WeBER 3.0 continues to promote the crucial role of CSOs in PAR, while also advocating for broader citizen engagement in this process and inclusive reform measures which are user-tailored and thus lead to tangible improvements.

By grounding actions in robust monitoring data and insights, WeBER 3.0 will empower civil society to more effectively influence the design and implementation of PAR. To foster collaborative policymaking and bridge the gap between aspirations and actionable solutions, the project will facilitate sustainable policy dialogue between governments and CSOs through the WeBER Platform and its National PAR Working Groups. Finally, through small grants for local CSOs, WeBER 3.0 bolsters local-level PAR engagement, amplifying
the voices of citizens – the final beneficiaries of the public administrations’ work.

WeBER 3.0 products and further information about them are available on the
project’s website at www.par-monitor.org

Članak Western Balkan PAR Monitor: PUBLIC SERVICE AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2024/2025 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

During this engaging conversation, Professor Nicolaïdis shares her extensive insights into various aspects of European integration, global affairs, and democratic theory. With her wealth of knowledge in these domains, she explores the relevance of citizens’ consultations and the role they play in WeBER’s initiatives. The Democratic Odyssey, a groundbreaking project, serves as a blueprint for our discussion, offering valuable insights into the future of citizen engagement in the Western Balkans.

Join us in this enlightening conversation as we delve into the exciting realm of democratic participation and its potential to shape the future of the Western Balkan region. We are delighted to have Professor Nicolaïdis on board for this inspiring episode.

Visit her website for more information:
www.kalypsonicolaidis.com

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www.par-monitor.org

Članak Pursuing More Deliberative Democracy and Citizen Participation: Where and How to Begin? se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

With her extensive background in Politics and International Studies, Ms. Kacarska provided unique insights into the world of deliberative polling (DP) and its relevance in our region. Delving into her experience, we explore the inception and implementation of DP, uncovering valuable lessons and takeaways. Simonida highlights the vital resources necessary for successful DP endeavours, discussing the human, financial, and time-related aspects. She also sheds light on the key challenges that Western Balkan CSOs, think tanks and research organizations might encounter when embarking on their own DP journeys.

Discover how DP can lead to informed public opinion and affect advocacy in the region, ultimately influencing decision-makers.

To learn more about the work of EPI, please visit: www.epi.org.mk.

www.par-monitor.org

Članak From Opinions to Impact: Experience in Implementing Deliberative polling in North Macedonia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The PAR Monitor 2021/2022 is the result of monitoring work performed during 2022 by the Think for Europe Network, and it represents a compilation report of all the key findings for the entire Western Balkan region in six areas of PAR defined by the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration. Furthermore, as the third systematic PAR monitoring in the region by civil society, this report offers benchmarking between WB administrations and comparison with the baseline 2017/2018, and 2019/2020 monitoring cycles.

PAR Monitor reports are based on a comprehensive methodological framework designed by the WeBER research team, combining quantitative and qualitative evidence sources. With the EU-SIGMA Principles as the building blocks of monitoring work, PAR Monitor reports complement the same type of work of the SIGMA/OECD and the European Commission and offer citizen and civil society perspectives on these Principles. Together with this comparative regional report, the PAR Monitor package consists of six national reports, each including findings on the 23 compound indicators to monitor a selection of SIGMA Principles.In

line with the WeBER mission, these monitoring exercises are driven by the necessity to strengthen domestic, bottom-up pressure for PAR from the civil society in the region, especially from the view of keeping demand for this reform ongoing in the event of loosening of the EU’s conditionality in PAR domain eventually. All findings from this report, PAR Monitor 2019/2020, and the baseline PAR Monitor 2017/2018 can be accessed and compared via the Regional PAR Scoreboard.

Članak Western Balkan PAR Monitor 2021/2022 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Ms. Handjiska-Trendafilova shares her extensive experience in the EU integration and regional cooperation processes, having worked on various policy areas, including the Regional Economic Area and Common Regional Market agendas. She discusses ReSPA’s approach to fostering regional cooperation and exchange, as well as the organization’s current initiatives, including the Regional CAF Centre, which aims to improve public services through quality management.

Join us for this insightful conversation on the importance of regional networking and cooperation in PAR and how ReSPA is contributing to this process in the Western Balkans. For more information about ReSPA, please visit their website at respaweb.eu.

