Public Policies Coordination Office of the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance - EU Public Administration Cooperation Exchange

Dear Solveig Niitra, 

Public Policies Coordination Office, as a part of the Coordination Directorate of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, aims to effectively support the Ministry's role, coordinate its services for the development and monitoring of the Annual Action Plan, achieve government objectives, and design and promote innovations in public policies.

In line with the TSI 2024 Flagship - PACE, Public Administration Cooperation Exchange guidelines of the relevant website of the European Commission, our Office is interested in participating in the knowledge transfer and best practices exchange, in a hands-on learning experience, regarding: the improvement of the evidence-based design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation process of economy and finance-related public policies (e.g., economic, fiscal, tax, and public investment policies), with a focus on supporting political and administrative leadership, through quantitative and qualitative data, and analyzing policy choices, parameters, constraints, risks, and consequences.

Our main domestic issue relates to our mandate to support the political and administrative leadership of the Ministry with documented quantitative and qualitative data during the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies, and to analyze the options, parameters, constraints, risks, and consequences of implemented public policies.

Our office conducted a search for counterpart public services across EU member states, utilizing AI tools as well. Estonia stood out as a particularly promising case.

Considering the above, it would be great if the Estonian Ministry of Finance could provide us with the following:

• A dedicated team / unit that will introduce us to at least one of your country’s best practices in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of an economy or finance-related public policies (given the duration of our visit and your availability).

• We are particularly interested in the implementation of the stages you follow of the known as “public policy cycle”, especially concerning design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. We would like you to present us the stages you follow in developing and implementing public policies, such as the agenda setting, the policy formulation, the decision making, the implementation, the monitoring, and the policy evaluation. Furthermore, we would like to participate in learning through hands-on interaction with peer analysts, in working-level discussions, observing internal procedures and understanding institutional workflows. It would also be useful to concurrently acquire practical knowledge through targeted relevant case studies, particularly in the context of analyzing policy choices, parameters, constraints, risks, and consequences. That would be for 3 to 4 working days.  If feasible, this could include participation in internal meetings, policy briefings, or technical workshops that would allow us to observe how evidence is integrated into decision-making and how interdepartmental cooperation is structured.

• Aside from the public policies team, it would be also nice to have the opportunity to learn from any forecast and foresight team / unit that you might have, supporting some of your public policy cases.

• Additionally, if possible, we would appreciate the opportunity to dedicate one working day to a short presentation and discussion session focused on how the knowledge and practices exchanged during this secondment could support the ongoing efforts of the Hellenic Ministry of National Economy and Finance in integrating evidence-based analysis into the Strategic and annual planning and national Performance Budgeting process.

• We would be happy to briefly present our current approach, including relevant pilot initiatives and action plans under development, and engage in discussion on comparable Estonian experiences.

• The aim of this session would be to better understand how policy evaluation and forecasting tools can be systematically linked with planning (fiscal, tax etc) priority setting and Performance Budgeting process within the Ministry.

Overall, our secondment cannot exceed the period of 5 working days. Preferred month for the secondment would be September or October 2025.

Lastly, kindly note that final matching between countries (and organizations) will be decided by the SG REFORM of the European Commission, should the PACE request of the applicant country (in this case, Greece) is accepted. This correspondence will assist the European Commission when the time comes for the matching process.

Please let us know if you need us to elaborate further on the matter.

Best regards,

Stavroula Linara

HELLENIC REPUBLIC

Ministry of National Economy and Finance

Head of Coordination Directorate

Ch. Trikoupi St., 6-10, GR-106 79, Athens

Tel. : (30) 213-1339 800  E-mail: [email protected]