The Government of the Republic of Serbia launched Project ePaper in 2016 with the aim of simplification of administrative procedures and modernizing public administration (“Project”). The Project aims to reduce the administrative expenses by 15-20% – from 3.46% to 3.0 % of GDP by 2021.
In July 2019 the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Programme for the Simplification of Administrative Procedures and Regulations ‘e-Paper’ for the Period 2019-2021 (“Programme”) together with the Action Plan for the implementation of the Programme (“Action Plan”).
The measures envisioned by the Programme for achieving the above-mentioned general goal are inter alia:
- Establishing a Single Public Register of Administrative Procedures by the end of 2020;
- Simplifying and eliminating unnecessary procedures, optimizing the 500 most frequent and most expensive procedures, and digitalizing the 100 most frequently used procedures by the end of 2020;
- Digitalizing 2,500 administrative procedures by 2021
Recently the Public Policy Secretariat (“Secretariat”) as the coordinator of the Project has announced on its website the amendments to the Action Plan in accordance with the “second package” of the Recommendations for the Optimization of Administrative Procedures (“Recommendations”) and invited all interested parties to send their comments, proposals, and suggestions.
The Draft Act on the Single Public Register
The first Draft Act on the Single Public Register (“Act”) was published on the website of the Secretariat.
The public register should be a one-stop-shop where citizens and economic operators will be able to obtain all necessary information and documentation relevant for a specific administrative procedure.
The Act regulates the establishment and maintenance, content, manner of use, as well as other issues of importance for the functioning of the register of administrative procedures. The Act will also establish principles for regulating administrative procedures, as well as the authority to adopt methodological rules governing these procedures.
The Act should be adopted and enter into force by the end of 2020 and will constitute the legal basis for the establishment of the Register.
Questionnaire on Administration Simplification
The Questionnaire on 2500 administrative procedures has been made publicly available on the portal http://www.epapir.rsjp.gov.rs/start.
Every interested party can fill in the questionnaires and submit a) opinions on each administrative procedure before public authorities (for example Tax Authority, National Bank of Serbia etc) b) explanations on difficulties encountered within the administrative procedure and c) proposal which administrative procedures should be abolished or simplified.
In its announcement, the Secretariat invited all interested partiesto actively participate in the survey. The input provided directly by entrepreneurs, experts, companies and various organizations should help implementation of the Project and systematic examination of 2500 administrative procedures.
This text is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Should you require any additional information, feel free to contact us.
By Radovan Grbovic, Partner, and Vanja Vujnovic, Senior Associate, Samardzic, Oreski & Grbovic
