EU to donate EUR 80 million for public administration reform in Serbia by 2020

The European Union will set aside EUR 80 million for the reform of the public administration in Serbia by 2020, Head of EU Delegation to Belgrade, Sem Fabrizi, announced today.

At the presentation of the key findings of the SIGMA 2017 report on the reforms of the public administration in Serbia, he said that the Government and the minister in charge, Branko Ruzic, were highly engaged in the reforms, as this is one of the main fields in Serbia's European integration. Fabrizi pointed out that it was important for Serbia not just to honor international principles of the public administration reform, but to also adopt and implement them.

Minister Ruzic said that, parallel to the rationalization of employees at the public administration, Serbia was also going through “a revolutionary process of reforms” in this field, so that the citizens would be satisfied with the services provided by the public administration.

When asked by the press when the Government was to stop breaking the law itself by appointing acting assistants to ministers and other officials, he said that “the work on the amendments to the law on public officials will be finalized this year”.

– We will put the biggest focus on these issues. I wouldn't like to try to justify this, but I do want to point out that the focus in the past period has been on having a more responsible approach to contests and finding adequate people for responsible positions – Ruzic explained.

He also noted that finding quality people, “along with inevitable financial sacrifices”, was not easy, but that it was therefore important for the system to “work as it should, not as it must”.

Ministarstvo državne uprave i lokalne samouprave Republike Srbije

Delegacija Evropske unije u Republici Srbiji Beograd

Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self Government

EU Delegation to Belgrade

Sem Fabrizi

Branko Ruzic

public administration reform

SIGMA 2017

public administration

European integration

negotiations with the EU

EU membership

law on public officials

appointing acting assistants to ministers and other officials