State Secretary Zoran Kasalović and Assistant Ministers talked today with Anne Castelnau, advisor to the French Government, who has visited Serbia to share experiences and knowledge in the field of civil service. Kasalović thanked Ms Castelnau for her visit and pointed out that Serbia highly appreciated France’s contribution to public administration reform, especially as this support came from a country with a long tradition of human resource management in public administration. “Public administration reform is one of the three main criteria for Serbia’s EU accession. However, the main yardstick by which we measure our success in its implementation is the satisfaction of citizens with the services we provide”, the State Secretary said. In this context, Kasalović pointed out one of the key priorities was openness of government, noting that his Ministry had once again been presented with the award for the most open institution in the Western Balkans region, according to a survey conducted by CRTA. Kasalović said he hoped arrangements for the signing of the Administrative Agreement would be made by the end of the year, adding that it would build the foundation for further concretisation and operationalisation of cooperation in the future, with continued sharing of experiences and transfer of knowledge and good practice, to ensure the public administration reform is as sound as possible. During her visit, Castelnau will focus on the status of high civil servants (recruitment, competences, professional development…). On the request of the Ministry, she will meet with representatives of the Human Resource Management Service and the National Academy for Public Administration.