Green budgeting – A key tool at the hands of Member States on the path to Green transition

Today marks the conclusion of the first phase of the Commission’s training to support the implementation of Green Budgeting Practices among the EU Member States. Since May 2021, 23 EU Member States have participated in the first module of the training that was delivered through 7 multi-country webinars, reaching over 450 participants. The latest session involved participants from Czechia, Denmark and Italy, in the presence of Director General for Structural Reform Support (REFORM), Mr. Mario Nava. The training is organised by the European Commission, in collaboration with Expertise France and in cooperation with the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE).

Recently, the Commission, as part of its work on green budgeting, developed jointly with the Member States an EU Green Budgeting Reference Framework (GBRF) for EU Member States. The GBRF provides a toolkit for EU Member States who are willing either to embark upon implementing green budgeting or to upgrade their current practices, thereby serving as guidance for national green budgeting frameworks (GBFs). Therefore, the training commenced with a general introduction to the Green Budgeting Reference Framework and exposed the trainees to existing practices on green budgeting, including approaches developed at the OECD and by France. The ultimate aim of the training is to help Member States to test and adapt the Commission’s guiding framework to their national context through practical applications, as well as assess existing practices and tackle country-specific challenges in greening public finances.

This multi-country initiative was also showcased in November 2021 during the COP26 as a concrete example of how the European Commission can support Member States in the Green transition, by combining policy development with technical support for piloting and implementation at national level.

Started in September 2021, subsequent training modules 2 and 3 are tailored to the specific needs of Member States, allowing participants to apply in their country context the green budgeting approaches that were presented in the introductory course. Nine Member States (Latvia, Croatia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta) already took part in Module 2 and three Member States (Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain) have completed the full training.

The support from the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) helped national authorities to obtain the necessary technical know-how to design and implement green budgeting reforms. By establishing connections between budgetary tools, and environmental and climate change goals, green budgeting can contribute to the mainstreaming of green budgetary policies and processes. A “green budget” promotes efficiency, accountability, and transparency of policies, as well as parliamentary oversight of national efforts regarding climate action. The knowledge acquired is expected to have a major positive impact on greening public budgets and contributing to the green transition, in line with the goals of the European Green Deal.