4th Programme Committee Meeting: Main results collectively attained within the current EC Grant vs goals and objectives envisaged in the new one
The Programme Committee members comprised of senior public officials in charge of public administration, Economic reforms programmes, NIPAC office and EU accession Units representatives as well as ReSPA Governing Board members at the Senior Officials level exchanged information on overall achievements per ReSPA thematic areas performed within ReSPA 4th EC Grant but also discussed further plans and activities for the upcoming 5th EC Grant.
Maja Handjiska-Trendafilova, ReSPA Director highlighted that around 140 regional activities and more than 40 In-country support actions and Mobility schemes over the last four years contributed to bolstering the capacities of 3500 public servants across the region, while the high-level political dialogue on governance reforms with two ministerial meetings organized just in the last four months boosting regional collaboration at the highest level. “On the eve of signing the 5th EC Grant we are embarking upon three new intense years of regional networking and learning actions, with many improved and strengthened instruments, reinforced human capital with more in-house expertise in ReSPA, and opened new avenues to the EU accession, reforms on the local level, maximized partnerships with regional organizations and EU academies, institutes and schools, as well as boosting communication efforts on PAR reforms in a human-centric way”, underscored Director Handjiska opening the Meeting.
ReSPA programme managers, supported by public servants members of ReSPA Working Groups, exchanged the state of play, targeted goals, priorities, and positive examples of deliverables achieved during the last four years allowing discussions, brainstorming, and elaboration of ideas and proposals for upgrading further activities within each ReSPA thematic area.
Dragan Đurić, ReSPA Programme Manager recapped achievements of the Centre of Government thematic area with the support of Kalinka Gaber, Special adviser for policy development and coordination at Cabinet of the General Secretary of North Macedonia, Marijana Batak, Senior Adviser in Public Policy Secretariat, Department of planning, coordination, development and improvement of public policies in Montenegro and Marko Mrdak, member of the mission of Montenegro to the EU in Brussels who gave their reflection and suggestions on further improvements.
Gentian Xhaxhiu, ReSPA Programme Manager-Coordinator summarised work done within the Better Regulation thematic area and discussed stay of play and opportunities for further upgrades jointly with Bojana Bošković, Head of the RIA Unit in the Ministry of Finance Department for Economic and Financial System in Montenegro and Ninoslav Kekić from the Public Policy Secretariat Sector for Quality Assurance of Public Policies in the Republic of Serbia. Discussants provided valuable recommendations for the programmatic focus of ReSPA in the area of BR in the upcoming period, focusing on quality control of RIA, deliberative consultation and periodic measurement tools of the quality of RIA in the Western Balkans.
Ranka Bartula-Mušikić, ReSPA Programme Manager and Samra Ljuca, Assistant Director in the Federation of BiH Civil Service Agency shed light on the overall performance of the Human Resource Management Development area.
Olivera Damjanović, ReSPA Programme Manager with the support of Selma Džihanović-Graz, Head of the Department for Civil Society Development and Legal Aid in the Ministry of Justice of BiH and Ružica Mišković, Head of the Department in the Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro the main achievements within the Quality Management thematic area, while with the support of Nikola Nikolov, State advisor for ICT in the Ministry of Information Society and Administration Law and normative affairs of North Macedonia presented the flagship initiatives within the e-Government area.
Srđan Majstorović, ReSPA Expert presented the findings and recommendations on PAR in the EC Enlargement Package 2022 while ReSPA Secretariat elaborated on the goals and objectives of the new EC Grant (2023-2025) and the results of the second ReSPA Monitoring Report 2022.
Laura Ajdini, Advisor of the minister for administration in the Ministry of Information Society and Administration in North Macedonia, Dragana Brajović from the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self Government of the Republic of Serbia, Ivan Lazarević, Head of Unit in Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro and ReSPA Programme Managers presented success stories within ReSPA In-Country support mechanism.
Gentian Xhaxhiu, Programme Coordinator at ReSPA, concluded the meeting with the note that the “Programme Committee, in addition to serving as an overarching body of ReSPA to take stock of the achievements during the year, is now transformed into a platform of dialogue for breaking silos among various areas of support and providing programmatic advice for tailoring ReSPA support to the Region. However, it remains crucial to strengthen the role and impact of this body and to that aim, ReSPA Secretariat in partnership with the PC Members will jointly shape it towards a genuine regional platform”.
