Public administration reform is one of the three pillars, that is, one of the three most important criteria for Serbia’s progress towards EU membership, and it is important to continue moving forward in all segments of public administration – the Minister of State Administration and Local Government, Branko Ruzic said.
Speaking at the presentation called “Challenges of the Public Administration Reform in Serbia – Key Findings of the SIGMA Monitoring Report 2017” Ruzic also said that many activities stipulated in the Action Plan 2015-2017 were the driving forces behind changes in public administration, such as open data, e-government and similar.
He underlined that it was important that, based on the progress Serbia had made so far, the country would receive 80 million EUR from EU’s sectoral budget support, which is, a major “motivational factor to continue with big steps forward”.
Ruzic explained that 70 million of the said support would be paid directly into the Serbian budget, while the remaining 10 million would be spent on implementation of four projects, two of which are coordinated by his ministry.
Also speaking at the conference, the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Sem Fabrizi said that the EU has been helping Serbia in the reform process and reiterated that 80 million EUR has been set aside for sectoral support for a period of three years.
He also underlined that the public administration reform, the rule of law and economic governance are three crucial areas for successful EU accession.
Fabrizi added that recently presented EU’s Strategy for the Western Balkans clearly highlighted the importance of the public administration reform, which is not implemented only for the purpose of joining the Union, but it is, first and foremost, in the best interest of the Serbian citizens because they need to have a modern, transparent and responsible administration.
(RTV, 13.03.2018)
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