From Compliance to Credibility: Strengthening Budget Accountability in the Western Balkans and Türkiye
10:00 am – 5:00 pm CET
Hybrid Event
Timestamps:
00:00 – Opening Session: Budgets, Trust, and Democratic Credibility (Aideen Gilmore)
05:27 – EU Perspective on Budget Accountability (Mihai Damascan)
19:55 – Official Presentation: Open Budget Survey 2025 Regional Findings (Sally Torbert) 43:10 – Q&A: Regional Data and Insights
1:03:12 – Panel 1: Compliance without Credibility? Transparency Gains and Their Limits
2:17:59 – Panel 2: Why Accountability Gaps Matter Now — Budgets under Pressure
3:40:35 – Panel 3: Pathways to Building Trust — From Measurement to Practice
4:50:45 – Closing Reflections: What OBS 2025 Signals for Reform, Trust, and EU Integration
What would it take for governments to earn the trust of their people?
The Open Budget Survey helps answer this question and in the case of the Western Balkans and Türkiye, results from our 2025 survey show that while meaningful progress has been made on formal budget
These findings point to a clear set of priorities: governments
Several countries in the region are already putting these recommendations into practice. Kosovo has built participatory budgeting into the law. Montenegro’s parliament set up a legislative committee that examines audit reports promptly and publishes conclusions. North Macedonia’s open finance portal makes government spending data accessible for anyone to track, on a regular basis. What is needed is the political will to make these examples the standard rather than the exception. The building blocks are there for accountable budgets in all countries. The momentum is real. What is needed now is the political will to make these good examples the standard rather than the exception across the region.
The Open Budget Survey measures the actual, practical question of whether people and their representatives – parliaments, audit institutions, civil society – can see what is happening with public money, question it, and have a real say in it.
Civil society organizations are instrumental in enhancing accountability and achieving policy and economic and social development goals. They play a pivotal role in fostering democratic reforms and human rights ... Ensuring effective participation in decision-making through public consultations is critical. (Countries wishing to join the EU) are expected to establish mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation between CSOs and public authorities at all decision-making levels.
Following the survey release, we held several high-level panels to discuss how governments, Supreme Audit Institutions, civil society and other key budget stakeholders see the path forward to ensure budgets are more transparent, participatory and accountable to the people they serve.
Some common themes emerged. Governments in the region have generally been proactive in putting mechanisms in place to enable more transparency, but the political will to ensure that for instance, transparency turns into action in Macedonia, where data disclosures reached a plateau and now have slowed to a trickle, is not evident. Meanwhile in Serbia, the government has implemented
Positively, both Serbia and Albania have committed to institutionalizing new accountability and transparency practices. In Serbia deep fiscal risk analyses are promised in upcoming budgets’ explanatory notes. And in Montenegro, pressure from investors and its own Ministry of Finance to explain deviations from budget spending in a Mid-Year report is leading to the production (hopefully this year) of a comprehensive Mid-Year Report that will be an institutionalized part of the budget process going forward.
Our first panel of the day posed the question: “Compliance without Credibility? Transparency Gains and Their Limits”
EXCERPTS FROM OUR PANELISTS
Gentian Opre, Head of Budget Department, Ministry of Finance, Albania
“In past Open Budget Surveys, we didn’t have scenarios on fiscal risks like growth and inflation and state-owned enterprises. There is now a special chapter relating to fiscal risks and state-owned enterprises in the explanatory note of the annual budget, which is a good thing. There was a tendency not to publish this in past years. We did report on these areas, but the quality and depth of the analysis is lacking so we are trying bit by bit to provide this information.”
Bojan Paunović, Head of Budget Department, Ministry of Finance, Montenegro
“What would it take to move from reporting execution figures to producing a mid-year analysis to explain deviations and what it means for the rest of the year? We are being asked this by the Ministry of Finance, our investors and partners who want to see exactly that. It is in the interest of the state to be as transparent as possible. We did publish monthly, quarterly and annual execution reports, but we still lack much more comprehensive mid-year reports, because we need to find ways to automate the information. But we have changed our approach to mid-term reporting and this year we hope to produce a comprehensive Mid-Year Report and then make it a regular thing.”
Vesna Garvanlieva Andonova, Senior Economist, Center for Economic Analyses, North Macedonia
“Monitoring of budget transparency, participation
Bojana Selaković, Director, National Convention on the EU, Serbia
“In Serbia, they are bypassing the rules for public procurement. For our upcoming Expo 2027, everything that was arranged and spent was exempt from any rules about procurement, (with no interference from) the parliament that should be overseeing this spending.”
