Public administration reform often appears abstract to citizens and businesses, something reserved for strategies, action plans, and expert discussions. However, its results are very concrete – from the way citizens exercise their rights to the conditions in which businesses operate. The “EU for Public Administration Reform” project (EU4PAR) helps Serbia enhance public administration, aiming for greater efficiency, transparency, and focus on results. In this interview with Project Team Leader Juhani Lemmik, we discuss the project’s main areas of focus, the results achieved so far, and the changes expected in the period ahead.
1. Public administration reform is not a separate negotiation chapter in Serbia’s EU accession process, yet the EU4PAR project is dedicated to this area. Given how broad this field is, what are the project’s main areas of focus?
Public administration reform, or PAR as it is often referred to, is a core pillar of the „fundamentals first“ approach of the EU. It means this cluster will be opened first and closed last, alongside the rule of law and economic reforms. PAR is usually associated with the topics such as good management of public finances, professionalism and motivation of government employees, transparent and open procedures, or the requirement to explain government’s action or non-action to the public, and, of course, improved service delivery, both through physical and digital channels. However, all the reforms in these different areas touch upon the functioning of every government institution and therefore have a cascading effect on the way the public administration functions. But these reforms are also interwoven and therefore have to be managed in a coordinated manner. For example, if you want to make policy planning more results-oriented, you may have to review also the budgeting rules to support that direction.
The Project, as you rightly suggest, cannot deal with everything and therefore, our focus is on three areas: improve PAR sector policy management, instil stronger evidence-based policy making into the public administration, and raise awareness of PAR’s impact on citizens’ daily lives and business environment. To use a car analogy, a lot of these things that we work on with our partners, primarily the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MPALSG) and the Public Policy Secretariat (PPS), are related to mechanics and therefore not directly visible to the citizens but nevertheless important to the functioning of the government with consequences on how the government will be perceived by the public.
2. This is the second phase of the project, following a successfully completed first phase. What would you highlight as the most important results achieved so far?
The results of the Project are always the results of the administration. In January, there was a conference organised jointly by the MPALSG and the Project on “Change that Lasts, Results that Remain“ which identified the results over the last 25 years in this area. The results were presented on the 10 m times 2-meter poster, so there is a lot to talk about.
From the Project perspective, I would like to mention a few things. First, the European Union has invested a lot of resources into making the Serbian public policy process more evidence based. It is important because without knowing what the likely consequences of government action or inaction are, it is difficult to make smart decisions. Also, it will make governance more transparent, decisions easier to explain and improves accountability. It should gradually shift the focus from “who has influence” to “what do the facts show”. Supporting the administration with capacity-building in this area has also been an important thread for both previous and this project stage.
I would like to highlight another transparency-enhancing initiative launched during the previous project stage and continuing into this one. Namely, we supported the development of the online monitoring tool of Public Administration Reform Strategy 2021-2030 and related policy documents, which allows every interested person to trace the progress made (or lack of it) on implementing PAR through the MPALSG website: open the link. In the future, the same kind of transparency could be applied to all strategies and policy documents.
There are also more piece-meal initiatives supported by the Project, such as introducing a public sector quality management, particularly the tool called Common Assessment Framework (CAF), into the management of public organisations. It is important to support the professionalisation of management of public organisations because it means they can accomplish more by doing the right things right.
Related to all this, the current project and its predecessors have emphasized the need to communicate public administration reform to civil servants, as well as to the general public – those who will be affected and for whom the reforms should bring some benefits – better and more. This, for example, means working with journalists by bringing them together with reform leaders from public administration to directly explain what the content and intended impact of such reforms is. It also means organising events to spread the word of what is happening and what benefits it will bring.
3. EU4PAR has supported the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government in preparing the new Public Administration Reform Strategy Action Plan for 2026–2030. How important is good planning in this context, especially considering the impact of reform on citizens and businesses?
Plans set the intention. When the Government approves the PAR Strategy Action Plan, it gives a direction for the entire administration. It is not only for the institutions driving the reforms, PAR affects every public institution and eventually those who come to contact with them – other public institutions, partner organisations, citizens. If civil servants are professionally recruited and well-motivated, something the Action Plan aims at, they may serve better and therefore be more useful for the society. But this needs to be supported with other reforms, such as depolitisation of the civil service, which will help to make sure that there is continuity and managerial professionalism retained once a government changes.
The Action Plan also allows to monitor progress towards the goals. In general, the plan would have to be on par with the capacity of the administration to deliver. It happens quite often that the plans are made ambitious, and then the implementation lags behind. It is a problem because it discredits the seriousness of plans especially if nothing happens when they are not implemented. From the other side, if the Action Plan is made with little ambition, it may be easier to implement and look good on the paper, but actual benefits may be modest. Since Serbia is a candidate country to the EU, it does not have the luxury to be slow or ineffective.
4. What are the key next steps for the project in the coming period?
The project has initiated plenty of activities during the first 14 months. We have supported key PAR institutions, such as the MPALSG and Public Policy Secretariat, with developing a new set of PAR policy documents, such as the PAR Strategy Action Plan 2026-2030, e-Government Development Programme 2026-2030, the Public Policy Management and Regulatory Reform Programme 2026-2030, and the Programme for the Simplification of Administrative Procedures and Regulations (e-PAPIR) 2026-2030. These documents are currently on public debate and will be adopted by the Government soon. We continue working on the frameworks and tools for more evidence-based public policy making.
We also support PAR areas that require specific support. We always act in response to the requests from our beneficiaries, our counterparts in the administration. Be it donor coordination, further support to the spread of CAF quality management instrument or developing better monitoring and reporting mechanisms of Government work, targeted initiatives can improve their functioning. Finally, it is also important to continue with the communication and visibility work as explained before to make sure the citizens know about PAR, but also about the significant EU support to it.
PUTTING RESULTS IN FOCUS
Support to donor coordination is also of great importance, given the role that donor-funded projects have played in the field of public administration reform in Serbia. At a time when there is increasing pressure to redirect these resources to other regions and sectors, the administration has proposed a new approach to donor cooperation, based on demonstrating results, in order to justify continued investment in public administration reform.