Support to the Development and Improvement of the Civil Servants Training Systemin Ukraine

/ EUROPEAN UNION
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO UKRAINE

Twinning Fiche

"Support to the development and improvement of the civil servants training systemin Ukraine"

List of abbreviations

BC Beneficiary Country (beneficiary of twinning projects under IPA or ENPI)

ENPI The Tacis and the MEDA programmes have been replaced by the ENPI. For theperiod 2007-2013, Community assistance under the Neighbourhood andPartnership Instrument shall promote enhanced cooperation and progressiveeconomic integration between the European Union and the partner countries and, in particular, the implementation of partnership and cooperation agreements, association agreements or other existing and future agreements. It shall also encourage partner countries’ efforts aimed at promoting good governance and equitable social and economic development. See table 1.2 for countries which are covered

HRMHuman resources management

MDCSMain Department of Civil Service in Ukraine

MS MemberState(s) of the European Union. From 1st January 2007 the European

Union consists of 27 MS

NAPANationalAcademy for Public Administration

PCAThe formalisation of bilateral relations between the EU and individual partnercountries has been achieved through the negotiation of Partnership andCo-operation Agreements (PCAs),now in force with ten of the EasternEuropean and Central Asian countries. PCAs are legal frameworks, based on therespect of democratic principles and human rights, setting out the political,economic and trade relationship between the EU and its partner countries. EachPCA is a ten-year bilateral treaty signed and ratified by the EU and the individual state

RIRegional Institutes for Public Administration

RTAResident Twinning Adviser: A civil servant from a MemberState administrationwho works in the BC on a full-time basis for at least one year in the framework of a Twinning project

STEShort-term expert

TACIS Launched by the EC in 1991 and ongoing until December 2006, the TACISProgramme provided grant-financed technical assistance to 13 countries ofEastern Europe and Central Asia and mainly aimed at enhancing the transitionprocess in these countries. Countries concerned were: Armenia, Azerbaijan,Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, RussianFederation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan

TNATraining Needs Analysis or Training Needs Assessment. The identification of training needs

WTOWorld Trade Organization

1. Basic Information

1.1. Programme: ENPI

1.2. Twinning number: UA08/ENP-PCA/OT/14

1.3. Title: Support to the development and improvement of the civil servants training system in Ukraine

1.4. Sector:Civil Service reform, Administrative reform, Government Administration

1.5. Beneficiary country: Ukraine

2. Objectives

2.1 Overall Objective

Improved quality of the Public Administration in Ukraine, up to EU and international standards both at central and regional levels.

2.2 Project purpose

A modernized civil servants’ training system, that is focused on the development of professional skills and attitudes of civil servants at both central and local (including regional) levels enabling provision of high quality services to citizens and decision makers’.

The project results will also have impact on the improvement of Human Resources Management in the public service.

2.3. Contribution to EU policies and Action Plans

2.3.1 The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement

Ukraine was the first country of the former Soviet Union to conclude a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)[1] with the European Union. The PCA, that was signed on 16 June 1994 and entered into force on 1 March 1998, constitutes the legal base of the EU-Ukraine relations and establishes cooperation on a wide range of political, trade, economic and humanitarian issues.

The objectives of this Partnership are:

• to provide an appropriate framework for the political dialogue between the Parties allowing

the development of close political relations;

• to promote trade and investment and harmonious economic relations between the Parties

and so to foster their sustainable development;

• to provide a basis for mutually advantageous economic, social, financial, civil scientific

technological and cultural co-operation;

• to support Ukrainian efforts to consolidate its democracy and to develop its economy and to

complete the transition into a market economy.

On 30 March 2004, a protocol was signed, confirming that as from 1 May 2004 the ten new EU Member States will be Parties to the Agreement and benefit from its wide-ranging provisions on political and economic co-operation with Ukraine.

In recognition of the significant democratic and economic reforms underway in Ukraine, the EU and Ukraine opened negotiations in March 2007 on a New Enhanced Agreement (NEA) that will replace the present PCA and will include a deep and comprehensive Free Trade Area as a core element thereof. On 5 February 2008 the General Council paved the way for Ukraine’s membership in the WTO by approving its accession terms. Ukraine has ratified the deal on 10 April 2008 and will become a WTO member 30 days after the ratification. As a result of the finalisation of Ukraine’s WTO accession process, the EU and Ukraine launched negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine, on 18 February 2008.

This twinning project will contribute to fulfil the objectives of the PCA and especially the aims and activities foreseen in Article 59 on Education and training according to which "the co-operation shall focus in particular on the following areas:

• the training of public and private sector executives and civil servants in priority areas to be determined;
• co-operation between educational establishments co-operation, between educational establishments and firms;
• training of trainers.”

