Managed public finances and functional public administration, building a professional civil service and harmonizing the legislation on the civil service in BiH were the topics of the high-level 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 the hybrid format.
The political dialogue was chaired on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. 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 informed that the validity period 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.
In the coming period, the European Commission expects the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to focus on the revision of the existing Action Plan for the reform of public administration, the establishment of a functional coordination structure with the political body for decision-making, greater financial ownership and sustainability of the public administration reform, and harmonization of the civil service law with the principle of merit. The commission expressed its readiness to support further public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This is an opportunity to put activities related to the implementation 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.