The coronavirus pandemic brought a new challenge to the executive, which had to find quick and effective responses to the emerging crisis. The real challenge is to find proportionate measures that will protect citizens, maintain the health system, prevent the collapse of the economy and protect the democratic system. At the same time, states with their institutions, politicians, officials and public employees must continue to function and make political and administrative decisions, and public services to citizens.
This brief note, prepared by SIGMA after discussion with the European Commission, summarizes the way in which EU Member States and selected OECD countries have managed the COVID-19 crisis in terms of government and public administration.
It has been compiled as a source of information and inspiration for policy makers in the EU’s enlargement and neighborhood countries. The mapping aims to identify how public institutions in EU Member States have tried to continue their work with a limited presence in offices and extremely limited time for decision-making and implementation.
This preliminary composition covers the following policy areas:
– central government, policy coordination
– civil service and human resources management
– responsibility
– delivery service
– public financial management.
This rapid mapping was performed by internal and external SIGMA experts, using publicly available information and some informal insights.
In this exercise, SIGMA did not strive for integrity and also did not seek official confirmation of the data and information found, given that Member State officials currently have other priorities to deal with than sharing and validating information. The current compilation includes 24 country reports and contains data collected between 1 and 7 April 2020 (the exact date for each country is given on each front page).