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Second Meeting of PAR National Working Group in Tirana, Albania

08/11/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

On 30 October 2017, IDM Albania coordinated the second meeting of PAR National Working Group (NWG) in Tirana, Albania.

On 30 October 2017, IDM Albania coordinated the second meeting of PAR National Working Group (NWG) in Tirana, Albania. This meeting was organized as part of the regional WeBER project, financed by the European Commission and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Participants in the meeting included 30 CSO representatives from Albania, which form the NWG for monitoring the Public Administration Reform.

During the first session of the meeting, Aleka Papa, WeBER Researcher presented the progress of the WeBER PAR Monitor in Albania, given that the first wave of monitoring at the national level has started in October. Next, grantees of the Small Grant Facility for civil society monitoring of PAR at local level, presented their preliminary findings.

During the second session, the NWG members discussed their potential inputs to the Annual Report of the European Commission for Albania and provided proposals to be addressed during the Third Regional Meeting of the WeBER Platform in Skopje on November 1-2 2017.

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Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform – WeBER – is a three-year project financed by the European Union (European Commission) and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. You can find more about project here.

NWGs are national consultative mechanism for participation of civil society in the dialogue with relevant public authorities on design and monitoring of PAR processes in the WB. NWGs are constituted in each of the WB country as national extensions for dialogue on PAR of the wider mechanism – regional WeBER Platform.

There is a permanent open call for expression of interest for CSOs to join the NWGs.

This article was originally published on: www.idmalbania.org

Third Meeting of the WeBER Platform

06/11/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

The event gathered CSOs members of the WeBER Platform from all six WeBER partner countries, as well as representatives of national level institutions, media, international and regional organisations dealing with public administration reform (PAR): SIGMA/OECD, Regional School of Public Administration – ReSPA, Regional Cooperation Council – RCC.

The meeting served to showcase good practice examples and most recent achievements in the field of PAR, whereas Milena Lazarević, CEP Programme Director, informed about the progress of the WeBER project concerning the PAR monitoring, grant scheme implementation, and next steps planned for the upcoming project year. “It is vital that our monitoring results are comparable across the six countries, to ensure their credibility,” Milena stated.

The discussion focused on the methods to improve cooperation between CSOs and national level institutions, and proposals for creating more systemic consultation mechanism which would result in more inclusive and effective public policies. Another important aspect of the discussion was how to make the WeBER Platform useful and go-to place for the institutions and interested public, but also on ways of achieveing sustainability of the PAR Monitor in the long run. In the later course of the event, special emphasis was placed on raising awareness and visibility of the PAR process in the public eye. Additionaly, panel discussion with media representatives helped in shaping new ideas and approaches, such as greater accent on real life stories from the local communities, dismissing the technocratic jargon in favour of simple and easy to understand messages for the public, including more graphics and visuals.

WeBER (Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform) is a three-year project funded by the EU (European Commision) and co-funded by The Kingdom of The Netherlands.

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The Second Meeting of the National Working Group in Kosovo

03/11/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

On October 26, 2017 Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) has held the 2nd meeting of the National Working Group in Priština, Kosovo.

Most of the members of the NWG participated at this meeting where they provided their inputs, concerns and recommendations regarding monitoring of the Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Kosovo. The NWGs are national consultative mechanism for participation of civil society in the dialogue with relevant public authorities on design and monitoring of PAR processes in the WB. NWGs are constituted in each of the WB country as national extensions for dialogue on PAR of the wider mechanism – regional WeBER Platform. Currently Kosovo has 12 members.

In the first session Arberesha Loxha from GLPS presented the progress of the WeBER PAR Monitor in Kosovo. She informed the participants that following the finalization of the methodology, WeBER has started its first monitoring phase this September. She also recalled that WeBER monitoring methodology relies in several data sources amongst others government websites and official data/documents, surveys, interviews with public officials and focus groups. In addition, she shared with the members the very first observations from monitoring the first indicators which rely on data from government websites and official data and reports.

Furthermore, the grantees of the WeBER grant schemes presented their activities which they have conducted during the monitoring phase and emphasized the issues which they are dealing with. One of the most important factors of their work is the need to further cooperation between CSOs and local institutions.

