Improving Slovenian Fiscal Council’s fiscal supervision capacity

The Commission has officially kicked-off a project supporting the Slovenian Fiscal Council to improve its analytical capacity. The Commission supports the Independent Fiscal Institutions (IFIs) through the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) to strengthen their institutional and analytical capacity. The main objective of the technical support to IFIs is to reinforce the independent oversight of Member State’s public finances, in accordance with the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance (‘Fiscal Compact’) and EU Regulation.

This project is funded by the European Commission’s DG REFORM, in collaboration with Danish Research Institute for Economic Analysis and Modelling DREAM.

Fiscal rules and well-functioning IFIs are integral elements of sound fiscal policy, as highlighted by the EU fiscal governance framework. Commission’s Communication of 2 March 2022 on “Fiscal policy coordination for 2023» provides policy orientations for the coordination of our fiscal policies.

Since 2016, seven IFIs have received support through the Commission’s Technical Support Instrument and its predecessor, the Structural Reform Support Programme to enhance the accountability, sustainability and transparency of their national fiscal policy.  The project launched today in Ljubljana will address the Slovenian Fiscal Council’s concrete needs.

This support includes:

• Evaluation of IFIs’ performance against best international practices and functioning with respect to their mandate, with recommendations to inform the preparation of their strategic plan;
• Methodological support to design and test the application of fiscal rules
• Support to spending review initiatives
• Upgrading IFIs’ analytical capacity through the provision of tools, such as models for tax-benefit micro-simulation, debt sustainability analysis, macro-fiscal and revenue forecasting etc)

The support provided in in Slovenia will enable the Slovenian Fiscal Council to establish a comprehensive and simple framework with relevant analytical tools for identifying and addressing long-term fiscal challenges and risks. Particular attention will be devoted to a model for ageing-related projections.

DG REFORM and the Slovenian Fiscal Council have participated in the kick off event.  The European Fiscal Board and other Slovenian institutions (such as the National Statistics Office, and the Ministry of Labour) have also attended the event.

More about it

• Slovenian press release:

https://www.fs-rs.si/fiskalni-svet-pricenja-s-projektom-tehnicne-pomoci-tsi-dg-reform-evropske-komisije/