The spirit of the Prespa Agreement prevails in the entire EU Enlargement Package. On the one hand, this is a recognition of the difficult political decisions and the clear commitment of the country to its EU integration. On the other hand, the said Agreement ensures the possibility to revive the already fragile policy of conditionality by keeping up the momentum within the region and wider. In addition, this is a test year for the EU, for its Strategy for the Western Balkans and for its credibility, which will greatly depend on pursuing a strict, but a fair policy, including the application of a merit based principle in assessing the individual achievements of countries, and primarily on the start of accession negotiations with North Macedonia.

Considering the public statements by Commissioner Hahn prior to the publication of the Report, the Report’s contents are not at all surprising. The Report reaffirms the key foreign policy achievements, i.e. the settlement of bilateral differences, as well as the fulfilment of key reform priorities. In addition to serving as a roadmap for the internal reforms, the primary goal of this year’s Progress Report is to convince the Member-States that accession negotiations should start with the Republic of North Macedonia immediately.

This Report has been developed under the Project Network 23- Networking for Impact (NETWIT 23), implemented by the European Policy Institute (EPI), Skopje and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, funded by  the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Royal Norwegian Embassy  in Belgrade.

This Report streamlines in a coherent unity all findings, conclusions and recommendations deriving from monitoring the areas covered by Chapter 23 -Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. In fact, this is the fourth Shadow Report published by the 23 Network. The previous three shadow reports cover the period from October 2014 to July 2015, then the period from July 2015 to April 2016 and the period from May 2016 to January 2018.

The Report covers the period from the beginning of June 2018, until March 2019, inclusive. It presents data relevant also for the period prior to June 2018. The reporting period has been extended in order that it corresponds with the new Report of the European Commission on the Republic of North Macedonia, which will be published by the end of May 2019. This Report follows the structure of Chapter 23, in line with the European Commission Report.

This policy brief is based on the views expressed on the final conference of the project “Network 23+”, held on 5th of July, under the title “Chapter 23: Pandora’s Box or a Key for Good Governance?”. The conference consisted of four sessions, according to the structure of the Chapter 23, in which politicians, experts, speakers from institutions, organizations and international partners debated, with the aim to determine the current state of affairs in this regard and the most important steps that Macedonia is to be taking in the forthcoming period.

This event was organized in the framework of the “Network 23+” project, financed by the European Union, co-financed by the Royal Embassy of Norway in Belgrade, and supported by the Municipality of Centar. The opinions set out in this document are the views of the authors and cannot be regarded as the official positions of the donors.

Governments across the Western Balkans have made efforts towards improving service delivery; however, they are still unable to meet their citizens’ expectations of more accessible, transparent and responsive services. Part of the problem is that governments continue to typically design and offer services on the basis of their own requirements instead of taking into account the perspectives and needs of the citizens they serve.

This report draws on a regional survey of 6172 respondents from Western Balkans aged 18 and older, surveyed in the second half of October and during November 2017 by using stratified three-stage random representative sampling. Its main aim was to explore perceptions towards the implementation of a citizen-oriented delivery of administrative services using the years 2015-2017 as a reference period. The main survey results are analysed below in four clusters: administrative simplification, e-services, feedback mechanisms of service delivery, and monitoring.

The PAR Monitor is the result of research undertaken over the past year by the Think for Europe Network, with the goal of providing a systematic civil society monitoring of public administration reforms (PAR) in the Western Balkans. This exercise was motivated by the need to strengthen domestic, bottom-up pressure from the civil society sector in the long run, in order to ensure that post-EU accession, when the leverage of the EU’s conditionality in the governance area weakens, the reform drive endures. Based on a robust methodological approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, and building on the EU’s Principles of public administration, the PAR Monitor measures the countries’ state of play in PAR, benchmarks them against each other, and provides recommendations for improvement. The PAR Monitor also ensures complementarity with the monitoring carried out by SIGMA/OECD and the European Commission. It therefore provides a citizen and civil society focused perspective on the EU-SIGMA principles. The PAR Monitor comprises an overall comparative regional report and six country reports, each including findings on the 23 compound indicators designed by the WeBER project team to monitor a selection of 21 EU-SIGMA principles. All findings can be accessed via the Regional PAR Scoreboard at www.par-monitor.org. This document provides a summary of the key regional findings in the six areas of PAR.

