The main goals of cooperation under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance 2014-2020 (IPA II) are to strengthen the civil society impact in policy creation and decision making, as well as civil and policy dialogue. In that regard, aspirations are to achieve long-term impact on key reforms for further support to the EU accession process.
The basic precondition for establishment of joint institutional cooperation under IPA II is direct involvement of civil society representatives in formal bodies and consultation processes for programing, implementation and monitoring of this facility.
Civil society organizations organized themselves from the very start of IPA II programming, back in 2013. Throughout the years, the dynamics of their cooperation with state actors varied and was marked by a trend of gradual involvement in these processes.
The first initiatives by civil society organizations concerned requests for active involvement in IPA II programing, as well as expectations for availability and transparency of assistance-related strategy documents. In that, civil society organizations organized themselves into networks and secured policy evidence aimed to establish effective cooperation mechanism between the government and the civil society. Self-organized into sectors, civil society organizations offered their comments for the IPA II Indicative Strategy Paper. Moreover, they selected civil society representatives for all sectors.
The government institutions (at central level) responsible for IPA II coordination within line ministries and the Secretariat for European Affairs are the primary targets for establishment of cooperation. Significant and continuous support for civil society organizations is provided by the European Commission, represented by the EU Delegation in Skopje.
However, reality and dynamics in the first years of EU assistance implementation from the financial perspective simply did not correspond to expectations of civil society organizations for their involvement in institutional sector cooperation from the very beginning. Namely, institutions were initially focused on implementation of the previous instrument (IPA 2007-2013) and obligations arising therefrom.
The first more significant signals for institutional involvement of civil society organizations came in 2018, one year after formation of sector working groups under IPA II. In addition to state actors and donor representatives, for the first time, in 2018, civil society organizations were involved in work of seven sector working groups, as follows:
- Public Administration Reform;
- Public Finance Management;
- Justice;
- Home Affairs;
- Transport;
- Agriculture and Rural Development;
- Education, Employment and Social Policy.
Previously, in 2017, civil society organizations were involved in work of the sector working group on environment and climate change. The last sector working group to involve civil society organizations in 2019 is the one focused on competitiveness and innovation. The sector working group on local and regional development was officially formed in 2019 and includes civil society representatives in its work.
In parallel to their involvement in sector working groups, civil society organizations were gradually involved in IPA II sectoral monitoring committees. The only national body under IPA II where civil society organizations are not represented is the National Investment Committee.