The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs and National IPA Coordinator, Bojan Maricik, today held a meeting with the Ministers for the activities that will follow in the field of IPA and donor assistance, before the start of the new cycle of meetings of sectoral working groups, emphasizing the importance of direct involvement to the line ministers in the work of the groups, which will confirm the political commitment to the process of programming and use of IPA.

- From the beginning of my mandate as National IPA Coordinator (NIPAK), I had numerous meetings with donors, including the NDA, where we discussed the functioning and importance of sectoral working groups. Donors, according to their indications, understand these groups as bodies in which only IPA is discussed, and they would like the focus to be on sectoral and national strategies, policies and priorities. Therefore, within the NIPAK Secretariat and in consultation with the IPA coordinators, we started thinking about changing the focus of the dialogue within the Sector Working Groups and hence the Sector Working Groups at their plenary sessions to be chaired by line ministers, with my joining within the role of National IPA Coordinator. Thus, we will confirm the political commitment to the process of programming and use of IPA and other donor programs and funds," said Deputy Prime Minister Maricik to the line ministers.

Deputy Prime Minister Maricik also presented the changes in the work of the Sectoral Groups, pointing out that the chairmen of the Sectoral Working Groups without exception to be the line ministers in the first place and announced a amendments in the Rules of Procedure.

- The next step would be amending the Rules of Procedure of the sectoral working groups, which is currently underway. As part of the cycle of meetings scheduled to take place in early March, we would like to pilot a new approach to the work of sectoral working groups. "We believe that now is the right time for this piloting, given the fact that the EU Delegation has officially informed us that we need to start programming IPA 2023 and 2024," Maricik said.

Maricik announced that in the coming period he plans, together with Deputy Prime Minister Bitiki and Minister of Finance, Besimi to hold a meeting with the donor community to present horizontal government documents such as NPAA, ERP, National Development Plan.

The sectoral working groups were established for the first time in 2015 with the introduction of IPA 2 and the sectoral approach within this instrument.

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