Study visit to Serbian institutions, as a part of the project “Support to the Government of BiH in the process of European Integration and coordination of assistance of the European community” implemeneted by Directorate for European Integration (DEI), was held from September 20th-21st in Belgrade. This visit is result of the cooperation between teams of technical assistance teams of DEI and the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office.
Head of the Directorate for European Integration, representatives of Sector Strategy and Policy Integrations, Department for the harmonization of Legal Regulations, Department for the promotion, Department for Translation ,Coordinators for European Integration from Republica Srpska and Brcko District, the representative of the Office for Legilsation and Harmonization with EU regulations of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Expert Advisers for sector reforms of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator Office of the Coordinator stayed in Belgrade for two days.
They visited the Office for European Integration of Serbia and discussed about coordination role of these institutions as well as its responsibilities and structure. This institution is responsible for professional, administrative and operational assingments related to the coordination of the work of ministries and other government bodies that are connected with the process of European integration of Serbia. The main focus of discussion was on the National Programme of Integration (NPI), which was adopted by the Government in October 2008. The significant attention was paid to issues of legal harmonization, structures for making and monitoring of NPI implementation, coordination of the translation of the legal regulations into the national legislation. These activities are performed with very limited and insufficient capacities. The translation agency elected through the tender process is in charge for the translation. Republic Secretariat for Legislation, relevant ministries and other government bodies of the civil service are in charge for editing in the translation. The special working group for the verification, consisted of the representatives of all institution involved in the process is responsible for the final verification of the translation. For the NPI realization according to the established deadlines and priorities is responsible 35 subgroups whose structure corresponds to the future of negotiating groups, to the structure of the Acquis.
The council for European Integration, consisted of 55 members responsible for process support, is also established by the Government. The NPI database is also presented to the participants of study visit. This databease is very efficient instrument for monitoring and reporting. Access to this database ie ensured to all institutions involved in this process through accredited representatives who participated in the process of creating database.
The second day participants visited the Ministry of Trade and Services and Ministry of Econmy and Regional Development. This visit was the opportunity to discuss about concrete examples of transponing European regulations into the national legislation, completing the table alignment, cooperation with other ministiries and the application of regulations. This visit was extremely significant ensuring to participants to create new contacts and discuss about “lesson learned” from this field.