16. Calls for further reforms of public administration, which still remains under-resourced and overtly politicised, and in particular for a review of the law on civil servants and state employees in order to establish a comprehensive and merit-based employment system, including transparent rules for hiring and laying down procedures for career advancement; underlines, equally, the need to strengthen human resources at the local level of administration and to provide sufficient financing for its functioning, in order to ensure its ef ...[+++]ficiency and transparency, particularly important in view of the ongoing decentralisation process; draws attention to the need to respect legally binding decisions of the Human Resources Management Authority; underlines the need to improve the legal and institutional framework, so as to strengthen accountability and respect for the rule of law within public administration, in particular in areas such as tax administration, public procurement, urban planning and licensing in local administration and customs; welcomes the opening of the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) in Danilovgrad;

16. Calls for further reforms of public administration, which still remains under-resourced and overtly politicised, and in particular for a review of the law on civil servants and state employees in order to establish a comprehensive and merit-based employment system, including transparent rules for hiring and laying down procedures for career advancement; underlines, equally, the need to strengthen human resources at the local level of administration and to provide sufficient financing for its functioning, in order to ensure its ef ...[+++]ficiency and transparency, particularly important in view of the ongoing decentralisation process; draws attention to the need to respect legally binding decisions of the Human Resources Management Authority; underlines the need to improve the legal and institutional framework, so as to strengthen accountability and respect for the rule of law within public administration, in particular in areas such as tax administration, public procurement, urban planning and licensing in local administration and customs; welcomes the opening of the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) in Danilovgrad;

Human and material resources to strengthen the capacities for the administration and enforcement of access regulations.

- Complete essential steps in public administration reform including amendments to the law on general administrative procedure and the law on civil servants and state employees and the strengthening of the Human Resources Management Authority and the State Audit Institution, with a view to enhancing professionalism and de-politicisation of public administration and to strengthening a transparent, merit-based approach to appointments and promotions.

4. Notes the emphasis placed by the Commission on the need to ensure that the human resources available to it are sufficient to enable it to perform the tasks assigned to it; recalls that it was Parliament itself which, in paragraphs 2, 15, 18 and 25 of its resolution of 4 May 1999 on the accounts of the European Communites in respect of the 1996 financial year , asked the Commission to review its human resources management in the light of policy priorities after noting that a number of the problems pinpointed in the 1996 discharge were due to a shortage of human resources w ...[+++]hich had prompted the Commission to commit the mistake of delegating public administration prerogatives to external technical assistance offices;

The content of the handbook can of course be changed depending on the circumstances of the mission (duration, human resources, etc.) and the national administration involved (organisation, infrastructure, etc.).