Finally, members of NWG provided valuable inputs which need to be addressed during the Third Regional Platform to be held in Skopje.
Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform – WeBER – is a three-year project financed by the European Union (European Commission) and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. You can find more about project here.

The Second Meeting of National Public Administration Reform Working Group in BiH

31/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

Foreign Policy Initiative BH, organized the second meeting of National PAR Working Group in BiH in Sarajevo, 25.10.2017.

Foreign Policy Initiative BH, organized the second meeting of National PAR Working Group in BiH in Sarajevo, 25.10.2017. The meeting is organized as part of the regional WeBER project, financed by the European Commission and co-financed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Representatives of 23 civil society organizations from BiH, which form the NWG for monitoring of Public Administration Reform on local level in BiH took part in the meeting.

Previous results and achievements as well as future plans for activities within WeBER project were presented. Furthermore, OCDs which were awarded grants within the project presented their activities and future plans. Through discussion and familiarization with activities within their local communities, representatives of NWG concluded that it is necessary to further educate public servants on local and cantonal level about PAR. They also underlined that it is necessary to explain the process of PAR to the citizens and present them what a reformed public service should bring to them (efficient and professional administration, simpler procedures, no long queues, budget spending and public service recruitment transparency, etc).

In the afternoon session, Senior Expert Associate for Public Relations of PARCO in BiH, Vedrana Faladžić presented the activities of PARCO in BiH and invited the representatives of CSOs to actively participated in public consultations which are to be held in Sarajevo and Banja Luka. Aneta Raić, Head of the Unit for Donor Coordination, Finances, Monitoring and Evaluation spoke about the next step and plans of PARCO BiH.

This article was originally published on: www.vpi.ba

The Second Meeting of the National Working Group for Monitoring Public Administration Reform in Serbia

31/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

In Belgrade, October 26, 2017, the Second Meeting of the National Working Group (NWG) for Monitoring Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Serbia was held. The Meeting was organised by the European Policy Centre (CEP).

As a prelude to the meeting of the National Working Group, a workshop for representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs), which carry out research projects within the framework of WeBER Small Grants programme was held. During workshop, they exchanged experiences that arose from the current implementation of these projects, and presented the progress in research and current research findings.

At the meeting of the National Working Group, Milena Lazarević, CEP’s Programme Director and WeBER Project Manager, and Miloš Đinđić from CEP, the Lead Researcher on the WeBER project, presented the progress in the implementation of WeBER PAR Monitoring in Serbia. Đinđić highlighted that the PAR Monitor Methodology is one of the most important products of WeBER.

About PAR Monitoring at the local level, spoke Milijana Trifković from Praxis, i Danijela Jović from Centre for Balanced Regional Development – Cen TriR, as representatives of CSOs recipients of the WeBER project Small Grant Facility for civil society monitoring of PAR at local level from Serbia. They presented the first findings of: transparency of local self-government and implementation of the new Law on Administrative Procedure on the territory of City of Kraljevo on the one hand, and on the other – current employment practices, the impact in the field of human resource management, as well as the perception of civil society on these issues in Užice, Požega and Gornji Milanovac.

Afterwards, the NWG members discussed the upcoming attachments to the Annual Report of the European Commission for Serbia, which the NWG in Serbia, as part of WeBER Platform, for the first time this year will send as an integrated contribution of its members.

The meeting was concluded with NWG members proposing on the key issues to be considered at the Third Regional Meeting of the WeBER Platform, which will be held in Skoplje on November 1^st and 2^nd of 2017.

BENCHER receives co-financing by OSIFE

24/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

BENCHER (Benchmarking for EU Reform – How Effective?) Project, implemented by TEN, was provided with co-funding support by OSIFE (Open Society Initiative for Europe – Open Society Foundations), which was initially granted and financed by European Fund for the Balkans. This is a major achievement for our network, especially in light of the acknowledgement given by OSIFE which characterized TEN as the “strongest regional network of think tanks”. We hope this move is a beginning of more robust and long-term cooperation between TEN and OSIFE in the future.

Goal of BENCHER Project is to explore the effectiveness of the EU benchmarking mechanism for the Western Balkans in order to improve the benchmarking mechanism as an impetus for EU related reforms in the Western Balkans. Find one-page description of the Project BENCHER is provided HERE.

