On 18th of November, 2014 in Skopje, the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) promoted the publication “Government Mirror: Public participation in the legislation preparation procedures”. The project is implemented since 2012 as part of the USAID Program for anticorruption. The publication represents a monitoring tool which equips CSOs, state officials and the broader public with information on the openness of state institutions and the possibilities for participation in the legislation preparation processes.
The publication is composed in two parts. The first part is dealing with evaluation of openness of state institutions based on data gathered through two questionnaires’ for the Ministries, and the second part presents results from monitoring of the time period in which state institutions should publish draft laws and the overall implementation of the minimum standards for performing the consultation process on the Unique National Electronic Registry of Regulations (ENER).
In terms of results, a decrease in the general openness of state institutions was observed and the average mark on communication environment of institutions decreased as compared to 2012. Slight improvements were registered in the processes of preparation and publication of draft laws by the Ministries, however many of the draft laws were not published on ENER. The complete documentation needed for the consultation process was made available in most of the cases when Ministries published draft laws. The minimal timeframe for consultations was respected half of the time.
The presentation of results was followed by a fruitful discussion that involved both representatives from the Ministries and CSOs. Key topics in the discussion were the methodology of the project, the findings on state institutions closeness and the possibilities for improvement of ENER for the purpose of more effective involvement of citizens and CSOs in the consultation processes. Jelena Mirkovic, Policy and Advocacy Officer and Milka Ivanovska, Junior Policy and Advocacy Officer on Civil Society Development at BCSDN attended the presentation and took active participation in the discussion.
More information about the event can be found here, and the report, as well as other information, is available for download at the Government Mirror website.