About Sector
Serbia and the EU have recently signed an agreement on a new EU grant package, which includes an amount of 30 million euros intended for the Sector Budget Support, These funds should contribute to the implementation of specific reform measures in the period 2023-2025. The Sector Budget Support is one of the most important instruments used by Serbia in the EU accession process, and so far, within the first instrument of that support, 80 million euros of grants have been withdrawn.
The reform in Serbia aims to create public administration that provides high-quality services to citizens, benefits the economy and positively affects the standard of living of its citizens.
Public administration is backbone of every state, especially in the process of EU accession, as it leads the whole process of European integration. In that process the crucial is public administration reform (PAR) strategy and action plan as well as the public financial management reform programme.
These umbrella strategies are supported by a number of specific strategic activities. The government ensures regular monitoring and reporting on implementation of reforms, but also covers managerial accountability of the EU funds. Therefore, the projects in Serbia supported by the EU dedicated to PAR include:
- policy planning
- public consultationse-government, and salary system in the public sector,
- de-politicisation and professionalisation of public service
- managerial appointments through a merit-based procedure and a strong quality control.
The focus is also on development of a single mechanism for prioritising all investments regardless of the source of financing to ensure more realistic planning, costing, sequencing, and increased focus on performance indicators and results of capital investment planning and project appraisal in the budget process. The bottom line is to safeguard citizen’s right to user-oriented administration based on simplification of administrative procedures.
List of key local partners/organisations
- Ministry of European Integration
- Ministry of finance
- Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government
- Republic Secretariat for Legislation
- Republic Secretariat for Public Policies
- State Audit Institution
- Public Procurement Office
- Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia
- Human Resources Management Service
- National Academy for Public Administration
- The Administration for Joint Services of Republic Bodies
- The Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment
- Governmental Audit Office of EU Funds
- Republic Commission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures
- Republic Directorate for the Property of the Republic of Serbia
- Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications
- Serbian Government - General Secretariat
- National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia
- National Bank of Serbia
So far, Serbia has received almost four billion euros in grants from the European funds, of which as much as 215 million euros is allocated from pre-accession IPA funds for managing public finance and improving the work of local self-governments and independent institutions. Public administration reform is one of the most important elements of Serbia’s EU accession process, and in 2014, it was also put at the forefront of the negotiations. A modern and professional public administration is a key element for every EU member state to effectively implement laws and transparently manage EU funds.
