Despite the assessment of progress, the European Commission’s report brings numerous criticisms, demands for concrete results, and new recommendations focused on implementing adopted laws – the real work is yet to come!
The European Commission’s report provides an average progress score of 3.21 across chapters, while the readiness score is 3.20, showing slight improvement compared to previous years. Although these are the highest scores recorded so far, the difference is measured in decimals. We remind that the European Commission uses two levels of evaluation – “progress score” and “state/readiness overview.” The first level pertains to the overall state in areas covered by individual chapters, while the second level focuses on assessing the progress made over twelve months.
While progress has been noted, it is crucial for substantial reforms that the EU applies its announced enhanced monitoring system, especially in light of promises that progress in key chapters (23 and 24) will be accompanied by a comprehensive assessment of public administration and democratic institution reforms.
Most of last year’s recommendations in the cluster related to fundamental chapters focused on the adoption of laws and strategic documents. In this report, these recommendations have been replaced by an insistence on implementing the adopted documents. Most recommendations regarding concrete results have been repeated, while in specific areas like the judiciary, public enterprises, and public procurement, they have been further detailed. All recommendations regarding public administration reform have been reiterated, with the adoption of the Law on Free Access to Information, which we have long advocated for, being just one of them.
Following the report on fulfilling interim benchmarks in these chapters, the process of developing final benchmarks through the preparation and adoption of revised action plans for meeting the final benchmarks is even more crucial, and it must be inclusive.
Unfortunately, the government has shown a worrying trend of excluding the public from important decision-making, partly under the pretext of the need for accelerated EU accession. Momentum in EU accession cannot justify this trend, as the integration process inherently values the enhancement of citizen participation in public policy making.
See the comparison of the average score and progress per chapter compared to 2023:
