3. EUROPEAN DIMENSION OF THE REFORM - PREPARING FOR EU MEMBERSHIP

The need to develop capacities required for EU membership results from the evaluation of the present condition of Czech public administration and the differences between this condition and that required from all EU member states, both existing and new ones. The EU has defined this requirement in general terms as the capacity of the public administration of the Czech Republic to accept and apply the acquis, not as a requirement to adopt a particular form of public administration. What counts is the result, which may be achieved in various ways. Some specific requirements to be met by public administration in the Czech Republic have been formulated in the EU Assessment (July 1997), the Accession Partnership and in the National Programme of the Preparation of the Czech Republic for EU Membership (March 1998). With regard to the interest of the Czech Republic to achieve EU membership within five years (by 2003), the development of capacities for membership represents a strategic priority of the present phase of public administration reform. The Accession Partnership differentiates short-term priorities (to be implemented as soon as possible) and medium-term priorities (to be implemented in the course of the few years preceding accession). Of strategic significance is the relationship between the intensity and quality of preparation for membership and the length of the preparatory period. Insufficient intensity and quality of the preparation would inevitably result in the postponement or extension of negotiations and a delayed accession date.

This chapter provides a summary of reform measures connected with the preparations for EU accession. The next chapters of the strategy develop these changes in greater detail and more concrete terms as required. It is useful to break-up the envisaged changes into two groups: complying with membership conditions and preparing for membership (paras. 3.1 through 3.7), and preparing for effectively using the membership in the interest of the Czech Republic (para. 3.8).

3.1 Overall Requirements on the Quality of Czech Public Administration

The process of capacity building does not consist merely in the changes of selected legal rules and the establishment of required control and other institutions and mechanisms. Most important is the general EU requirement that the performance of public administration and the results obtained should assure the practical implementation of the acquis in its full extent. With reference to the preparations for EU membership, therefore, it is strategically important to achieve an overall improvement of the standard of public administration, i.e. of all institutions, processes and results with the purpose of complying with the Copenhagen criteria. The EU points particularly to the necessity of establishing a civil service corresponding with European standards (see Chapter 9) and the assignment of responsibilities for modernizing and developing public administration as a whole (Chapter 11). Training (Chapter 9) is viewed as a necessary support and an integral part of the preparations for membership in all sectors of public administration. All measures proposed in the framework of public administration reform (although their relationship to the preparations for EU accession may not be obvious at first sight) will have to be examined in order to ascertain that they comply with the acquis.

3.2 Harmonization of Law

The on-going harmonization of the Czech legal system with Community law is the core part of preparations for membership. The objective is to adapt Czech law to Community law, which has priority over national law of individual member states in EU framework. Harmonization of law and reform of public administration must be considered and coordinated as two mutually related and influencing processes. Harmonization of law imposes quite concrete requirements on the changes of institutions and processes in public administration and on the co-operation of individual administrative bodies in the process of harmonization.

Last but not least, harmonization of law must be conceived as a never ending process, although at the present time it has been shaped as a large-scale temporary programme (concerning some 5,000 EU legal norms covering up to 100,000 pages). The acquis communautaire is developing continuously and further changes must be envisaged even before the date of accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union. Moreover, harmonization will continue after the accession.

3.3 Strengthening Public Administration Capacity in Selected Areas

Apart from the requirement to generally improve the standard of Czech public administration, the EU defined a number of sector priorities concerning the development and improvement of selected institutional capacities and their activities. These requirements concern particular sectors and, therefore, should be incorporated in the reform programmes of the sectors which must assure their full implementation (Chapter 8).

The Accession Partnership stresses the following short-term priority areas requiring capacity strengthening: bank supervision, financial markets supervision, insurance industry, internal financial audits, environmental protection, agriculture, phytosanitary and veterinary administration and border protection.