Our second panel focused on the decline in civil spaces and democracy around the globe and “Why Accountability Gaps Matter Now: Budgets Under Pressure”
EXCERPTS FROM OUR PANELISTS
Marko Milanović, Special Advisor, Fiscal Council Serbia
“We don’t have enforcement mechanisms to get the government to follow up on our recommendations. But they sometimes take our recommendations, for instance, on reducing the risks of state-owned enterprises (SOEs)- after the fact. In 2014 the energy system collapsed and they (belatedly) adopted our recommendations about such SOEs. The most expensive form of accountability is the delayed response. This is why we want governments to engage with us and civil society and act before a crisis.
Rrona Zhuri, Research Coordinator, GAP Institute, Kosovo
“The mission of the National Auditor in Kosovo is to close the chain of accountability after budget planning and execution to inform the public on how public money is spent. They often make recommendations (with public input) about budget reallocations and contingency obligations, and we wait for the implementation of the recommendations. In 2025, compared to previous years, we’ve noticed that the number of recommendations issued has dropped, so the ones fulfilled have also dropped.”
Albana Dhimitri, Director, Institute of Public and Private Policies, Albania
“At the national level, public participation is difficult. If I have an idea for change, there is no room for civil society. Everything is by invitation only. We also have less organized civil society now so there are less ears for (the government) to hear our (reform ideas). This is not what I dreamed of 40 years ago. We need to include people to be part of the planning for the budget.”
How can we build the pathways necessary between government entities, civil society and others that lead to true public trust? That was the task of our panelists for our third and final panel discussion, “Pathways to Building Trust: From Measurement to Practice”
EXCERPTS FROM OUR PANELISTS
Nickolche Jankulovski, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance, North Macedonia
“We established a fiscal council as independent – with one member from the Supreme Audit Institution, one from the central bank and one from the national education and scientific academy. Next year, there will be a mandatory presence from the fiscal council in the budget process for the country. When we cut budgeting during the year, we must be transparent to the public and to parliament.”
Marko Sosić, Policy Research Coordinator, Institute Alternativa, Montenegro
“We need to make sure civil society is always pushing for
Ivona Krištić, Head of International Cooperation, Supreme Audit Institution, Bosnia
“The work of Supreme Audit Institutions is to improve the public sector and the quality of life of the people we serve. We include data from CSOs and international groups as references. In order to transform evidence into further action, we have to present clearly what is the cause of the problems and why these problems need to be eliminated. So, while we don’t provide solutions for the public sector, we do provide clear recommendations that can be easily implemented and transformed into action.”
Presentations & Speakers
Opening Session: Budgets, Trust, and Democratic Credibility in the Western Balkans and Türkiye
- Aideen Gilmore, Director of Partnerships and Capacity Development, International Budget Partnership
- Mihai Damascan, Policy Officer, European Commission (DG ENEST)
Official Presentation of Open Budget Survey 2025 Results – Regional Findings
- Sally Torbert, Global Lead of Research and Policy, International Budget Partnership
Panel 1: Compliance without Credibility? Transparency Gains and Their Limits
- Gentian Opre, Head of Budget Dept, Ministry of Finance, Albania
- Bojan Paunović, Head of Budget Dept, Ministry of Finance, Montenegro
- Ali Rençber, Deputy General Manager, Presidency of Strategy and Budget, Türkiye
- Vesna Garvanlieva Andonova, Senior Economist, Center for Economic Analyses, North Macedonia
- Moderated by Lilianna Ziedins, Program Officer, International Budget Partnership
Panel 2: Why Accountability Gaps Matter Now — Budgets under Pressure
- Bezad Halilaj, Deputy Auditor General, National Audit Office, Kosovo
- Marko Milanović, Special Advisor, Fiscal Council, Serbia
- Albana Dhimitri, Director, Institute of Public and Private Policies, Albania
- Bojana Selaković, Director, National Convention on the EU, Serbia
- Moderated by Alex Ciconello, Senior Program Officer, International Budget Partnership
Panel 3: Pathways to Building Trust — From Measurement to Practice
- Ivona Krištić, Head of International Cooperation, Supreme Audit Institution, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Nikolche Jankulovski, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance, North Macedonia
- Rrona Zhuri, Research Coordinator, GAP Institute, Kosovo
- Marko Sošić, Policy Researcher, Institute Alternativa, Montenegro
- Moderated by Andres Ponce Morales, Senior Program Officer, International Budget Partnership
Closing Reflections: What OBS 2025 Signals for Reform, Trust, and EU Integration
- Nermin Kujović, Western Balkans Program Lead, International Budget Partnership
- Mihai Damascan, Policy Officer, European Commission (DG ENEST)
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