Speech by Massimo Mina at the Conference “The Bell for Change”

Dear Mr Zvizdic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Mr Singh, Ms Daguda, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

A functional dialogue with civil society and involvement of citizens in the public policies making process is an important element of EU integration process.

Article 10 of the Treaty of Lisbon states that the EU shall be based on a representative democracy (role of political parties) and participative democracy (role of civil society), while Article 11 of the Treaty obliges the EU institutions to maintain a dialogue with the citizens and civil society.

The European Council in its conclusions from 16th December 2014 indicates that “Strengthening the functioning and independence of democratic institutions is essential. This includes ensuring constructive, inclusive and sustainable dialogue across the political spectrum, notably within the parliament and with civil society. In this regard, more needs to be done to foster an enabling environment for civil society organisations.”

The communication of the European Commission of 29 June 2005 on the civil society dialogue between EU and candidate countries for full membership notes that: “Any future enlargement of the EU needs to be supported by a strong, deep and sustained dialogue with civil society…“ while the Communication of the European Commission of 5 March 2008 on enhancement of the European perspective of the Western Balkan notes that civil society is the key element of the public life in a democracy and that the engagement of such dialogue in the process of political, social and economic reforms enhances the democracy and reconciliation process in the Western Balkan.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has made initial steps to institutionalise the required dialogue with civil society by signing the Agreement on Cooperation with a large group of CSOs in April 2007. Unfortunately, the Agreement has not been implemented.

The Council of Ministers’ adoption of the Amendments to the Rules of Consultations at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014, is a positive step forward toward greater inclusion of citizens and civil society in decision and policy making processes and all levels of governance in BiH are encouraged to take similar steps in developing institutional mechanisms of collaboration with civil society. In addition, the establishment of the Referral mechanisms (internal mechanisms for cooperation at the level of individual institutions) for cooperation with civil society at the Ministry of Security, Ministry of Justice, and Directorate for European Integration of BiH is also a positive step towards greater inclusion of civil society in policy making processes.

But this is not enough. It is necessary to institutionalise the dialogue between the two parties as it has been done in the neighbouring countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina, on its path to join the European Union, is required to establish an institutional mechanism for cooperation with civil society as well as to improve the legal framework in order to create more enabling environment for civil society, particularly to improve transparency of public funding to CSOs.

Lower levels of government including entities, District Brcko, and cantons are also expected to establish institutional mechanisms for cooperation with civil society as well as to improve the legal framework which will ensure more enabling environment for civil society development.

Citizens, both individually and via Civil Society Organisations, should be in a position:

•    To participate in policy making and legislative processes and
•    To monitor closely the proper implementation of existing rules and regulations.

They must be able to do that through direct participation, not as a distant voice far from the action. Of course, with participation comes responsibility. For their part, Civil Society Organisations have to show that they are committed and therefore responsible in their intent. Indeed, their credibility comes from their ability to reflect the different opinions of different segments of the population.

In a participative democracy, the role of civil society is of vital importance in providing an alternative perspective and – on occasion – in filling a void left by the elected authorities. The basic values of EU Member States include a government’s ability to take into consideration and accept critical and informed views from civil society.

The EU has invested about 3 million euro in projects aiming at improving cooperation between governmental and non-governmental sectors in BiH through establishment of institutional mechanisms for cooperation with civil society.

A concrete result of such support is the set-up on a web-based consultation platform for consultation of civil society at all levels of government, which should become soon operational.

The EU will continue to offer a combination of political and financial support to meet the mentioned priorities, employing a more strategic, effective and results-focused approach to deliver maximum impact with the limited human and financial resources available.

The European Commission is also developing a set of objectives, results and indicators for EU support to civil society which will allow for the measurement of progress at country level as well as across the enlargement region, including also from a gender perspective. The monitoring and evaluation system includes a yearly regional meeting with the involvement of CSOs to analyse the state of play and advancement towards targets. This may also serve as input into the annual country reports.

I hope that this conference will further boost the process of institutionalisation of government-civil society dialogue at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Union will always be there to support these positive processes.

Thank you for your attention.

Mr Massimo Mina, the Head of Operations Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross-Border Cooperation at the EU Delegation to BiH, spoke at the Conference “The Bell for Change” organised by the USAID BiH and the Centre for Civil Society Promotion (CPCD) in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH on 2 February 2016.

Europa.ba