This report examines the use of public opinion surveys as tools to advance administrative reforms in western European countries and central and eastern European countries. The aim is to demonstrate to central and eastern European governments and civil servants the utility of public opinion...

This publication is the product of the Workshop on the Internationalisation of Policy Making which SIGMA organised in July 1995 at the College of Europe Natolin, near Warsaw. The purpose of the Workshop was to provide an opportunity to senior practitioners from Central and Eastern European...

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...

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...

This paper was prepared by Sigma, upon the request of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, to serve as a basic comparative working document for the preparation of a new policy and regulation on conflict of interest in the Czech public sector. Given its generalist orientation, the...

Compliance with the European Union’s budgetary, financial control and audit requirements is one of the basic obligations of EU membership. SIGMA examines this in two publications that chronicle the experiences of seven EU Member States, including its three newest adherents, in integrating EU...

The European Commission requested Sigma to carry out a study on the regulatory management capacities of the ten countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 to learn more about their Better Regulation practices, exchange good practices and make suggestions for further improvements. This study was...

This publication is a tool for designers of new civil service pension schemes in central and eastern Europe. It presents civil service pension schemes in five OECD Member countries and ten central and eastern European countries. In most central and eastern European countries, people employed in...

This publication contains an overview of the seminar, background papers — including an inventory of how candidate countries plan to manage European integration — as well as ten points which emerged during the panel discussions of senior negotiators. Chapters have been grouped around 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...