Interview with Simonida Kacarska: Regional cooperation for a shared European future

21/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

“As think tankers, one of our core roles is to support the policy processes with reliable data and findings based on rigorous analysis. In order to fulfill this role we must learn from other contexts and circumstances. Such exercises help us go beyond the boundaries of our specific context in order to test broader conceptions of public policy.”

EPI has been a staunch supporter of Macedonia’s EU integration and has worked in this field even in the period when the Macedonian membership bid was basically put on hold due to the political situation. How did EPI manage to keep working on EU integration in those times and what has changed since the formation of the new government in Macedonia?

In effect, the hold on the Macedonian accession process was placed largely at the same time with EPI’s establishment (note: end of 2009) so this was something we had in the back of our mind when we planned our work. Yet, we could not have foreseen the difficult political crisis that followed in 2015. Our strategy in these circumstances had been first, to focus on objective and high quality monitoring and to provide relevant and applicable policy products, singling out their European dimension. In addition, we also focused on the aspects of the European accession process which were not halted, such as the use of pre-accession funds and their impact on the transformation processes.

Simonida Kacarska, European Policy Institute – (EPI) Director

Our approach and our standards have not changed since the formation of the new government. We still monitor their steps closely and provide constructive criticism. What has changed, nevertheless, is that the Government has placed an increasing focus on EU and NATO accession (easier said than done though). Currently, we aim to provide as much input as possible in the numerous policy processes such as the Strategy on Public Administration Reform and the Judicial Reform Strategy. In this endeavor, we do support national reforms that are in line with the EU standards and the EU acquis, but through our work we aim to find solutions that shall be adapted to the national context and thus more likely to be sustainable.

Why do you think regional cooperation between think tanks is important?

As think tankers, one of our core roles is to support the policy processes with reliable data and findings based on rigorous analysis. In order to fulfill this role we must learn from other contexts and circumstances. Such exercises help us go beyond the boundaries of our specific context in order to test broader conceptions of public policy. It is specifically through regional cooperation that we have a chance to communicate more broadly with the European as well as international policy research, thus advancing our own position and work. In the case of our region, cooperation is important not only because of our geography, shared past, but also hopefully for a shared European future.

How does EPI benefit from the WeBER project? What are the benefits, and what are the challenges in involving the civil society in PAR?

Public administration, which is in the spotlight of the WeBER projct, is one of the key pillars for the functioning of a democracy. The public administration in Macedonia is highly politicized – as all the administrations in the region. Merit based employment has become an exception rather than a rule and our country has reached is pick being defined as under state capture by the EC. Needless to say, the PAR is a difficult and complex task and it will be a long time before tangible progress can be ascertained. However, as I mentioned, these problems are encountered, to different degrees, by all of the WB countries i.e. (WeBER) partners. Throughout the project cycle we find commonalities, we share common problems and we aim to find solutions, jointly with a broad set of CSOs from all of our countries, our public administrations as well as the European Commission.

Bringing civil servants along with their peers from different countries to discuss public administrations reform with CSO representatives is the added value of this project and with this we aim to mix and match the experience of the civil servants in the public sector and the expertise of the CSOs in different sectors. Moreover the re-granting scheme EPI manages is also out of great importance since it creates multipliers and it fosters ownership and engagement among the grantees.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges for greater regional CSO cooperation? What would you recommend to peer organizations in other countries?

The challenges for regional CSO cooperation stem in my opinion largely from the largely difficult situation in which CSOs are in terms of the predictability of their work and funding circumstances. Most of us struggle financially and with short–term projects making it very difficult to discuss and plan long term cooperation across national boundaries. Yet, as we know when possible such efforts are much more effective. Hence, I would recommend to peers to look carefully for their partner organizations in the region, but also at the EU level because together we are more relevant for policy makers and donors as well.

EPI is currently presiding over the Council of the TEN Network. Can you tell us something about the plans or ideas you have for the activities of the Network?