Why PAR Monitoring by the Civil Society?

Public administration reform (PAR) is today considered a fundamental requirement for the EU aspirants on their accession path. As a complex and all-encompassing reform, PAR in the Western Balkans region is being thoroughly assessed through the lenses of the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration, developed by the OECD/SIGMA and endorsed by the EU. These Principles define what makes a well-functioning administration in terms of its ability to deliver transparent, efficient and effective services to citizens and to support socio-economic development.

In the context of a high external pressure for tangible developments in PAR, homegrown demand for better administration becomes even more important to keep pressuring the government to pursue reforms once the external conditionality dissipates as the result of a completed accession process. Civil society actors, with local knowledge of an administration’s functioning, can lead such domestic advocacy efforts aimed at better administration. An independent PAR monitoring and evidence-based dialogue with the government represent a good approach to achieve this goal.

WeBER PAR Monitor approach

Based on such a rationale, the WeBER project has completed its first monitoring cycle. Its structured and evidence-based approach to PAR monitoring brings the reform closer to the public by particularly focusing on PAR aspects with most relevance to the civil society and the public.

WeBER PAR monitoring strongly relies on the strengths, skills, and local knowledge of the civil society in the Western Balkans. It builds on SIGMA’s Principles of Public Administration as a cornerstone of PAR, while assessing them from the standpoint of an independently produced PAR Monitor methodology. Overall, the methodology is based on the selection of 21 SIGMA Principles within six key areas, monitored and reported through 23 compound indicators that focus on different aspects of PAR.

The PAR Monitor methodology is rooted in the regional approach. The design of all WeBER indicators enables comparisons between the administrations in the Western Balkans and allows for regional comparability of results. In addition to the methodology, the PAR Monitor package comprises a comparative monitoring report for the entire WB region as well as six reports which elaborate on detailed findings for each administration. The present report provides monitoring results for Macedonia , including a set of  аctionable recommendations for each of the six PAR areas, directed at the creation of a more citizen-oriented, more open, transparent and accountable administration.

The spirit of the Prespa Agreement prevails in the entire EU Enlargement Package. On the one hand, this is a recognition of the difficult political decisions and the clear commitment of the country to its EU integration. On the other hand, the said Agreement ensures the possibility to revive the already fragile policy of conditionality by keeping up the momentum within the region and wider. In addition, this is a test year for the EU, for its Strategy for the Western Balkans and for its credibility, which will greatly depend on pursuing a strict, but a fair policy, including the application of a merit based principle in assessing the individual achievements of countries, and primarily on the start of accession negotiations with North Macedonia.

Considering the public statements by Commissioner Hahn prior to the publication of the Report, the Report’s contents are not at all surprising. The Report reaffirms the key foreign policy achievements, i.e. the settlement of bilateral differences, as well as the fulfilment of key reform priorities. In addition to serving as a roadmap for the internal reforms, the primary goal of this year’s Progress Report is to convince the Member-States that accession negotiations should start with the Republic of North Macedonia immediately.

This Report has been developed under the Project Network 23- Networking for Impact (NETWIT 23), implemented by the European Policy Institute (EPI), Skopje and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, funded by  the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Royal Norwegian Embassy  in Belgrade.

This Report streamlines in a coherent unity all findings, conclusions and recommendations deriving from monitoring the areas covered by Chapter 23 -Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. In fact, this is the fourth Shadow Report published by the 23 Network. The previous three shadow reports cover the period from October 2014 to July 2015, then the period from July 2015 to April 2016 and the period from May 2016 to January 2018.

The Report covers the period from the beginning of June 2018, until March 2019, inclusive. It presents data relevant also for the period prior to June 2018. The reporting period has been extended in order that it corresponds with the new Report of the European Commission on the Republic of North Macedonia, which will be published by the end of May 2019. This Report follows the structure of Chapter 23, in line with the European Commission Report.

This policy brief is based on the views expressed on the final conference of the project “Network 23+”, held on 5th of July, under the title “Chapter 23: Pandora’s Box or a Key for Good Governance?”. The conference consisted of four sessions, according to the structure of the Chapter 23, in which politicians, experts, speakers from institutions, organizations and international partners debated, with the aim to determine the current state of affairs in this regard and the most important steps that Macedonia is to be taking in the forthcoming period.

