Professional training - references

Introductory Training Programme on EU Affairs

Organised by the Development Office of the College of Europe for the Translation Unit of the Prime Minister's Office of Kosovo.
In December 2003 the College of Europe started cooperating with GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) in the framework of a Project of Support to the Prime Minister’s Office funded by the European Agency for Reconstruction.

One of the activities carried out in the framework of this project was the setting up of an introductory course for public officials working for Kosovo’s public administration, in order to enhance the capacity of the Kosovar administration to develop legislation in compliance with the acquis communautaire and EU best practices.  

Participants

The target group consisted in a total of approximately 100 persons, most of them lawyers from the Prime Minister’s Office and related ministries, 15 students from the University of Pristina, and 10 young professionals (lawyers, economists and political scientists) recruited for fast track training in EU affairs. All the participants had no prior knowledge in the field of EU integration.

Programme

The College of Europe selected four experts from its Academic staff. The trainers provided specific training material on  EU integration for an audience without previous knowledge on the European Union, and undertook a final evaluation in order to assess the impact of the training delivered.

Two groups of trainees attended a training programme on Basic understanding of EU affairs, laws and principles, delivered in English with consecutive translation into Albanian. Training took place from 8th December till 19th December 2003, and 19th to 30th January 2004.

Subjects covered by the programme included EU history and recent developments, EU institutions, the EU legal framework and decision-making process, enlargement and accession strategy, European Monetary Union and specific EU policies (competition, internal market, transport, energy). 

Related activities 

Two young Professionals working at the Prime Minister’s Office have been admitted to the College of Europe to attend the Master’s Programme during the academic year 2004-2005.

In 2004 the College of Europe has also organised other specific training activities for the officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and line ministries, namely: