The Law on the Planning System (LPS) and its implementation have fundamentally changed how public policies are formulated and planned in Serbia. It was concluded at a roundtable where representatives of the professional public discussed the recommendations given in the recently completed Report on the review of the LPS and its application.
The roundtable discussions, organised on 7 July 2022 by the Public Policy Secretariat and the EU4PAR project, brought together more than 70 participants, representatives of public administration institutions, international organisations, non-governmental stakeholders and experts. The goal was to share experiences in drafting public policy documents and regulations and to discuss the developed expert recommendations for the improvement of the legal framework.
At the event, the analysis of the Law on the Planning system and its application was presented. The presenting EU4PAR project experts conducting the analysis highlighted that the LPS greatly contributes to establishing a sound policy management system for effective and efficient policy making, based on solid evidence and prescribed processes. The reduction of the number of public policy documents and the introduction of order into the planning system has been noticeable since the beginning of the implementation of the Law. Experts also concluded that the structure of the Law is appropriate, but it is necessary to ensure its more effective applicability. Along with the presentation of the analysis of various aspects of the LPS, the project experts also introduced the developed recommendations for further enhancement of the legal framework to mitigate some existing challenges, that are also included in the published Report.
In their presentation, representatives of the Public Policy Secretariat (PPS) pointed out that the quality of the analysis of the effects of public policy documents and regulations has been improved, the process of carrying out consultations has been enhanced, and significant progress has been made in the reporting process using the Unified Information System (UIS). However, challenges are also identified by the PPS, as well, including insufficient understanding of the prescribed requirements for the implementation of the impact analysis, unsystematic monitoring of the implementation of the regulations and the lack of precise instructions for conducting consultations and instructions for informing the public about the results of consultations.
In the continuation of the meeting, the participants discussed the proposed recommendations in two working groups organised for the topic of evidence-based regulatory initiatives and for policy planning. The results of these discussions, together with the recommendations developed by the EU4PAR project and initiatives of the PPS for regulatory changes will be used in the following period as bases for drafting new and revision of existing bylaws to make the implementation of the Law on the Planning System more efficient in the coming period.