ReSPA co-organised and hosted the Interparliamentary Conference: Independent and modern public administration in the EU and in enlargement countries
An interparliamentary conference on “Independent and modern public administration in the EU and in enlargement countries” was held on 29 September 2013 as part of the 2017 European Parliament’s Support Programme for the enlargement countries’ parliaments. The conference was organised by the European Parliament in cooperation with the Parliament of Montenegro, and the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) that hosted the event.
The conference was opened by Mr Ryszard Czarnecki, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Mr Ivan Brajović, President of the Assembly of Montenegro, H.E. Mr Aivo Orav, Head of EU Delegation to Montenegro, Ms Suzana Pribilović, Minister of Public Administration of Montenegro and Ms Ratka Sekulović, Director of ReSPA.
Besides the ReSPA staff, participants in the conference were more than 30 Members of Pre-Accession Countries’ Parliaments of the Western Balkans and Turkey coming from the parliamentary Committees dealing with structural reforms and public administration and Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro and the European Commission, as well as representatives of international organizations (OECD/SIGMA, Regional Anticorruption Initiative) and non-governmental organisations (Transparency International).
The main themes of the conference were: European Principles for Public Administration: Public Administration Reform as one of fundamentals of Enlargement Policy; Depoliticisation and professionalisation of public administration through merit and performance based procedures; Accountability and audit in public administration; Strategies for fighting corruption in the civil service in a non-selective manner; Twinning: Providing support for parliamentary and public administration staff in Enlargement countries; and Citizen-friendly public administration: Development of e-services in public administration.
The European Parliament Support Programme for the Parliaments of the Enlargement countries entails Western Balkans and Turkey. The aim of the Programme is to support democracy in these countries by strengthening parliamentary capacity and fostering parliamentary dialogue, in line with the European Parliament political objectives and the decisions of its political authorities. It also facilitates the EU enlargement process by helping these countries to comply with the EU accession criteria through increased parliamentary participation and oversight.
