Članak Regional Cooperation Initiatives in the Western Balkans se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

As part of this project, CEP has produced a paper titled “EU Trio Presidency Rewind: From Spain, over Belgium, to Hungary.”

The project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the Fund is to promote ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Članak EU Trio Presidency Rewind: From Spain, over Belgium, to Hungary se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Članak Behind the Curtain: Examining the Adoption and Content of Serbia’s Reform Agenda se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

In the context of such challenges, the Hungarian Presidency sets strong ambitions, seeking to defy its critics and demonstrate its capacity for effective and decisive leadership. Besides the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine and other security risks confronting Europe, the Presidency will engage in addressing the acute economic problems reflected in EU companies lagging behind their global counterparts, particularly those in the US and China. Judging by Hungary’s Presidency programme and Victor Orbán’s messages, Budapest recognises both security and economic issues faced by Europe, making the enhancement of the EU’s competitiveness and its defence capabilities the top two priorities of its Presidency. In addition, as a country which shares the border with both the Western Balkans (WB) and Ukraine, Hungary is now in a position to potentially accelerate the EU enlargement process by prioritising this policy and putting it high on the EU agenda. Therefore, this paper aims to critically examine the declaratively proclaimed goals of the Hungarian Presidency, answering the question of how realistically achievable they are and what are prerequisites for their fulfilment.

Članak The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU: Navigating the EU in Times of Change se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Članak Preparation and progress of Serbia towards EU membership 2024 se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Public administration reform (PAR), as an integral part of the first cluster, is one of the fundamental conditions on the way to the EU membership. In the Western Balkans region, this reform has been assessed for years through the lenses of the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration, developed by OECD/SIGMA and endorsed by the EU.

These Principles define what makes a well-functioning administration in terms of its ability to deliver transparent, efficient and effective services to citizens and to support socio-economic development. In the context of high external pressure for tangible developments in PAR, homegrown demand for better administration becomes even more important to keep pressuring the government to pursue reforms once the external conditionality dissipates as a result of a completed EU accession process. Civil society actors, with local knowledge of the administration’s functioning, can lead such domestic advocacy efforts aimed at better administration. Independent PAR monitoring and evidence-based dialogue with the government represent a good approach to achieving this goal.

Based on such a rationale, the WeBER project has completed the third PAR monitoring cycle for 2021/2022. The structured, evidence-based approach, as in the previous two monitoring cycles, particularly focuses on PAR aspects with the highest relevance to civil society and to the public. WeBER PAR monitoring strongly relies on the strengths, skills, and local knowledge of the civil society in the Western Balkans. It builds on SIGMA’s Principles of Public Administration as a cornerstone of PAR, while assessing them from the standpoint of an independently produced PAR Monitor methodology. Overall, the methodology, slightly revised using the lessons learned in the first monitoring cycle, is based on the selection of 22 SIGMA principles within six key PAR areas, monitored and reported through 23 compound indicators.

The third monitoring cycle also represents the last edition of the PAR Monitor in accordance with the existing framework of the SIGMA Principles from 2014, modified in 2017, since the process of revision of the Principles is ongoing. Therefore, the next, fourth monitoring cycle will be based on the modified PAR Monitor methodology, aligned with the new SIGMA framework, given that it represents the basis of the WeBER approach to PAR monitoring in the Western Balkans region. The design of all WeBER indicators enables comparisons between the administrations in the Western Balkans and allows for regional comparability of results.

In addition to the methodology, the PAR Monitor package comprises a comparative monitoring report for the entire WB region as well as six reports which elaborate on detailed findings for each administration. This report provides the results of the third monitoring cycle for Serbia, including a set of actionable recommendations.

Članak National PAR Monitor 2021/2022 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.

Recognising the danger of leaving the region empty-handed with such discouraging discourse at play, while accounting for the potential of third, non-EU actors’ influence to grow, then-German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, launched the Berlin Process. Although the aim was to keep the WB on the European path while enhancing the intra-regional interconnectivity, over time, it became clear that despite some successes, the Berlin Process had underdelivered. The countries’ progress toward the EU remained at a standstill, whereas numerous initiatives launched under its framework have not been fully implemented. Therefore, certain WB countries started to explore alternative avenues and pursued deeper regional integration on their own, all while maintaining EU membership as the ultimate goal. This gradual process, which started as “Mini-Schengen”, eventually materialised as the Open Balkan initiative.

Članak Unlocking the Regional Initiatives’Full Potential with the Staged Accession Model to the EU se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

At the centre of the monitoring of public administration reform (PAR), there are topics that are of primary interest to citizens and civil society. One of them, which pervades practically all areas of PAR and on which the quality of implemented reforms can depend to a significant extent, is certainly transparency.

Transparency implies that the goals of public policies, their legal, institutional and economic framework, as well as political decisions and all related data and information are delivered to the public in an understandable, accessible and timely manner.2 Relying on this understanding of transparency and the OECD/SIGMA Principles of Public Administration, the WeBER PAR Monitor methodology for monitoring PAR in the Western Balkans largely integrates the principle of transparency as one of the central components of good governance.

The importance of transparency can be viewed from several perspectives. In the first place, transparency enables citizens to be fully aware of their rights and to fulfil their obligations timely and efficiently. It is also important for the smooth functioning of the market, i.e., so that economic actors can conduct their business in a free and competitive atmosphere. In connection with the previous, full transparency that enables public oversight of the administration narrows the space for corruption, which is of vital interest to both citizens and the economy. Finally, PAR is an area of fundamental importance for the process of accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union, side by side with the rule of law and the functioning of democratic institutions.

The aim of this brief is to show the state of transparency in various areas of the PAR, draw attention to numerous weaknesses, but also present examples of good practice, when PAR transparency in the region is in question, based on the findings of the last monitoring cycle in the Western Balkans region carried out in 2022.4 Starting with public policies that are still developed behind closed doors, through insufficiently transparent human resources management and limited proactivity in informing the public, all the way to the issue of providing services, reporting on the budget and public procurement, shortcomings in transparency were pointed out, which permeate each PAR area and represent the problem of all countries in the region.

Članak Transparency of public administration reform in the Western Balkans: Numerous shortcomings and limited examples of good practice in the region se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

That is why the European Policy Centre (CEP) from Belgrade and the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) from Brussels created the Model of staged accession to the European Union, which strongly builds upon the revised enlargement methodology, but also further enriches and operationalises it. This infographic shows how the staged accession model operationalises core elements of the new methodology by creating room for dialogue and paving a clear roadmap for progress through stages while keeping the clustering system and further highlighting the fundamentals.

Download the infographic (Full resolution)

Članak Staged Accession Model as a proposal for operationalisation of the revised enlargement methodology se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Additionally, it helps citizens become more aware of their rights and obligations, as well as in better understanding public policy decisions, and it is a precondition for an inclusive decision-making process that involves civil society and all external stakeholders.

Furthermore, transparency is a major cross-cutting issue in all areas of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in line with the Principles of Public Administration which represent codified EU membership conditions in this fundamental reform area. Yet, while transparency is recognised in Serbia’s PAR Strategy as an essential component of its public administration reform, eighteen years after the first Public Administration Reform Strategy was adopted in Serbia, numerous important aspects of the administration’s work remain insufficiently transparent. This creates an overall negative impact on the country’s EU accession process, by undermining fundamental reforms in the essential governance areas. Ultimately, it also leads to a decrease in the citizens’ quality of life.

Članak Transparency across public administration reform in Serbia se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

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.

Članak Book of citizens’ impressions se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.