A two-day Workshop on the 2015 Economic and Fiscal Programme (EFP)/National Economic Reform Programme (NERP) was held on 12-13 November 2014 in Hotel ‘Termag’ at Jahorina. The Workshop was jointly organised by the EU funded projects “Strengthening the National Planning Process in BiH” and “Capacity Building for the compilation of accounting data within the scope of General Government and Public Finance Statistics”.

The main aim of the Workshop was to strengthen the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities’ capacity to contribute to the quality and consistency of NERP 2015.

As indicated in the last Enlargement Strategy of the European Commission, the NERP is to be produced on an annual basis with the first submission at the end of January 2015. The NERP, which will replace the EFP, aims at preparing potential candidate countries for participation in the multilateral surveillance and economic policy coordination procedures currently in place in the EU.

The Workshop was opened by Michela Matuella, Head of Unit for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European Commission Directorate-General for Enlargement (DG Enlargement) and Dr Renzo Daviddi, Chargé d’Affaires of the EU Delegation to BiH; and also addressed by Mariya Hake from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), Willem Noë from the DG Enlargement, EU project experts and participants from all levels of BiH that will be involved in 2015 NERP preparations (State, entity and Brcko District BiH).

The Workshop gave the participants the opportunity to familiarise themselves with aspects such as macroeconomic forecasting (different scenarios), reform strategies and statistical tables contained in the NERP, as well sectoral competitiveness.

The experts of the EU projects shared with the participants of the Workshop, approaches and tools used in comparable countries with respect to EFP/Pre-Accession Economic Programmes (PEP), features of the guidelines for preparation of the 2015 NERP and issues linked to the compilation of statistical tables to be provided in the context of NERP.

Web link to Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2014-2015: http://archive.europa.ba/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/delegacijaEU_2014100811051496eng.pdf