For more information about WeBER, visit > par-monitor.org

Članak Building Bridges: The Role of ReSPA in Fostering Regional Cooperation for Better PAR se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The state administration has been reforming for almost two decades, since 2004. With the adoption of the new strategic framework in 2021, it seems that the reform has gained a new momentum, with a greater orientation towards citizens and the economy.1 Not stopping at such a generally defined goal, the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Strategy offers an even more specific commitment towards the administration as a customer centre, that provides user-oriented services that are reasonably priced, while taking care of minority and vulnerable groups.

Despite such a far-reaching goal, the available data indicate that there is still a lack of sensibility of the administration for the needs of the citizens, especially for the vulnerable and endangered. Also, the data points to the uneven accessibility of jobs positions in the state administration – an aspect that the PAR Strategy does not deal with. If all citizens do not get the opportunity to access services, information and public facilities, not only the success of the PAR is put into question, but also the existence of an inclusive society and the exercise of human rights. Likewise, enabling persons belonging to vulnerable groups to get a job in the civil service, i.e., state administration bodies, should be one of the ways in which the reform can contribute to greater accessibility of the administration to everyone, within the broader social aspirations to reduce discrimination and respect different social needs.

Numerous international obligations and regulations of the Republic of Serbia require equal access and treatment of all persons who perform business with public authorities. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which Serbia is a signatory, unequivocally stipulates that states provide equal access to institutions and services intended for the public, that is, promote the possibility of employment, including in the public sector.4 Also, according to the current legislation in Serbia, everyone has the right to equal access and equal protection of rights before courts and public authorities, and any discriminatory behaviour by a public official in a public authority is prohibited.5 In addition, employers in the public sector are obligated to provide equal employment opportunities for employment regardless of sex, gender and family status, while paying due attention to the equality of vulnerable social groups. It is particularly important to emphasise that discrimination against persons with disabilities before a public authority is considered to be administrative conduct that prevents or hinders the realisation of rights, as well as that discrimination regarding the availability of services and access to facilities in public use is prohibited.

Although PAR in Serbia is not only a long-term, but also a continuous development process that needs to be constantly adapted to new circumstances, it cannot yet be said that, as a result of this reform, we are closer to the aforementioned normative principles or dispositions, at least when it comes to the accessibility of state administration. This brief presents some of the problems with access to services, facilities, and jobs of the state administration, based on data from the WeBER PAR Monitor 2021/2022, the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality, and other relevant sources.

Članak State administration in Serbia: A thorny road to equal opportunities and access for all se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Accessibility is considered a priority in a modern-day state administration. As an important precondition for achieving broader societal goals of social inclusion and welfare, accessibility has also become a clear-cut administration issue.

Rising demands for accessible administrations – services, building, workplaces – but also for more equitable opportunities for getting jobs, including civil service employment, result from the fast-paced socio-economic and technological changes, which in turn require to accommodate as many needs of the population as possible. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak is only one, but largely important example of how suddenly such needs for fast adaptations occur.

On their EU accession path, the countries in the Western Balkan region must demonstrate that basic accessibility principles are sufficiently secured, as part of a broader, but fundamental public administration reform. According to international assessments that measure the compliance with such principles, the work is far from done – the legislative and policy frameworks are in place, the digital services accelerated, but mechanisms for improving the accessibility of services are weak across the region. The results of the surveys of civil servants and civil society organisations (CSO) implemented by the WeBER initiative, analysed in this brief, tell a similar story of weak guarantees for accessibility of state administrations. Specifically, their reflections on the opportunities for accessing civil service jobs, workplaces, facilities, and services, indicate that those most vulnerable have fewer chances and struggle the most.

Measuring perceptions has its limitations, from sampling errors, bias, to difficulties in capturing nuances. Also, survey results are largely affected by respondents’ motivation and availability to participate. As such, they should be interpreted with caution and used as a stimulus for further research. However, civil servants and CSOs are among the key actors from whom to obtain feedback regarding the application of the accessibility principle in practice. This is due to their respective roles as service and information providers to the public, in case of the former, and active participants in public affairs, especially as voluntary service providers to different population categories, in case of the latter.  Perception data alone cannot be used to remedy policy implementation but can additionally help to spotlight potential gaps. If legal and policy mechanisms largely fail to achieve their intended purpose, which is to allow unrestricted access to administration, it results not only in a waste of resources but also in the deprivation of different societal groups of their fundamental rights.

Članak Accessibility and Equal Opportunities in State Administrations in the WB: What Civil Servants and Civil Society Actors Have to Say? se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Political influence on public administration is as old as administration itself. Given that civil servants are the ones who implement government policies, having control over them means controlling the institutions that execute political power and implement policies. This control also opens opportunities for rewarding loyalists and achieving political interests.
When reduced to a minimum, such political manoeuvre is less likely to have a lasting impact on an administration’s functioning, but when it becomes overwhelming, a state apparatus can be completely captured by transient political actors, in the service of interests other than public.

