European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic attended the signing of EUR80 million Financial Agreement aimed at backing a comprehensive transformational of Serbian public administration.
At the EU Info Centre premises in Belgrade, the Agreement was signed by Genoveva Ruiz Calavera the Director for the Western Balkans of the European Commission Directorate General for Enlargement and Jadranka Joksimovic Serbian Minister without portfolio in charge of European Integration.
Hahn: Investing in Serbia is in EU’s interest
Following the signature, European Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Serbia had no alternative to the European path, adding that strengthening of EU-Serbia relations was supported by the fact that two thirds of Serbia’s commerce was closely tied to EU members.
“Since 2007, the EU has invested two billion euros in grants to modernise the country. Better economic results and employment opportunities prove that these grants were a proper contribution. Such investment is in the interest of the EU,” Hahn said.
FoNet
“Serbia and Europe can count on each other. Both Serbian and EU citizens need to feel the benefits of cooperation,” Hahn said and added that this [cooperation] “contributes to the alignment of Serbian administration with European standards. The administration will consequently become more citizen-oriented and transparent.
European Commissioner said that the EU invested more than EUR27 million in modernisation of Serbian universities and faculties. “Serbia is faced with a brain drain. Our goal is to improve Serbian faculties and universities and set up labs in order to offer young people better opportunities,” Hahn said.
Vucic: Serbia is a reliable and loyal partner of the EU
FoNet
Prime Minister Vucic said that by signing this contract with the European Commission Serbia received an 80 million euro gift from the EU intended for public administration reform: “You will see these EUR80 million in roads, hospitals and everything else we do in our country. Without an effective public administration, without you changing yourselves, we will have no results in the future,“ Vucic said.
Prime Minister Vucic said that those results must be sustainable and that without an effective public administration there would be no results, adding that citizens need to know that public administration is at their service.
Following the signature, he said that the amount of money was huge and that Serbia would use it in a best possible way, adding that in order to make the results sustainable, we have to change ourselves.
Prime Minister Vucic thanked the EU and its taxpayers for the assistance and said that “the EU accounts for two thirds of our commerce, whereas the region accounts for 20 percent – we depend entirely on the EU. It is not fair that we ask them for money and not be grateful, because Union citizens set that money aside for us to make the most of it.“
Vucic said that regardless of the problems the EU was facing, Serbia had set its direction to the EU, adding that it remained “a reliable and loyal partner the EU can count on.“
Better and faster delivery of services to all Serbian citizens and companies
EUR 80 million is one of the biggest ever contracts between Serbia and the EU. This is non-refundable EU assistance, through which EUR 70 million will go directly to the budget of Serbia in separate instalments over the period of three years, while EUR 10 million will support implementation of the Sector Reform Contract.
The EU is investing these funds in comprehensive public administration reform which Serbia is undertaking in order to ensure better and faster public services for all Serbian citizens and businesses, more organised and effective public administration, increased transparency of public resources and involvement of citizens in policy making.
As a result, the Serbian public administration should be better equipped to respond to the challenges of comprehensive reform, fiscal consolidation, and European integration.
Public administration reform is one of the three pillars of the EU accession process, along with Rule of Law and Economic Governance.
FoNet
This Financing Agreement is the first ever Sector Reform Contract for Serbia, and is funded from the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) 2015. The funding will be provided as direct budget support to co-finance national sector reform agendas for achieving sustainable results.
Sector Budget Support (SBS) is an important tool in EU development cooperation which involves dialogue, financial transfers to the national treasury account of the beneficiary country, performance assessment and capacity development, based on partnership and mutual accountability. The financial resources will be managed using national public financial management systems. Direct SBS provides a means to align with beneficiary countries own policies, priorities and objectives through co-financing national development strategies and promoting sound and transparent public finances.
The contract covers two crucial reforms: public administration and public financial management. It focuses on: de-politicisation of the civil service and merit based human resources policy, re-structuring of the public administration, involvement of civil society in policy making, improvement of services for business enabling environment and improvement of national budget preparation, in particular inclusion of state owned enterprises´ budget.
