The European Union will allocate EUR80 million for public administration reform in Serbia by 2020, said Head of the EU Delegation in Belgrade Sem Fabrizi.
At the presentation of key findings of the 2017 SIGMA report, Fabrizi said that the Government and Minister Branko Ružić were heavily engaged in public administration reform, one of the crucial areas of Serbia’s European integration process.
Fabrizi said that public administration reform was one of the main pillars and requirements put before Serbia on the EU path.
“Transparent and responsible public administration is important for the wellbeing of citizens, too,” he said.
He added that Serbia should observe the principles enshrined by SIGMA and adopt them through the reform process.
The Government will soon finalise the 2018-2020 Action Plan for public administration reform, he said, noting that the Action Plan puts special emphasis on transparency, responsibility and independence of public administration.
Fabrizi also said the EU was supporting Serbia in its effort to implement public administration reform, adding that the EU has prepared sector budget support for said reform to the tune of EUR80 million for the next three-year period.
“We have made progress in many areas of the public administration reform”, Minister Ružić said. “The progress we have made enables us to receive EUR80 million in sector budget support. This is a strong motivation to stay on track and make huge steps forward,” Ružić said.
As he put it, EUR70 million will be disbursed in the form of direct budget support, while the remaining EUR10 million will be spent on four projects, two of which will be coordinated by the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government.
SIGMA report, which covered the period from May 2015-June 2017, shows steady progress in many areas of public administration reform and sets out guidelines for further improvement, Ružić said.
We need to better coordinate our activities, he said, adding that coordination between different departments also needs improving.
SIGMA report (May 2015-June 2017) shows that Serbia has made steady progress in certain areas of public administration reform and established a legal framework for a functioning public administration.
The report covers six key reform areas (strategic framework for public administration reform, policy creation and coordination, public service and human resource development, service provision and public finance management), offering recommendations which serve as guidelines for further reform in the area of public administration and finance.
In 2014, SIGMA has drawn up the Principles of Public Administration in order to support the European Commission’s stronger focus on public administration reform within the EU enlargement process.
The principles describe what the good public administration entails in practice and set out the main requirements put before candidate countries in the process of EU integration.
source: EU delegation