The economies in Southeast Europe (SEE) face important challenges in building implementation capacity as they pursue sustainable growth within the EU Accession and Convergence framework. The current crisis in global financial markets underscores the key role that strongly anchored medium-term economic and fiscal programs need to play in establishing credibility and stabilizing confidence.

The EU Accession and Convergence framework is a natural anchor for such economic programs for the SEE economist. In the context of the current crisis, there are three key challenges:

• What are the initiatives SEE countries are undertaking in reinforcing their fiscal policy frameworks to anchor expectations while providing appropriate support to economic activity?
• Have countries developed the internal strategy and coordination process to benefit fully from the EU anchor as they prepare integrated medium-term economic programs?
• Does the design and implementation of fiscal policy need to be better coordinated with the broad goals of economic convergence in order to support both growth and financial stability?

The three questions above are some of the issues that will be addressed at the seminar of Economic Stability and EU Convergence in Southeast Europe: Building Capacities for Policy Design and Implementation, jointly organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission (EC), and the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF).

Today's global market conditions are an exceptional test for policies. In this context, some former transition economies have sought renewed arrangements with the IMF to stabilize their financial sectors and limit the impact of the current financial crises on domestic economies. They are seeking assistance with efforts to adjust fiscal frameworks to ensure medium-term fiscal sustainability during this extremely volatile period. Ultimately, the goal should be to ensure that an improved policy framework is established over the medium-term that will strengthen countries' ability to recover from the financial and economic shocks to which they are being subjected in the current environment.