27 - 28 October 2022

BCOP Participation in the Meeting of the OECD Senior Budget Officials from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (OECD SBO CESEE) and a Follow-Up BCOP Meeting

Bucharest, Romania

Within BCOP’s long-standing cooperation with the OECD, some BCOP representatives were invited by the OECD to attend the 17th annual meeting of the OECD Senior Budget Officials' regional network for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European Countries (CESEE SBO) in Bucharest, Romania.

BCOP has established close and valuable cooperation with the OECD, primarily through this network (CESEE SBO). Cooperation with OECD provides an important opportunity for PEMPAL BCOP countries to share and benchmark their progress and challenges in budgeting reforms with countries from other networks on a regular basis and to learn and discuss the newest trends in budgeting areas in OECD and CESEE countries. Topics of this year's meeting included communicating with the public in order to increase awareness and understanding of budgeting issues; budgeting in Romania; gender budgeting; budget and Fiscal Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic, including implications for public expenditure on health; and the draft OECD Spending Better Framework. The meeting was be hosted by the Ministry of Public Finance of Romania and chaired by the Ministry of Finance, Netherlands.

This was the eleventh OECD SBO CESEE meeting at which BCOP participated and it contributed to the meeting’s content by presenting the BCOP knowledge product on Improving Clarity and Accessibility of Budget Documentation. BCOP participants also held a follow-up internal BCOP meeting on October 28.

A knowledge product summarizing the key discussions for the Bucharest events was prepared to provide an outline of the common global developments and trends in budgeting, offering advice or food for thought for PEMPAL BCOP member countries - Modernization of Budgeting: Current Directions and Tips.