We are very glad that the TEN network was recognized by national actors, but also by international stakeholders and EU stakeholders as a credible and relevant actor. We are confident it has great potential and that the comparative advantage of each of the organizations can strengthen the network as a whole. In this manner, we want to change how we see regional CSO cooperation – for us its a cummulative effort of combined expertise for maximized impact, rather than regional competitors. One of the fruitful results of this cooperation was the BENCHER project, supported by the European Fund for the Balkans and the Open Society Foundations. The project came as a follow up to the independent comparative regional analysis of the EC country reports of 2015. Building upon our previous work, BENCHER is going one step further, as we are analyzing the benchmarking mechanism and its effectiveness. We will present our work on country events and advocacy meetings in the region, as well as in several EU member states and in Brussels. In this process we aim to provide tailormade, comprehensive and specific recommendations to advance the benchmarking mechanism in order to strengthen the transformative role of the EU accession process.

*This interview is produced as a part of the second issue of the TEN Newsletter.

TEN member organisations participated in Belgrade Security Forum (BSF)

20/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

Representatives of three TEN member organisations participated in this year’s, sixth Belgrade Security Forum (BSF) which was titled “Building a Common Future in the Age of Uncertainty”.

Milena Lazarević, European Policy Centre – CEP’s Programme Director, participated on one of the panels, held on the first day, named “Effects of Foreign Economic Influence on Sovereign Nations”. Other panelists included Pierre Mirel, now the Honorary Director of European Commission’s DG Enlargement Unit General for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo Issues, Martin Heinemeyer, Founder and Director of start-up company from Belgium, Ruslan Stefanov, Director of Bulgarian Centre for Study of Democracy (CSD), and Andrew Wilson Managing Director of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Ms. Lazarević, as a representative of one civil society organization from Serbia, painted a closer picture and attitudes to the participants regarding this topic.

Miloš Đinđić, a Senior Researcher in the CEP, was one of the participants at the panel held on the second day, “What if the Western Balkans Never Become Part of the EU”. Together with representatives of civil society organizations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, Đinđić spoke about what would happen in case the doors of the EU remain closed for Western Balkan countries. The panel was moderated by Dušan Gajić, RTS correspondent from Brussels.

“The reforms that we are implementing, we are implementing for ourselves, EU accession must not be an end in itself,” Đinđić claims.

He added that “we should be focused on reforms and our goal should be to better the lives of citizens and the creation of quality institutions, rather than focusing on membership date,” emphasizing the importance of reforming the public administration in this process.

Nikolaos Tzifakis, a Research Associate from the Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies agreed with Đinđić, adding that the country certainly needs to continue with reforms after they join the EU, because mere membership does not mean that the reform process is completed.

Jovana Marović, executive director of Politikon network in Montenegro, a country that leads the way in the process of EU accession, together with Serbia, said that, in the absence of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, they still need to act according to the Stabilization and Association Process.

Panelists discussed how the recent rise of populism across Europe may affect populism in the Balkans. A representative of the Foreign Policy Initiative, Denisa Sarajlić, said that BiH citizens are disappointed because they expected that by this time all Western Balkan countries would be EU members. This disappointment can awaken EU populism that is already present in some member states, she added, stressing the fact that civil society must remind the EU of potential problems that populism can create in the Western Balkans region.

The role of civil society regarding the uncertain future of the EU in the Western Balkans was recognized by the panelists. Đinđić concluded that the EU will not disappear from the region even if the perspective of enlargement comes to a close and that the EU will continue its desire to maintain its influence, but that civil society will then have to exercise greater pressure on the state so it continues with implementation of reforms.

Source: European Policy Centre – CEP

Event announcement: Third Meeting of the WeBER Platform

19/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

The Third Meeting of the WeBER Platform which will take place on November 1 – 2 in Hotel Holiday Inn in Skopje.

The third meeting of the Platform will serve for civil society consultations with the national authorities and regional and EU actors on Public Administration Reform (PAR), for further regional consultations on the monitoring work performed within the WeBER project. The sustainability prospects of the WeBER Platform and PAR Monitor will also be discussed.

Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform – WeBER – is a three-year project financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. You can find more about project here.

WeBER Advocacy Event: PAR and EU enlargement – The Balkan civil society perspective

03/10/2017/in News, Slider /by Anesa Omeragic

The panel discussion “Public administration reform and EU enlargement – The Balkan civil society perspective” was held on Tuesday, 3^rd October 2017 at European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels.

