In Sarajevo on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 the seventh meeting of the Working Group for Public Administration Reform (PAR) between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina was held. The first part of the meeting was devoted to high-level political dialogue. The opening part of the political dialogue was addressed by BiH Minister of Justice Davor Bunoza, and the meeting was co-chaired by the secretary of the BiH Ministry of Justice Željko Bogut.
The representatives of the European Commission discussed functional public administration, management of public finances, building a professional civil service and harmonization of legislation on civil service at different levels of government. In the part of the meeting at the technical level, they discussed the implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan for the public administration reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the accountability and management of human resources in the civil service. The dialogue at the technical level was co-chaired by the coordinator for public administration reform, Darko Kasap.
On the EU side, the meeting was co-chaired by Barbara Jesus-Gimeno from the European Commission. Some of the activities implemented by the authorities in BiH, which are related to the 14 key priorities from the European Commission’s Opinion and the Commission’s recommendations, are the adoption of amendments to the Law on Civil Service in institutions at the state level, the establishment of the Coordinating Body for Public Administration Reform, and the adoption of the Law on Free Access to Information. The working version of the BiH Integration Program in the EU was also submitted to the European Commission. The European Commission expects the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to focus on the drafting and adoption of the revised Action Plan for Public Administration Reform, greater financial ownership and sustainability of public administration reform in the coming period, the Directorate for European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.