On June 17-19, 2019, the annual meeting of National Contact Points for the implementation of the Twinning, TAIEX and SIGMA, namely “Institutional Building Days 2019” with assistance of the Directorate General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (hereinafter DG NEAR) was held in Brussels (Belgium).
“Institutional Building Days 2019” meeting is a powerful platform for best exchanging practices of the implementation and use of institutional development tools in the European Neighborhood countries, carrying out a integrative review of the events implemented under the aforementioned instruments, as well as discussing the key priorities of partner countries in the context of EU assistance.
On June 17, a working meeting on the implementation of the Twinning institutional building tool was held. The Head of TAIEX & Twinning, Institution Building Unit, Diana Jablonska, welcomed the participants and introduced the agenda of the working meeting. Participants had the opportunity to discuss the priority sectors of the Twinning projects implementation for the next year, as well as discuss the best practices of the EU Member States and partner countries.
On June 18, the first day of the “Institutional Building Days 2019” started. The European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, welcomed the participants on the video message, in which he thanked for the greater cooperation and effective implementation of the institutional development instruments. Also the greetings to the participants of the event were addressed by Mr Lawrence Meredith, Director of Neighbourhood East & Institution Building Directorate, who emphasized the importance of holding annual meetings that would allow exchange of experience in the field of reforming the state bodies of the European Neighborhood Instrument countries in accordance with EU standards by involving technical assistance.
During the first day of the meeting, a number of issues were discussed, namely: support for key reforms through institutional instruments, a strategic approach to the implementation of institutional development instruments, key priorities in the Eastern Partnership countries, Western Balkans and Turkey.
The second day of the event was dedicated to implementation of the Twinning and TAIEX institutional development instruments, in particular, the value of institutional development tools in promoting public administration reform, strengthening administrative capacity and the new multi-annual Financial Framework of TAIEX and Twinning in overall EU programming assistance were discussed. Participants of the meeting also had the opportunity to deliberate the key priorities of the Southern Partnership countries in accordance with the European Neighborhood Policy and to familiarize themselves with the best practices of the Southern Partnership countries.
In addition, participants of the event get acquainted with practical aspects of attracting and using international development tools that will raise effectiveness and productivity of the implementation of abovementioned tools.
Representatives from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Ukraine, as well as the Turkish Cypriot community were present at the meeting “Institutional Building Days 2019”.
The Head of SIGMA and CIB Coordination Division Projects Management Unit Yuliia Yerchenko and Senior Consultant of the TAIEX Coordination Division Projects Management Unit Pidhorna Anastasiia from the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the standards of the European Union took part at the annual meeting “Institutional Building Days 2019”.