2.3.2 The European Neighbourhood Policy

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)[2] was developed in 2004, with the objective of building a deeper relationship with its neighbours to the east and south, supporting their reform processes. The overall goal of ENP is to foster the political and economic reform process, promote closer economic integration, legal and technical approximation and sustainable development. The privileged relationship with neighbours will build on mutual commitment to common values principally within the fields of the rule of law, good governance, the respect for human rights, including minority rights, the promotion of good neighbourly relations, and the principles of market economy and sustainable development. This policy goes well beyond existing regional and bilateral cooperation, encouraging and supporting the partners’ own individual political, economic and social reform and transition. The level of ambition of the EU’s relationships with its neighbours will take into account the extent to which the earlier-mentioned values are effectively shared.

In the communication of 4 December 2006 “On strengthening the European Neighbourhood Policy”, the EC underlined that the first eighteen months of implementation of the ENP have laid a substantial foundation for strengthened relations between the Union and its neighbours and that the ENP now has a dedicated financial instrument that will significantly improve the quality of its assistance and provide more funds to support its partners’ reforms (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, ENPI).[3]Ukraine is one of the priority countries of the ENP.

This twinning project will also help to fulfil the priorities of the ENP and then particularly in strengthening democracy and governance.

2.3.3 The European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan (ENP-AP)

The central element of the European Neighbourhood Policy is the bilateral ENP Action Plan agreed between the EU and each partner. These set out an agenda of political and economic reforms with short and medium-term priorities. Following the enlargement of the EU on 1 May 2004, Ukraine and the EU co-signed on 21 February 2005 an EU/Ukraine action plan in the framework of the Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Through the three year action plan, Ukraine and the EU aim to develop to a closer relationship aimed at stability, security and well being. In particular the implementation of the Action Plan will significantly advance the approximation of Ukrainian legislation, norms and standards to those of the EU.

In line with Ukraine’s international commitments and its strategic goal of further European integration, Ukraine will continue its internal reforms based on strengthening democracy, rule of law, respect of human rights, the principle of separation of powers and judicial independence, democratic election in accordance with OSCE and Council of Europe norms and standards.[4]

In relation to the development of the Ukrainian Public Administration (central and local administration including local self government bodies), the EU-Ukraine Action Plan points to the following priorities, which the twinning project will also help to fulfil:

• To further strengthen the stability and effectiveness of institutions guaranteeing democracy
• To reinforce administrative capacity
• To continue administrative reform
• To promote transparency and accountability of the administration, in particular concerning the reform of the civil service based on European standards.

In addition to these priorities the ENP progress report stresses that “future EC assistance to Ukraine will focus on strengthening good governance” (ENP Progress report of 4 December 2006).

3. – Description

3.1 Background

Societies from the former Soviet Union currently face the choice between order and democratic freedom. Whereas the former gains a connotation with semi authoritarian solutions and stability, the latter is increasingly equated to lawlessness and social and economic instability. Whilst holding recently fair and open democratic elections Ukraine is consolidating its path towards democracy, also underlining its choice towards becoming a modern liberal economy based on the rule of law and standards of democratic governance.

Ukrainian elites and the international donor community are aware that a modern public sector operating on the principles of democratic governance is an essential prerequisite for sustaining the current choice for democratization.

Understanding the current momentum for reform and the need for establishing a professional cadre able to operate within a modern public administration is clear, but the experience of more than a dozen of years of transformation is also indicative towards a set of partly convoluting trends and legacies within the public sector. These are remnants of soviet style of public administration, but they are also a result of the adaptation towards recent political realities and (international) models that have been introduced, often without sufficiently taking into account the feasibility and capacity to actually adopt these experiences and practices within the context of Ukraine.

Some Soviet legacies need to be taken into account by the twinning partner from the MS whilst developing an appropriate approach for a successful twinning with NAPA, ensuring a professional civil service:

• Law and policy making in Ukraine is still excessively diffuse and unconstrained by public consultations or other processes engaging society or testing policy initiatives. The president issues decrees on a wide variety of topics, the cabinet of ministers governs through flow of decrees on specific actions. Additionally individual ministries and agencies have wide ranging powers within their specific areas of responsibilities. Under this multilayered policy making, various branches of government produce a large quantity of their own quasi legal documents, poorly coordinated with central government, but also often delegate important policy issues to low levels of administration. This specific organization is still attributable to soviet style public sector management and public administration. The diffusion of discretionary authority was controlled by a strict (ideological) control though the party organs, now it tends to contribute to chaotic administration and policy making.

• Like formulation, implementation is supervised by various authorities and it is unclear which organization has which responsibility. In some cases local organization report to central and local authorities in other not. There is little link between the budget and personnel allocation and the actual function and decision making powers granted to various levels of government. A formidable apparatus of control over the institutions of government exists, but in fact due to excessive specialization and fragmentation of responsibilities there is de facto little or no accountability for quality and actual delivery of policy advice. Control is seen as purely procedural, if procedures are required outputs and outcomes are not seen as relevant. Control is exercised by competing agencies, president's office; ministry of finance, the government secretariat and the prosecutor general.

• As regards civil service development and training it can be stated that in line with the previous remarks “the current civil service was not designed to serve a democratic state but an authoritarian, faulty and undemocratic political regime, wherethe bureaucracy was to be skilled at following orders and instructions from above, not at being accountable for shaping and implementing public policies and laws” (SIGMA, "Ukraine Governance Assessment"[5], March 2006, p. 50). “Weak professionalism in the public sector is being one of the problems preventing development of the civil service in Ukraine (….). A modern in service training system is still yet to be developed. Currently priorities and training plans are still being defined by each training entity without a general strategy and synergies to reach common objectives.”

• Recent initiatives like the Concept of Development of professional training, re-training and in-service training system of public servants and local government officials, show that progress is being made in the area of civil service training.There have also been attempts to conduct comprehensive training needs assessments, also supported by the international donor community; however their recommendations have as of today not been carried out systematically.

• A major issue preventing the development of a professional in-service training system is that it is necessary to separate the responsibility for training policy design and evaluation from the management of training activities. (…) Thus a training policy needs to be developed and the institutional roles regarding training should be specified.

3.1.1 Recent activities in the sector

Reform and professional training of the civil service has been and is high on the agenda of Ukrainian government and has resulted in amongst others the following (draft) laws and policies:

• The foundation of the civil service in Ukraine was laid in December 1993 with the adoption of the Law “On the civil service”. According to this law, the improvement of professional skills and qualifications is one of the duties of civil servants (article 10). On the other hand, article 29 establishes that “civil servants shall be provided with conditions for training and improving their professional skills at appropriate educational institutions and by self-education. It continues that civil servants shall continuously improve their professional skills including by means of study in appropriate educational institutions, generally at least once every five years. Results of study and skills improvement shall constitute a basis for promotion.

• The presidential decree on "Concept of adjusting the institution of civil service in Ukraine to the standards of the European Union" (adopted on 5/03/2004, ref. 278/2004) identified the following priorities areas: improvement of the legal status of the civil service; reform of the system of pay of civil servants; establishment of clearly framed legal regulations of administrative procedures and improvement of legal regulations regarding professional ethics of civil servants; strengthening of professionalism in the civil service.

• The Civil Service Development Programme for 2005-2010 (approved by the regulation of the Government of Ukraine of 8/06/2004 # 746)addresses improvements in the legal institutional and procedural issues related to remuneration, performance monitoring, more efficient central service management, merit based appointment and promotion of personnel, strengthened accountability and better observance of professional standards and ethics. This programme has been recently amended (by the regulation of the Government of Ukraine of 3.09.2008 # 776) with an aim to strengthen the "European dimension" of the civil service reform. In particular, new provisions have been included regarding programme's objectives (introduction of quality control systems in public administration and local self-government), criteria for civil service performance assessment (alignment of Ukrainian governance system with Sigma/OECD baselines), intervention logic (emphasis on approximation of the civil service of Ukraine to EU standards and clear reference to the EC institution building instruments such as Twinning and TAIEX).

• Currently activities are being carried out on revising the new draft law “On civil service”, including conditions of Presidential decree No. 900 of 20.09.2007 about activities concerning civil service reform in Ukraine and ensuring protection of constitutional rights of civil servants.The latest version of the draft law has been presented by the Main department of civil service at the end of October 2008, but further proceeding depends on the outcomes of the parliamentary crisis broken out in September 2008.

As regards training, it is stating that training should be in the form of in-service training in the form of specialized courses, practical "based on a new – European – understanding of the civil service, which involve objective, fair and impartial decision making at political and administrative level, independence of professional position of the civil servant, commitment to the common interests, loyalty to the state and its legitimate political leadership".

The modalities in which knowledge and skills should be transferred should be practice oriented, in the form of seminars, specialized courses, practical seminars or other didactical approaches that is suitable for developing a professional level. The civil servant will also responsible for making and pursuing a individual training plan, thus increasing the possibility to upgrade his skills and knowledge on a regular base.

Emphasizing the professional development and independence of civil servants as cornerstones of the new law is seen as an important step towards achieving a professionalized civil service operating with European standards. However, it also clear that the law’s actual implementation will depend to a large degree on the development of specific and realistic policies and availability of institutional capacity.

The new government is stressing the need for a professional public administration and civil service and considers its further development as one of its most important priorities.

3.1.2Main actors (NAPA, MDCS) and twinning stakeholders