Pursuant to REGULATION NO.05/2016 ON MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCES that was adopted by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo on 29 April 2016, the Office for Good Governance/Office of the Prime Minister, is obliged to create and maintain the online platform, which is used by all public authorities to identify the stakeholders to develop public consultations. The Online platform shall ensure the implementation of minimum standards for public consultations pursuant to Regulation no. 05/2016. This platform shall provide the opportunity for all relevant parties to be invited and included in the decision and policymaking process.

The purpose of this platform is to assist the ministries and agencies of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo to facilitate the public consultation process by including public and nongovernmental authorities, civil society organizations and other relevant partners in the policy and decision making process. This platform ensures the communication process between public authorities, stakeholders and the public for an inclusive participation in the decision and policymaking process of public interest and the improvement of the transparency and accountability of public authorities towards stakeholders and the public.

For the development of this platform the OGG/OPM has been supported by the team and experts of the EU Project "Support to the Implementation of the Government Strategy for Cooperation with Civil Society", who have worked in developing the Online Platform for Public Consultations.

The online platform enables the public and stakeholders to express their interest to participate in the public consultation process, on annual basis, and in cases when respective plans are supplemented or amended. The public and stakeholders express their interest by identifying every governmental unit, respectively each draft proposal in which they are interested to participate in the public consultation process. After the accomplishment of public consultations, reports of line ministries and respective agencies on consultations' results are published together with reasons for not accepting certain contributions.

Consultations standards

On 29 April 2016 the REGULATION ON MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION PROCESS was adopted. The new regulation enables the involvement of citizens and civil society in shaping public policies.

This Regulation aims to encourage and ensure a public consultation process between public authorities, stakeholders and the public for an inclusive participation in the decision and policymaking process of public interest and the increase of the transparency and accountability of public authorities towards the stakeholders and the public. This Regulation specifies the minimum standards, principles and procedures of the public consultation process between public authorities, interested parties and the public, in the process of drafting policies and legislation. The provisions of this Regulation are observed by all public authorities to effectively plan and implement the public consultation process while drafting the legislation and policies. The minimum standards set by this regulation are applied to all documents whose drafting process requires public consultation. Annual draft plans of public authorities are subject to the public consultation process in accordance with this regulation. Other documents that are subject to the public consultation process based on this Regulation are:

1. The annual draft plan of strategic documents;
2. The Government's legislative draft plan;
3. The sublegal acts draft plan;
4. The concept documents draft list;
5. The draft concept documents;
6. The normative draft acts;
7. The draft strategies; and
8. All other documents that must be accompanied with an explanatory memorandum or which require public consultations.

The minimum standards for public consultation set in this Regulation are applicable for all documents the drafting process of which requires public consultations starting from 01 January 2017.