Professional training - references

Advanced Training Programme on the Theory and Practice of Legal Harmonisation

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

As Kosovo’s Primer Minister's Office is currently coordinating the process of harmonization of legislation to EU standards, a training need emerged within the related ministries in order to upgrade the competences and skills of officials involved on this process. 

As a subcontractor for GTZ, the College of Europe tackled this need by setting up a series of focused and tailor-made desktop training on the Theory and Practice of Harmonization of Legislation, covering both theoretical and operational aspects facilitating this process.

Participants

The trainees were Professionals working at the Legal Office within the Prime Minister’s Office and the different line ministries of the self-government in Kosovo. All of them had previously attended the training provided by the College of Europe in December 2003-January 2004 on EU affairs. 

Programme
    A desktop/workplace training of 3-4 days was provided within each Ministry and the Legal Office supporting the Prime Minister. 

    Four highly qualified experts selected by the College of Europe delivered this targeted training aimed at enhancing the capacity of the self-government of Kosovo to develop legislation in compliance with the “acquis communautaire” and EU best practices. 

    The programme included theoretical and practical elements in view of providing participants with a thorough analytical framework and highlighting most relevant operational aspects. 

    The theoretical part included both general information and sectoral training on the specific competences of each Ministry, including: 
  • Provisions of primary and secondary sources of law/ other sources of law 
  • Reasons for partial compliance or non-compliance/foreseen date of compliance
  • Theory of harmonisation and approximation with EU law  The practical part encompassed a case study on drafting a piece of legislation harmonised to EU standards. 


    • The limited number of trainees in each Ministry allowed for a very targeted and customised training. 
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: