Strengthening of Regulatory Governance (AL0096)

Brief Description of the Commitment

Important processes related to the planning of regulatory acts, assessment of their impacts and public consultation are carried out according to the standards and requirements provided for in the legal and sub-legal framework. These processes ensure public participation in decision-making, enable laws and policies to be drafted based on data and evidence, and enable a democratic, open and accountable governance system.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? Public Consultation contributes to strengthening trust in public institutions, the rule of law and democracy. Public institutions are strengthened by public consultation in the decision-making process and this leads to sustainable policies that meet the needs of society. The public consultation process enables institutions to seek public opinion on a given topic or policy, informing them of current policy developments, state of play and progress made by government authorities. Public is invited to submit comments, opinions and responses for a certain policy or regulation. Such a mechanism not only empowers the public to engage in decision-making but also enables better policies that address public interests. Government use the tool of impact assessment for a more effective policy decisions in order to allocate resources where they are most needed and where they provide the highest results at the lowest costs. The biggest challenge for the successful implementation of this process is related to the efficiency of the responsible structures to successfully carry out several inter-related stages in this process, such as: 1) Well-structured identification of current problems, their causes and the effects caused by them; 2) Provision of additional information and evidence/evidence for the drafting of policies/legislation; 3) Identification of options; 4) Identification of benefits, costs and risks of possible regulatory interventions; 5) Providing an argument as to why the recommended policy was chosen, thereby helping to build public trust through accountability; 6) Identifying and encouraging the responsible structures to think about the results and how they will evaluate through monitoring whether these results have been achieved or not. The successful implementation of this process would provide a logical structure to plan policies through a legislative program designed in accordance with real regulatory needs.

2.What are the causes of the problem? Public consultation is a two-way process which implies the transparency and accountability of public policy-making institutions, and on the other hand the participation of citizens, stakeholders and interest groups, civil society organizations, the business community, academia and scientific community in the process of drafting laws and policies by contributing with comments, reactions and opinions, not only directly exercising the authority of the sovereign but also contributing to the drafting of better and publicly acceptable laws. The implementation of the process in accordance with the principles, standards and requirements of legal basis and guidelines from the institutions is constantly improving, however, within the framework of European and global commitments for an even more advanced democratic system, the requirements for public consultation are increasing. On the other hand, participatory culture, encouraging citizens to participate in the process and ensuring access to policy-making of marginalized groups remains a challenge to be addressed in long terms. Altogether with some other challenges such as: 5. Lack of compliance in practice with the legal requirements for public consultation at the central and local level, 6. Implementation of public consultation for the secondary legislation 7. Implementation of a pro-active approach by institutions 8. Increasing public’s trust in the process of public consultation 9. Increasing the capacities of coordinators for carrying out the consultation process. The impact assessment process can be considered as one of the most important links of the policy-making process. However, this process is closely inter-dependent with the process of programming regulatory acts, the process of assessing their quality, as well as the process of public consultation. Better linkage of these processes altogether with the strengthenskills and expertise regarding RIA process, would provide the aimed results. Novelty of implementing this process in our country, as well as reasons related to administrative/research reasons are among the challenges to be addressed.

Commitment Description

3.What has been done so far to solve the problem? 1. Increasing the functionality of the Electronic Register of Notification and Public Consultation and the implementation of automatic notifications for stakeholders; 2. Mapping of stakeholders according to sectors; 3. Making obligatory the implementation of the impact assessment process through the revision of the regulatory framework; 4. Strengthening the quality control of the processes of impact assessment, programming of regulatory acts and public consultation by strengthening the responsible unit in the Prime Minister; 5. Implementation of a content-oriented monitoring approach, as well as diversification of monitoring methods; 6. Presentation of weekly and periodic results at technical and political levels related to the public consultation process and the impact assessment process; 7. Strengthening and increasing the capacities of the network of public consultation coordinators, as well as of the network of impact assessment coordinators.