For a modern democracy, seeking to join the EU, professional and depoliticised civil service is necessary, not only for the sake of fulfilling membership conditions, but to enable society to achieve its socio-economic development potentials, and citizens to exercise their rights. In Serbia, however, international organisations and domestic civil society have reported on the issue of civil service politicisation since the start of democratic transition two decades ago. Still, the depoliticisation process, exceptionally prominent when it comes to the top echelon of the state administration senior civil service (SCS), has gone unaccomplished to the present day.

There are at least three inter-connected aspects of the SCS politicisation. First, acting senior civil servants, appointed temporarily until the right candidate is selected in the competition procedure, have become a regular instead of a temporary solution for filling in managerial positions, eliminating the principle of merit for recruitment.

Second, the very process of appointment of acting managers has become heavily compromised by frequent extensions of acting periods, beyond legal limits, constituting a perpetuated rule of law violation. Finally, even when competition procedures for SCS positions are implemented, there are additional and completely obscure political vetting procedures, due to which candidates proposed in the legal process often do not get appointed by the Government.

Since public administration reform belongs to the fundamental negotiation cluster that the EU microscopically observes, SCS politicisation has become an obstacle on Serbia’s EU path over the years. However, a more severe consequence is that, by politically controlling the administration, the Government makes decisions and policies at the expense of rule of law. Altogether, these bring forward principal concern that if politics does not let the civil service be, Serbia will simply entrench in weak institutions in an unforeseeable future, unable to unlock country’s development potential and improve citizens’ quality of life.

Članak The Neverending story of senior civil service depoliticisation in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

The countries of the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe have been facing several different crises in recent years, which lead to, in some countries, the phenomenon of shrinking space for civil society, populist policies and authoritarian leaders. All this is interconnected with the raising the level of corruption, which is further related to the weakening of democracies, and as a consequence, we have reduced trust of citizens, non-functional and non-transparent public administrations and captured states.

Setting the principle of citizens’ trust and the supreme value of democracy as the best path that humanity has discovered for building a successful society that has citizens in the focus, and which never reaches the goal but is constantly improving, Mr Ruslan Stefanov, Director of the Economics Program of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) and manager of the CSD’s SELDI network reminds civil society that it is necessary to have responsible leaders at the top, independent institutions that control them, and governments willing to cooperate with civil society and experts.

Članak Taming corruption necessary for achieving a good public administration: What can CSOs do? se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), public consultations are one of the crucial regulatory tools used to improve the transparency and effectiveness of regulations and policy documents.

Being part of the wider public administration reform (PAR), policymaking reforms in Serbia entail improvements in implementing consultations with stakeholders, and public debates on policy documents and legislation (hereinafter: public consultations), throughout the drafting process. By consulting the target groups throughout, the effects of the proposed solutions are assessed, and the costs minimized, which makes public consultations one of the most valuable tools in the preparation of draft policy documents and legislation. Moreover, involvement positively impacts sustainability of policies and ensure their responsiveness to real needs of the society.

However, public consultations are still insufficiently widespread in policymaking in Serbia, and when they are conducted, it is often pro forma, without ensuring the quality of the process. As a result, policies are often not adapted to the citizens’ needs, and their implementation degree is low. This further contributes to the reduced citizens’ trust in institutions, resistance to policy implementation, and ultimately, makes policies unsustainable.

Članak Public consultations and policymaking in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

For insightful discussion on the importance of QM tools such as CAF, advantages of its application, and experience of WB countries who are using it, we have the pleasure of welcoming Mr Thomas Prorok, Managing Director at the KDZ – Centre of Public Administration Research, and Head of the CAF Centre at the KDZ, who has hands-on experience in supporting administration in the region in the CAF implementation. Mr Prorok is also WeBER Advisory Council member.

Članak Common Assessment Framework: A way of making continuous improvements in Public Administration se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

WeBER Talks is a special edition of European Talks, a podcast produced by the European Policy Centre – CEP Belgrade.

More information:

WeBER: www.par-monitor.org
CEP: www.cep.org.rs
Public governance in small states: from paradoxes to research agenda
Small States and Innovation: www.researchgate.net/publication/23…and_innovation
Public governance in small states: from paradoxes to research agenda: ams.hi.is/en/publication/10/
Public management and policy-making in small states: ams.hi.is/en/publication/12/

Članak The smaller the states, the bigger the issues? Challenges of achieving good administration se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.