Serbia Action Plan Review 2023–2027

Serbia’s fifth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... includes promising commitments on electronic people’s initiatives and access to environmental data. The level of ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... of the commitments is similar to the previous action plan, with space for setting more rigorous milestones. Since this is Serbia’s first four-year action plan, the government can use the midterm refresh to strengthen the commitments’ ambition.

Serbia’s 2023-2027 action plan has 10 commitments and one recommendation for the National Assembly (Parliament).[1] Several commitments address similar policy areas to previous action plans, particularly in access to government-held information, civic participation in policy-making, and access to environmental data. The IRM assessed Commitments 1 and 8 as promising. Commitment 1 aims to enable electronic people’s initiatives in the eGovernment portal – itself developed through previous action plans.[2] The electronic people’s initiatives could be a significant change to the exercise of direct democracy in Serbia, as people’s initiatives were previously done in paper form. CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 8 aims to standardize all environmental data in Serbia according to European Union (EU) standards on a single platform. This commitment could significantly improve the accessibility of Serbia’s dispersed environmental data, which has become a topic of interest among citizens.

The other commitments mostly address important policy areas but are less ambitious. For example, Commitments 2, 4, and 6 involve mapping existing information or assessing comparative practices, to inform future steps. While these measures could be a basis for more ambitious activities, the mapping itself will not change existing practices. One interviewed stakeholder noted that the commitments that require long-term engagement of civil servants have a higher chance of taking root in the public administration, but the lack of control and sanctioning mechanisms could negatively affect their long-term implementation.[3] However, a positive development is that the action plan features fewer commitments that are based solely on the adoption of laws or by-laws.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (MPALSG) continues to lead Serbia’s OGP process, along with the Special Inter-Ministerial Working Group (the multi-stakeholder forum). The co-creation process saw improvements compared to the previous action plan and the inclusion of new government institutions. For example, helping persons with disabilities became a part of mainstreaming in sectoral policies, resulting in the inclusion of Commitment 7 and the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, for the first time, as responsible for an OGP commitment. However, in some instances, civil society did not perceive the government institutions’ reasonings for exclusion of proposed commitments as sufficient.[4] One stakeholder noted that the participation of high-level public officials in future action plans could facilitate more ambitious commitments and stronger implementation.[5]

Having chosen a four-year action plan, Serbia is required to hold a refresh period at the two-year mark.[6] During this refresh, the MPALSG could work with the Special Inter-Ministerial Working Group to raise the ambition of commitments. In particular, the commitments that are scheduled to finish in 2025 could be expanded during the refresh based on the achievements at the midterm.

Promising Commitments in Serbia 2023-2027 Action Plan

The following review looks at the two commitments that the IRM identified as having the potential to realize the most promising results. Promising commitments address a policy area that is important to stakeholders or the national context. They must be verifiable, have a relevant open government lens, and have modest or substantial potential for results. This review also provides an analysis of challenges, opportunities, and recommendations to contribute to the learning and implementation process of this action plan.

Table 1. Promising commitments

[1] The action plan also includes a recommendation for the National Assembly to modernize its website. Since government policy documents cannot create obligations for the parliament, the government classifies this initiative as a recommendation, not a commitment. Therefore, the IRM has not assessed it in this Action Plan Review.

[2] See Serbia 2014-2015 Action Plan, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/serbia-first-action-plan-2014-15/

[3] Kristina Obrenović (Partners for Democratic Changes), interview by the IRM, 13 March 2024.

[4] Nebojša Rančić (Media & Reform Centre), interview by the IRM, 6 March 2024.

[5] Uroš Jovanović and Dejana Stevkovski (Civic Initiatives), interview by the IRM, 14 March 2024.

[6] See pgs 16-17, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/OGP-National-Handbook-2022.pdf