News item | 02-06-2023 | 09:50
On June 2, 2023, the Ministry of Finance published the 2022 annual report of the Ministry of Finance’s Constituency Program.
The Constituency Program is a program for technical cooperation with the so-called constituency countries. These are countries that the Netherlands represents on the boards of the IMF, the World Bank and the EBRD, such as Moldova, Ukraine and Croatia. With this programme, the Netherlands aims to contribute to important public finance reforms in these countries.
War
2022 was the year of the Russian invasion of constituency country Ukraine. The impact of the war on Ukraine is enormous. The war also led to great concerns about colleagues in Kyiv and experts who had to leave the country. The Netherlands is doing everything it can to help. In 2022, the Constituency Program therefore continued to support colleagues in Ukraine, despite the difficult circumstances.
In other constituency countries in the region, the consequences of the war in Ukraine are also major, for example due to higher food and energy prices. Just like I can Ukraine, the Constituency Program can also rely on years of cooperation in these countries. This makes it possible to continue offering activities to strengthen public finances and governance.
EU membership candidate
In the past year, a number of constituency countries have made the step towards candidate membership of the European Union, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Georgia has gained membership prospects. Constituency countries Montenegro and North Macedonia were already candidates. In order to meet the obligations of EU accession, they want to prepare well and asked the constituency program for help in 2022.
Partners
The Constituency Program is mainly implemented by employees of the Ministry of Finance. In addition, partners in the Netherlands and abroad ensure that technical assistance can be provided. The National Academy, the Tax and Customs Administration, the National Audit Service, the Netherlands Court of Audit and Money Wise, as well as the OECD and the Center of Excellence in Finance in Slovenia, contributed in 2022. Last year, a collaboration with Rijkswaterstaat was also started in the field of Public Private Partnerships.