On this occasion, Mr. Djordje Krivokapić, Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade and Legal & Policy Director of the Share Foundation in Serbia, together with a Share Foundation team, presented their research related to the practices of handling, processing and exchanging data in public institutions in Serbia and the “Guide for Handling Personal Data in Public Sector.”

Representatives of civil society and civil servants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro were invited to participate. The webinar is set up as part of the EU-supported PASOS project Advocacy for Open Government, aimed at encouraging governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to become more transparent, accountable and engaging of citizens.

The post Webinar: Professionalization of Standards of Handling and Processing Data in Public Institutions (+video) first appeared on PAS OS.

In this video recording of the webinar, Recica discusses the following points:

1. Accessing government data: Why?
2. Open Data in Kosovo: Where do we stand?
3. Make the data speak citizens language

The webinar was held as part of Advocacy for Open Government, an EU-funded project to encourage governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to become more transparent.

The post Webinar: Open Government Data first appeared on PAS OS.

In this video recording of the webinar, Recica discusses the following points:

1. Why a budget needs to be a citizen’s budget?
2. Budgeting process
3. Budget reporting and Transparency

The webinar was held as part of Advocacy for Open Government, an EU-funded project to encourage governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to become more transparent.

The post Webinar: Budget Transparency and Citizen’s Budget first appeared on PAS OS.

The webinar is designed for OGP stakeholders, government and civil society representatives in participating countries to guide their efforts in the development of new national action plans (NAPs) and their implementation. It brings best practices and advice as observed from various OGP players such as OGP’s Support Unit and IRM, including a civil society perspective through IDM’s experience (Albania) and PASOS project’s implementation in the WB region.

The webinar is set up as part of the EU-supported Advocacy for Open Government project, aimed at encouraging governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to become more transparent, accountable and engaging of citizens.

The post Webinar: How to Create and Implement Stronger OGP Action Plans(+Video) first appeared on PAS OS.

The grant is funding a project called COHESIFY, which will focus on four interrelated issues:

• how European identity and perceptions of the EU and Cohesion policy vary at national, regional and local levels;
• the impact of Cohesion policy on citizens’ perceptions of the policy and identification with the EU;
• whether and how Cohesion policy communication strategies affect perception and identification; and
• what is needed to make Cohesion policy more effective in terms of people’s perceptions of the policy and the EU more generally

The study will employ an innovative mixed-methods design including an original and representative survey of citizens in a sample of EU regions, quantitative and qualitative analysis of EU-wide data and of programme implementation and communication strategies in a sample of regions, framing and sentiment analysis of online and offline media and focus groups with citizens.

Funded under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, COHESIFY aims to check how the European citizens perceive the EU through the lenses of money invested in their towns, cities and regions. By conducting a multidisciplinary study, researchers will investigate if cohesion policy, the fund behind 50 billion euros invested yearly in all European regions, effects people’s identification with the European project.

CPS-CEU is one of 8 academic institutions and 2 SMEs participating in the project, which is being led by the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC).

The post CPS-CEU to Help Evaluate EU’s Cohesion Efforts first appeared on PAS OS.

The results were announced at an April 14 press conference held jointly with the Kharkiv Anti-corruption Center (KhAC), which has partnered with ICPS on the project, called “Anti-corruption Portal for Public Investigations.”

“Anti-corruption investigations can be conducted through processing of public information and open data registers,” said project coordinator Natalia Shylo. “The country lives in a unique time. High officials have become open to our gaze as never before. We can make sure what decisions the city council takes and what procurement auctions state enterprises hold.

“Our authorities still do not realize how transparent their activities are, that is why they involve in procurement auctions their friends by establishing non-transparent conditions. You can keep up on all this sitting at the computer.”

Funded by the British Embassy in Ukraine, the project was launched in January 2016. The project supported activists who combed public records, conducted open data journalism, and financed independent investigators. The project is one of the first in the field of “digital democracy” in Ukraine, and the think tank expects that it will set a precedent for increasing citizen control over public finances.