4. What solution are you proposing? 1. Key stakeholders are widely consulted, according to the procedures and standards provided for the public consultation process; 2. The government and institutions apply a proactive and non-discriminating approach for the inclusion in the public consultation process of under-represented groups through prior notices and targeted consultations in order to give voice to these target groups; 3. The methods of public consultation should be diversified, and applied in accordance with the draft act subject to consultation applying the criteria provided by the guide of the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers and the matrix of the analysis of interested parties; 4. Constructive and continuous dialogue between institutions and stakeholders, and the reflection of their proposals and comments in the final draft of the drafted act; 5. Reporting the results of the public consultation process, including information on the ratio of acceptance of feedback collected throughout the process and making them transparent for each act;. 6. Publication of the draft policy and legislation for consultation with the general public on the official website of the public consultation http://www.konsultimipublik.gov.al, accompanied by the other information documents; 7. Implementation of the regulatory impact assessment to draft acts according to the legal provisions, with the aim of drafting an effective and qualitative legislation that produces the desired effects. 8. Implementation of the impact assessment process by the responsible institutions, at an early stage and the preparation of quality reports for projects according to the regulations of the regulatory framework. 9. Increasing the efficiency of the structures responsible for drafting impact assessment reports, by providing continuous support through expanding their knowledge of this process. 10. Guaranteeing the drafting of a well-planned legislative program and its efficient implementation. 11. Guaranteeing the sustainability of coordinators for public notification and consultation in each responsible institution, by ensuring this role to be exercised by civil servants of middle or high level management, to guarantee the necessary authority at all levels of employees and institutions' structures for implementation of law no. 146/2014. 12. Monitoring the implementation of the fulfillment of the obligation by the institutions to periodically update the public consultation reports, within the framework of the implementation of their functional duties vis-à-vis the general public. 14. The responsible institutions contribute to the design of methodological approaches as well as simple and comprehensible formats for the general public and stakeholders, which aim to be included in the public consultation process. 15. Encouraging a monitoring and evaluation approach on the part of superior institutions, towards those of dependence, regarding the development of comparative and analytical indicators of success, difficulties and challenges encountered in the process of public notification and consultation.

5. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? 1. Transparent, accountable, open and more representative governance, as well as effective, inclusive and non-discriminating policies; 2. Strengthening trust in public institutions, the rule of law and the proper functioning of democratic institutions; 3. Legal framework and policies designed based on evidence, accepted and implemented by the public 4. Increased transparency and responsibility of public authorities towards the public and interested parties.

Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date

The frequency and quality index of public consultation are periodically monitored and the results are made transparent. | Semiannual and annual Center of Governance and Institutional Reports, are produced and published on E- consultation. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Center of government leads and monitors the quality of the public consultation process, based on a content oriented approach. | -Public consultation reports for individual acts are evaluated and validated by the quality control unit in the PMO. -PCIR are produced and published on e- consultation. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Improving the quality of impact assessment reports, in accordance with the criteria of the RIA methodology and the principles of good governance. | RIA reports draftedbased on best practices, in accordance with the standards established by the methodology, as well as based on implementation of the recommendations of international institutions/organizat ions. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Increasing capacities, through various trainings of RIA network officials in line ministries and strengthening quality control unit, in order to improve the regulatory impact assessment process. | Trained administration on the basic principles and various theoretical and practical aspects of the impact assessment process. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Increasing capacities of Public Consultation Coordinators and strengthening of quality control unit through various trainings in order to improve the process of public consultation. | Trained administration on the principles and standards of public consultation process. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Improving the process of drafting and implementing the General Analytical Program of Project acts. | General Analytical Program of Projects acts well planned and implemented at higher levels. | S II 2023- S I 2025

Empowerment of business associations and CSO-s regarding public consultation mechanism and process. | Workshops and training offered to business associations and NGOs in order to increase their involvement in the public consultation process. | S II 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 23. Planning regulatory acts, assessing their impacts, and public consultations