Twinningové projekty – Analýza zkušeností „starých“ států EU a zhodnocení přínosu Twinningu out pro Českou republiku
Twinning Projects: Analysing the Experience of „Old“ EU Member States and Evaluating Benefits of Twinning Out for the Czech Republic Zpráva z grantového výzkumného projektu MZV ČR
Identifikační kód RM 01/04/04
Nositel projektu: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů Nerudova 3 118 50 Praha 1 tel.: 51 108 111 fax: 51 108 222 www.iir.cz IČO: 48546054 Odpovědná řešitelka: Mgr. Lucie Königová Spoluřešitelky: Elsa Tulmets, MA, PhD; Mgr. Eliška Tomalová Výzkumné asistentky: Mgr. Karolína Harries a Mgr. Petra Häfner Praha, listopad 2006
Table of Contents: Glossary of Acronyms .........................................................................................................................3 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................5 2 Background ..................................................................................................................................8 2.1 Enlargement Instruments and Commission Strategy .................................................................8 2.2 Twinning – Description of an Instrument ..................................................................................9 2.3 New Developments, Plans and Priorities of the Commission .................................................12 2.3.1 Further accession negotiations and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) ............13 2.3.2 Complementarity of TWO and TAIEX ............................................................................14 2.4 Aims of Twinning and Theoretical Underpinnings .................................................................15 2.4.1 Learning and Socialisation................................................................................................15 2.4.2 Institutional Change ..........................................................................................................17 2.4.3 Mutual Learning and Adaptation ......................................................................................18 3 Report Methodology ..................................................................................................................19 4 Presentation of Findings ............................................................................................................22 4.1 NCP models .............................................................................................................................23 4.2 Preparation ...............................................................................................................................37 4.3 Contracting...............................................................................................................................43 4.4 Domestic Resources.................................................................................................................43 4.5 Implementation ........................................................................................................................45 4.6 Evaluation ................................................................................................................................48 5 Benefits, Costs, Risks and Opportunities of Twinning..............................................................51 5.1 General Benefits and Drawbacks of Twinning ........................................................................51 5.2 Benefits and Drawbacks of Twinning Out for Provider Countries..........................................53 5.3 Risks and Constraints of Twinning Out...................................................................................54 6 Recommendations......................................................................................................................56 6.1 General Recommendations for New Member States...............................................................56 6.2 Recommendations Specific to the Czech Republic .................................................................58 6.2.1 Czech Republic: Priorities, Prerequisites and Scope Conditions......................................59 6.2.2 National Contact Point Location.......................................................................................62 6.2.3 Suggestions for Improved Performance in Twinning Out Coordination..........................66 6.2.4 Models for Czech Involvement in Twinning Out .............................................................67 6.2.5 International Twinning Out Seminar ................................................................................70 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................71 References..........................................................................................................................................72 Appendix 1 – Questionnaires Appendix 2 – Data Collection Overview Appendix 3 – List of Respondents Appendix 4 – NCP Location and Organigrams Appendix 5a – European Commission – Twinning: Key Facts and Figures Appendix 5b – European Commission – Twinning Implementation – MEDA and TACIS Appendix 6 – Summary Report from the Annual Meeting of Institution-Building Instruments (Twinning/TAIEX) Appendix 7a – Návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí Appendix 7b – Stávající a návrh nového institucionálního uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky Appendix 7c – Předkládácí zpráva k návrhu věcného záměru zákona o ZRS
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Glossary of Acronyms AO AEI AP AWP BC BMWi CAP CARDS CBC CC CEECs CFA CFCU CR DG DIS EC EDIS ENP ENPI ERFA ESC ESDP ESF EU EUR EVD FIIAPP GIP ADETEF GIP FCI GTZ IB IBs IE IPA IPA JHA KfW LFA LFM MEDA MFA MoU MR MS MTE NAC NAO NCP NMS NPAA
Administrative Office Agentur für Europäische Integration und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung (Austria) Accession Partnership Annual Work Plan Beneficiary Country (beneficiary of PHARE/Transition Facility, CARDS, TACIS or MEDA assistance) German Federal Ministry of Economics Common Agricultural Policy Community Assistance For Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation for Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) Cross Border Cooperation Candidate Country Central and Eastern European Countries Centre for Foreign Assistance Central Financing and Contracting Unit Czech Republic Directorate General (within the European Commission) Decentralised Implementation System European Commission Extended Decentralised Implementation System European Neighbourhood Policy (Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine) European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instruments Danish expert network Economic and Social Cohesion European Security and Defence Policy European Social Fund European Union Euro(s) Dutch Agency for International Business and Cooperation Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas (Spain) Groupement d’Intérêt Général Assistance au Développement des Technologies Economiques et Financières Groupement d’Intérêt Général France Coopération Internationale Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (Germany) Institution Building Intermediary Bodies (Structural Funds bodies) Interim Evaluation Instrument for Pre-Accession Institute of Public Administration (Ireland) Justice and Home Affairs Kreditanstalt of Wiederaufbau (Germany) Logical Framework Analysis Logical Framework Matrix the principal financial instrument of the European Union for the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, West Bank and Gaza Strip) Ministry of Foreign Affairs Memorandum of Understanding Monitoring Report (EU) Member States Mid-term Expert National Aid Co-ordinator National Authorising Officer National Contact Point New Member States National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis
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OMS PAA PAO PCM PF PHARE
PIU PL PRAG PSI REC / DEC RTA SFs SGAE SGCI SIDA SIGMA SPO SPP STE TA TACIS
TAIEX TC TF ToR TW / TWL TWI TWO
Old Member States Pre-Accession Advisor Programme Authorising Officer Project Cycle Management Project Fiche Pologne-Hongrie, Aide à la Restructuration Economique - Community programme providing pre-accession assistance to countries from Central and Eastern Europe (originally: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, as of 1 May 2004: Bulgaria and Romania with specific financing arrangements for Turkey; as of 1 January 2005 also Croatia) Project Implementation Unit Project Leader Practical Guide to Contract Procedures (issued by the EC’s EuropeAid) Private Sector Input Representation / Delegation of the European Commission Resident Twinning Adviser Structural Funds Secrétariat Général des Affaires Européennes Secrétariat Général du Comité Interministériel pour les questions de coopération économique européenne Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Support for Improvement in Governance and Management in Central and Eastern European Countries Senior Programme Officer Special Preparatory Programme Short-term Expert Technical Assistance Technical Assistance to 12 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia – the Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) Technical Assistance Information Exchange Office Twinning Covenant / Twinning Contract Transition Facility (Cyprus, Malta, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia) Terms of Reference Twinning / Twinning Light Twinning In Twinning Out
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1
Introduction
Twinning has become the cornerstone of the European Union’s assistance to Acceding, Candidate or Potential Candidate Countries. Recently, Twinning has also started benefiting countries included in the programme of enhanced co-operation1 (European Neighbourhood Policy countries). The original aim of Twinning was and largely remains to be the building of capacity of these countries to adopt, implement and enforce the full acquis communautaire before joining the European Union (EU). Being the instrument of choice for the European Commission (EC) in assisting Beneficiary Countries with their accession-related duties, Twinning helps the EU applicants and potential joiners to: “reform, adapt, and strengthen their public institutions in order to apply well the EU rules and procedures (…) and benefit fully from membership of the Union” (European Commission 2006: 4).
Twinning was first launched in May 1998 and has become one of the key tools of institution building assistance within the larger context of enlargement initiatives. Twinning is a close and specific cooperation between a Beneficiary Country (BC) and a Member State (MS) to help BCs to develop modern and efficient administrations capable of applying the acquis. Twinning works on the basis of specific, clearly defined projects with concrete operational results. A Twinning project is conceived as a joint venture of a Member State and a Beneficiary Country, a two-way street with credible commitments and responsibilities taken on by both Twinning partners. Irrespective of the above-suggested prominence of Twinning, relatively few studies so far have dealt with the analysis and evaluation of this mechanism (e.g. Grabbe 2001; Tulmets 2003c, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006; Königová 2003, 2004; Papadimitrou and Phinnemore 2003a, 2003b, Bailey and de Propris 2004). Moreover, these studies and other independent evaluations (Birker et al. 2000; MZV ČR 2001; Cooper, Johansen 2003; WM Enterprise 2006; BMWi/GTZ 2006) have 1
Acceding, Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries as well as countries benefiting from the European Neighbourhood Policy are all referred to as Beneficiary Countries. Acceding Countries are Bulgaria and Romania; Candidate Countries include Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey; and Potential Candidate Countries are currently listed by the European Commission as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, including Kosovo. Neighbourhood countries are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Furthermore, Twinning assistance will continue to be provided to New Member States (funded from the Transition Facility budget). From 2007 on, the Acceding, Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries will benefit from the Instrument of Pre-Accession (IPA) and the neighbourhood countries plus Russia from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instruments (ENPI) – see Chapter 2.3.1.
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focused mostly on the impact Twinning has had on Beneficiary Countries. In spite of several overall evaluation
reports
commissioned
or
undertaken
by
the
European
Commission
(DG
Enlargement/OMAS 2001; DG Enlargement/EMS 2004, EG Enlargement 2006), the EU as the initiator and sponsor of this assistance tool has no comprehensive analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of Twinning for the providers, i.e. for the “Old” Member States, even though some EU countries have been seeking to make these analyses domestically. When the European Commission introduced the instrument in 1997/1998, it had to convince the representatives of Member States to start providing Twinning Out (TWO).2 These representatives, in turn, had some convincing to do in terms of getting experts from their national administrations and institutions involved in institutional Twinning3. This report actually rehearses some of these arguments but has the incomparable benefit of drawing upon almost nine years of experience with Twinning Out to find out about the positives and negatives, about the benefits and costs, and about the risks and opportunities for Twinning Out assistance providers. The primary aims of our project have been threefold: •
Collecting information on the actual mechanisms of Twinning projects as provided by institutions and experts from Old Member States of the EU;
•
Identifying the benefits and highlight possible risks related to Twinning Out for the Czech Republic on the basis of the experience of Old Member States; and
•
Drafting, on the basis of the findings and conclusions made, recommendations for the Czech Republic’s effective, efficient and economical involvement in Twinning Out projects.
In order to do so, we analysed and evaluated the data collected through questionnaires and interviews, drew upon several Twinning and Phare evaluation studies, and reviewed a number of quarterly, final and monitoring reports (for a detailed description of the methods used, see Chapter 3). This analysis is preceded by a short outline of the evolution of Twinning and the contextualisation of this instrument in the process of enlargement. We describe both the past and future uses of Twinning in the European Union’s external relations policy, focussed specifically on the organisation and coordination of TWO. This includes the set-up and operation of National Contact Points (NCPs); the preparation activities; domestic resources used to motivate and support public administration institutions as TWO expertise providers; the contracting and implementation processes and procedures, as well as TWO evaluation. It was on the basis of this data evaluation that our research team sought to identify the major opportunities and threats related to Twinning 2
Twinning In (TWI) is a term used for Twinning projects from the perspective of Beneficiary Countries. Twinning Out (TWO), on the contrary, refers to Twinning assistance from the point of view of providers, i.e. the Member States. 3 There are also Twinnings on a regional basis - between towns and cities. This study does not deal with this type of Twinning and focuses on institutional Twinning only.
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Out projects in general and with a particular focus on the Czech Republic. This data interpretation and evaluation formed the basis for thee major recommendations to Czech decision-makers. First, considering the administrative and resource situation in the Czech Republic, we present five models of Czech participation in Twinning Out: 1) The Czech Republic as a single applicant and provider of Twinning Out projects; 2) The Czech Republic as a Lead Partner in a Twinning Out consortium; 3) The Czech Republic as a Junior Partner in Twinning Out consortia; 4) The Czech Republic as a Strategic Junior Partner of certain Old Member States; and 5) The Czech Republic as a provider of individual experts for Twinning Out consortia. Besides outlining the positives and negatives of each model and indicating the prerequisites for successfully putting them into practice, we also assign each model with a probability rate. Given Czech Republic’s structural situation and on the basis of initial research among Czech TWO actors, models number three and five are given high probability rating. In other words, the Czech Republic is expected to provide Junior Partner services and the expertise of individual experts on a most regular basis. These two models also suit best the current capacities of and the level of commitment by Czech TWO actors and shall be what the Czech Republic should particularly focus on in shortto mid-term perspective. Second, the report comes with six possible scenarios for the coordination and organisation of TWO in the Czech Republic: 1) NCP as a special unit based at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); 2) NCP based at the MFA but delegating the operational and administrative tasks to a special agency outside the MFA; 3) NCP based at a special agency; 4) NCP as a special unit based at the Ministry of Finance (MF); 5) NCP based at the MF but delegating the operational and administrative tasks to a special agency outside the MF; and 6) NCP at the Government Office. Considering the recent policy and legislative developments in the country, especially the draft legislation for setting up a special Development Assistance Agency, we suggest that Czech policy-makers explore the third, agency-based scenario as the potentially most beneficial, effective and economical one, with the second scenario being the second best option. And finally, we recommend organising an international Twinning Out seminar in Prague where the finding of this report could be explored further and which would allow for sharing of experience and transfer of know-how from some Old Member States to the New Member States in general and the Czech Republic in particular. 7
2
Background
Twinning is a temporary secondment of public administration experts from EU Member States to the countries identified under relevant EU assistance programmes as beneficiaries (see Footnote 1). The objective is to assist Beneficiary Countries in building and strengthening their domestic institutions in order for them to have the capacity to implement the acquis communautaire in an effective and efficient manner. Some actors even go as far as referring to Twinning as to the most effective transfer of the “European” know-how abroad. In theory, Twinning could be a textbook example of socialisation which, in reflection of European integration, can contribute substantially to the adaptation of domestic institutions to the implementation of the acquis. This chapter seeks to outline the key characteristics of Twinning, setting it within the larger context of enlargement and sketching out some new developments of the instrument, including the extended coverage and broader purpose of the instrument. The chapter closes by framing Twinning within the framework of institutional change and European integration studies, showing the strengths and innovative aspects of Twinning as a tool serving the EU and Beneficiary Countries.
2.1 Enlargement Instruments and Commission Strategy The Copenhagen summit (1993) introduced three criteria for those seeking the membership in the European Union: 1) stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities (political criteria); 2) the existence of a market economy capable of coping with competitive pressures and market forces inside the Union (economic criteria); 3) the capacity to assume the obligations of accession, and notably to subscribe to the objectives of political, economic, and monetary union (legal criteria or the ability to adopt the acquis communautaire).4 A fourth criterion (the enlargement happening only if and when the EU has the capacity to absorb new members without threatening the momentum of European integration) does not concern the Candidate or Accession Countries but the Old Member States and the institutions, mechanisms and operation of the European Union.
4
For the Conclusions of the Copenhagen Summit see http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/73842.pdf.
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The 1995 Madrid Summit added another element to the above criteria: institutional capacity. This meant that Candidate Countries had to have administrative and judicial institutions which would be able to implement the acquis. This requirement underlined the conditionality of EU aid that was provided to Candidate and Accession Countries and marked a new phase in the EU enlargement process in the last decade of the 20th century. The principal instrument of technical assistance through which the EU has supported Candidate Countries from Central and Eastern European during pre-accession has been PHARE.5 Some pilot projects on administrative capacity were introduced in Poland and Hungary between 1995 and 1997, but most of them failed due to the fact that consultancy was provided by private companies. In 1997, the European Commission (EC) issued its “Agenda 2000” (EC, 1997) and proposed to dedicate 30% of assistance to institution-building6 and 70% to investment. The European Commission started searching for an effective external cooperation tool which would encourage and promote the build-up and strengthening of the administrative and judicial capacities of Beneficiary Countries. In 1998, PHARE procedures were reformed and the Commission came up with a new instrument called Twinning.
2.2 Twinning – Description of an Instrument7 The goal of institutional Twinning is a direct provision of expertise and transfer of experience with the functioning of public administrations implementing the acquis in different member states to public servants in Beneficiary Countries. This move by the Commission came in recognition of the varied institutional histories, patterns and trajectories in Europe.8 Traditionally, though involved in and organising many debates on public administration reform, the EU, as Olsen (2002: 5) reminds us, has not been particularly attentive to and focused on administrative issues. It was much rather policy making and substantive results than administrative arrangements that ranked top in Brussels, no less for the limited legitimacy of the Commission and its modest administrative capacities for this task. In spite of the Commission keeping an intentionally low profile, the EU has paid great attention to the institutional capacities of applicant
5
Coucil Regulation 3906/89. Originally aimed at helping Poland and Hungary only, the PHARE programme has been later on extended to cover other CEECs as well (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania). 6 TAIEX is the first Phare institution-building instrument and was introduced by the European Commission in 1995. For the differences and linkages between Twinning and TAIEX see Chapter 2.3.2. 7 This section draws on Königová 2003 and 2004. 8 “[Twinning] brings the candidate countries into wider contact with the diversity of practice inside the EU.” (Twinning in Action:5). See also Grabbe 2001: 1023. Diverse diffusion of norms and standards as well as varied adaptation and only limited convergence in member states was also reported by Olsen and Peters (1996)
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states and has exerted a strong pressure on the candidates to modernise their administrations (Grabbe 2001; Lippert, Umbach, Wessels 2001). There is no well-developed encompassing public administration within the EU, no “institutional blueprint” for domestic administrations to adapt to, no shared understanding(s) of a distinct “best practice” in terms of structure and procedures (Sverdrup 2000:18), though the White Paper on European Governance (European Commission 2001b) seeks to set performance standards. The lack of a clear overarching public administration model and the relatively weak European powers for the imposition of specific changes in domestic administrations might be also considered as a factor for facilitating European integration (Sverdrup 2000:44). Since 1998, the Twinning procedure has continuously been modified to reflect the practical experience and there have been numerous editions the Twinning Manual. The Twinning rules in force now (Twinning Manual, April 2005) can be briefly summed up in the following way: The competent authorities of Beneficiary Countries prepare Twinning project fiches on the basis of their bilateral agreements with the EU (Accession Partnership, Association and Stabilisation Agreement or Action Plan). These detailed fiches contain all of EU directives and regulations to be applied; identify the reforms already carried out and future needs, pre-defining to some extent the benchmarks that will have to be met. After getting approved by the EC Delegation, the project fiches are sent to the Commission’s relevant DG (DG Enlargement and/or AidCo) and then circulated among Member States’ National Contact Points (NCP). The NCPs distribute the “calls for participation”, i.e. the project fiches, to the competent authorities and relevant managers, who later send propositions via the NCP to the relevant Commission units. The EC Delegation is then charged with organising presentation meetings for these proposals in the Beneficiary Countries: the PLs and the PAAs/RTAs present their bids to their future colleagues from the BC, usually in English. The bids are then assessed by the BC. During the presentation, four to five members of the jury, generally officials of the ministry planning the Twinning, have to fill in a standard evaluation form containing specific criteria in order to judge the oral presentations and the written proposal of each Member State. They look at command of the project working language, the technical competences, and the expert’s past experience, his/her open-mindedness, and his/her will to find solutions adapted to the situation. Finally, jury members score the presentations on the basis of the evaluation form and of these general appreciations. The representatives of the BC send their decision to the EC Delegation. A project can bring together a consortium of experts from two to three Member States, one of them taking up the role of a Project Leader / Lead Partner. Once the “model” is chosen, the future cooperation is planned in a Twinning contract between the partners. The “targets” of the project—called “mandatory results”—are defined in the contract. The PAAs/RTAs have to report on their activities, sending detailed quarterly project progress reports. They have to constantly refer 10
to the mandatory results defined under the Twinning contract and on the way they have been achieved so far. The Beneficiary Countries also evaluate their performance in project reports against benchmarks agreed in the Twinning contract. The objective of Twinning is to make the BC’s organisations fully functioning, effective, financially self-sufficient, sustainable and dynamic after the series of Twinning projects end. This is a distinct shift in the conception and implementation of EU assistance. Twinning is conceived as no direct and immediate “delivery without the demand” but a as “tailor-made project” with allowing for slight changes in cut and design right on the client,9 though the change mechanism is rather clumsy and protracted, as we will show in Chapters 4 and 5. Clearly, the Commission has not opted here for a “single best way of organising administration” while recognising that the definitions of “good administration” always hinge upon specific, time- and place-bound ends, purposes and values (Olsen 2002). What is new here is the idea of permanent co-operation of the partner administration. The aim is to build long-term relationships between MS and BCs, their public administrations, agencies and bodies on national, regional and local levels and in a cross-section of sectors, foregrounding a favourable environment for future interactions within the enlarged EU framework for smooth governance. While Twinning may be able to deliver all of the above, facilitating mainly the transfer of technical assistance from Member States’ administrators to Beneficiary Countries’ officials, there have been several obstacles and limitations, as pointed out by several evaluations and studies (see e.g. Cooper, Johansen 2003; Königová 2003, 2004; Bailey, de Propris 2004; Tulmets 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006; WM Enterprise 2006). First of all, the Beneficiary Countries have often lacked sufficient capacity to absorb the assistance provided. This relates both to human capital and financial constraints (or lack of commitment). Moreover, where EU Member State partners failed to deliver agreed assistance, e.g. due to the shortage of expert staff to provide the desired input, the beneficiaries (and the European Union Delegations/Representations) had only few tools and little power to influence their performance (Papadimitrou, Phinnemore 2003a, WM Enterprise 2006, Bailey, de Propris 2004 etc.). Second, the sustainability of intervention after Twinning has been another source of concern (Papadimitrou, Phinnemore 2003a; Cooper, Johansen 2003; Bailey, de Propris 2004 DG Enlargement/EMS Consortium 2004). This is related both to the remaining politicisation of Beneficiary Countries’ public (especially central government) administrations and the huge turnover of staff in civil service in these countries. Even though follow-up Twinning or TwinningLight projects seek to prevent that, it remains a major challenge to the effectiveness of Twinning.
9
Projects may be adjusted to the course of events and unforeseen changes during the implementation phase.
11
Third, Twinning was initially perceived as something that was imposed on the Candidate Countries (Königová 2004, Cooper, Johansen 2003; DG Enlargement/EMS Consortium 2004). Some Pre-Accession Advisers from the first generation of Twinning had to struggle with the image of “spies” appointed by the European Commission. This only documents how critical it is to explain the philosophy of any aid programme to the beneficiaries in a comprehensive and clear way, being fully aware of cultural sensitivities and seeking the acceptance and commitment from the recipient country and its institutions first. Fourth, both the first and the second generations of Twinning and Twinning Light are marked by an extensive administrative load and substantial delays in the preparation (especially approval) and implementation of projects.10 “This reflected the generally slow process of learning for all actors (EC, EU Member States, Candidate Countries) and the difficulties sometimes experienced in terms of the development of a partnership between the two sides at all stages of preparation and implementation.” (WM Enterprise, 2006).
However, with years, Twinning as an instrument has developed and the early start-up problems have been overcome in many respects, though not completely. This has motivated the European Commission to extend the scope and geographical coverage of this assistance tool and to explore further complementarities of Twinning and TAIEX.
2.3 New Developments, Plans and Priorities of the Commission Since Twinning was launched in 1997, the European Commission gradually adapted this instrument to further assistance programmes. In 2001, a Twinning Manual was elaborated for the CARDS programme delivering assistance to the countries of the Western Balkans11. From 2001 to 2003, Twinning also enabled similar projects in the form of the Institution-Building Partnership Programme in the TACIS programme, but “without any real success” (Interviews, DG AidCo, April 2006)12. In 2003-04, Twinning was introduced in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). In order to harmonise Twinning rules and procedures, the Commission worked on the elaboration of a common Twinning manual which was issued in June 200513 and applies to the Instrument for Pre10
The “first generation” of Twinnings refers to projects started in 1998. These projects were affected by early teething problems and the issues mentioned as obstacles were very prominent. The “second generation” of Twinnings (Twinnings since 1999) managed to overcome some of these problems event though the administrative load and the delays still continue to hamper performance and reduce effectiveness and efficiency (cf. DG Enlargement/EMS 2004). 11 CARDS (Council regulation 22666/2000): Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation. 12 In the years 2002-03, the EU has launched calls for proposal for a total of 68 IBPP projects in the context of the TACIS programme (Russia 40, Ukraine 16, Armenia 5, Georgia 3, Kazakhstan 4). 13 Manual accessible online at:
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Accession (IPA) (replacing PHARE14, CARDS and the assistance to Turkey) and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instruments (ENPI) (replacing TACIS and MEDA15). 2.3.1 Further accession negotiations and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Twinning has become one of the main instruments used by the Commission in order to explain how European norms, values and acquis can be taken over, adapted to the national context, and implemented. As mentioned earlier, Twinning was originally designed for Candidate Countries that had to meet specific accession criteria in order to be accepted as EU Member States. Today, however, Twinning concerns also Potential Candidate Countries and those neighbouring countries that are interested in enhancing their cooperation with the EU and the Member States in several policy fields. The European Commission also decided to continue providing Twinning assistance to the New Member States from the 2006 budget (Transition Facility). Twinning projects with New Member States as beneficiaries have been geared more towards shorter-term aid (Twining Light) rather than longer-term “fully fledged” Twinning.16 Various analysts and institutions, among which the European Commission, believe that EU’s new member states (NMS) have a specific role to play in the framework of further accession negotiations and the ENP. NMS can rely on a recent experience of democratisation, transformation and, finally, accession which can be very useful for Candidate Countries and for countries undergoing democratisation and transition. The number of Twinning projects implemented in Candidate Countries has been increasing especially since Twinning was evaluated as a positive and useful instrument during the enlargement of 2004 (European Court of Auditors, 2003). According to the figures presented at the annual NCP meeting of June 2006 and more recent statistics (cf. report in Appendices 5a,b), the database elaborated at the Commission since 1998 on Twinning in PHARE, CARDS and the Transition Facilities registers 1245 projects for the period of 1998-2006. PHARE and the Transition Facilities alone represent 1163 projects (1998-2006). A large part of the projects took place in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) (260 projects). For CARDS, 82 projects were launched for the period of 2000-2006. 34 projects concern JHA, 16 public finance and Internal market and 11 agriculture and fisheries. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/financial_assistance/institution_building/Twinning_en.htm. PHARE (Council regulation nb 3906/89): Pologne-Hongrie, Aide à la Restructuration Economique. 15 TACIS (Council regulation nb 1279/96): Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States. MEDA (Council regulation nb 1488/96) and MEDA II (Council regulation nb 2698/2000). 16 Twinning Light (TWL) refers to projects with the involvement of STEs and/or MTEs which last up to 6 months only (or 8 months, in exceptional cases). The total budget of TWL can be no higher than EUR 250,000. More responsibility is shifted on the Beneficiary Country. „Classical“ Twinning projects last between 12 to 18 months or, in some cases, even longer and they rely on the person of a Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) residing in the Beneficiary Country. STEs and MTEs are also involved in classical Twinnig and the budget exceeds EUR 250,000. 14
13
In 2003, the European Union launched the “Wider Europe Strategy”, renamed European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 200417. The Commission proposed to include Twinning in the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI), a new framework for assistance that is to replace TACIS and MEDA after 2007. Since 2003, Twinning NCPs have been operating in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan. The approach in mainly “demand driven”, which means that the partner should progressively develop a sense of ownership of the instrument according to their own experience. It should favour Twinning projects along the priorities defined in each Action Plan, which generally cover the following sectoral priorities: Internal market, Justice and Home Affairs, energy, transport, communication, environment, research and innovation as well as social policies. Approximately 80 Twinning projects are currently planned or under way. In the ENP, however, the temporal and political constraints linked to accession are absent and the EU’s attractiveness is weakened. Since 2005, the Commission organised two main workshops to inform the ENP countries about Twinning as well as to present the experience of New Member States: one in Cairo (Egypt) and one in Kiev (Ukraine). In May 2006, a number of Twinning projects were agreed with these two countries, which reflects the importance of such awareness-raising activities. Other countries are also interested in Twinning (e.g. Moldova and Azerbaijan). There is no association agreement yet with Syria and the EU has difficulties to define its relationship with Libya. Due to the political character of some projects and the perspective of accession absent in the ENP, the introduction of Twinning projects mainly depends on the political will of the governments to accept them. As mentioned earlier, experts were often perceived as “spies of Brussels” even during pre-accession and the risk that they are seen as such in the ENP is higher without the “carrot” of accession (Interviews, DG Enlargement, 2004; DG AidCo, 2006). 2.3.2 Complementarity of TWO and TAIEX In 1995, the Technical Assistance Information Exchange Office (TAIEX) was created to assist the Candidate Countries in taking over and implementing the acquis in the field of Internal market. TAIEX provides information from a database on the acquis and supports the sending of independent experts for short-time missions to Candidate Countries. Advice is provided for example on standardisation, certification, services, movement of capital , company law, competition law, environmental law, market supervision, protection of intellectual and industrial property rights, anti-piracy counterfeiting fight, customs, state aid control or public procurement. The experts
17
The countries included in the ENP are: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine.
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mainly work for consulting companies and their experience and per diems differ greatly from the ones of Twinning RTAs. As the ENP offers “a stake in EU’s internal market”, since June 2006, TAIEX has also been used to implement the ENPI. As the experience of transition towards democracy and market economy particularly varies among countries of EU’s neighbourhood, complementarity between Twinning and TAIEX, i.e. between expertise from the public and the private sectors, has recently been thought through. Short-term missions of TAIEX experts should help to identify the deficiencies of public administrations and back-up local civil servants during the preparation of project fiches for Twinning light or Twinning. In general, TAIEX and Twinning should encourage learning and socialisation processes in terms of EU norms and procedures, and thus to encourage enhanced cooperation between the EU and third states in various sectors.
2.4 Aims of Twinning and Theoretical Underpinnings Although Twinning has existed for almost a decade, the academic production on Twinning is still rather scarce (Grabbe, 2001; Phinnemore, Papadimitriou, 2003a, 2003b; Tulmets, 2003a, 2003b, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c; 2006; Königová, 2003, 2004; Drulák, Königová 2005). Originally, Twinning was designed to facilitate learning about and socialisation into the transposition and implementation procedures as part of the accession process, focussing mainly on the acquis in Candidate Countries. The chief purpose of Twinning is to promote best practices at the level of administrative and judicial capacities where there is no acquis to provide for guidance. As pointed out earlier, the instrument has recently been extended to cover European Union neighbourhood countries. The expected result is a transfer of experience and of institutional knowledge from Member States to third countries to drive reforms towards institutional changes. Twinning is part of a policy supporting positive conditionality (reforms are rewarded) rather than negative conditionality (lagging behind in reforms is punished). As pressure is exerted through a process of “naming and shaming” with the elaboration of evaluation reports, learning and socialisation play a central role in driving institutional changes (Schimmelfenning, Sedelmeier 2004). Therefore, the theoretical literature employed so far is rather a sociological one, whose concepts have been adapted to the field of international relations (Tulmets, 2003a, 2005c; Königová, 2003, 2004). 2.4.1 Learning and Socialisation
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A large body of literature already exists on learning and socialisation at the national level, but emerged only recently on organisational learning and socialisation at the regional or international level. As learning at the national level identifies several types of learning (individual, organisational, inter-organisational) (DiMaggio, Powell, 1991), learning at the international level refers to individual learning as well as to collective learning, but a general emphasis is put on collective or organisational learning (Checkel, 1999, 2001). Other strands of literature focus more specifically on policy learning, which “occurs when policy-makers adjust their cognitive understanding of policy development and modify policy in the light of knowledge gained from past policy experience” (Stone, 2004: 549; also Rose, 1993). One may say that Twinning fosters individual, collective and organisational learning in specific policy fields (Drulák, Königová 2005). A way to gain knowledge on policy development is through socialisation. Socialisation was already present in the neo-functionalist work of Ernst Haas, the author of “The Uniting of Europe” (1968). Inspired by the functionalist David Mitrany, who believed that economic integration could lead to a spill-over effect on the political, Ernst Haas advocated that socialisation among elites could create integration within specific fields of activity. With the absence of spill-over effect in the European Political Cooperation (EPC), neo-functionalist approaches kept on being criticised by intergovernmentalists. At the end of the 1980s / beginning of 1990s, European integration gained momentum again with the creation of the internal market, the launching of a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), with the communautarisation of part of the third pillar in 1997 as well as with the launching in 1999 of the Euro and of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). For some authors, these steps forward were possible due to socialisation among European elites and actors on common values in specific policy fields (Smith, 2004, see also Haas, 1990). The open method of coordination adopted in the fields of employment policy in 1997 and of social policies in 2000 also aims at socialising actors with different institutional and national backgrounds in order to elaborate common values. Socialisation also plays a growing role in the countries targeted by EU’s external relations, although it may be seen more like a one-way process. Similar to international activism promoting democracy at the international level (Finnemore, Sikkink, 1998; Risse, Ropp, Sikkink, 1999), EU’s policy of political conditionality mainly aims at socialising Candidate Countries and third states into the EU’s conception of Human Rights (Checkel, 2001) and political and normative culture. The policy of enlargement to Eastern Europe contributed to export EU norms through conditionality, socialisation and persuasion (Schimmelfennig, 2001; Schimmelfennig, Sedelmeier, 2004). Twinning projects participate in this process of exporting norms and values in extending EU’s internal policies abroad and socialising actors from third countries into EU’s sectoral norms (Tulmets, 2003a, 2005c; Königová, 2004). Twinning can be seen as an attempt to supplement conditionality by a policy-dialogue approach (Checkel 2000:5), which helps to build political 16
support and consensus for reforms through consulting a spectrum of stakeholders even outside the institution in sectors and policies where conditions and the very nature of the issues allow so. The importance of “low politics” in EU’s external relations has recently been acknowledged in other fields of EU’s external relations, mainly in the European Neighbourhood Policy: “We already have an impressive range of policy instruments, including development aid, diplomacy, trade policy, civilian and military crisis management, and humanitarian assistance. We also need to do more to recognize and utilise the external dimension of the EU’s internal policies. Thanks to globalization, most internal policies now have an international element.” (Ferrero-Waldner, 2006a)
2.4.2 Institutional Change Analyses studying the impact of EU norms abroad often rely on neo-institutionalism (DiMaggio, Powell, 1991) as well as on the literature on policy transfer (Dolowitz, Marsh, 1996; Rose, 1993) to examine institutional changes in third countries. According to DiMaggio and Powell, institutional changes can take place in three various contexts and forms: through coercion, mimetism and normative adaptation (DiMaggio, Powell, 1991: 65). Thus, change can result (a) from formal and informal pressure exerted in a coercive way by institutions on other institutions (e.g. conditionality); and it can also take place (b) in a situation of uncertainty, where copying (intentionally or unintentionally) other institutions can represent a solution to a problem. Finally, change can happen (c) in a situation of professionalisation. Professions are subject to similar coercive and mimetic pressures than organisations, either through education (legitimisation of a specific knowledge) or through the creation of professional networks. These networks link together institutions of a same profession and thus contribute to disseminate relevant knowledge for the profession. The third case particularly applies to Twinning, which aims at building networks among civil servants and in specific policy sectors between the EU and third countries. Networking is a key word used at each annual NCP meeting to foster transfer of knowledge and support institutional change. The transfer of knowledge on policies (policy transfer) is generally defined as: “the process by which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political system (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political system” (Dolowitz, Marsh, 1996).
In Twinning, policy transfer never took place in a void and very often enabled institutional adaptation through a mix of past and new practices, which one may call adaptation or hybridisation. 17
Richard Rose defines policy adaptation as the process of “adjusting for contextual differences a program already in effect in another jurisdiction” and making a hybrid as the process of “combining elements of programs from two different places” (Rose, 1993: 30). Without institutional mix, reforms would stay very costly and the new policy would often lose legitimacy. Policy adaptation and hybridisation are therefore a way for third states to optimise resources and to ensure sustainability. 2.4.3 Mutual Learning and Adaptation As pointed out earlier, Twinning is not a one-way process directed from the EU to Candidate Countries or partner states. Besides, it also aims, as far as possible, at mutual learning and adaptation (European Court ot Auditors, 2003; BMWi/GTZ, 2006; also Tulmets, 2005b, 2005c; Königová, 2003, 2004). Various Twinning reports and documents from enlargement indicate that not only did beneficiaries learn substantially from EU experts, but that the EU experts also learned a lot from and in Candidate Countries. Experts interviewed explained that Twinning contributed to enlarge their knowledge of the Beneficiary Countries and sectors they have been working in, but also, thanks to Twinning consortia, the acquis implementation solutions used other Member States. Occasionally, the solutions found in Candidate Countries to implement the acquis constituted positive lessons for MS experts. Some of these lessons were taken back to the EU as good practices from future Member States.
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3
Report Methodology
Aiming to provide an evaluation of the experience so far of the Old Member States with TWO, this report relies mainly on primary data collected through questionnaires and personal interviews with OMS National Contact Points, Project Leaders (PLs), Resident Twinning Advisers (RTAs), Shortand Mid-Term Experts (STEs/MTEs). The first version of questionnaires was piloted on a few experts and the NCPs in France and the United Kingdom. The NCP questionnaire as well as the questionnaires for experts involved in TWO and TWI (see Appendix 1) were then abbreviated and used for mailing out and personal interviews. The questionnaire included both multiple choice and open questions and we encouraged the respondents to add any information or comments they felt were necessary. In interviews, additional questions were also asked to get more specific answers or make deeper explorations. In spite of the initial decision to focus primarily on the most active and successful providers of TWO assistance (see Appendices 5a,b for statistics), i.e. Germany, France and the United Kingdom, the research team had to extend the scope and refocus the geographical coverage on the basis of the first experience with the (un)responsiveness and accessibility of experts from these three Member States.18 Also, after the initial phase of desk research and early fact-finding and background interviews, we decided to zoom in specifically on countries with some structural similarities to the Czech Republic, i.e. countries with similar populations, sizes and comparable public administration capacities (though not necessary structures and traditions). That is also why Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden rank among the major data providers for our research (cf. Appendix 2). To get some cross-check of the data we would get from Old Member States (OMS) and the European Commission, we decided to mail out another set of questionnaires to the New Member States (NMS) and Turkey in order to verify some information and validate the responses by providing the recipient perspective.19 In several cases, we were able to get answers (in personal
18
To compensate for the very low reaction rate (not to be mistaken with the response rate – see Appendix 2), the French NCP gave to us a valuable document that the French NCP prepares every year and sends to the EC before the NCP meeting in Brussels. The document (“Questions posées par les autorités françaises“”) sums up all the comments of French PLs and experts. Similarly, we could offset the UK’s low response rate by drawing upon background interviews and findings from previous research (Königová 2003, 2004). 19 In general, answers from three types of experts were collected in NMS: 1) persons who have been involved in Twinning as beneficiary, generally until 2004-06 (TWI); 2) persons who have been involved as beneficiary and provider (TWO/TWI); and 3) persons who have been involved only as provider, since 2004 (TWO). Despite the small rate of answers (see Chapter 4 and Appendix 2), they are quite representative of the different types of experience with Twinning as they come from Twinning NCP, project leaders / managers and experts, as our background interviews and Twinning evaluation reports confirmed.
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interviews or via questionnaires) from experts from both the MS and the Beneficiary Countries who have been working on the same project. In order to secure the highest possible return rate which would be both manageable in terms of data interpretation and evaluation and representative of the experience of OMS, we used three ways of sending out questionnaires and asking for interviews: (a) the first version of the European Commission database of all Twinning projects and contacts since 199820 (EuropeAid / DG Enlargement 2005), (b) contacts given to us by OMS NCPs, and (c) personal contacts from previous research done by two members of our research team (Drulák, Königová 2005; Königová 2003, 2004; Tulmets 2003b, 2003c, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006). Importantly, interviews with the Czech National Contact Point and the administrators from the CFCU as well as interviews with Senior Programme Officers (SPOs), TWI and TWO contact persons and heads of EU departments in Czech ministries were conducted to study the situation in the Czech Republic and establish the grounds for our recommendations (see Chapter 6). Out of the 15 NCP questionnaires sent to Old Member States National Contact Points, 13 came back (the Spanish and Portugese NCPs did not react to any of our repeated requests for cooperation) and 7 have been discussed in more details during in-depth interviews with the NCPs in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United-Kingdom.21 During the data collection phase, our team had to deal with several methodological challenges. First, due to the high turnover of staff in some administrations, contacts in the Commission’s database were not up-to-date in quite a few cases, so asking NCPs to send the questionnaires out to their updated mailing list was a way to compensate for the shortcomings in the first way of circulation. Second, requesting help from NCPs meant another challenge in that some of them did not react to our request for PL, RTA and STE contacts while some other NCPs did not forward the questionnaire to a large enough number of persons (that explains the small rate of answers for some countries, e.g. Estonia, Hungary).22 That is why we used some personal contacts from previous Twinning-related research projects to offset this shortcoming. (For the return success rate and the absolute figures see Appendix 2). Third, some respondents skipped some questions in our questionnaire due to the lack of knowledge of the specific issue and/or the lack of time. These answers were rated as “don’t know” / “other” or “no difference” (see Chapter 4). In our original research plan, we intended to mail-out and classify the questionnaires according to the most prominent TWO sectors and sectors identified as priority fields by the Czech NCP (cf MFČR and MZV ČR 2006). Following initial interviews piloting a longer version of the 20
This database is currently updated and a second version will be released shortly. Due to the quite limited involvement of Belgium, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg in TWO (see statistics in Appendices 5a,b), we did not seek any additional information on and from these Member States. 22 Several NCPs contacted by our team promised to send us a list of experts who might be contacted by us for the purpose of this research. Up until the cut-off date for this project (20 October), however, no lists came from some of them. 21
20
questionnaire, however, we decided to drop this variable since it was not bringing any relevant data in terms of sector-specificity. More importantly, though, our research project was aimed at project management and organisation issues which would be of value to all sectors and could be a basis for a successful TWO strategy for the Czech Republic, rather than providing sector-specific advice. Given all the above, it is possible to consider the sample of over 160 respondents (see Appendix 3) as quite representative of the “Twinning community”. Also, considering the limited period of time for data collection, interpretation and evaluation, the small size of our research team and the related financial limitations, it would have been quite difficult to reach more persons and work with a larger sample. Our research team also drew upon several Twinning evaluation reports and on a number of quarterly and final reports. However, we did not carry out any systematic analysis of project reports since (a) this was the method used in the evaluations we drew upon so we could rely to a large extent on these findings; and (b) we wanted to capture and evaluate the immediate experience of TWO actors, i.e. PLs, RTAs/PAAs, STEs/MTEs and NCPs and learn more and in a more targeted way than we could from Twinning project reports. Last but not least, we made use of Twinningrelated policy documents, legislation and methodological guidance provided by both the European Commission and individual Member States. Following the data collection phase, we proceeded with data interpretation and qualitative and quantitative analysis of both the primary and secondary data gathered (see Chapter 4). Our team has studied and categorised various TWO organisation models, focussing particularly on National Contact Points and their operation and involvement in various phases of the TWO cycle (Chapter 4.1). Following the study of the TWO project phases (preparation, bidding, contracting, implementation and evaluation), the hands-on experience of Old Member States was analysed (Chapters 4.2 to 4.6). The evaluation of this experience, along with the advice given by the respondents to New Member States, formed the basis for our formulation of the basic TWO success criteria from the perspective of TWO assistance provider. The benefits and drawbacks, as well as risks, constraints and opportunities were then identified (Chapters 5.1 to 5.3). Considering the structural conditions and the political situation in the Czech Republic, a series of recommendations was then made, along with some more general ones, for a successful TWO strategy in the Czech Republic. Czech specificities, capabilities, areas of expertise, strengths and weaknesses and, above all, resources (both human and financial) were taken into account (Chapter 6.2). The recommendations and the cost-benefit analysis then served as a basis for the formulation of five models of Czech TWO involvement (Chapter 6.2.4).
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4
Presentation of Findings
The following results rely on two sets of questionnaires and personal interviews: first, we sent a special NCP questionnaire (see Appendix 1) to all National Contact Points (NCP) of the Old Member States and were able to organise in-depth interviews with 7 NCPs (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom), which provided us with a lot of additional data and insight. Second, this chapter relies on data from questionnaires sent to PAAs/RTAs from some Member States (cf Chapter 3 – Methodology). As for the NCP models, section 4.1 of our report presents information about the location, organisational and communication arrangements, operation and support activities of NCPs in those countries we could get enough information about. This section of our report is, by design, quite descriptive. This is because our interviews with NCPs in both Old and New Member States revealed that NCPs have, by and large, rather limited knowledge and understanding of other countries’ TWO organisation. Therefore, in order to meet the need for more information about other MS NCPs, indicated also by the Czech NCP staff, while responding to the requirements of the Czech Foreign Ministry’s terms of reference for this project, we seek to give a brief outline of the history, structure, staffing, tasks, activities, communication and financial arrangements of these OMS NCPs. And it is largely on the basis of these NCP models that we make conclusions and recommendations on the location, functioning and services provided by the Czech NCP (Chapter 6.2). However, no matter how much a well-functioning NCP can be a major asset and a key player in a country’s successful Twinning Out strategy, it is mainly the approach of and procedures used by “twinners”, i.e. PLs, RTAs, STEs and MTEs that play a vital role in Twinning and, along with the commitment, capacities and capabilities of Beneficiary Institutions, largely determine the success or otherwise of TWO projects. Sections 4.2 to 4.6 therefore present the findings from our exploration of the OMS experience with the preparation, contracting, use of resources, implementation and evaluation of TWO projects. This information is also complemented by insights from NMS as receivers of TWO assistance and, once again, provides the basis for our recommendations, both general and those made specifically for Czech authorities (Chapter 6). This part of the report closes with general advice to New Member States.
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4.1 NCP models With the introduction of new management rules for EU programmes in March 1998 (Council regulation nb 622/98 of 16 March 1998) and, most importantly, the launch of Twinning in the same year, each Member State created a National Contact Point (NCP) responsible for the coordination of European assistance programmes and communication with the Commission in the framework of enlargement. NCPs channel information to Member States’ ministries and other relevant administrative bodies and advise them on the process and development of TWO administrative issues while providing general support throughout the preparation, bidding, contracting and implementation phases of the TWO cycle. NCPs are located at different levels of the Member States central government. As one interviewee at the German NCP pointed out: “the location of the NCP particularly reflects the importance assigned to European policies at the national level: if located at the Prime Minister’s Office, it shows that these questions are seen as political in all sectors; if located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are seen as belonging to the domain of international relations; if created at the Ministry of Finance, it indicates that European financial issues are of particular importance, if at the Ministry of Economy, that greater priority is given to trade and economic issues”.
The way NCPs have been created in Old Member States thus mainly depends on already existing institutional legacies. Yet, the NCP location may and does change over time in some countries, depending on national political constellations and new priorities for the allocation of “European” competences. The following section of the report describes the location, organisational set-up, operation, communication as well as the tasks carried out and support services provided by the NCPs in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.23 In order to avoid the classic classification of centralised versus federal states and not to focus only on the ministries where NCPs are seated, the variety of institutional experience has been classified among two groups: 1) NCPs with an agency adding strong infrastructure and operational support, and 2) NCPs without agencies (cf. Table 1).
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As suggested in Chapter 3 – Methodology, we have not received any information on the Portuguese and Spanish models in spite of several written and telephonic requests for data. Also, in spite of receiving a completed NCP questionnaire filled in by the Greek NCP, we could not really make a comprehensive picture of the Greek NCP function since the data provided was very sketchy and we could not really retrieve any additional information about this NCP from any other sources we had access to.
