From the ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSPARENCY IN EUROPE Conference held in Belgrade on the 18th of November 2010
«The Administrative Transparency in Europe» Conference, held in Belgrade on the 18th of November 2010, was organized by the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Serbia, and the Management Improvement Support Program (the SIGMA Program).
The aim of this Conference was to present and discuss the SIGMA Study on the policies of transparency and open governance in member states of the EU, to promote good policies and regulations related to task transparency and openness in public administration, as well as to promote the importance of the responsibility of institutions and mechanisms of democratic state development.
The morning session of the Conference began with the opening speeches by Mr. Adriano Martins, the Deputy Head of the Delegation of the EU in Serbia; Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection; Mr. Sasa Jankovic, the Ombudsman; Mr. Cedomir Cupic, the Head of the Anti-Corruption Agency Council; and, Mr. Milan Markovic, the Minister of Public Administration and Local Self Government of the Republic of Serbia. After the introductory speeches, the participants of the Conference were addressed by Mr. Francisco Cardona, the SIGMA Expert, as well as Prof. Mario Savino, the Professor of Administrative Law at Tuscia University in Italy, who presented the SIGMA Study: «The Right to Open Public Administration in Europe: New Legal Standards of Administrative Transparency».
The afternoon session of the Conference was devoted to the following topic: «The Challenges to the Introduction of Policies of Transparency and Open Governance in Member States of the EU». The participants of the Conference were addressed by Ms. Anke Freibert from the Federal Academy of Public Administration in the Federal Republic of Germany; Prof. Patrick Birkinshaw, the Director of the European Institute of Public Law in the United Kingdom; Mr. Xavier Sisternas from the Anti-Corruption Office of Catalonia in Spain; Prof. Olivier Dubos from the European and International Legal Center at the Bordeaux IV University in France; Natasa Pirc-Musar, the Information Commissioner of Slovenia; and, Prof. Vladimir Goati, the President of Transparency Serbia. The Moderator of the afternoon session of the Conference was Mr. Nemanja Nenadic.
In his closing speech, Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, concluded that Serbia is currently situated in the top half of the list of countries rated based on the transparency of their public administrations, as well as that it cannot be denied that this transparency contributes to the establishment of a responsible state administration, which is one of the basic preconditions for the fight against corruption.
