On 03-07 November Seminar on Public administration reform on local and regional level in the context of Eastern Partnership took place in Prague, Czech Republic with the participation of representatives from 6 member-states – Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Opening speeches were delivered by the First Deputy to the Minister of FOreign Affairs of Czech Republic Mr. Petr Drulak and Head of Czech Representation at the EU Commission Jan Michal. Mr. Srulak stated that one of the main problems of the Eastern Partnership is the exchange of experience among the countries. “This event is a great opportunity to exchange information not only between the 6 countries and the EU, but also among the 6 EaP Countries”.
At the beginning of the Seminar, each country representative presented the current developments, existing problems and challenges of reforms in the Local Self-Government system.The right of the first representation was given to the Armenian delegation. The representative of the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration Hasmik Danielyan presented a report on the public administration field reforms in Armenia. Afterwards the representatives of other five states presented the problesm in their own countries. During the first day of the seminar participants heard various reports on the current relationship of the Czech Republic and the EU, the Czech Experience in the local self-government field and the Portuguese experience in the field of local democracy.
The first part of the second day of the seminar was devoted to the main issues of administering extreme situations on local levels, as well as to the Swedish and Czech experience in that field. Second part of the day gave the participants the opportunity to get acquainted with the progressive experience of Austria in electronic governance and the policies of the Czech Republic on Electronic Governance.
Third day of the Seminar presented the Czech experience in the civic participation in local self-government bodes, existing problems and development overview, as well as the specifics of local election organization. Famous Czech NGOs came up with reports on these matters.
On the fourth day visits to mayors of two Czech cities were organized.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic with the EU financial assistance. The Armenian delegation to the event consisted of two representatives from each the RA Government staff and the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration, and one representative from AYLA.
