Members of the Fiscal Council were confirmed by the Parliament in March 2017, with 2018 being the first full calendar year of Fiscal Council’s operation. At this occasion, Fiscal Council organised a consultation with experts on public finance and on economic policy. The consultation was attended by Anže Burger, PhD, Boris Majcen, PhD, Matjaž Novak, PhD, Jure Stojan, PhD, Janez Šušteršič, PhD and Boštjan Vasle, MSc.
The discussion provided views on the performance of Fiscal Council and on tasks and challenges, which will in view of the participants be faced by the Fiscal Council in the future. The guests evaluated the performance of Fiscal Council in general as positive and stressed the importance of its independence and the quality of its opinions.
According to participants and in view of limited human resources, Fiscal Council should avoid broadening the fields it covers by its analysis, while it should more systematically use all available communication channels through which it reaches the public and impacts the public opinion. Related to this, most speakers stressed a need for the Fiscal Council to improve its visibility also via educating general public about the need for sustainable public finance and about the associated fiscal rules as well as about the institutions that assess their implementation. Fiscal Council should also contribute to the general discussion on the main orientation of fiscal policy, in part through tighter co-operation with related institutions. Some discussants also proposed the Fiscal Council to engage in external evaluation of its performance after several years of operation.