A well-functioning government office acts as a co-ordinator of the decision-making system and as such is crucial for the government’s capacity to define and pursue its collective objectives. The “Government Office” is a generic term that refers to the institution(s) at the centre of...

Countries that are candidates for European Union (EU) accession face the complex and urgent task of building administrative institutions so that they can fulfil the “Copenhagen criteria”. Such institutions must be able to implement the acquis communautaire within tight budget constraints and...

Central and eastern European countries have been and still are adapting their legal framework to the requirements of a Western market economy and the body of EU legislation, the acquis communautaire. As the harmonisation of the national legal framework to EU standards is one of the yardsticks...

This paper analyses the negotiations which will take place with the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzogovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and attempts to identify where the major problems are likely to lie. The experience of the...

This paper attempts to identify the standards to which EU candidate countries are expected to conform in order to align their public administrations with those of EU Member States. Originating from SIGMA’s work on public administration reform in central and eastern European countries, in...

In the wake of the Balkan crisis, the Central and East European transition countries have been put into two groups, the seven South-East European countries (SEEC-7) and the five Central European countries (CEEC-5). SEEC-7 have not only been more immediately affected by the crisis but also show...