The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia has officially launched the drafting of the new Public Finance Management Reform Program (PFMRP) for the period 2026–2030. At a workshop held in Vrnjačka Banja, with the support of the European Union (EU), members of the Working Group responsible for drafting, monitoring, and reporting on the implementation of the PFMRP began defining strategic priorities for public finance management in Serbia over the next five years.
The reform of public finance management through a comprehensive program and accompanying five-year action plan has been implemented since 2015. During the workshop, participants reviewed the results of the current PFMRP (2021–2025), highlighting achieved goals and key lessons learned. They also examined the results of the ex-ante analysis, prepared within the framework of the “The analysis showed that the new five-year Program should be more concise and that performance indicators should be standardized,” said Yannis Hadzijanakis, public finance management expert. He also presented the PEFA methodology (Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability) — a tool used to assess the quality of public finance systems. Participants discussed the preliminary findings of the June 2025 PEFA analysis, which is being conducted by the World Bank. This analysis is a prerequisite requested by the European Commission for the development of the new PFMRP.
Mladen Lazić, Head of the Technical Secretariat for the PRUJF, emphasized that the Working Group for developing the new Program was established in May 2025 and includes experts from the Ministry of Finance and other relevant institutions.
“In addition to individual expertise, it’s not always easy to capture the broader picture of how all subsystems within public finance management interact. That’s why workshops like this are so important—they enable joint work on program preparation, the exchange of good practices, and the exploration of potential synergies. This workshop is especially valuable as it helps all participants become familiar with the PEFA methodology and its findings, and, based on that, identify areas for improvement,” Lazić explained.
The Ministry of Finance also presented the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans and the Plan for Fulfilling Obligations in Serbia’s EU Accession Negotiations, highlighting their connection to public finance reform. This ensures that the future PRUJF is aligned with the priorities of the Reform Agenda and Serbia’s EU integration commitments.
The workshop also addressed the green dimensions of public finance management, reflected in various activities led by the Ministry of Finance—such as the project “Improving Public Finance Management Towards a Green Transition”, supported by the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), and Serbia’s participation in the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. These initiatives promote more efficient and environmentally conscious management of public finances.
This workshop was organized as part of the project "EU for Public Finance Management in Serbia", funded by the European Union and implemented by UNDP, in partnership with the Center for Excellence in Finance (CEF) and the Ministry of Finance of Slovakia.