On October 6–7, 2016 the Eleventh meeting of the Working Group (Panel) "Public Administration Reform" under the multilateral thematic platform No 1 "Democracy, Good Governance and Stability" of the EU initiative "Eastern Partnership " took place in Warsaw, the Republic of Poland.

The meetings of the Working Panel are held on a regular basis and are a sort of powerful platform for sharing experience on the results of the implementation of public administration reform in the countries of the EU initiative "Eastern Partnership", and for review the main achievements in the implementation of the Work programme of the Working Panel in 2014–2017.

The Chairman of the Eleventh meeting of the Working Group, Deputy Head of Division for Eastern Partnership, Regional Cooperation & OSCE of the European External Action Service Directorate for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Regional Cooperation and OSCE Nils Jansons welcomed the participants and made a general review of implementation of the Work programme of the Working Panel in 2014–2017.

Head of Civil Service of the Republic of Poland DobrosławDowiat-Urbanski and Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Eastern Partnership, Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Jan Hofmokl also made welcoming speeches.

During the meeting the participants reviewed the major achievements in the framework of the Work programme for 2014-2017, discussed the main mechanisms for the implementation of common standards of human resource management, principles of public administration and public finance management, and new approaches to the improvement of civil services in the Eastern Partnership countries.

Representatives of the leading countries of each of the four existing areas of Public Administration Reform Panel outlined the main results of the events in 2016, and identified themes of planned activities.

Head of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service Kostiantyn Vashchenko under discussion on the introduction of common standards for human resources management introduced the experience and main achievements of Ukraine in the implementation of new approaches to personnel management in the civil service under the Law of Ukraine "On Civil Service" on December 10, 2015 No 889-VIII.

Director of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union Maryna Kanavets presented the main achievements within the framework of Work Plan on Public Administration Reform Panel during the reporting period. Furthermore were outlined a list of planned events of NAUCS for
November–December, 2016 as well as  the next steps for successful implementation of activities within the area "Effective management of technical assistance" of the Panel, where Ukraine is a leading country, including it was stressed on the necessity of conducting in 2016 a comparative study "Effective Management and Needs of the EU countries in the EU initiative "Eastern partnership".

In addition, during the meeting the Ukrainian side confirmed readiness to organize and hold the Twelfth meeting of the Working Panel "Public Administration Reform" in Ukraine in the first half of 2017.

Representatives from Eastern Partnership countries, government authorities of the EU Member States and representatives of civil society took part in the meeting.

Representatives from Eastern Partnership countries, government authorities of the EU Member States and representatives of civil society took part in the meeting. From Ukraine the meeting was also attended by Head of the Sector "Public administration reform" of EU Delegation in Ukraine and Volodymyr Kondrachuk and  adviser of acting Head of Personnel Management Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Valerii Demianets.

For reference: since 2011 the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service on behalf of Ukraine has been actively involved in the activities of the Working Group (Panel) "Public Administration Reform", in particular participates in Working Group meeting and in events organized by the Eastern Partnership countries on the regular basis. Cooperation within the framework of the Working Group is to contribute to fulfilment of the main tasks of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, including ensuring the development and implementation of common state policy in civil service sphere, including the implementation of functional civil service management, development of measures on improvement of civil services etc.

The Working Group (Panel) on Public Administration Reform is focused on the following areas:

• "Civil service, public administration organizations and their function (human resources management, general principles of the entry into the civil service and it performance, normative-legal acts)";
• "Transparency, e-governance and data protection";
• "Local / regional state authorities decentralization";
• "Effective management of technical assistance" (since 2012 Ukraine is a leading country in this area).