Multiannual budgetary frameworks – Polish experiences

Abstract

According to the conclusions resulting from the review of the quality of public fi nances carried out by the OECD, the introduction of medium-term perspective in budgetary planning enhances the ability of the government, the Ministry of Finance in particular, to design and maintain a sustainable fi scal path. Activities (public interventions) that are implemented by the public sector are in most cases of a multiannual nature. Strategies and development programs, including public investments and the process to consolidate and restructure public fi nances, are of multiannual character. The effects of activities and their physical results are often delayed in time from the moment of their planning and rarely close during a single fi scal year. The EU Council Directive on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States (hereinafter: the Directive) imposes an obligation to base budget planning on a credible and effective medium-term budgetary framework with at least a three-year perspective. In compliance to the Directive, the mediumterm framework includes multiannual targets for defi cit and debt, expenditure and revenue forecasts, description of activities, as well as the assessment of impact of the adopted medium-term framework for multiannual stability of public fi nances. Every subsequent annual budget law should be consistent with the medium-term budgetary framework. The gist of this approach can be found in the actions taken by individual countries around the world. According to the data available at the end of 2012, some