Immediate priority should also be granted to the development of organizational arrangements and competences for EU regional and structural policies. By its Resolution No. 159/97 the Government of the Czech Republic decided about the responsibility for general cooperation (Ministry for Regional Development) and the administrators of the individual structural funds (ERDF - Ministry for Regional Development, ESF - Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, EAGGF - Ministry of Agriculture, CF - Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications). By its Resolution No. 417/97 on the „Assurance of the Institutional Framework of CR Participation in the EU SF Programmes“ the Government approved the process of developing management and administrative structures at central Government and regional levels. This process includes in particular the establishment of fund administration units and programme preparation units in the respective ministries and the pre-accession monitoring committees for national, sectoral and regional programmes, including their secretariats. This process implies the establishment of new specialized services (programme preparation, creation of an implementation system including the definition of rules and procedures for project selection, cash flows and mechanisms of joint financing, financial control, etc. according to EU procedures and requirements). It implies new staff recruitment in the respective sectors and massive staff training aimed in particular on (1) informing about objectives, principles, institutional frameworks, financing and administrative procedures of structural funds, and (2) exchanging experience and developing skills required for the management and administration of these funds.

Medium-term priorities include, according to the Accession Partnership, the following areas of institutional and administrative capacities: continued modernization of public administration, improvement of the functioning of the judicial system, training of judges in Community law and its enforcement, customs administration, establishment of independent bodies for data protection supervision and consumers protection, strengthening of the institutions of the Ministries of Justice and of the Interior (provision of a sufficient number of qualified staff for the police, border protection, the ministries and courts), strengthening of nuclear control, completion of harmonization of financial control, reform of customs and tax administration with the purpose of preparing them fully for the application of the acquis and strengthening of food control bodies.

3.4 Implementation

In preparing for membership, the newly established and restructured regulatory, control, protection and other capacities and services must be made operative to achieve the required efficiency, reliability, credibility and transparency parameters corresponding with the requirements of the acquis. The achievement of all these parameters must be proved and will be subjected to screening and other assessment methods on the part of the EU. Therefore, the reform must not rely merely on the changes of legal norms and the establishment or restructuring of institutions without appreciating the importance of staff selection, training, adequate financial, material and technical resources, flexible management, control and evaluation of results. These tasks must be assured mainly in the programmes of the respective sector reforms and their fulfilment must be checked.

The reform strategy must also take into account that while harmonization of law is performed by relatively small numbers of specialized legal experts, the strengthening of the respective administrative capacities and the full implementation of the acquis will require a much greater number of staff, extensive training and the management and control of implementation in the respective sectors.

3.5 EU Support and Monitoring

The necessary changes in public administration connected with the preparations for EU membership are supported and monitored by the EU in several ways.

Twinnings. A twinning operation (financed by PHARE) consists in the formation of a pair of organizations - one Czech and one from an EU member state - which co-operate in order to implement necessary institutional and systems changes in a certain field. For this purpose a project is agreed by both parties aimed at the achievement of accurately defined results in acquis application. The objective is direct cooperation and the transfer of know-how and quality standards from an organization (e.g. ministry) of an EU member state. In the Czech Republic twinning operations were ready to start in 1998 in the sectors of finance, agriculture, environment and the interior.

PHARE projects. Beginning with 1998, preparation for EU membership and implementation of the acquis have become the principal objectives of the PHARE programme in the Czech Republic. Projects are available to the respective public administration agencies and provide funds, special technical assistance and training in selected public administration areas (new and Tecnically demanding institutions and programmes, neglected areas, areas requiring foreign know-how and cooperation, etc.). This practice will continue in the near future.

Advisory services. Advice and consulting provided by the EU and associated European organizations and programmes in the field of public administration (SIGMA, European Institute of Public Administration - EIPA, individual EU experts, etc.) will be used systematically though selectively on the basis of the requirements of individual public administration agencies as well as EU initiatives and recommendations.

Screenings. In July 1998, the EU started evaluating the preparations of the Czech Republic for EU membership by means of screenings in particular sectors. The first phase concentrated on the progress of harmonization of legislation of the Czech Republic with the requirements of EU law in twelve chapters (out of 31). Further proposed screenings will be successively passing from simpler to more complex chapters and will also assess in detail the progress achieved in the development of the required institutions and in the implementation on the level corresponding to the requirements of the acquis. The results of all screenings will be evaluated and used for refining the strategy of public administration reform and correcting it if required. The results of the first screenings and further negotiations have revealed a shortage of professionally and linguistically qualified officials working on membership preparation in particular sectors, inadequate staffing of the appropriate departments and slow progress of preparations in some sectors.

All forms of professional support and monitoring of preparations for EU membership must be mutually coordinated. The funds provided by PHARE and other sources of technical assistance must be used more effectively for fully justified priorities. The quality and efficiency of coordination should be improved.

