Enrico Visentin from the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina said today that court presidents must take an active role in managing the work of courts in order to improve results and improve the judiciary for citizens, while respecting judicial independence.
He emphasized this during a workshop organized in Sarajevo, which was attended by presidents of courts, as well as representatives of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) of BiH and the EU Delegation to BiH on the strategic plans developed by the courts in the previous period.
Visentin assessed that strategic planning can really help presidents of courts to improve their work, stressing that significant progress has been made, but key steps are still to come.
The importance of strategic planning in the process of improving the efficiency of the courts’ work was also pointed out by the vice-president of the HJPC of BiH, Sanela Gorušanović Butigan, saying that this way ensures the continuous implementation of activities that lead to the achievement of the strategic goals of the institutions, and thus the entire judicial sector.
Strategic planning in courts has been assessed as one of the most important management tools used by European judicial systems with the aim of improving work, increasing efficiency, productivity and satisfaction of citizens, and thereby strengthening the rule of law.
In the previous period, the HJPC of BiH and the Delegation of the EU to BiH worked intensively on the introduction of strategic planning tools into the courts, and what will be the focus of the work in the coming period is the additional improvement of the strategic plans that were developed in the earlier stages and their full implementation, which leads to more efficient work of the courts, in the first place increasing the satisfaction of citizens and strengthening the rule of law.
Strategic planning has been introduced in all courts in BiH, and in order for the application of this tool to be functional and sustainable, it is necessary to identify all possible shortcomings and strengthen the capacities of each individual court.
Numerous internal work processes will depend on the effectiveness of the strategic plans of individual courts, as well as the evaluation of the work of the president of the court.
– Strategic planning is one of the crucial segments in improving the efficiency and quality of court work, and the HJPC of BiH will use this management tool when evaluating the performance of courts and court presidents during the re-appointment process – said Ana Bilić-Andrijanić, head of the Project “EU Support for Judiciary Reforms in BiH”.
Until now, the courts in BiH had the practice and obligation to adopt annual work programs, which were not uniform nor did they contain concrete goals that the court intends to achieve in a certain period of time, while strategic plans are created for a period of three years, which ensures the continuous implementation of activities that lead to the achievement of the strategic goals of the institutions.
During 2020 and 2021, the HJPC of BiH, by adopting the Instructions for Strategic Planning and Reporting in Courts, started implementing the strategic planning process in all courts in BiH, and it continues through the project “EU Support for Judicial Reforms in BiH – IPA 2019”, which The HJPC BiH is implementing it with the support of the EU.
