Improving Government responsiveness as key to meaningful public

Improving Government responsiveness as key to meaningful public participation in decision-making processes: Croatian experience Igor Vidačak Government of the Republic of Croatia Director, Office for Cooperation with NGOs

1033% increase in number of public consultations in last 4 years In 2011. – 48 public consultations on draft laws, other regulations and act In 2014. – 544 public consultations – 1033% increase

More than 4000% increase in number of contributors to public consultations 2011 2012 2013 2014 171 4786 8299 7482

41% of analysed comments of interested public accepted or partially accepted 334 detailed reports on results of public consultations in 2014 • 14. 975 analysed comments • 3. 366 fully accepted • 2. 743 partially accepted • 8. 866 not accepted

Introducing new standards of public participation in decision making • Code of Practice on Consultation with Interested Public in Procedures of Adopting Laws, Other Regulations and Acts (2009) • Regulatory Impact Assessment Law and Regulation – public consultations in an early phase of decision making (2011/12) • Law on Access to information – proactive transparency, publishing consultation documents and strengthening the feedback on consultation results (2013) • Government Rules of Procedures (2012) and Parliament Rules of Procedures (2013) – amended to institutionalize practice of feedback on consultation results

Decisions of Constitutional Court – strong impetus to raising awareness on the importance of involving the public in decision-making • Two by-laws of Ministry of Science, Education and Sports abolished due to the absence of appropriate consultation process • „. . . the democratic nature of the procedure under which takes place public dialogue on issues of common interest is what makes an act, as a result of these procedures, constitutionally acceptable or unacceptable. ” Decision of Constitutional Court (U-II-1118/2013) 22 May 2013

Putting in practice new standards of public consultations/participation • Detailed Guidelines for the implementation of the Code of practice on consultation • Consultation coordinators appointed in ministries and government offices • Training programmes and peer-to-peer support for consultation coordinators • Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of the consultation standards across State bodies • Central E-Consultation Portal launched

Detailed step-by-step Guidelines on implementing new consultation standards • the question for civil servants is not anymore why but rather how to conduct meaningful public consultation • standardized forms for gathering contributions from the interested public • standardized forms for reporting on the results of public consultation • standardizing information on open/closed consultations available on web pages of all State bodies

Training and peer-to-peer support for consultation coordinators • State School for Public Administration – regular training programme on conducting effective public consultations (hundreds of policy, PR officers, other civil servants attended the workshops) • Coordination meetings of consultation coordinators (and PR/information officers) – peer to peer support and exchange of best practices of public consultations • EU funded project – strenghtening capacities of public consultation coordinators (3 modules training)

Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of consultation standards • Detailed analysis of performance of all State bodies in all phases of public consultations process, with special emphasis on the quality of feedback (reporting methodology continuously improved) • Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs that is responsible for preparing integral annual report and submitting it for Government approval • Impact of publishing and promoting annual reports on transforming consultation practices in State bodies, but also on changing public perception on government responsiveness /openness

Central E-Consultations Portal • single access point to all open public consultations launched by State bodies • simple way of commenting of all laws, other regulations and acts by citizens / organisations • efficient processing of all received comments and reporting on results of consultations • more transparency and openness on both sides Ø all comments of registered users visible to the public Ø open monitoring of quality of feedback of all State bodies

Central E-Consultations Portal savjetovanja. gov. hr

Key lessons learned • Quality of feedback on results of public consultations – crucial for building public trust and motivation for contributing to policy making • Policy coordination – essential for ensuring the proper implementation of consultation standards across State bodies • Training of civil servants – key investment in transforming styles of governance

For more information Igor Vidačak Director Office for Cooperation with NGOs Government of the Republic of Croatia E-mail: igor. vidacak@uzuvrh. hr