The project “CSO Dialogue – Platform for Structural Participation in EU Integrations” organized a consultation meeting to discuss the action document “EU for Improved Health and Social Protection and Gender Equality”.
The meeting was held on 9 June (Wednesday), starting at 11:00 a.m. It was attended by representatives from civil society organizations involved in work of the sector working group on health with the status of observers and representative from the Ministry of Health’s Sector on European Integrations and International Cooperation.
The purpose of this coordination meeting was for MoH representative to inform civil society organizations about the most important data contained in the action document and for civil society organizations to provide comments and views aimed at improving the document in question.
The action document is part of IPA III, window 4: competitiveness and inclusive growth, thematic priority: education, employment, social protection and inclusion policies, and health, and it concerns the year 2022. Falling within the competences of the health sector, the draft action document pays special attention to three areas of action:
1. Improving mother and neonatal health;
2. Improving prevention and control of non-infectious diseases; and
3. Improving quality of data management in the health sector.
Discussions initiated by representatives from six civil society organizations were directed at crucial changes and improvements to formal procedures. In that, meeting participants stressed that, most often, civil society organizations are called to comment on already finalized documents in the last phase of their development, which does not allow space for meaningful changes to be made. Hence, civil society representatives should be involved in all phases of the process for creation of relevant documents at competent institutions, i.e. they should be allowed to attend operational and plenary meetings held by the specific sector working group. As regards the action document being discussed, some civil society representative stressed that patients with rare diseases are not covered therein, while topics covered in the document exclude large portion of health conditions. In particular, the action document is focused on secondary and tertiary healthcare, while primary healthcare is not part of this reform effort although it represents a significant segment of the overall health system.
Nevertheless, civil society organizations will submit their proposals to MoH representatives and expect this institution to provide them feedback on proposals accepted and justification for those rejected.
In the process for IPA III programming, the institutions are obliged to develop strategic responses, action fiches and other relevant documents that would ensure financial support from the European Union. However, needs assessment and priority setting should rely on the established practice for structured and organized dialogue with civil society organizations, guaranteed by the principles of pluralism and transparency.