On 27 November 48 civil servants from ten countries in Southeastern Europe successfully completed the two-week training programme ‘Decentralisation & EU Accession’, organised by The Hague Academy for Local Governance in cooperation with ROI, Dutch Institute for Public Administration. The programme was financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and executed by the EVD.
‘It was a very good opportunity to catch contemporary developments in decentralisation, to refresh professionally, to share experiences in a multicultural atmosphere, to make comparative analyses and evaluations of how local administrations work and can be promoted in varying contexts´, comments one of the participants during the evaluation round. The programme aimed to prepare the participants on their possible future accession to the European Union (EU), by informing them about local democracy, inter-administrative relations, EU regulations and lobbying in Brussels.
The civil servants all work for ministries and local governments in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. During the lectures, exercises and field trips in The Hague and Brussels they could exchange views and experiences with their colleagues from the Netherlands and from neighbouring countries. Most likely this programme will be repeated in late 2010. Please contact Suzanne Jansen at info@thehagueacademy.com if you are interested in this training programme.