Review article

European administrative space: convergence of national administration

Anamarija Musa orcid.org/0000-0002-4061-0335 ; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

European administrative space is an informal acquis consisting of the
standards and principles that regulate the organisation, functioning,
and activities of public administration. The issue of creation of the European administrative space became increasingly important parallel with strengthening of the European integration process, which is somewhat contradictory to the claims that administrative traditions show remarkable resistance.

The creation of the European administrative space is based on the idea
that the administrative systems of European countries converge towards a common administrative model characterised by the principles of the rule of law, meaning legal certainty and predictability of administrative actions; openness and transparency; accountability; efficiency in the use of public resources and effectiveness in accomplishing the policy goals.

The actions of the European Court of Justice and the European Commission are of particular importance to the creation of the European
administrative space, together with the formulation of the accession criteria for candidate countries and stimulation of administrative reforms oriented towards strengthening of the institutional capacity. The contacts of administrative personnel at the European level and the influence of globalisation and administrative doctrines are also important for mutual »infection« of national public administrations. SIGMA has a special role in the development of the EAS concept.

Harmonisation and convergence of national public administrations, with
simultaneous retention of national traditions, leads to the conclusion that the beginnings of the European administrative space really exist. However, it is not yet possible to discern the formation of a complex and minutely developed public administration model that ought to be implemented by the member states and candidate countries. The European administrative space is probably going to be a set of rules and standards with gradually increasing corpus.

Keywords

European administrative space; public administration; convergence; Europeanisation; the European Union

Hrčak ID:

135892

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/135892

Publication date:

30.3.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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