Good governance and Public Administration Reform, in the spotlight of the workshop on Window 2 of IPA III
The Regional Workshop on Window 2 of IPA III “Good governance, EU acquis alignment, good neighbourly relations and strategic communication”, served as a platform for discussion and brainstorming among NIPAC Offices, various institutions from the Western Balkans (General Secretariat, PM Offices, Ministry of Finance, European integration, Parliament etc.) as well as officials of DG NEAR (EC).
Representatives of DG NEAR, European Commission: Florian Hauser, Team Leader for PAR, Ritva Heikkinen, Team Leader for Programming, Olga Anghelakis, Team Leader for Budget Support and Ivica Lekic, Team Leader for Monitoring and Evaluation, discussed extensively with public servants from the region on the programming of IPA III allocations for Window 2 “Good governance, EU acquis alignment, good neighbourly relations and strategic communication”. DG NEAR team emphasised that there is a necessity to bring IPA programming closer to the strategic planning Units while institutions in charge of PAR and Good Governance should have a decisive role in the identification, design and development of the actions to be funded under this Window. It is often noticed that NIPAC Offices and Strategic Planning Units work in silos, and this is also the case for ERP coordinators; it is crucial to break these silos
Key novelties of IPA III were presented as well as main differences among IPA II and IPA III were explored and discussed among participants, who also presented their priorities for funding during the first three programming years of IPA III, exchanging experiences and good practices. DG NEAR announced that the new template of the Annual Implementation Report is ready, while the IPA III Programming guidance shall be ready in the following weeks.
Participants shared the same view that for proper management of EU pre-accession assistance, it is crucial to strengthen administrative capacities and have a professional civil service. Institutions should have enough human capacities to manage the EU-funded actions and properly implement them, thus enhancing the absorption rates. This leads to the necessity of strengthening the capacities of IPA Units throughout the administration.
Specific sessions also covered other relevant topics such as the design of “budget support” actions, development of indicators, IPA III Result Framework, mainstreaming gender equality in action documents, etc.
This workshop concluded the ReSPA-specific capacity building efforts targeting the programming of EU funds under the new IPA III perspective. The programme started with the IPA III Regional Conference, followed by four Window-specific workshops.
