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Neither a Client, Nor a Patron! For greater resilience to political clientelism and corruption in the area of public sector employment

Public sector employment is a normatively neglected area, which led to the fact that various forms of non-competitive, non-merit-based employment became the rule, rather than the exception. Even in sub-sectors that were subject to greater scrutiny by the European Commission and civil society, the rules are so loose and the conditions so low, that there are no guarantees at all that people who possess the necessary knowledge and skills in the given field would be employed.

The rare exceptions, i.e. cases where we saw fulfilment of basic prerequisites for preventing undue influence, are not sufficient for meaningful progress in this area, which is much needed and which the European Union constantly underlines.

Even if some type of testing exists, there is no obligation to select the best-ranked candidates, which calls into question the appropriateness of the procedures that precede the final decision on recruitment. The obligation to publicly advertise jobs in a public enterprise, public institution and other public services is defined with numerous exceptions, including extension of employment contracts and referral of employees. Given that mandatory duration of the public advertisement is only three days for public institutions, public enterprises and certain agencies, this is definitely not a guarantee of competitiveness.

Read more in our publication, while detailed findings are available at our Map of risks of corruption and undue interference in public sector recruitment, available here.

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WeBER 3.0 has officially begun

Western Balkan Enablers for Reforming Public Administrations – WeBER 3.0 project has begun on 1 February 2023 and will run until 31 July 2026. The Think for Europe – TEN Network (European Policy Institute – EPI Skopje, Institute for Democracy and Mediation – IDM Tirana, Insititute Alternative – IA Podgorica, Group for Legal and Political Studies – GLPS Pristina, Foreign Policy Initiative – FPI Sarajevo) coordinated by the European Policy Centre – CEP Belgrade, and in partnership with the EU-level partner, Centre for Public Administration Research – KDZ from Vienna, will continue to contribute to strengthening of participatory democracy by enabling effective participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) from the Western Balkans (WB) and supporting inclusive citizens’ engagement in monitoring the results of public administration reform (PAR) processes at all levels, in line with the EU requirements (SIGMA/OECD Principles).

WeBER 3.0 will continue to feature the crucial role of civil society in building healthy democracies through empowering CSOs to become reliable partner to governments in the EU accession process. By ensuring continuity in assessment of the progress of the reforms carried out by local civil society actors, WeBER 3.0 and its cornerstone product, the Western Balkan PAR Monitor, will continue to guide the governments in the region towards successful EU accession and membership. CSOs equipped with evidence and knowledge take up central place in the region’s EU path and ensure that the governments do not exercise reform processes to only qualify for the EU membership, but to improve the citizens’ lives.

The project will also contribute to overall regional cooperation by facilitating the CSOs-government dialogue at regional, national and local level, relying on the established WeBER Platform, which will be further enhanced by including the business community representatives.

The main international partners during the WeBER 3.0 will remain SIGMA/OECD and Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA). Also, the main institutions (ministries/offices) in charge of coordination of PAR in each country will continue to perform the role of the project associates in the third phase of the initiative as well.

The overall objective of the WeBER 3.0 is to to further empower CSOs to contribute to more transparent, open, accountable, citizen-centric, and thus more EU-compliant administrations in the WB region.

The implementation of the third phase of the WeBER initiative is, as has been the case with the previous two (WeBER 2015 – 2018 & WeBER 2.0 2019 – 2023), principally financed by the European Commission.

Find more information on www.par-monitor.org

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Workshop on Staged Accession Model to the EU

A two-day workshop that brought together partners and experts from the region and Brussels was held this week, 30-31 January, in Belgrade, organised by European Policy Center (CEP).

Representatives of the Institute Alternative, Milena Muk and Dragana Jaćimović, participated in the two-day workshop whose purpose was to discuss the policy papers produced within the initiative on the further development of the Staged accession model. 

The workshop’s main objective was to further develop the Staged accession model using the perspectives of all project partners. For this purpose, drafts of national papers on the application of the model in each of the countries of the Western Balkans were presented and discussed at the workshop.

The workshop additionally enabled experts to get to know each other personally, present their ideas and discuss various topics, with the aim of further improving national papers. During breakout sessions, topics of special interest to all countries of the region were covered.

This Initiative is implemented by the Institute Alternative, together with European Policy Center (CEP) from Belgrade, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels, Foreign Policy Initiative, Sarajevo and European Policy Institute (EPI) from Skopje, with the support of Open Society Foundation (OSF).