Public administration reform in Ukraine

Abstract

The three partner universities from the neighbouring regions of Slovakia (University of Presov in Presov), Poland (University of Rzeszow in Rzeszow) and Ukraine (Uzhhorod National University in Uzhhorod), including their departments of political sciences, discussed at the end of 2012 the need for public administration reform in Ukraine. The result was a joint project co-financed by the International Visegrad Fund named “Public Administration Reform in Ukraine: Lessons Learned from Slovakia and Poland”. This publication is one of the project outcomes. When starting the project in February 2013 nobody knew what would happen after the Vilnius summit; even EU representatives spoke only about possible positive scenarios related to Ukraine. But one thing was certain: Ukraine needed “a bunch” of economic and social reforms to avoid bankruptcy and to modernize its whole society. One of the desperately needed reforms was of the public administration system. Today, after “the Euromaidan”, the reform of public administration in Ukraine is an even more urgent need and maybe the only solution to keep Ukraine united as a country. This publication sums up the key findings from the project. Its aims were to elaborate policy recommendations for Ukrainian authorities on public administration reform based on the experience of Slovakia and Poland, to contribute to the implementation of the Eastern Partnership Roadmap 2012–13, to contribute to the convergence of administrative competences of regional and local actors in Ukraine with neighbouring V4 countries in order to improve conditions for cross-border cooperation on the external border of the EU, to mobilize the research capacities of the regional universities in Presov (SK), Rzeszow (PL) and Uzhhorod (UA) for the needs of both policy planning and policy making of the regional and local political actors in Ukraine, to contribute to ongoing public discourse in Ukraine on public administration reform, including strengthening regional and local self-government through presenting the experiences of Slovakia and Poland, and finally to facilitate research cooperation between the political science departments of the three universities located in the regions on the external border of the EU – Presov (SK), Rzeszow (PL) and Uzhhorod (UA). The project aims were fully met by organising several conferences and workshops. The 1st was the international conference held on 3–4 October 2013 in Uzhhorod; that was followed up by workshops held on 7–8 November 2013 in Rzeszow (PL), on 22 November 2013 in Presov (SK) and a final workshop held on 31 January 2013, again in Uzhhorod (UA). All events were attended by Ukrainian authorities at national, regional and local levels, academic and research communities, regional and local media and other political stakeholders in Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland, as well as university students. The research done within the project was targeted to meet the priorities of Eastern Partnership and the needs of Ukraine. Public administration reform in the Eastern Partnership countries in line with EU norms and practices has been identified as one of the key objectives of the Eastern Partnership. We hope that the outcomes of the project, published in this book, will be useful to Ukrainian policy makers at national, regional and local levels. The experience of Poland and Slovakia from their public administration reforms can be implemented in Ukraine, and Ukraine can also learn from failures and mistakes made by both countries – and avoid them. Polish and Slovak expertise is also available to Ukrainian policy makers, if needed.