June 2021
For Kosovo as a new state, an efficient and accountable public administration is a crucial portion of democratic governance and state functioning. Reforming and improving the functioning of public administration has been a key issue in the EU-Kosovo relations in the recent years.
Overall, the functioning of public administration in Kosovo faces serious long-standing challenges. Weak internal-ministerial coordination, politicization in the process of appointment, the overstaffed institutions, and attempts of political involvement in senior civil service recruitments, are some of the key problems that have been identified in various local and international reports.
While these challenges create obstacles in offering services to the citizens and businesses, they moreover play a role in eroding the trust of citizens in the public institutions and Government. In addition, the EU has made continuous calls to reform the public administration sector in the Kosovo Country Reports of the European Commission (EC). In recent years the institutions of Kosovo have adopted several documents and strategies related to this reform. However, the implementation of these documents, thereby the reform as a whole continues to remain limited and the majority of challenges remain unaddressed.
This summary report aims to reflect and discuss on the situation of the public administration reforms in Kosovo in the recent years, through focusing on the documents and strategies that have been approved during this period. Furthermore, the report will analyze the key achievements and implementation level of PAR thus far and suggest recommendations for the new Government of Kosovo to implement, based on the main challenges that need to be addressed.
The report highlights that political instability and frequent elections especially since 2017, as well as lack of genuine political will from political parties in power, have hindered the capacity of Governments to successfully implement reforms that fall under PAR, therefore an energized approach by the new Government is required in order to compensate the lost time improve the overall functioning of public administration.
This report has been prepared as part of the project "Strengthening Transparency and Accountability for Reforms" implemented by PIPS and Lëvizja FOL, and supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kosovo.
| Programs | - European Integration
- Quality Governance
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