3.6 Preparing for Negotiations

The EU representatives have been pointing out the significance of long-term and highly professional preparation for the negotiations preceding EU accession. They have emphasized the role of negotiation teams perfectly knowledgeable of sector problems and strategies as well as of the overall situation and the accession strategy of the Czech Republic, a well thought-out, substantiated and co-ordinated approach, knowledge of languages and negotiation skills. Also the experience of the countries which have passed through the negotiations in recent years is available. The general preparation for the negotiations must be based, naturally, on the experience with the harmonization of law, the conclusions of the technical part of the negotiations and further preparatory activities and consultations. It is desirable to consider and implement this preparation as an integral Government-controlled programme.

3.7 Information Support to Membership Preparation

It has become evident that the shortage of timely and accurate information (the "information gap“) and insufficient explanation of the benefits, problems, risks and concrete tasks of membership preparation may have negative consequences. It may impact on the quality and pace of preparations and negatively affect the interest of the citizens, business circles and numerous public servants in EU affairs and the activities connected with membership preparation. This has been exacerbated by the sector approach, which markedly prevails in the first phase of membership preparation. The perspective of many public servants, including even those directly participating in the preparations, tends to be narrow and short-sighted.

There is an urgent need for targeted communication and information reacting to the questions of concern to various interest groups, and of information thanks to which people could see their own roles and activities in a broader context. Information must be selected according to the target group: public administration as a whole or its individual sectors, business circles, the general public or similar. Dissemination will have to make full use of mass media, special publications, as well as Internet. Information support must be purposefully managed; information management is a key function of management and coordination of preparation for membership. The "Communication Strategy of the Czech Republic before EU Accession", prepared and launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997, provides a good start. It has focused on short-term tasks. It will be have to be further developed, adapted and pursued until (and obviously also after) accession becomes a reality.

3.8 Preparing for Participation of the Czech Republic in EU Activities and Management

One of the medium-term tasks of public administration reform is the preparation for an optimum use of EU membership and the participation of the Czech Republic in EU management. This task differs from membership preparation, acquis implementation and the compliance with other EU conditions. Its scope will have to be clarified and formulated in greater detail approximately by 2000 to avoid a period of fumbling and insufficient use of the membership benefits after accession.

As an EU member state the Czech Republic will be bound to apply the acquis in the full extent except for temporary exceptions agreed in the course of the negotiations and approved by the EU. The EU will continue monitoring the developments in the Czech Republic in all areas concerned by the acquis, while the Czech Republic will itself begin to contribute actively to further development and enhancement of the acquis. It will participate in the work of the broad network of EU political and technical bodies. EU membership will profoundly influence Czech public administration as a whole and will manifest itself to a varying extent also in the content and the methods of work of a large number of public servants. It will be necessary to get ready to:

• define national interests and strategic priorities of the Czech Republic as an EU member state,
• provide capacities in the ministries and other public agencies for regular day-to-day contacts and cooperation with the EU and its institutions and for active cooperation with the public administration of other member states (using the experience acquired during membership preparation),
• complete the management system and develop the competences for an optimum use of EU structural funds, including national policy, sector policies, regional policies, coordination mechanisms, project preparation and implementation, financing and financial control,
• develop a pro-active, target-oriented and coordinated approach to the participation in EU activities and get ready for the participation of the Czech Republic in EU management and decision-making bodies and special committees,
• develop a highly competent and adequately equipped representation of the Czech Republic in Brussels,
• build up and operate information systems on the EU (institutions, functions, acquis, developments, news, projects, business opportunities, information for various public administration bodies themselves, etc.),
• prepare qualified candidates from the Czech Republic for EU staff,
• properly cover EU issues in training programmes for public servants (see Chapter 9),
• provide long-term language training to all public administration bodies at all levels (see Chapter 9).

3.9 Management and Co-ordination of Preparation for Membership

The preparation for EU accession is managed and coordinated by the Government Committee for European Integration and by the Working Committee for Integration into the EU with more than 30 working groups, established by the Government of the Czech Republic. Experience has shown that the requirements on the management and co-ordination of the whole process, the number, qualification and knowledge of the staff to be involved as well as the quality of cooperation of the respective ministries and agencies will continue to grow during membership preparations.