On 27 November, at the EUPAN DG meeting in Madrid, the head of the European CAF Resource Centre, Gracia Vara Arribas, gave an overview of the significance of the European Administrative Space (ComPAct) for the CAF network.
What is ComPAct?
ComPAct is a plan to strengthen administrative cooperation in line with the EU priorities. It has been designed through co-creation with all the stakeholders working and related to Public Administration. It is a request from the side of the Commission for more cooperation and better quality in Public Administration and is composed of three pillars and 25 actions, all with the clear intention to strengthen resilience, innovation, and skills in public organisations.
The instrument is a turning point in public administrations in the EU and beyond and intersects with the TSI, the technical support instrument, broadly used in the EU, and opens important opportunities for our CAF Network.
The six core principles of ComPACT align with the CAF criteria
All the actions in ComPAct rely on six overarching principles, which work in parallel with the CAF criteria for enablers and results:
- Leadership and strategic vision
- Quality of the policy-making, anticipatory, evidence-based
- Quality of the people, civil service effective and collaborative
- Human-centric and accessible public services
- Processes complying with integrity, accountability, and oversight practices
- And finally, because numbers matter, sustainable public finances
The COVID crisis and the responses to the crisis have made it clearer than ever that Public Administration has a crucial role to play in our societies. CAF has proven to be the right quality model for the public sector to drive individual organisations toward excellence. The Commission Communication ComPAct emphasises that to transform the policies decided at EU and national levels into reality, at all levels of governance, we need to enhance the existing forms of cooperation.
The idea of ComPAct entails some important opportunities for the CAF network. It is a very strong long-standing network supported and dynamised by a very active pool of experts involved. Therefore, the European CAF Resource Centre plans to stand at the centre, to contribute to and activate the tools and opportunities brought up by the Commission in this Communication, and to work hand in hand with the European Commission and with the countries of our network, also embracing the candidate countries.
The candidate countries as well?
Yes indeed!
ComPAct follows the TSI rules, which are very strict and only open to the Member States (MS). But the Communication, nevertheless, includes the enlargement countries as observers in the TSI projects, for now. This means that they can collaborate with the MS, but the financial support will not be driven by the TSI but through other means available to the enlargement countries. Additionally, the Commission will be there to facilitate this. It is to be seen if in the future this will be changed to allow the candidate countries to also be included in the TSI with full rights.
We foresee that lots of discussions will be held in different forums on the possibilities of ComPAct and its benefits for the public sector. For now, we need to be attentive to further developments. On 7 December, the Competitiveness Council under the Spanish presidency reserved a spot in their agenda to listen to the presentation by the Commission on the Communication on enhancing the European administrative Space (ComPAct). The beginning of 2024 will begin to show the first actions proposed by the Commission in motion.
If you’re interested in learning more about the European Administrative Space (ComPAct), have a look at our latest blog highlighting the topic:
