SARAJEVO, June 6 (FENA) - The high-level political dialogue between the European Union (EU) and Bosnia and Herzegovina on public administration reform has ended.
The European Commission expects the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the coming period to focus on revising the existing Action Plan for public administration reform, establishing a functional coordination structure with a political body for decision-making, greater financial ownership and sustainability of public administration reform, and harmonizing the law on civil service with the principle of merit.
As announced by the Directorate for European Integration of BiH, the Commission expressed its readiness to support further public administration reform in BiH.
The management of public finances and functional public administration, building a professional civil service and harmonizing civil service legislation in BiH were the topics of this political dialogue within the sixth meeting of the Special Group for Public Administration Reform between the EU and BiH, which is being held today in a hybrid format.
The political dialogue on behalf of BiH was chaired by BiH Minister of Justice Davor Bunoza, and on behalf of the EU it was co-chaired by Vassilis Maragos from the European Commission.
The European Commission welcomed the adoption of the Strategy for Public Finance Management in BiH 2021-2025, which made a step forward in the implementation of priority number 14 from the Opinion and created a prerequisite for the use of EU budget support.
The BiH delegation was informed that the term of validity of the Strategic Framework for Public Administration Reform and the Action Plan was extended until 2027, which implemented the recommendation from the Commission's Report on BiH for 2022.
The sixth meeting of the Special Group for Public Administration Reform was the first meeting of this body after BiH received candidate status at the end of last year, and the third at which the public administration reform is discussed, in addition to the technical, at the political level.
This was an opportunity to put activities related to the realization of one of the 14 key priorities from the Opinion and recommendations from previous meetings of the Special Group into the focus of discussions with the European Commission at the ministerial and technical level, which is of particular importance now that BiH is a candidate country and thus the responsibility of institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is even greater.
(FENA) S. R.