This event, organised as part of the WeBER project, gathered a distinguished panel of experts: Head of Unit at DG NEAR of the European Commission Mr. Bernard Brunet, Macedonian Minister of Information Society and Administration Mr. Damjan Manchevski, CEP Programme Director (and WeBER Project Manager) Milena Lazarevic and Director of the Group for Legal and Political Studies (WeBER partner in Kosovo) Mr. Fisnik Korenica. Corina Stratulat, Senior Policy Analyst from European Policy Centre (EPC) moderated the discussion.

The panel assessed the role of civil society in Public Administration Reform (PAR) in the Balkans, as well as the importance of openness and transparency of the policy dialogue on PAR at all levels. WeBER representatives at the event spoke about the key achievements of the Project, especially with regards to capacity building and cooperation among civil society organisations (CSOs) in the field of PAR across the region.

Highlights of the discussion

Bernard Brunet, Head of Unit Thematic Support, Monitoring and Evaluation (DG NEAR, European Commission), spoke about the importance of inclusive policymaking. He also emphasised the importance of a structured dialogue between external stakeholders and authorities, as well as of consulting CSO before taking decisions. “Consultations with civil society promote EU values, such as openness and inclusiveness”, Brunet highlighted.

The Macedonian Minister of Information Society and Administration Damjan Manchevski spoke about the commitment of the new Macedonian Government to the dialogue with civil society. He stressed: “We need the CSOs to criticise us, but also to follow us into the PAR process.”

He shared Macedonia’s experience in the development of the new PAR strategy and spoke about the recent and ongoing improvements in the openness of the policy process. He explained that fewer draft laws are now sent into the parliamentary deliberation procedure using the urgent proceedings, which limit the discussion and ordinarily result in little or no public consultation. Manchevski spoke of his new concept of government in Macedonia – Gov. 2.0, in which the government opens policy problems to wide discussions and contributions of the society.

In his words, the information technology is of great help in facilitating participation and transparency of the government. “It takes more time, but in the end, we have higher quality policies,” Manchevski said.

Milena Lazarević, CEP Programme Director and WeBER Project Manager, said that to establish themselves as credible interlocutors, CSOs need to rely on evidence and present proposals of substance to the governments.

She also spoke about European Commissions’ role in helping the administrations in the Balkan countries comply with the EU requirements in relation to public participation and civil society inclusion in PAR.

“We need the administrations in the Balkans to learn and to adapt during the pre-accession period, with the help of the Commission,” stated Lazarević, adding that “administrations need to develop transparency and good service delivery, in order to get closer to the citizens.”

Ms. Lazarevic presented the main achievements of the WeBER project related to civil society capacity building in the area of public administration reform. She also spoke about the regional consultative mechanisms established as part of the Project, emphasising that “the WeBER Platform now gathers 22 strong CSOs within the regional level platform, and over 100 local CSOs as members of the National Working Groups on PAR in the 6 Western Balkan countries. It is our task and a challenge to build the capacity of the civil society in this highly complex area,” she added.

She concluded by highlighting the importance of proper information of the wider public, because the entire society needs to understand the value of public administration reform.

Referring further to the WeBER project, Mr. Fisnik Korenica, Director of GLPS from Prishtina, highlighted the importance of WeBER’s work, stating that “united under WeBER, civil society is stronger and has a voice in Brussels. Now DG NEAR knows us and we are better able to keep each other informed in this area,” Korenica concluded.

As part of the discussion, the participants made a number of suggestions and proposals for opening and increasing the transparency of the PAR policy dialogue between the European Commission and the Balkan governments.

In the aftermath of the panel, European Policy Centre (EPC – WeBER partner in Brussels) published a policy brief, co-authored by Milena Lazarevic and Corina Stratulat, making the case for a more forceful and more structured approach towards the involvement of civil society in the work of the PAR Special Groups in all countries aspiring to join the European Union. The policy brief can be accessed here.

Western Balkans Enabling Project for Civil Society Monitoring of Public Administration Reform –WeBER – is a three-year project funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

For more information, please visit www.par-monitor.org