Among the findings submitted to authorities are allegations that:

• The Donbasenergo power company purchased coal from a mine owned by the minister of energy and coal of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at a price 3.5 times higher than the market price, according to Volodymyr Rudenko of the KhAC.
• The city council of Kharkiv routinely gives away public land to corporations and individuals close to municipal leaders. In one case, the land was used to build a private mansion for Mykhailo Dobkin, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said journalist Maryna Nikolaeva. She said that Kharkiv has one of the lowest levels of competition in the construction industry in Ukraine.
• The director of the Kharkiv Cancer Center profited from two pharmacies he built on the site of the center. The center spent about 46 percent of its medicinal purchases at the pharmacies, said Yevgen Lisichkin of the KhAC.

ICPS and Svidomi, an anti-corruption NGO, are planning a press conference April 28 in Lviv, to reveal more results of the project.

The post ICPS Project Releases Corruption Allegations first appeared on PAS OS.

HOW TO INCREASE TRANSPARENCY AND EFFICIENCY AT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL THROUGH ON-LINE SERVICES

May 16, 2016, at 11:00-11:45 AM (GMT+1)

Presenters:

Juliana Hoxha, Expert at Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, CoE and Director/Founder of Partners Albania for Change and Development

Dear colleagues,

The Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) in Tirana, Albania invites interested participants to a Webinar on the topic “How to increase transparency and efficiency at local government level through on-line services”, which will be held in English on May 16^th, 2016, hrs 11:00-11:45 AM Central European Time (CET).

On this occasion, Mrs. Juliana Hoxha, Expert at Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, CoE and Director/Founder of Partners Albania for Change and Development, will present the importance of on-line public services in increasing transparency and efficiency at the local government level.

Representatives of civil society and civil servants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia are invited to join this online seminar. We look forward to your participation. For registration, please click here.

The webinar is set up as part of the EU-supported Advocacy for Open Government project, aimed at encouraging governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia to become more transparent, accountable and engaging of citizens.

The post Call For Participants: Webinar on “How to Increase Transparency and Efficiency at Local Government Level Through On-Line Services” first appeared on PAS OS.

A ground-breaking new PASOS study by four leading Central European think-tanks into the democracy assistance policies, spending, and geographical priorities ofthe Visegrad Four countries, Democracy’s New Champions (296 pages, see PDF below) provides an analysis of the record of four of Europe’s new democracies in sharing their transition experience to promote democracy abroad and in keeping democracy promotion on the European political agenda.

The research in Democracy’s New Champions includes an assessment of the Visegrad Four countries’ democracy assistance policies and practice towards four target countries, namely Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, and Ukraine.

Edited by Jacek Kucharczyk, Research Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, and Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director of PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society), the project involved four leading think-tanks – EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, Czech Republic, Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University, Hungary, the Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, and the Institute for Public Affairs, Slovakia. All four policy centres are members of the PASOS network, while the research in Ukraine was co-ordinated by researchers from the International Centre for Policy Studies, also a PASOS member.

Contents

PART I. Democracy Assistance Policies – Trends and Approaches
Re-energising Europe to Champion Democracy
The Visegrad Four bring fresh transition experience to the donors’ side of the table
by Jacek Kucharczyk and Jeff Lovitt
Limited Resources, Global Ambitions
The Czech Republic’s Democracy Assistance Policies and Priorities
by Vladimír Bartovic
Hungarian Minorities, the Balkans … and the Far East
Hungary’s Democracy Assistance Policies and Priorities
by Áron Horváth
Eastern Promises and Achievements
Poland’s Democracy Assistance Policies and Priorities
by Piotr Kaźmierkiewicz
Exporting Democracy (not only Democracy…)
Slovakia’s Democracy Assistance Policies and Priorities
by Grigorij Mesežnikov
European Union: Democracy versus Bureaucracy
An Assessment of the Reform of the EU’s External Assistance Instruments
by Věra Řiháčková

PART II. Visegrad Four Democracy Assistance Policies in Target Countries
Belarus: Next Generation Democracy
by Marian Kowalski
Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Closely Watched Democracy
by Sanida Kikić
Cuba: Forging Alliances Across the Transatlantic Divide
by Francesco Guarascio
Ukraine: Supporting Elusive Consolidation
by Natalia Shapovalova and Olga Shumylo

Democracy’s New Champions emerged from the PASOS project, Evaluation of the Democracy Assistance Policies and Priorities of the Visegrad Four countries, which compares the democracy assistance priorities of the Visegrad countries, and puts their policies and priorities in perspective in the context of EU democracy assistance efforts.Two additional policy briefs, New Kids on the Block – Can the Visegrad Four emerge as effective players in international democracy assistance? and Is the EU ready to put democracy assistance at the heart of European foreign policy? also emerged from the project.

