Effectiveness of EI co-ordination in practice

A functioning EI co-ordination mechanism is in place

For a functioning co-ordination mechanism to be in place, it is not sufficient to have a regular, administrative-level meeting organised according to negotiation chapters. A functional, horizontal-level meeting forum is required. Political-level meetings must take place at least once a year. Administrative-level meetings must take place at least twice a year and be chaired by the EI co-ordination body.

Development of EI-plans is centrally co-ordinated, and they are regularly updated

The unit responsible for EI must lead the preparation of EI plans to ensure central co-ordination. In addition, the EI plan must be updated and adopted by the government at least every two years. SIGMA checks that the EI monitoring report (or reports) was prepared by the EI co-ordination body, compiled at least once per year, and covered all EI areas.

A monitoring report on the implementation of the EI-plan is compiled annually by the EI co-ordination body

SIGMA checks if monitoring reports have been prepared and formally approved by the government for at least two consecutive years (the assessment year and the year prior to it).

Formal opinions are consistently provided prior to submission of draft legal acts transposing the EU acquis

The EI co-ordination body must consistently provide its formal opinion prior to submission of draft legal acts transposing the EU acquis to the government. Checks are carried out on all draft laws approved by the government during the last full calendar year, and which aimed to transpose EU legislation to verify that formal opinions by the relevant EI co-ordination body were prepared or not for all cases. Government is asked to provide the full list of such laws and indicate whether opinions from the EI body were prepared or not for all cases. Additional verification is done on at least two transposition cases for which the opinions of the EI co-ordination body is requested and checked. The sample of laws for verification is from the five sample laws selected for review under indicators 4 and 5 of the policy development and coordination area. The criterion is considered not fulfilled if there is at least one example when the opinion of the EI body was not prepared.

Chapters provisionally closed (%)

The EI co-ordinating body provides the relevant formal documents indicating the status of the accession negotiations. Points are allocated based on the percentage of the proportion of provisionally closed chapters (x): • x < 33% = 0 points. • 33% ≤ x < 66% = linear function. • x ≥ 66% = 3 points.