Is it possible to achieve a common European perspective?

It is difficult to speak of a European ‘mode’ or ‘model’ of Public Administration (PA) teaching. In regard to the existence of a well-developed European concept of public administration, Rutgers and Schreurs note that public administration is still primarily a national undertaking and also conceptualised as such. What is more, there is almost no European (regional) study of public administration: the starting points are still very much national. “What public administration refers to in the European ‘space’ remains something to be discovered”.

SIGMA paper number 27 ‘European Principles of Public Administration’ is an attempt to identify the principles of administration shared among EU Member States. These principles are derived from the standards that underlie administrative law in most EU Member States and from the decisions of the European Court of Justice. The employment of these principles also creates standards to which the candidate states are expected to conform in order to align their public administrations to those of the EU member states. Although the Treaties of Rome, its subsequent revisions and EC secondary legislation do not provide a specific model of public administration to be set up by the EU Member States, the issue of a common administrative law has been a matter of debate since the outset of the European Community. Over time, a general consensus on key components of good governance has emerged among democratic

states. This result of a long political evolution has led to some consensus in establishing principles for public administration shared by the EU Member States with different legal traditions and different systems of governance. The main administrative law principles common to Western European countries are discussed as follows:

1. Reliability and predictability (legal certainty or judicial security)

2. Openness and transparency

3. Accountability

4. Efficiency and effectiveness

These shared basic public administration values and principles are deemed to have led to some convergence amongst national administrations. The European Administrative Space (EAS) represents an evolving process of increasing convergence between national administrative legal orders and administrative practices of member states. The EAS concerns basic institutional arrangements, processes, common administrative standards, civil service values and administrative culture. In addition, the extent to which the above-mentioned principles are present in the regulatory arrangements for public administration, and are respected and enforced in practical life, gives an idea about the capabilities of the candidate countries to implement and enforce the acquis communautaire in a reliable way. Hence, in relation to our opening comment, “it is difficult to speak of a European model of Public Administration teaching”, the EAS, albeit a metaphor, signifies a convergence and states the basic values of public administration as a practice and profession in Europe. However, how do such developments in Europe enable us to interpret and develop Public Administration as a discipline and subject of teaching in higher education?

Mosher doubts that there is any element in an evolving administrative culture more significant for the nature of the public service than the education system, both formal and informal, by which are transmitted public service ethos, frames of reference, and knowledge. Therefore, the nature and quality of the public service heavily depends upon the nature and quality of the system of education. While education determines, augments, and limits the potential of public administration, public policy to a great extent determines, augments, and limits the potential of education. The education system has to respond to the demands of public administration while shaping the nature of that administration. Hence, the drive towards Europeanization of public administration as a profession, as a result of the emerging EAS, should be reflected in academic programmes. As a second element, the creation of new Public Administration programmes in the states of Central and Eastern Europe could give the discipline a further impetus to develop its own identity and approach. These developments have created a momentum for the development of academic programmes of a European character, which could eventually lead to the development of a specific strand of public administration teaching and research, based on European realities.

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