On March 15-16, 2018 in Yerevan (Republic of Armenia) the Fourteenth Eastern Partnership Panel on Governance and Public Administration Reform (hereinafter — the Panel)  of the Thematic Platform No 1 on Strengthening Institutions and Good Governance in the framework of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership” took place.

This meeting of the Panel, which is devoted to the discussion of strategic planning issues, identified as one of the priority tasks of Area 1 of the Panel, which set up to establish a strategic framework, and is a key element in the planning and policy coordination process.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Garen NAZARIAN greeted all the participants of the meeting and underlined the importance of realization of Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, concluded on 24 November, 2017 at the Eastern Partnership Summit, that establishes a solid legal basis for strengthening the political dialogue, broadening the scope of economic and sectoral cooperation, creating a framework for new opportunities in trade and investments, and for increased mobility for the benefit of our citizens. In addition, the priorities of the country were outlined in the context of cooperation with the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership”, in particular rule of law, public administration reform, judicial reform, strategic management, local self-government reform and e-governance.

Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Armenia, 

Mr Piotr ŚWITALSKI in his welcome speech emphasized that the activities organized within the framework of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership” provide an opportunity for experience exchange, sharing results of priority reforms implementation, including local self-governance reforms in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, which is one of the cornerstones of the legislation of the European Union and the basic requirement of the European Charter on Local Self-Government. The effectiveness of cooperation aimed at achieving a common goal, in accordance with the principles of international law and fundamental values, the formation of a politically neutral, accountable civil service and service in local self-government bodies, and the involvement of civil society was also underlined.

Deputy Chief of the Government Staff of the Republic of Armenia Vahe JILAVYAN noted that the Republic of Armenia is pursuing comprehensive reforms through effective implementation of the principles of strategic governance, accountability, openness and transparency. At the same time, the main achievements were presented in the context of adopting a long-term Strategy “Digital Agenda for Armenia – 2030”. Head of Development Programs and Professional Excellence Department of the Civil Service Council of the Republic of Armenia Ruzanna KHACHATRYAN in her turn underlined that public administration and civil service the reforms are the priority for the Republic of Armenia, as evidenced by the development and adoption of a number of draft laws and regulatory legal acts on new legislation. It was also emphasized that public administration reform and decentralization are a kind of challenge for all Eastern Partnership countries; in this regard it is necessary to consolidate efforts to achieve a common goal.

Chair of the Thirteenth Eastern Partnership Panel, Deputy Head of Division for Eastern Partnership, Regional Cooperation and OSCE, Directorate for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Regional Cooperation and OSCE, European External Action Service Nils Jansons congratulated the participants on the occasion of the opening as well as carried out a general review of the implementation of the Work Programme of the Panel for 2014–2017 and presented the draft Work Programme of the Thematic Platform 1 for 2018-2019 years.

During the first day of the event, representatives of the leading countries of the four Areas of the Panel reviewed the main achievements within the framework of the implementation of the Work Programme, as well as presented the main activities, planned on 2018 in the context of discussing the results of the Eastern Partnership’s activities up to 2020.

On behalf of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union the Head of HR development Department, Anzhela Kukulia presented the main achievements within the framework of implementation of the activities during the reporting period, as well as outlined the topics of the planned activities.

Furthermore, during the meeting, the main approaches to process of strategic planning as well as coordination and financing of strategic documents development were considered, the issue of public finance management reform implementation was discussed, as well as the state of implementation of the main activities within the framework of Strategy “Digital Agenda for Armenia – 2030”  was discussed.

In particular, Andriy BEGA, Director General of the Directorate for Public Administration, Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Liudmyla ROZHKOVA, Director of the Department of Budget Expenditures of Government Authorities, Ministry of Finance of Ukraine presented the main results, tasks and challenges of public administration reform in implementing the strategic management and policy analysis and public finance management reform in Ukraine.

The second day of the meeting was entitled to the issues of decentralization of power and local self-government reform, prevention of corruption and the role of civil society in implementing reform, promoting transparency and accountability of public administration and local self-government.

Representatives of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership” member states, EU member states government authorities and public participated in the Panel.

For reference: since 2011, Ukraine, with the direct participation of NAUCS, actively participates in the activities of the Working Group on Public Administration Reform and regularly attends the Working Group meetings and events organized by the Eastern Partnership countries. Such cooperation contributes to the implementation of the NAUCS tasks, in particular, to ensure the formation and realization of a single state policy in the area of civil service, including the implementation of functional management of the civil service, the development of measures to improve the efficiency of the civil service, etc.

Activities of the Working Group is aimed at the following directions:

• “Civil service, state authorities and their functions (human resource management, common principles of recruitment and civil service, legislation )”;
• “Transparency, e-government and data protection”;
• “Decentralization of local/regional state bodies”;
• “Effective management of technical assistance” (since 2012 Ukraine is the leading country).