Advisory panel

In line with OECD recommendations for fiscal councils, the CBR appointed a six-member advisory team. These internationally-renowned experts in macroeconomics and public finance have been appointed to oversee, in particular, the procedures and methodologies employed by the CBR in the pursuit of its tasks mandated by law.

The Advisory Panel is scheduled to convene once a year. Apart from attending the panel’s meetings, its members are available for consultation by electronic means throughout the year. The expertise of the advisors guarantees the high-quality output of the CBR’s work. The advisors perform their function for free.

The CBR is honoured that the following personalities have agreed to cooperate:

George Kopits 

(2013 - now)

He has longstanding experience in the area of fiscal and monetary analyses. He began his carrier with the U.S. Treasury Department, then he worked for almost 30 years for the International Monetary Fund. He led numerous missions to various countries of the world and co-authored key IMF publications in the field of fiscal transparency and fiscal rules (e.g., the Kopits-Symansky criteria). Later on, he was appointed as a member of Hungary’s fiscal council.

In the recent past, he has been active particularly in the area of fiscal councils. After his term at the helm of the Fiscal Council of Hungary, he accepted membership in the Portuguese fiscal council. In addition to his public engagements, George Kopits is active as a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and Central European University.

Kevin Page

(2013 - now)

He graduated in economics at Queen's University; in 2008-13 he served as the first-ever Parliamentary Budget Officer in Canada. He is the founding President and CEO of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.

He had worked for more than 27 years for public institutions in Canada, mainly in the field of economic and fiscal analyses. He served at three major central agencies: Finance Canada, Treasury Board Secretariat and Privy Council Office.

Daniele Franco

(2013 - now)

Italian economist, central banker, civil servant. In 2023, he was nominated as the Italian candidate to succeed the president of the European Investment Bank. In 2021 - 2022, he held the position of Italian Minister of Finance and Economy, before that he served as the Director General of the Bank of Italy, where he previously served as the Executive Director of Economic Research and International Relations and as the Head of the Public Finance Division. He also shortly worked in the European Commission.

He has written books on public spending, social security and fiscal rules in Europe. In addition, he has numerous publications on budgetary policy, fiscal federalism, intergenerational accounting, taxation of financial assets or income distribution. He is the co-author of the proposal for the establishment of a fiscal council in Italy.

His membership in the Panel of Advisors was suspended due to incompatibility of functions in 2021-2022.

Roel Beetsma

(2023 - now)

Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Macroeconomics. He is also a Member of the European Fiscal Board and Research Fellow of the CEPR and CESifo. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of the pension fund for the Dutch retail sector and of the Supervisory Board of ASR Vermogensbeheer.

He has held visiting positions at DELTA (Paris), the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), the University of California in Berkeley, Copenhagen Business School and the EUI Florence. He has been a consultant for the ECB, the European Commission and the IMF. He was the Chair of a Dutch government commission on the European economy and of a Dutch government commission on second-pillar pensions. His research has been widely published in such journals as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature and the Economic Journal.

 

Richard van Zwol

(2023 - now)

Chair of the Network of EU Independent Fiscal Institutions. Richard van Zwol (1965) has been a state councilor in the Netherlands Council of State since 1 October 2017. From 2013 to 2017 he was Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. In 2007-2011 he held that position at the Ministry of General Affairs and in 2011-2013 at the Ministry of Finance.

Before that he was a civil servant at the Ministries of Finance, the Interior and Kingdom Relations and General Affairs. He has served as a social-economic and financial adviser and adviser on constitutional and constitutional affairs

Advisors Meetings

 

First Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The first meeting of the Advisory Panel to the CBR took place on October 4, 2013, in Bratislava. The advisors together with the members of the Council for Budget Responsibility discussed issues ranging from the fiscal framework of the CBR, its economic models, measuring the output gap and structural balance of public finances, OECD principles for independent fiscal institutions as well as long-term sustainability of public finance.

From left to right: Ľudovít Ódor, Michal Horváth, Ivan Šramko, Daniele Franco, Viktor Novysedlák, George Kopits, Philip Lane and Kevin Page. You can find more about the CBR’s advisors in their short profiles.

Please find also the minutes from the meeting here.

Second Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The second meeting of the Advisory Panel took place in Bratislava on October 3, 2014. Fiscal councils missions, fiscal risk assessment, long-term sustainability of public finances, DSGE models and others were being discussed.

From left to right: Viktor Novysedlák, Ivan Šramko, Ľudovít Ódor, Daniele Franco, Michal Horváth, George Kopits and Kevin Page. Please read more about the CBR’s advisors in their short profiles.

Please find the minutes from the meeting here.

Third Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The third meeting of the Advisory Panel took place on 30 September 2016 in Bratislava. Fiscal risk assessment, expenditure ceilings, minimum fiscal framework standards and microsimulation models were being discussed.

On the photo left to right Daniele Franco, Ľudovít Ódor, Ivan Šramko, Kevin Page, George Kopits, Michal Horváth and Viktor Novysedlák. Please read more about the CBR’s advisors in their short profiles.

