Following a decision by the Government, the Serbian European Integration Office (SEIO) initiated the work on the most comprehensive strategic and planning document in the European Integration process – “The National Programme for the Integration of Serbia into the European Union” (NPI). This important document will represent a detailed plan of activities aimed at satisfying the political, economic and legal criteria for membership of the European Union (the so-called Copenhagen criteria and its subsequent clarifications and complements).
The complex task of producing the NPI was initiated in the framework of the Twinning Project “Institutional Capacity Building Regarding the European Integration Process”, implemented by the governments of France and Slovenia in cooperation with the Serbian European Integration Office, as the main beneficiary on the Serbian side.
The preparatory work included several important activities. Firstly, a new structure for the coordination of the European Integration process was created, made of: a political coordination body (consisting of a number of ministers), an Expert Group consisting of state secretaries (deputy ministers), 35 subgroups of the Expert Group (each in charge of one negotiation chapter), European Integration units in each public authority as well as the Serbian European Integration Office as the main coordination institution.
Another phase, which was implemented simultaneously, included the development of methodology and structure of the NPI, as well as the methodology and the system for an online database of all domestic legislation which needs to be harmonised with the acquis. The entire body of the EU law also needed to be divided among the ministries and other bodies of the public administration. In order to instruct the ministries and other bodies of the public administration on how to proceed with this intricate activity, the SEIO organised a number of training sessions for all civil servants as well as state secretaries involved in the production of the NPI. Subsequently, the Expert Group and the 35 subgroups, under the SEIO leadership and according to its instructions, proceeded with defining a competent institution and a responsible individual for each piece of the EU legislation.
The next phase of the production of the NPI will include the completion of the online database of the legislation (which will be the basis for the tables-part of the NPI which will present the timetable for harmonisation of national legislation with the acquis) and the write-up of the textual part of the NPI. The completion of Serbia’s first NPI, which will later have several updates, is due by the end of May 2008.
For further information please contact:
Milena Lazarevic, Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government
