On the occasion of the official start of this year’s SIGMA measurement of progress achieved in the implementation of public administration reform in Serbia, within the framework of the European integration process, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, the Ministry of European Integration and the SIGMA Mission held a high-level kick-off meeting yesterday. The aim of the meeting was to familiarise the institutions of the Republic of Serbia with the SIGMA Mission and to present the revised principles of public administration which SIGMA adopted in November 2023.
The Minister of European Integration, Prof. Tanja Miščević, PhD, the Assistant Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government at the Sector for Good Governance, Radoslav Vujović, the Deputy Head of of EU Delegation to Serbia, Plamena Halacheva, and Head of the SIGMA Programme, Gregor Virant, have made their addresses at the beginning of the meeting.
The Minister of European Integration, Prof. Tanja Miščević, PhD, has said that reforming the public administration and local self-government means accelerating the circulation of the State. “It is a very difficult and challenging task of great importance for both our citizens and the economy. Difficult because, unlike many other areas in which we harmonize with what exists in the EU, there are no legal rules here, but only legal principles that are accepted differently by the Member States. Another big challenge is the fact that Serbia has a very long tradition of public administration, which it developed alongside its statehood. Since we did not start these reforms from scratch, we should also carefully fit them into our tradition,” Minister Miščević has said.
Speaking about the importance of the Public Administration Reform as a condition in the negotiations, Minister Miščević has stressed that the fact that the said reform became part of the first cluster, which we call ‘’Fundamentals’’, as one of the main elements of the negotiation process, highlights its significance. “What we primarily need to discuss today and in the future are the new basic principles harmonized with the needs of the 21st century, contemporary public administration and, of course, with the experiences of our development thus far, as well as with the development of the Member States,” Minister Miščević has said.
“From the very beginning, the European Union supported the development and improvement of public administration and local self-government from its funds. The sectoral budget support of the European Union is of particular importance to us, which is now entering a new cycle worth EUR 30 million and which implies very clear indicators for the continuation of further reform”, the Minister of European Integration has stressed and underlined that this process will not end with attaining EU membership, but shall follow us as a Member State of the European Union, and that is why it is additionally very important that we work together a lot more on this issue.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, the Assistant Minister Radoslav Vujović has pointed out that the Republic of Serbia continuously invests significant efforts in reforming its public administration and harmonizing it with the standards which are prevalent in the European Union, primarily in order to make it more efficient, more transparent, more accountable and “tailored to its citizens”. He has emphasized that according to the findings of the previous SIGMA Report from 2021, the greatest progress was identified in the area of service provision, but that our country is above the regional average in the areas of public financial management, human resource management and development and coordination of public policies, which, according to him, confirms the commitment of the Republic of Serbia to the comprehensive Public Administration Reform.
Plamena Plamena Halacheva, Deputy Head of EU Delegation to the Republic of Serbia, has said that Public Administration Reform is essential for strengthening governance at all levels, and that it represents one of the foundations of the enlargement process. “Along with the rule of law, the economy and the functioning of democratic institutions, Public Administration Reform is one of the ‘fundamental’ elements of the EU accession process. Although it may sometimes seem that Public Administration Reform is somehow suppressed by other fundamental principles, it remains at the very core of the European integration process, since the quality of institutions and governance forms the basis for greater competitiveness, prosperity and social well-being, and supports the ability to harmonise with the EU acquis in all areas,” Halacheva has said. She recalled that, although there is no single model that can be adopted and applied to every future member, the principles of Public Administration Reform (PAR), developed in 2014 by SIGMA in close cooperation with the EU, provide valuable guidelines for achieving a sound and impartial public administration. Halacheva has pointed out that the European Union supports administrative reforms and raising the institutional capacities of Serbia ever since the EU became present in the country, stressing that Serbia has benefited from the largest EU support to the Public Administration Reform sector in the region (EUR 80 million), followed by ongoing sectoral budget support of EUR 30 million.
The head of the SIGMA programme, Gregor Virant, has pointed out that the new edition of the Principles of Public Administration from 2023 imposes less rules, and is more based on practice and results. “We believe that the results of the monitoring, which will be carried out during 2024, will be a useful tool for the Serbian administration to identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as to determine priority areas for improvement,” Virant has said.
SIGMA, a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, had adopted the revised Principles of Public Administration in 2023, and according to them, the assessment for the Republic of Serbia will be carried out for the first time in 2024. The result of the evaluation is the Monitoring Report, which contains evaluations of the Public Administration Reform in the six most important thematic areas, as well as recommendations for further improvement of the public administration system.
In the week from 22-26 January, the plan is to hold special meetings by thematic areas, at which the representatives of the SIGMA Mission shall present the evaluation methodology to the representatives of the institutions of the Republic of Serbia.
Photo gallery – source: EU Info Center
