Montenegro takes over presidency of Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA)

Skopje, Macedonia (31 October 2014) – Minister of the Interior Raško Konjević attended the annual ministerial meeting of the Governing Board of the Regional School for Public Administration (ReSPA), where Montenegro took over the presidency of the initiative.

Highlighting the importance of the regional cooperation, particularly in terms of European integration, Interior Minister Konjević said that Montenegrin presidency over the ReSPA will be focused on the engagement of all available resources in order to improve the work of this regional initiative. The intention of the Ministry of the Interior is to improve the work of this school through introducing multi-annual working plans, referring particularly to joint presidency or model of trilateral presidency in order to continue activities within the grants provided by the European Commission.

Ministry of the Interior will use this presidency as an opportunity to strengthen relations between the institutions in charged for the reform of the public administration, as well as the basis for further progress in the European accession process, Minister Konjević emphasised.

The meeting also discussed issues related to the ethics, anticorruption, raising the level of the competitiveness and employment in terms of public administration reform process and strengthening the efficiency and transparency of its work.

Minister Konjević also commented the EU Commission’s criticism on Montenegro's fight against corruption, adding it has already been working on a wide range of measures within the chapters 23 and 24 in order to achieve visible progress in this area.