The main objective of the workshop was to discuss in detail the scope of a survey on the experience of countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) with integrating the environmental sector into medium-term budgeting processes. The workshop was organised on 10 June 2009, in Chisinau (Moldova), back-to-back with the annual meeting of the Regulatory Environmental Programme Implementation Network.

In EECCA countries, environment ministries are now challenged to develop their programmes so as to be better aligned with budgetary decision-making and the government’s strategic orientation. Many OECD and non-OECD countries are working towards achieving this goal by introducing medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEFs). MTEF is a rolling 3-5 year process, revisited every year, which aims at reducing the imbalance between what is affordable and what is demanded, with adjustments taking place through policy changes.

Lately, MTEFs have received increased attention in EECCA. For example, in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia, ministries of finance are already using MTEFs to translate national policy objectives into public expenditure programmes, particularly in the context of Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSPs). In most cases, environmental authorities of EECCA countries have not been at the forefront of these processes and their capacity to use MTEF is only emerging.