On 20 April, at the premises of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) a web application “eKonsultacije” (https://ekonsultacije.gov.ba/) was officially presented and launched. The purpose of the web application “eKonsultacije” is to enable citizens, via the Internet, with an access to the full and timely information about the process of adopting legal acts, as well as to provide a reliable communication channel that could enable them to participate in creation of the public policy.

Web application “eKonsultacije” was developed within the project funded by the European Union (EU) “Capacity building of government institutions in engaging in a political dialogue with representatives of civil society in BiH” (CBGI).

By presenting the web application, Dr. Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to BiH said: “Thanks to the successful implementation of this project, today we have the opportunity to hand over to the citizens a state-of-art internet tool, by which they can, in a simple way, share their opinion about the proposed legislation which is to be adopted in BiH institutions“.

Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Josip Grubeša said: “The Ministry of Justice has, in recent years, invested considerable efforts to improve the system of transparency, cooperation and openness to citizens and civil society organizations. The crown of these efforts is a web application “eKonsultacije”.”

Web application also ensures a reliable communication channel for citizens’ participation in public policy. Ideas, suggestions and additional information collected in this way will be used to improve the public policy under the jurisdiction of the BiH institutions.

Functional dialogue with representatives of civil society and citizen participation in the creation and implementation of public policies is an important element of the European integration process. We therefore call upon the citizens of BiH to use the “eKonsultacije”, and by sharing their constructive suggestions and exchange, assist in improvement the legislation quality passed by the BiH institutions.

The EU is funding a project “Capacity building of government institutions in engaging in political dialogue with representatives of civil society in BiH” (CBGI) in the amount of 297,820.00 EUR from the IPA 2012 program for Bosnia and Herzegovina under the IPA transition assistance and institution building. The aim of the projects is to strengthen the capacity and skills of civil servants in order to develop the capacity of government institutions to effectively engage in political dialogue.

For more information, please visit www.cbgi.ba and CBGI in BiH Facebook page and twitter CBGIinBiH