary decisions, decision-makers must focus on the medium- and long-term implications. While the potential benefits of effective medium-term budgeting are well documented, the introduction of medium-term…

Roundtable Discussion on Agricultural Insurance

More than 40 high-level representatives of ministries of agriculture, insurance supervisory authorities and insurance industries of Western Balkan countries and Turkey discussed on April 10, 2014 the present position and future challenges of agricultural insurance business. The round table was organized…

In Focus: IMF Tax Administration Advisor Reflects on His Experience of Working in South East Europe

Since Janaury 2011, we have been working closely with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF)Tax Administration Reform Advisor  Mr. Norman Gillanders to help the South East European (SEE) countries’ tax administrations  deal with the challenges they face in their attempts of achieving effective and efficient…

SPB Newsfeed: First year of Strategic Planning and Budgeting activities successfully completed

The implementation of the EU-funded Strategic Planning and Budgeting (SPB) project follows the envisaged course. In the first year, the CEF successfully initiated the project and delivered seven training and networking activities, as well as a first face-to-face Steering Committee meeting. Cooperation…

The CEF Hosted the learn4dev Core Group Meeting

As members of the learn4dev Core Group, we on March 27-28, 2014 hosted our colleagues from the Agence Française de Développement (French Agency for Development - AFD), the European Commission, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the Swiss Agency for Development and…

Annual Meeting of the Priority Area Coordinators and National Contact Points of the EUSDR

Priority Area Coordinators (PACs) and National Contact Points (NCPs) of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region convened in Vienna from March 11 - 12, 2014 for the fourth time since the inception of the strategy. This year the emphasis of the discussions was on future governance of the strategy. European…