Improving Public Consultations at the National Level (MK0189)

Brief description of the commitment

Timely and considerable participation of citizens in the creation of policies is a prerequisite for a democratic society to be recognized as transparent and accountable, which is why the objective of the commitment is to improve the quality of public consultations thereat. The general conclusion is that the electronic public consultation system (ENER) has not been used to its full potential, and the quality control and monitoring of the public consultation process needs to be improved. For this purpose, the practice of creating and publishing annual plans for consultations should be applied together with a time frame in the direction of greater involvement of stakeholders in the processes, and the establishment of quality control of public consultations (institutions should provide feedback from consultations, that is, to create minutes from the consultative processes, as a follow-up activity with reasons why some proposals are or are not accepted). In addition, greater promotion and education of the population regarding ENER should be ensured within the framework of their greater inclusion with their own contribution to various regulations. In order to facilitate citizens' information and involvement in policymaking, all state websites should have a special section with the necessary information on the consultation processes (consultation plan, notice on public debate, minutes, documents discussed, etc.) with a direct link to ENER.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address?

The commitment addresses the lack of essential participation of citizens in the creation of policies as a prerequisite for building a transparent and accountable democratic society, due to the lack of clear, regular and timely information on the official communication channels of public institutions. In addition, the perception of the citizens is that public consultations are conducted in a non-transparent and unplanned manner, due to which their trust in the institutions is reduced and in addition they have the suspicion that some of the policies and laws are adopted formally due to the satisfaction of international standards while not paying attention to the local context or strictly for the benefit of certain individuals or groups. At the same time, the platform ENER remains unused in its full capacity as a platform for online public consultations due to citizens' lack of information about it, as well as the low quality of feedback received by its users. The number of comments on ENER indicates the need for increased information to citizens about the opportunities offered by ENER, and above all, building trust that commenting on ENER can really influence the content of draft laws.

2. What are the causes of the problem?

A key reason for this problem is that the public is not sufficiently, regularly and systematically informed about the public consultation process, as well as the existing opportunities and ways for their involvement, which is why key policies are adopted without substantial input from all stakeholders whose needs should be met through them. No institution in the country prepares and publishes annual plans for consultations together with an indicative time frame, so that key stakeholders can prepare in time to participate in them. In addition, the institutions do not regularly publish timely, clear and transparent information related to the consultations they conduct with the public, as well as the ways through which the public can get involved, and there are few institutions that publish minutes after the consultations with explanations for the proposals that were considered, accepted or not. At the same time, the ENER platform is usually used by experts, chambers of commerce, and part of the representatives of the civil sector who, according to their activity, follow the development of various policies and have knowledge of using this platform, while citizens and smaller NGOs that work at local level and are in direct contact with different categories of citizens whose needs should be taken into account through public policies, remain excluded from the entire process due to a lack of information about the platform and the opportunities it offers. Those stakeholders who use ENER are further discouraged from using this platform because they do not always receive feedback on their input on their comments, and in cases where they do, the information is generic or incomprehensible.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem?

The efforts so far are based on an ENER announcement tab on some of the public institutions’ websites, and some of them leave a link to ENER in their announcements for public consultations that leads to the document that is subject of consultation. Certain institutions, after the end of the public consultations, publish a short news about the public consultation, but without specifying the proposals that were discussed during the consultation, as well as the reasons for accepting or not accepting certain proposals or comments made by the stakeholders.

2. What solution are you proposing?

By implementing the commitment, there will be preparation of a procedure for improving the quality of public consultations at national level which will include 1) creation and publication of annual plans for consultations (name of document, time frame for preparation of the document, method and time frame for public consultations, etc.), together with a unified template for plans elaboration; 2) establishment of quality control of public consultations through the creation of unified minutes of the consultation processes (data on the consultations and a link to the document that is the subject of the consultation, those present at the consultation, a list of the proposals given with a rationale for those that were adopted or not adopted) . In addition, through the implementation of the commitment, a plan for the promotion and education of the population for ENER will be created and implemented in the direction of their greater involvement with their own contribution to various regulations.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment?

Establishing a procedure for improving the quality of public consultations at national level and creating and implementing a plan for the promotion and education of the population for ENER in the direction of their greater involvement with their own contribution to various regulations.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency?

Stakeholders will mainly have access to information about the public consultations that are planned and implemented at the national level, which will allow them to take part in a timely and informed discussion and give their specific proposals based on their needs as users.

2.How will the commitment help foster accountability?

The time frame for public consultations as well as the received proposals with the reasons on which they were accepted or not accepted will be publicly available on the public institutions’ official channels, which will further allow the public to demand liability from the stakeholders if there is an unfounded attempt at nonacceptance on a certain proposal.

3.How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing and monitoring solutions?

The commitment has a key objective to provide guidelines and mechanisms for continuous information of stakeholders through the creation of annual plans for public consultations, standardizing the minutes of public consultations, and at the same time setting a long-term plan for continuous promotion and educating the public about the possibility of using ENER for public consultations.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Results | Expected Completion Date)

2.3.1 Developing a procedure for the creation and publication of annual plans for consultations, along with a unified template for the preparation of the plans. | Developed and adopted procedure | December 2024

2.3.2 Developing a standardized template for the minutes of the consultative processes. | Developed and adopt ed template | September 2025

2.3.3 Creating a plan for the promotion and education of the population for ENER in the direction of their greater participation with their own contribution to various regulations | Created plan | December 2025

2.3.4 Implementing a plan for the promotion and education of the population for ENER in the direction of their greater participation with their own contribution to various regulations. | Conducted one plan cycle | December 2025