The project was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, the Open Society Institute Think-Tank Fund, and the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of the Open Society Institute.

The post Democracy’s New Champions first appeared on PAS OS.

The papers address such diverse topics as new media, visa liberalisation, the revolutions in North Africa, and the European neighbourhood.

Following is a description of each brief and a link to download the paper:

These policy studies were created with the support of the International Visegrad Fund:

What kind of EU does the Mediterranean need? (Alexander Duleba & Lucia Najšlová)

This paper proposes modalities for stronger and more efficient EU engagement in the reform of Arab countries that recently underwent revolutions, without necessarily putting extra burden on financial expenditure allocated for the region. It argues that the EU policy in the Mediterranean has to be grounded in structured partnership with non-state actors, which engages them in all phases of policy cycle including planning of goals and monitoring of results of EUMED cooperation. This policy study was carried out with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.

From the network to the streets: Online tools and democratization in Egypt and Belarus (Alek Tarkowski, Basem Fathy and Dzianis Melyantsou)

This policy brief includes two case studies – Egypt and Belarus – that show how digital communication technologies were used in recent protest activities in both countries. Based on interviews with civil society activists and an analysis of the process, it provides recommendations to EU policymakers and
argues for stronger EU endorsement of civic freedoms, including an uncensored internet.

Friendly Neighbours: Increasing the Potential of European Neighbourhood Policy Cross-Border Cooperation Initiatives (Andrey Demidov & Sara Svensson)

This policy brief looks at the EU’s promotion of integration and cooperation along its external borders and draws policy recommendations from the experience on the ground. The policy brief focuses on the local level, on people and communities living close to the borders as represented by political administrations (local governments) and civil society organizations. The brief starts with an analysis of the current practice of the crossborder cooperation initiatives of the ENP and the partnership with Russia.
The following policy study was written as part of the PASOS project, Paving the Road towards Visa-free Travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and the EU. The project is being carried out with the support of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of Open Society Foundations:

No shortcuts on the road to freedom of movement for the EU’s Eastern neighbours (Piotr Kaźmierkiewicz and Nadya Dimitrova)

This study identifies opportunities and barriers to the process of visa liberalisation between the European Union (EU) and the states of the Eastern Partnership, in particular Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Attention is paid to two key factors: technical, involved in the process of adoption, implementation and evaluation of action plans, and political, centering on the will of the two parties (EU and EaP states) to move the process forward and complete it successfully.

The post Pasos Releases 4 Policy Briefs at Annual Conference first appeared on PAS OS.

PASOS has published two guidebooks for think-tanks, one a code of good governance and one based on a set of principles for ensuring quality control.

“Thinking Ethically” and “How to win respect and influence policymakers” were released at the annual PASOS members assembly in Warsaw November 26.

The ethics guide was written by Petr Pajas, a PASOS programme manager. The 44-page booklet unveils “The PASOS think-tank code of good governance,” 10 principles to assist think-tanks facing ethical decisions. The code  includes chapters on avoiding conflicts of interest, responsible fundraising, and financial management.

“Thinking Ethically” draws on a wide variety of sources to construct the code, including some from PASOS members: an integrity statement created by The Centre for Research and Policy Making in Macdeonia, and a code of conduct from The Centre for Social and Economic Research in Poland.

The second guidebook, “How to win respect and influence policymakers”, was edited by PASOS Secretariat Director Jeff Lovitt. It likewise offers a set of 10 core principles for excellence in policy work at think-tanks. Many of the book’s ideas were spawned at a February 2010 gathering PASOS members in Prague.

“The result is a publication that draws on, and cites, a number of their approaches, codes, and methodologies, and we are indebted to those who attended and to others who have provided input and comments”, Lovitt said. “This gives the initiative a greater sense of ownership by the practitioners to whom it is addressed.”

The publications were made possible with the support of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) of Open Society Foundations.

Download: Thinking Ethically

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