TOWARD A EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE

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TOWARD A EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE

• Unit 7

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SIGMA

• Support for Improvement in Governance and
  Management in Central and Eastern European
  Countries (1992)
• A joint initiative of EU and Organization for
  Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Supports public administration reforms in
  countries applying for membership in the EU

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SIGMA paper no. 27 (1999)

• Attempt to identify the principles of
  administration in the EU in order to create
  standards to which the candidate countries are
  expected to conform

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The main constitutional legal texts of the EU

• Treaty of Rome, 1957
• Maastricht Treaty, 1992

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Treaty of Rome

• The treaty founding the European Economic
  Community
• Signed in Rome on 25 March 1957
• Founding members Belgium, West Germany, France,
  Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands

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Maastricht Treaty

• The Treaty on European Union
• Signed at Maastricht in February 1992, came into
  force on 1 November 1993

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Maastricht Treaty

• Required defining and implementation of a common
  foreign and security policy (CFSP)
• Cooperation in justice and home affairs
• Introduction of a single currency (European
  monetary union)
• The principle of subsidiarity

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Principle of subsidiarity

• In areas which do not fall within the exclusive
  competence of the EU, it shall not take action
  unless the objectives of the proposed action
  cannot be adequately achieved by individual
  Member States
• Provided for legislation at national level when
  EU measures are not required

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Copenhagen criteria

• Membership criteria require that the candidate
  country must have achieved
• stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy,
  the rule of law, human rights and respect for and
  protection of minorities
• the existence of a functioning market economy as
  well as the capacity to cope with competitive
  pressure and market forces within the Union
• the ability to take on the obligations of
  membership including adherence to the aims of
  political, economic monetary union.

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Copenhagen criteria

• The criteria were laid down in June 1993 by
  European Council in Copenhagen from which they
  take their name.

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Madrid criteria

• Membership criteria also require that the
  candidate country must have created the
  conditions for its integration through the
  adjustment of its administrative structures, as
  underlined by the Madrid European Council in
  December 1995.

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Madrid criteria

• While it is important that European Community
  legislation is transposed into national
  legislation, it is even more important that the
  legislation is implemented effectively through
  appropriate administrative and judicial
  structures. This is a prerequisite of the mutual
  trust required by EU membership.

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Reform of public administration in candidate
countries?

• The EU Treaties do not provide a model of public
  administration to be implemented by Member States

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Administrative autonomy

• Once the democratic nature of their political
  regime has been assessed, matters of governance
  and public administration are left to the
  discretion of Member countries. Thus from a
  formal legal standpoint, Member countries have a
  great deal of administrative autonomy

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Membership in the EU

• Respect for the Acquis
• The national public administration institutions
  should implement and enforce the Acquis
• The public administration of a candidate country
  must adhere to the general principle of good
  governance and meet the administrative standards
  of the Union

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Acquis communautaire

• The body of Community legislation and judgements
  of the European Court of Justice by which all EU
  member states are bound

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Good Governance

• The process of decision-making and the process by
  which decisions are implemented (or not
  implemented). Hereby, public institutions conduct
  public affairs, manage public resources, and
  guarantee the realization of human rights. Good
  governance accomplishes this in a manner
  essentially free of abuse and corruption and with
  due regard for the rule of law

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Horizontal governance

• During the last decades it has become common in
  the scientific field of public management to
  proclaim a shift from hierarchical and
  well-institutionalized forms of government
  towards less formalized forms of governance in
  which networks have grown in importance

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Horizontal governance

• The general horizontal governance systems of a
  candidate country must also meet the requirements
  of the EU, since they are crucial for the
  reliable functioning of the entire
  administration, including the areas of the acquis

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Horizontal governance

• Successful implementation and enforcement is
  clearly dependent on horizontal governance
  structures and systems, such as procedures for
  administrative actions and mechanism to ensure
  that the performance of civil servants is in line
  with EU standards

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Lack of general legislation for public
administration

• No acquis exists for setting standards of
  horizontal systems of governance or national
  public administration

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Result

• Member States have total liberty to decide on
  the ways and means of achieving the results
  predicated in EU legislation
• A general consensus on key components of good
  governance has emerged
• Principles for public administration shared by EU
  Member States

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Legal terms

• Align
• Uskladiti
• Implement
• Primijeniti, ostvariti, izvriti
• Enforce
• Provoditi (odredbe, zakone)
• Governance
• Uprava, upravljanje, nacin upravljanja

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Legal terms

• Accession
• Pridruivanje
• Apply for membership
• Podnijeti zahtjev za uclanjenje
• Discretion
• Sloboda odlucivanja

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Legal terms

• Adhere
• Pridravati se, potovati
• Civil servant
• Dravni slubenik, javni slubenik