Hoxha: EU membership, Kosovo's strategic goal

European Integration Minister Dona Hoxha has said at the Ministerial Conference of the Organisation for Co-operation and Economic Development (OECD) that is being held in Paris that Kosovo's strategic goal is to become an EU member.

She discussed the topic of the plenary session during this conference: How should public administration be transformed to provide services to citizens in challenging times?

“In light of this goal, the public administration requires the level of modernisation that will enable better co-operation between people and government. In the challenging times we are going through and in the increasing use of information technology, we seek to create a structure where services to our citizens are easily accessible and at any time”, Hoxha stressed.

After talking about the new history of the Republic of Kosovo, Minister Hoxha stressed that the European model public administration should be built first, creating a new situation to continue with emphasis on the importance of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.

The “tasks coming from the SAA are unimaginable without increasing the capacities of public administration institutions and civil servants to plan, implement and monitor policies and laws, including effective regulation and delivery of efficient public services run by citizens”, Hoxha said.

To that end, Minister Hoxha noted, the three laws package was brought in. Although finalisation is still under way, the Law for Organising Public Administration, the Civil Service Law and the Law for Salaries as a package of laws aimed at equal, fair, transparent and responsible treatment of public administration.

“Today's challenges also move Kosovo to move towards the sweeping approach of the government, which is still in an early phase, but includes reforms such as rationalising autonomous and semi-automatic agencies in the country. Offering public services at the central and local level lies among priority issues within the current strategic framework of government”, Hoxha said.

She said Kosovo is on the verge of starting a first programme for supporting the EU budget sector in public administration reform.

“We have negotiated with the EU, for a package of reforms to be held in the next three years that will be supported by 22m euros directly from the budget. One of the requirements of this programme is the bureaucracy, which is reduced by reducing unjustified permits and licenses applied by public administration institutions”, Hoxha said.

Minister of Innovation and Undertaking Besim Beqaj is also attending this conference.

The conference marks the 25th anniversary of the SIGMA Programme, presenting remarkable success of long-term partnership between O ECD and the European Union.

During the sessions of this conference, innovative approaches to contemporary governance and the complexity of citizens' needs will be discussed.