This event was organized in the framework of the “Network 23+” project, financed by the European Union, co-financed by the Royal Embassy of Norway in Belgrade, and supported by the Municipality of Centar. The opinions set out in this document are the views of the authors and cannot be regarded as the official positions of the donors.

Governments across the Western Balkans have made efforts towards improving service delivery; however, they are still unable to meet their citizens’ expectations of more accessible, transparent and responsive services. Part of the problem is that governments continue to typically design and offer services on the basis of their own requirements instead of taking into account the perspectives and needs of the citizens they serve.

This report draws on a regional survey of 6172 respondents from Western Balkans aged 18 and older, surveyed in the second half of October and during November 2017 by using stratified three-stage random representative sampling. Its main aim was to explore perceptions towards the implementation of a citizen-oriented delivery of administrative services using the years 2015-2017 as a reference period. The main survey results are analysed below in four clusters: administrative simplification, e-services, feedback mechanisms of service delivery, and monitoring.

The PAR Monitor is the result of research undertaken over the past year by the Think for Europe Network, with the goal of providing a systematic civil society monitoring of public administration reforms (PAR) in the Western Balkans. This exercise was motivated by the need to strengthen domestic, bottom-up pressure from the civil society sector in the long run, in order to ensure that post-EU accession, when the leverage of the EU’s conditionality in the governance area weakens, the reform drive endures. Based on a robust methodological approach, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques, and building on the EU’s Principles of public administration, the PAR Monitor measures the countries’ state of play in PAR, benchmarks them against each other, and provides recommendations for improvement. The PAR Monitor also ensures complementarity with the monitoring carried out by SIGMA/OECD and the European Commission. It therefore provides a citizen and civil society focused perspective on the EU-SIGMA principles. The PAR Monitor comprises an overall comparative regional report and six country reports, each including findings on the 23 compound indicators designed by the WeBER project team to monitor a selection of 21 EU-SIGMA principles. All findings can be accessed via the Regional PAR Scoreboard at www.par-monitor.org. This document provides a summary of the key regional findings in the six areas of PAR.

Why PAR Monitoring by the Civil Society?

Public administration reform (PAR) is today considered a fundamental requirement for the EU aspirants on their accession path. As a complex and all-encompassing reform, PAR in the Western Balkans region is being thoroughly assessed through the lenses of the SIGMA Principles of Public Administration, developed by the OECD/SIGMA and endorsed by the EU. These Principles define what makes a well-functioning administration in terms of its ability to deliver transparent, efficient and effective services to citizens and to support socio-economic development.

In the context of a high external pressure for tangible developments in PAR, homegrown demand for better administration becomes even more important to keep pressuring the government to pursue reforms once the external conditionality dissipates as the result of a completed accession process. Civil society actors, with local knowledge of an administration’s functioning, can lead such domestic advocacy efforts aimed at better administration. An independent PAR monitoring and evidence-based dialogue with the government represent a good approach to achieve this goal.

WeBER PAR Monitor approach

Based on such a rationale, the WeBER project has completed its first monitoring cycle. Its structured and evidence-based approach to PAR monitoring brings the reform closer to the public by particularly focusing on PAR aspects with most relevance to the civil society and the public.

WeBER PAR monitoring strongly relies on the strengths, skills, and local knowledge of the civil society in the Western Balkans. It builds on SIGMA’s Principles of Public Administration as a cornerstone of PAR, while assessing them from the standpoint of an independently produced PAR Monitor methodology. Overall, the methodology is based on the selection of 21 SIGMA Principles within six key areas, monitored and reported through 23 compound indicators that focus on different aspects of PAR.

The PAR Monitor methodology is rooted in the regional approach. The design of all WeBER indicators enables comparisons between the administrations in the Western Balkans and allows for regional comparability of results. In addition to the methodology, the PAR Monitor package comprises a comparative monitoring report for the entire WB region as well as six reports which elaborate on detailed findings for each administration. The present report provides monitoring results for Macedonia , including a set of  аctionable recommendations for each of the six PAR areas, directed at the creation of a more citizen-oriented, more open, transparent and accountable administration.