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The National Coordination of EU Policy in Latvia 97
consistent and efficient coordination of EU affairs in post-accession. In
particular:
Institutional structure: Inter-institutional cooperation during the preparation
of negotiation positions has been insufficient. The coordination of
negotiation positions with the Permanent Representation to the EU is relatively
efficient. However, there are also weaknesses in horizontal coordination
at the national level: initiatives examined in different Council working groups
and committees are often related, while representatives of different working
groups are not always aware of the aspects of initiatives considered by other
groups. Communication gaps, broader discussions and coordination conditions
in a situation when the negotiation positions prepared are more “departmental”
than “national”. Also looking across the ministries, however, the
picture is more mixed. Those departments that have managed to keep hold
of their staff from pre-accession, and therefore policy expertise and institutional
memory, have been able to perform relatively effectively. One of the
main reasons causing the passive inter-departmental communication during
the preparation of Latvia’s position phase is the level of position makers’
abilities and skills (especially the ability to identify problems and their
relevance to other institutions, as well as to evaluate the interests and demands
of all parties concerned).
Measures: measures applied to improve the working of the coordination
system are not adapted to the real demands of improvement. For instance,
significant measures are better quality and quantity of the EU integration
impact assessment studies. The most problematic aspects are the impact assessment
of the European Commission’s proposals. Public employees interpret
the role of impact assessment and the functions of assessment in national
policy making differently. 26 Ministries and politicians rarely appreciate
the importance of assessment towards the quality of policies. Therefore,
the existing studies have not been widely used and new studies have not
been ordered for a pre-assessment for planning of the new policies. Results
of studies have not been used politically, or have been widely used for
argumentation in the interests of their own individual goals.
26
Report on the situation in the field of impact assessment. Report on the 1st delivery. European
Funds project Nr. VK 2010/14 ESF “Increase of Public Administration’s analytical capacities to
perform impact assessment of structural reforms Corporate & Public Management Consulting
Group LLC, Riga, 2011.