Finland’s 16th Twinning Project in Croatia Was Launched

An EU twinning light project led by Finland was launched in Zagreb on 5 March 2015. The purpose of this project worth € 250.000 is to improve the institutional and administrative capacity of the National School for Public Administration [NSPA]. This is Finland's 16th twinning project with Croatia. Overall Finland has led over 170 twinning projects all over Europe, however, Croatia is a very important partner for one reason: Finland does not have this many twinning projects with any other country in the world. The bilateral relationship between Finland and Croatia has always been good and productive.

Globally, Finland is kn own as a country with expertise in the areas of good governance, education and innovation. This could very well be the reason Croatia chose Finland to lead their newest Twinning(Link to another website.) light project. In particular, the goal of this project is to enhance the role of the NSPA (Link to another website.)as the central authority in Croatia for the professional training of civil and public servants. Improving professional training on all levels within the public administration system will help increase the skills of public servants and consequently lead to a more efficient and modern public administration that provides quick and high quality services to citizens. This Twinning light project is implemented by the HAUS(Link to another website.) Finnish Institute of Public Management and the National School for Public Administration. HAUS has long experience in implementing training programs for the public administration. The project leader, Anneli Temmes is also the Managing Director of HAUS.  In a study visit to Finland, Croatian partners will have the opportunity to visit the HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management ltd in Finland.

The project’s opening ceremony took place at the beginning of March. On this occasion, Timo Rajakangas, the Ambassador of Finland, addressed the audience and commented on the high number of projects Finnish and Croatian professionals have worked together on: "This would and could not be the case unless we Finns and you Croats connect so well with each other". He concluded how "Finland has a good track record in the performance of the public administration so we have all the reason to expect that this project will in the end bring visible and meaningful results". Thus, Rajakangas was certain that Croatia made the right decision to cooperate with Finland and HAUS, which has all the experience and expertise that it takes to complete this project successfully. As for Annelli Temmes, the project leader from HAUS for this project highlighted that it is important to help NSPA find their own solutions, the solutions that work best for them. One important goal is to offer tools that ensure long-term development. Temmes is convinced that there will be more than just reports presented after the project. Furthermore the cooperation will deepen professional cooperation between Finland and Croatia. This must be good news for Dubravka Prelec, the Director of NSPA who pointed out in her speech how improving the capacity of the NSPA is an area that needs further development. She is delighted that HAUS is ready to work with them to identify weaknesses, areas for improvement, as well as, to make proposals to enhance training needs analysis.

All the representatives of this project are certain that this twinning light project will be a success story.

Twinning?
Briefly, twinning is about cooperation between Public Administrations of EU Member States, launched by European Commission in 1998. Twinning projects are built around EU policy objectives agreed between the public authorities of the beneficiary country and the Member States. They include a broad variety of activities implemented by experts from Member States, leading to the achievement of mandatory results.
Finland has been very successful in winning twinning projects.

Twinning light is a more flexible programme which offers mid-term approach [up to six months] without the presence of a Resident Twinning Adviser [RTA] permanently located in the receiving and beneficiary administration. For example, the implementation period of this project is from February until August 2015.

HAUS?
HAUS is a Finnish Institute of Public Management Ltd, which specializes in training and consultancy, both in Finland and abroad. HAUS’s client include EU administration as well as the EU membership states regarding the development work between governments. For example HAUS implements development and consultation projects for the public sector as an organization with a mandate from the Finnish government in the so-called twinning projects between the governments of membership states. These projects goals are to develop the administration of new member states and candidate states with the support of existing membership countries and funding provided by the EU.

To date, HAUS has been involved in over 20 twinning projects. The latest project HAUS was involved in Croatia occurred before Croatia’s entry to the EU.