Please find the minutes from the meeting here .

Fourth Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The fourth meeting of the Advisory Panel to the CBR took place on October 5th, 2018, in Bratislava. The advisors with the members of the Council for Budget Responsibility discussed macroeconomic forecasting, budget nowcasting, communication strategy, debt sustainability, expenditure ceilings and evaluated fiscal consolidation strategies at the CBR.

Left to right: Viktor Novysedlák, Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Anetta Čaplánová, Ivan Šramko, Ľudovít Ódor, Juraj Kotian, George Kopits, Michal Horváth, Kevin Page. You can find more about the CBR’s advisors in their short profiles.

Please find the minutes from the meeting here.

Fifth Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The fifth meeting of the Advisory Panel took place for the first time virtually, on 16 September 2020. Besides the format change, there has been a personal change – Jeronim Zettelmeyer resigned since he works for the International Monetary Fund. Holly Sutherland, Professor Emeritus of the University of Essex, accepted the invitation to become one of the Advisors.

This year’s agenda had two main topics:

  • OECD review of the Council for Budgetary Responsibility
  • Discussion on possible amendments to Fiscal responsibility Act with emphasis on the Debt Brake iniciative and in the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Please find the minutes from the meeting here.

Sixth Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The sixth meeting of the Advisory Panel took place in Bratislava, part of the Advisors joined virtually, on 6th and 7th October 2021. The CBR gladly welcomed Mr. Ludovit Odor, vicegovernor of the National Bank of Slovakia, among Advisors.

The Panelists discussed four main topics:

1/ Constitutional Act on budgetary responsibility amendment

2/ CBR´s mandate, communication of outputs in order to contribute to public discussion on long term sustainbility of public finances

3/ Costing manual of the CBR

4/ Welfare trend report introduction.

From left to right: George Kopits, Viktor Novysedlák (CBR), CBR members Anetta Čaplánová, Juraj Kotian, Ján Tóth and a new panel member Ľudovít Ódor (NBS).

Seventh Meeting of the Advisory Panel

The seventh meeting of the Panel of Advisors was held on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the RRZ establishment on June 5th, 2023.

Including RRZ members Mr. George Kopits attended in person, the other members joined online.

In the beginning, the new members of the Panel of Advisors, Mr. Roel Beetsma and Mr. Richard van Zwol, were introduced, then the main topics – expenditure limits and long-term sustainability – were discussed.

The RRZ hereby thanks former members Mrs. Holly Sutherland and Mr. Simon Wren-Lewis for their significant contributions and erudite recommendations.

Previous members of the Advisory Panel

Ľudovít Ódor

(2021 – 2023)

Due to the nomination to the position of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, the membership was finished.

He was the Vice Governor of the National Bank of Slovakia (2018-2023), since 2016 has been a visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest (CEU), where he lectures on fiscal policy and fiscal institutions.

Has been closely involved in several major economic decisions taken at the political level in Slovakia, concerning both monetary and fiscal issues. Has collaborated on several reform plans, including Slovakia’s euro adoption strategy, tax and pension reforms, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the ‘Value for Money’ project.

He is fluent in English and Hungarian.

Holly Sutherland

(2020 – 2021)

Until October 2018 Holly was Director of EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016. She has more than 30 years of experience of designing, building and using such models.

Her longstanding research interests include the gender effects of redistribution policy and child poverty measurement and analysis. Her current interests also include extending microsimulation capacity to developing countries and to groups without access to such models.

Simon Wren-Lewis

(2013 – 2023)

Simon Wren-Lewis began his career as an economist in Her Majesty´s Treasury. In 1981 he accepted an offer for the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). As Head of Macroeconomic Research, he generally supervised development of the domestic and world models and constructed the first version of the well-known NIGEM model . Later he became a professor at Strathclyde University, from 1995 he was at Exeter University, and in 2007 moved to the economics department (and Merton college) at Oxford. He has published papers on a wide range of macroeconomic issues in leading academic journals.

He has published a lot of publications in important academic journals, especially in the field of monetary and fiscal policy modeling and in the field of equilibrium exchange rates. He is a long-time “significant fan” of fiscal councils: his proposal influented the creation of the Office for Budget Responsibility in Great Britain. Currently, he is also known through his blog „mainly macro“.

Jeromin Zettelmeyer

(2018 – 2020)

At the time of his membership in the Advisory Panel, he was a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (2016 – 2019). From 2014 to 2016, he served as Director – General for Economic Policy at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. He was responsible for economic analysis and forecasting, the microeconomic policy framework and a key policy initiative to support private and public investment. He represented Germany in the OECD Economic Policy Committee and served as founding co-chair of the OECD Global Forum on Productivity. He was Director of research and representative of the main economy at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (2008 – 2014), where he participated in the creation and editing of the main outputs.

Since 2019 he was Deputy Director at Strategy and Policy Dept at IMF´s, currently he is served as Director of Bruegel, think-tank specialised in economics.