Sarajevo, 9 June 2014

“Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to be here today and to open the conference of the ‘Open Government Partnership Initiative.

The principles of rule of law and democracy, open dialogue and transparency, good governance and accountability are at the heart of the European project. They are evolving, complex principles – which EU member states strive to achieve and to maintain.

The EU, through the accession process, and in its political dialogue with Bosnia and Herzegovina, is supporting work to ensure that these principles are met. They are also reflected in the four key commitments of the Open Government Declaration.

Let me point out the EUs main messages related to these four commitments. First, the availability of public information.

Freedom to access information is not only a fundamental right it is also a pivotal tool in the prevention of conflict of interests and corruption. Granting due and adequate access to asset declarations and donations to political parties, for example, is indeed an efficient way to further entrench a culture of accountability.

Bosnia and Herzegovina now has a Law on Freedom of Access to Information in place. However, what is important is the implementation – and on this there is space for improvement. As initiatives are in the making to revisit the BiH Law there might be a good window of opportunity to ensure that the future law strikes a fair balance between the necessary protection of personal data and the no less necessary transparency.

Let me underline, access to information is essential for an effective fight against corruption; without it, NGOs cannot perform their watchdog function on government action; without it, investigative journalism does not exist and without it citizens are deprived of the possibility to know how government is fulfilling its duties. However, the right balance with other human rights principles such as the protection of privacy has to be found.
But citizens are not only to see government at work, they also have a right to participate in it. This leads me to the second key commitment of the Open Government Declaration – Support civic participation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has certain instruments in place that oblige public institutions to consultations when designing public policies. Until recently we observed with concern that this principle is not always respected and laws are passed without proper consultation and involvement of concerned citizens and civil society.

Good policies need the contribution of those affected by them and the expertise of civil society. It is in the interest of the Government to get these contributions. Omitting to do so runs a high risk of developing bad and costly legislation.

We have now seen some encouraging structural initiatives which we hope will ensure greater consultations and participation in the future. The Council of Ministers has appointed in May a working group to revise the agreement on cooperation with civil society and should do this jointly with civil society. We do hope that this process is implemented in a timely and inclusive manner.

This leads us to the third commitment countries have to take when joining the Open Government Partnership – Implement the highest standards of professional integrity throughout administrations.

As you are aware, the fight against corruption and the prevention of corruption is high on the EUs agenda. Let me point out just three important areas:

First, Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to make more progress when it comes to completing an adequate whistleblower legislative framework across all levels and must follow up on its implementation in order to ensure that people can come forward with information without having to be afraid of retaliation, no matter where they are in the country.

Second, more transparent recruitment in the public sector, based on merit, must be fostered. The EU is supporting the work of the administration and currently financing a project of reviewing and unifying job descriptions, classifying posts and developing competency frameworks as well as insisting on merit-based recruitment and promotion procedures. There is a long way to go for the administrations in BiH in order to move from declarations to real merit-based appointments.

Thirdly there needs to be better provision for the management of conflicts of interest to guarantee that public service functions are performed effectively, objectively and in a transparent manner. The BiH state level adopted the amendments to the Law which are now ensuring this. FBiH and Brcko District need to urgently adopt the amendments to their respective laws to fill the legal vacuum that appeared with adoption of the BiH Law.

Regarding the fourth commitment – new technologies for openness and accountability. It is clear that we live in a time where the speed of communication, the capacities to store and access complex information, open entirely new possibilities to connect citizens to government and its services.

Capitalizing on this requires a great deal of thought and planning, as well as a lot of investment. The EU is supporting, through different projects under the Instrument of Pre-Accession, the enhancement of IT and communication systems throughout the public sector – and has in the process helped create one of the more high-tech judiciaries in the region.

The result is the start of a reduction in the backlog of court cases, the increase of possibilities to hold the judiciary accountable, access to court cases from concerned citizens. It is in many ways a model that should be replicated across different areas. Increasing accountability further is possible and means a stronger use of e/Procurement tools and the publication of decisions on appeals regarding public procurement procedures.

Many of the initiatives the EU is promoting in Bosnia and Herzegovina are going in the same direction as the Open Government Partnership. We are therefore glad to be here and support this initiative and very glad to see that over the past year we have seen some progress.

I hope that the recent decision by the Council of Ministers to prepare the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Open Government Partnership is another indication of more rapid progress to come.”