Twinning: Finland to strengthen Albania’s Security Academy

Finland and Estonia will start to develop the Albanian Security Academy in a two-year Twinning project. The project supports the capacity of the Security Academy to provide high-quality security sector training and to carry out research activities. A joint tender by Finland and Estonia won the tender competition for the project.

The Police University College

The Security Academy operates as part of the Albanian police authority and provides vocational basic and professional specialisation education in police, law enforcement and security matters. The twinning project aims to develop the Security Academy widely and to promote the implementation of Finland’s Government Programme in this respect. The project is connected to supporting the development of the rule of law in Albania.

The project supports the aim of the Ministry of the Interior of Albania to make the Security Academy the country's only agency offering higher education in the field. This requires that the Security Academy meets the requirements for a higher education institution laid down in the Act and that it be granted the special status referred to in the Act. The target can be reached by developing the administration and administrative processes of the Security Academy, by learning about the accreditation practices related to higher education institutions, by strengthening the planning and development process of the competence-based curriculum and by updating the Security Academy’s recruitment process.

In addition, the Twinning project promotes the strengthening of cooperation between Albanian security sector operators by supporting networking, updating the Security Academy's research and development strategy and increasing the visibility of R&D activities. As part of the project, expert visits will be made to Albania, in addition to which Albanian experts will visit Finland and Estonia on a few study visits.

“The Police University College is responsible for police training in Finland. We will be able to cooperate with our Albanian colleagues in the project to strengthen the training and research conditions in this field. This is our third Twinning training development project in the Balkans and we are looking forward to its start,” says Kimmo Himberg, Director of the Police University College and Project Manager.

In addition to the Police University College, the project involves HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management and the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. The Estonian operator of the project consortium is the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, Sisekaitseakadeemia.

The new project is connected to supporting the development of the rule of law in Albania.

 

The winning of the project is a continuation of Finland's excellent success in the tendering process for Twinning projects in 2019. Finland has won more than 70 per cent of the tender competitions in which it has participated during the current year. The winning rate is high and indicates the competence of Finnish public administration and the prerequisites for preparing high-quality tenders. 

Twinning is a European Union instrument for the development of public administration and legislation in the European Union’s neighbouring areas. The instrument supports projects related to the EU’s enlargement and neighbourhood policy. The EU Member States are invited to submit their tenders on the basis of which partner countries select the Member State(s) to carry out the projects.

Twinning is based on close cooperation between the EU Member States and the partner country in order to achieve the set objectives. Individual Twinning projects last approximately two years and the project budget ranges between EUR 1 to 2 million. In Finland, Twinning activities are coordinated by the Twinning team at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

 

 

Author of the text: Eerikki Vainio

The author works as a Specialist in the National Twinning and Taiex Coordination Team at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.