Neven Mates member of the European Court of Auditors held a lecture on the topic Annual Report of the European Court of Auditors: Is the EU accounting documentation accurate and are the expenditures correct?" on 12 October 2018 in the Institute of Public Finance.

The lecturer presented the development of annual reports over the past years as well as audit results for 2017, given that the European Court of Auditors assesses whether the financial report on the execution of the EU budget is accurate and whether the revenues and expenditures are executed correctly, that is, in accordance with the applicable regulations. On this basis, the European Parliament decides whether or not the European Commission will be given the discharge for the execution of the budget.

As the Court has been increasingly devoting to drafting thematic reports on the EU success policies and budget programs, the lecturer has presented several recently published reports.

As part of the project WeBudget - from transparency to participation, a two days meeting was held at the Institute of Public Finance with representatives of civil society - Ministry of Space, Belgrade, Serbia (project leader); Parliament Watch Italia, Messina, Italy; K-Monitor Association, Budapest, Hungary; and WWB, Seville, Spain – at which a project implementation plan was drawn up. In this project, Institute of Public Finance is offering professional consulting services.

The aim of the project is to broaden the way citizens can interact with local authorities, thus influencing decision-making. Believing that creative IT solutions can strengthen local participation and democratic processes, budget schools will be created committed to advocate for budget transparency and participatory space during the entire budget cycle. Together with participants a tool that could help building trust between governments and citizens around public spending will be created.