23
Table 1: Location of NCPs in Old Member States: Prime Minister’s Ministry of Foreign Ministry of Agency / Support Office Affairs Economy / Finance Structure X AEI Austria X Belgium X Denmark X Finland X France X GTZ Germany X Greece X - IPA Ireland X Italy X Luxembourg X EDV Netherlands X Portugal X FIIAPP Spain X - SIDA Sweden X UK Source: Interviews with NCPs, NCP questionnaires and the DG Enlargement list of (http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/institution_building/current_ncpms_en.pdf)
I.
NCPs
National Contact Points assisted by a special agency
These NCPs are located within a Ministry (of Foreign Affairs, of Economy, of Finance). The agencies have generally a private status (association, company with non-for-profit activities), are financed from the state budget and may be either independent or located directly at the Ministry where the NCP is based. In two cases, that is in Ireland and Sweden (see Table 1), the entire NCP functions have been delegated to agencies.
AUSTRIA In Austria, the NCP was first established in 1997-98 at the Office of the Prime Minister (Bundeskanzleramt) before being moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where it is still located. It is composed of one person in charge of the NCP, generally a diplomat. This civil servant is assisted by an intern / short-termer. The person in charge of the NCP deals with Twinning, TAIEX, CARDS and IPA. Organisation and coordination The Austrian NCP works in close cooperation with all ministries and their mandated bodies (see Appendix 4) to which it distributes all project fiches and from which it collects bids. A special platform, the Agency for European Integration and Economic Development (AEI, Agentur für Europäische Integration und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung), was created in 2003 at the Ministry of Finance to assist mandated bodies in preparing their Twinning projects. The Agency is officially an 24
association (eingetragener Verein, e.V.) working for the government: mandated bodies have to become AEI members and pay a symbolic fee in order to benefit from the AEI’s assistance. Since 2006, almost all ministries and their mandated bodies have been AEI members. The AEI outsources some of its activities (accounting, project management) to a private company, the FAA holding. Austria being a federal country, project fiches are also circulated to the regions (Länder) when their expertise is needed (e.g. projects on structural funds). Some regional experts are registered in the database of the AEI, but the involvement of Austrian Länder in Twinning stays rather low. Support services The NCP is assisting all actors interested in Twinning. It also circulates project fiches in a targeted way. It directly contacts mandated bodies if the expertise they can provide corresponds with the profile of a specific project. The AEI has a database of about 350 experts (not all from Austria). Sometimes, a specific expert is directly contacted and informed about the project. Personal or phone contacts are generally preferred and considered more efficient. The NCP occasionally organises inhouse seminars to discuss Twinning experience with PLs, RTAs and a Commission representative. The Agency for European Integration (AEI) is supporting the NCP by circulating the project fiches to all of its members and helping mandated bodies with bid preparation activities.
GERMANY The German National Contact Point (NCP) was created in 1998 when Twinning was launched. It was first located at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technologies (BMWi), responsible for the coordination of European Affairs, and its mandated body Kreditanstalt of Wiederaufbau (KfW), already in charge of the financial coordination of the German programme of assistance to Eastern Europe (Transform). When Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) came to power in September 1998, the competences for European Affairs were moved to the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), led by Oskar Lafontaine. The German Twinning NCP moved to the ministry of Finance, with a delegation office of the Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the biggest German development agency. After Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) came to power in September 2005, the European competences moved back to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technologies (BMWi) and so did the NCP and the GTZ office a few months later. It is now situated at the Department for Europe in the Ministry of Economics which also deals with the Transform programme (see organigram in Appendix 4). The German NCP is composed of one director, one desk officer and two contracted persons. The GTZ office has two staff and some interns. Only 3% of the NCP tasks deal with TAIEX, which is managed by the GTZ TAIEX office in Brussels. The
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NCP has its own intranet Twinning website, accessible only to the German “Twinning community”.24 Organisation and coordination The German NCP is in charge of circulating all project fiches and collecting all Twinning bids. It is assisted in this task by the GTZ office in Berlin. Due to the federal structure of the German state, project fiches are circulated to Twinning coordinators at federal ministries, which forward the fiches to mandated bodies, and to institutions in charge of European affairs at the regional level of the Länder (State Chancellery, the Ministries of European Affairs, and Ministries of Economy), which forward the fiches to the relevant regional ministerial functions. As Länder have competencies in issues like economy, environment or police and justice, most of the German expertise on the acquis in these fields is located at the regional level. Thus, German Länder are strongly involved in Twinning: almost 40% of the projects with German participation are implemented by Länder administrations. The Twinning website is used to inform about new project fiches which are listed (but not available with all details from) the website. Support services The GTZ office in Berlin is the main body assisting the NCP in its communication and coordination tasks. The Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit relies on a long project management record in development and assistance policy. The GTZ office plays a central role in updating the database of experts (similar to the TAIEX database), in circulating the project fiches and posting them on the web, giving advice on the way to present project proposals and preparing Twinning contracts. The GTZ office relies on its database to find experts and contact ministries and mandated bodies. It supports fact-finding visits and assists in the preparation of project presentations. The GTZ office also organises at least twice a year a preparatory seminar, usually with a guest from the Commission, for RTAs where the rules of the Twinning manuals are presented and experienced RTAs invited to share their past experience in Twinning.
NETHERLANDS The Dutch National Contact Point (NCP) was created in 2000. It was first located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the Directorate General for European Cooperation. In 2004, the location was changed to the Southeast and Eastern Europe and Matra Programme Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to promote synergies with the bilateral Matra cooperation. The Matra Programme, a central point of the Dutch international cooperation strategy, was launched in 1994 as an 24
More information on the German NCP and GTZ Twinning Office at http://www.bmwi.de (BMWi) and http://www.gtz.de/en/unternehmen/2555.htm (GTZ Office).
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instrument that has since been used by the Dutch government to promote public administration reforms encourage the dialogue between civil society organizations and state institutions in Eastern and Central Europe. During the first programme period (1994-1998), cooperation focused mainly on civil society and local government. In 1998, a pre-accession facility was added. In 2004, the Matra programme changed, partly because of the enlargement of the EU and the European Neigbourhood Policy. Twinning is now a component of Matra for European Cooperation (Matra and the National Support Center for EU Twinning). Organisation and coordination The Dutch Twinning coordination has always relied on a close cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where the NCP, a civil servant, is responsible for policy and strategy and diplomatic contacts, chairs the interdepartemental meetings, seminars, etc.) and the EVD (Agency for International Business and Cooperation). EVD is also represented within the Twinning Unit by the “deputy” NCP (a programme manager in EVD) and project officers and administrators at EVD (working part time for Twinning) (see organigram in Appendix 4). Mandated bodies and ministries find their own experts and partners and the NCP has not established any database of experts. Nevertheless, the NCP keeps in contact with acting RTAs during their assignment by inviting them to a special RTA day in The Hague once a year. Support services EVD is a state Agency, a part of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, and its mission is to promote and encourage international business and international cooperation. EVD works for various governmental authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs being the EDV major clients. In Twinning projects, EVD acts as a coordinator within the domestic network.25
SPAIN The Spanish NCP was created at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is now situated at the Secretariat General for the Coordination of General Affairs of the EU. It is assisted by a mandated body specialised in the field of international cooperation and development, the FIIAPP (Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas).26 The agency was originally created to assist countries of South America and, over time, diversified its activities to 25
Information of the Dutch MFA can be found at www.minbuza.nl; Twinning information is available from http://www.minbuza.nl/en/europeancooperation/subsidies,the_Twinning_programme. The EVD has a special website at www.evd.nl. Information about the Matra programme can be found at www.minbuza.nl/en/themes,europeancooperation/the_matra_programme_file/index.html. 26 www.fiiapp.org.
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cover and, since the 1990s, also CEECs and other world regions. In the 1990s, Spain launched a national assistance programme to the PHARE, CARDS and TACIS countries called “Programa de Hermanamientos” (Programme of Brotherhoods/Assistance): more that 150 projects have been implemented and more that 7,000 experts mobilised in this framework. The FIIAPP is building on this experience in its participation in Twinning projects and assistance to the Spanish NCP with coordination and management tasks.
