About this learning event

Ensuring safe, efficient, and environmentally sound transport across road, rail, aviation, maritime, and inland waterways in candidate and potential candidate countries is a crucial element of the EU integration process. These requirements are covered under Chapter 14 - Transport Policy, part of the Cluster: Green Agenda & Sustainable Connectivity. The same priorities are reflected in the Reform Agendas (RAs) and Economic Reform Programmes (ERPs), which outline how sustainable transport and improved connectivity function as key multipliers for social and economic development, as well as how reforms and investments in the transport sector under the Reform and Growth Facility for Western Balkans support regional economic integration and enhance integration with the Union single market.

To translate these strategic priorities into tangible progress, it is essential to understand how current reforms are being implemented and where the main bottlenecks persist. Through a comprehensive comparative analysis, in this workshop, we will show how the reforms outlined in the Reform Agenda (RA) and ERPs adequately address these obstacles. We will: 

• Review progress in implementing reforms and their alignment with EU accession processes and requirements,
• Examine how transport reforms relate to Public Investment Management (PIM), ensuring that planned investments are well-prioritized, cost-effective, and fiscally sustainable,
• Focus on practical steps for developing and financing sustainable, low-emission transport infrastructure - especially railways - that deepen regional integration and support the green and digital transitions,
• Discuss challenges encountered in budgeting and fiscal planning of reforms,
• Perform economic impact assessment of selected reforms,
• Reflect on emerging EU transport trends and strategic priorities - such as digitalization, decarbonization, and sustainable connectivity.

Eventually, participants will examine the role of structural reforms and investments in aligning national transport systems with the EU’s trans-European transport network (TEN-T), including the newly proposed Western Balkans–Eastern Mediterranean Corridor.

Who should attend

This workshop is designed for public officials involved in preparing, designing, or implementing transport reforms under the Reform Agenda (RA) and the Economic Reform Programme (ERP). Participants may include representatives from line ministries (such as the Ministry of Transport), Ministries of Finance, PIM units, and other institutions engaged in the transport sector. Participants should be coming from EU Candidate or Potential Candidate Countries.

Faculty

• Janez Šušteršič, CEF Expert and former Minister of Finance of Slovenia

Mr Šušteršič is an international expert specialized in strategic public financial management, economic policy planning and coordination, costing and budgeting, monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. Since 2013, he has worked on a number of technical assistance projects in EU candidate and Eastern Partnership countries. He supported the work on Economic Reform Programmes, Reform Agendas, development strategies and fiscal frameworks. He also worked for the OECD as an external expert on monitoring and costing of SME development strategies in the Eastern Partnership countries, for UNECE as an expert on monitoring and evaluation of innovation policies in Ukraine, and as an external evaluator of labour market and macroeconomic policies in Slovenia. Prior to his consulting career, Janez had more than 10 years hands-on experience in formulation and implementation of economic and fiscal policies in his own country, Slovenia. From 2000 to 2007, he lead the government's macroeconomic institute. He was Vice-President of the EU's Economic Policy Committee and, in 2012, finance minister of Slovenia designing the policy of fiscal consolidation and banking crisis resolution. Mr. Šušteršič is also a full professor of economics and a researcher, specialised in political economy and institutional economics.

• Tadej Žaucer, Head of the Transport Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy of the Republic of Slovenia.

• Alketa Buqaj, CEF Expert and Head of Economic and Policy Research at REX Consulting Group

Ms Buqaj is an economist and policy consultant with over 10 years of experience in macroeconomic analysis, economic policy design, and impact assessment of structural reforms. She has worked as a CEF expert for more than three years, developing practical tools and methodologies to support Western Balkan countries in conducting economic impact assessments, alongside delivering capacity-building and learning sessions for government officials. She is also Head of research and economic policy analysis at REX Consulting Group for the past 5 years where she has led and supported the drafting, evaluating, and monitoring of structural reforms, working closely with governments and international partners. Alketa holds a Master’s degree in International Economic Policy and Analysis.

• Tijana Stanković, CEF Expert

Tijana Stanković is an international expert in economic policy, public finance, and structural reforms, with over 25 years of experience working with governments and international institutions. She has been cooperating with the CEF since 2012. She held a senior research position at the Institute for Strategic Studies and Prognoses, where she worked on price analysis, pension reform, Montenegro’s first macroeconomic model, HDI report, MONET and key national reform strategies and documents. She later served for more than 10 years in the Government of Montenegro, including as Deputy Minister of Finance for Economic Policy and Development and Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy and the Financial System. Her worked as a consultant for the World Bank, OECD, and the European Commission.

*Workshop will include additional experts, and the outline will be updated in the following days.

Practical Information

Travel, accommodation, meals and full participation for selected participants coming from Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Turkiye, Moldova and Ukraine is covered by the CEF.

Partners

This event is delivered as part of the EU-funded multi-beneficiary project “Structural Reforms Better Integrated Within Fiscal Frameworks” (FISR 2) implemented by the CEF.