Book of citizens’ impressions

Within the framework of two projects dedicated to the public administration reforms (PAR) at the local and state level, European Policy Centre (CEP) initiated the campaigns through which the experiences of citizens and their impressions of functioning of public administration are collected.

During 2021, as part of the project Public administration Monitoring for better local Governance – Pratim JA, a campaign carried out focused on issues of PAR at the local level. The campaign consisted of 85 street actions carried out in 17 cities and municipalities where citizens directly participated in a survey. Additionally, the campaign was carried out online, through the Pratim JA portal, so as to give the opportunity to all citizens in Serbia to share their experiences.

Moreover, within in the frame of the project Western Balkan Civil Society Empowerment for a Reformed Public Administration, the WeBER 2.0, CEP has been collecting citizens’ experiences since 2020 through an online platform2, but also in direct communication with citizens in the field. While the Pratim JA project collected the experiences of citizens who were in contact with municipal / city administrations, WeBER 2.0 gave them the opportunity to share their experiences about different types of services provided to them by public authorities.

Convinced that it is not essential for the citizens whether the service was provided by a local self-government unit, state administration or public service, and that it is the most important for citizens that public services are accessible to them and provided in an efficient and professional manner, researchers of the European Policy Centre created a Book of Citizens’ Impressions in order to inform decision-makers about the problems that citizens experience often, but also offered concrete recommendations for improving the functioning of public administration in Serbia.