BiH Directorate for European Integration (DEI) today officially launched and presented a web application “eKonsultacije” in the process of programming and implementation of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance II (IPA II), which was developed in the framework of the EU-funded project “Capacity building of government institutions to participate in policy dialogue with civil society” (CBGI).

This web application enables interested citizens, civil society organisations and the general public to be fully and timely informed about the process of planning, programming and implementation of IPA II as well as to give their ideas and suggestions for the improvement of this process.

IPA II is a new EU instrument for providing pre-accession assistance for the period 2014-2020. IPA II will provide financial and technical support to reforms within the framework of pre-defined sectors that cover areas such as democracy and governance, rule of law or growth and competitiveness. This sector approach promotes structural reform that will help transform a given sector and bring it up to EU standards. It allows a move towards a more targeted assistance, ensuring efficiency, sustainability and focus on results.

Midhat Džemić, Head of DEI’s Department for bilateral assistance of EU to BiH said: “Given the fact that the BiH Directorate for European Integration is coordinator of the European integration process at the state level and coordinator between the state institutions and entities, and that this role includes the coordination of the EU’s financial assistance, we recognised the importance of the public participation in the process of programming and implementation of IPA II . We have therefore aimed to enable all interested citizens with an opportunity for participation in the process of programming and implementation of IPA II. The result of these efforts is the development of the web application that I am proud to present today.”

Within the CBGI project, a web application for citizens’ participation in public policy and the processes of adoption of certain legal acts was also launched in April this year enabling them to share their views on proposed legislations which would be adopted in the BiH institutions.

Chlóe Berger, Acting Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to BiH said: “Functional dialogue, coordination and participation of citizens in the process of creating and implementing public policies is an important element of the European integration process. With successful implementation of this project, today yet again we have an opportunity to hand over to the BiH citizens a modern internet tool by which they can in a simple way, share their opinion about the processes of their interest.”

The CBGI project is financed by the EU in the amount of EUR 297,820.00 from IPA 2012 and implemented by Kronauer Consulting.

The project will, by September 1, 2016 focus on further improvement of the dialogue between representatives of government institutions in BiH with citizens and representatives of civil society on key issues related to the development and implementation of public policies.

Link for the web application http://ipa-ekonsultacije.dei.gov.ba/

For more information about the CBGI project, please visit www.cbgi.ba and CBGI in BiH facebook page, as well as CBGI twitter CBGIinBiH.