SWEDEN The Swedish NCP was established in 1998 and located at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Financial resources, however, were not sufficient and that is also why in January 2001, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) took over the Swedish NCP function for PHARE Twinning. This move reflected the change in the emphasis: originally, the political aspect was emphasised and that is why the MFA role was key to TWO organisation in Sweden. When the TWO tasks became more project-oriented, the MFA was not able to provide adequate services, as having neither the appropriate capacity nor the experience with this type of activities. One of the MFA staff was transferred to SIDA, working along the new NCP and ensuring the transfer of the “Twinning know-how” (Dixelius, Haglund 2003). The NCP was placed at the Baltic States and Central Europe division both because of the geographical focus of Twinning prior to the 2004 enlargement and the idea that TWO projects in these countries might work well with the parallel bilateral activities (ibid). The MFA continues to provide political leadership and advice on priority countries while SIDA provides for operational management and expert knowledge. However, due to the “minimalistic” government and agency/authority-based approach, the MFA has limited powers over agencies in terms of whether Twinning projects are given priority, as proclaimed by the Swedish government.27 Organisation and coordination Since 2002, the NCP function has been partly downsized to the equivalent of first 1.55 and now 0.95 of a full-time job (the NCP: 0.75 and her assistant: 0.20). The Swedish NCP deals both with TWO and TAIEX in PHARE, MEDA and TACIS countries. However, the assistant is helped by other staff from other departments, depending on the nature of the task and the geographical focus. As for the contribution of area managers, they never spend more than 10% of their working time on Twinning tasks.
27
Sweden has relatively small ministries, compared to other European countries. These ministries are policy-oriented and the regular administrative tasks are carried out by authorities (agencies).
28
The NCP at SIDA has been responsible for the co-ordination of Twinning activities, mainly involving Swedish authorities / agencies. The NCP role is to promote the Twinning instrument, distribute new fiches, assist in the preparation of proposals and help authorities with contracting. The Swedish NCP has several promotion materials and seeks to gain support from the management of state agencies. Due to the relatively weak direct authority of the ministries over the operation of agencies, the Swedish NCP mentioned the difficulty with prioritising Twinning by the management of some agencies in the daily operation of agencies (especially since Swedish public administration has recently been downsized). Support services Besides forwarding relevant project fiches to the respective authorities and keeping in touch with them with regard to ongoing project bid preparations, the NCP at SIDA places all circulated TW and TWL fiches at a special Twinning-dedicated website.28 The website also contains information about EU and Swedish Twinning rules and procedures, Twinning newsletters,29 technical and practical information (including current rates of per diems, project templates, project proposal examples, contact lists, glossaries of key terms, model CVs etc.). Whenever the site is updated, especially when new circulations or recirculations of project fiches are made, the NCP e-mails this information to the relevant officers at relevant authorities, highlighting the ones that might or should be of special interest to the addressees. The NCP also administers the Twinning intranet site and plans to start a forum for PLs, RTAs, STEs and MTEs where country-, sector, or issue-specific information and experience could be exchanged and shared without the need for NCP mediation, which would allow for further flexibility and relevance in information provision and allow experts to enter into direct contact, find also unofficial solutions, and create a living network with the NCP as a hub. The NCP holds annual RTA and PL meetings. The Swedish NCP has a database of experts but does not really use it. However, redesigning and use of this database is planned for near future. Experts from a comprehensive mailing list are frequently contacted via e-mail and the website is regularly updated. The financial resources allocated to the NCP (namely to support the work of Swedish officials from agencies) have so far been taken from a special allocation for Twinning within SIDA East’s regular budget. SIDA is thus able to pay not only for training, seminars and workshops held for future experts but also for the time when bids and contracts are prepared (to supplement the recently introduced preparation costs coverage from Brussels). Together with the Swedish National Financial Management Authority, the NCP has been preparing an interactive course for experts. 28
www.sida.se/euTwinning. These are regular newsletters sent by the Twinning and SIGMA Co-ordination Team (Institution Building Unit, Directorate-General Enlargement).
29
29
SIDA had a major evaluation of its performance done in 2003. This evaluation (Dixelius, Haglund 2003) formed the basis for some organisational and operational changes and improvements translating into improved performance, the creation of the website and rearrangement of some tasks.
IRELAND The Irish NCP was created in 1999. It was first located at the Ministry of Finance but later on was transferred to the Institute of Public Administration (IPA). The IPA serves as NCP for Twinning, TAIEX and other EU programmes like the MEDA public administration network. Two persons work at the NCP as permanent employees of the IPA. The Internal Market Section at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is the NCP for TAIEX for Ireland. Two civil servants in the Section work on TAIEX issues on a part-time basis. In addition, there are Departmental Contact Points for TAIEX in all other Departments (except the Department of the Taoiseach [Prime Minister]). Organisation and coordination The Institute of Public Administration (IPA) communicates regularly with its counterparts in line ministries (departments) and public agencies as well as with colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs. General information on Twinning and TAIEX is also provided on a website. Initially, the IPA encountered some difficulties in mobilising Irish experts and building a contact database. The main reason behind the small number of Irish Twinnings lies in the small number of civil servants and the fact that the organisation of the Irish public administration does not really allow for secondments or time spent abroad on Twinning assignments. Ireland has recently undergone a significant reform of its public administration, which led significant streamlining of its HR, emphasis being put on cost-effectiveness and budgetary performance of its operations. Hence, the Irish public sector is, by comparison with larger countries, a very lean organisation with very few staff overlaps. As far as TAIEX is concerned, the number of experts from the Irish administration participating in TAIEX activities continues to grow. However, pressure of work is and will always be a factor. A certain amount of information is circulated on the website of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Support services The IPA organises regular presentations on the role, extent and purpose of Twinning arrangements so to increase the response rate of Irish civil servants and mandated bodies employees. It also provides ad hoc information to interested units while promoting Twinning within the Irish Public 30
sector networks coordinated by the IPA. The NCP for TAIEX forwards each request to Department contact persons.
II.
National Contact Points Without Agency Support
The NCPs in the second group of OMS are located either at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or at the Prime Minister’s Office. They are in direct contact with line ministries, which have a more important management and communication role than in the case of NCPs supported by agencies.
BELGIUM The Belgian NCP was created in 1998 and was located at the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the current Belgian Federal Public Service of Foreign Affairs, External Trade and Development (Directorate General for European Affairs and Coordination). Situated at the federal level, the NCP also acts as a coordinator and contact point for regions and communities. There is only one person working at the Belgian NCP, responsible for both Twinning and TAIEX. Organisation and coordination Due to the Belgian state structure, the decision was taken to establish a coordination system (coordination between federal level and regions and communities). The responsibility for this coordination structure is one of the main tasks of the Directorate General for European Affairs and Coordination. The NCP established a database of experts grouped according to their competencies. It has also organized information and mobilisation meetings for experts, informing them about the procedures and benefits of both Twinning and TAIEX. The Belgian NCP has no special Twinning website.30
DENMARK The Danish NCP was set up in 1997. Ever since then, it has been located at the Danish MFA. It has now become part of the European Neighbourhood Programme Department (Development Aid Section) because it has been using funds for foreign development projects (this section also administers bilateral aid programmes for the Balkans, Ukraine, Croatia and other Candidate Countries as well as Russia) (see organigram in Appendix 4). The Danish NCP uses TAIEX and Twinning as complementary instruments. The Danes tend to use TAIEX for smaller projects (and
30
General information can be found at www.diplomatie.be.
31
spin-offs of Twinning projects) and see the opportunity for some Twinning projects to evolve from certain TAIEX activities. Organisation and coordination There are two officers at the Danish NCP (the National Contact Point and the NCP Assistant). Both of them are doing partially also bilateral work. Until recently, the Danish NCP, Carl Balle Petersen, was the most experienced NCP in the EU. Denmark being a small country, the Danish NCP has to be very active in motivating national TWO actors. This is done through meetings of the NCP with top management of Danish government departments/ministries, by encouraging the participation in awareness-raising activities such as expert network meetings, seminars etc. The NCP provides background information, if possible, on concrete projects, distributes project fiches and forwards proposals, and Twinning newsletters (national edition). It provides guidance and recommendations and ensures regular updates of the website. Support Services The NCP provides national TWO actors strong advisory service, especially in the pre-bidding (preparatory), bidding and contracting phases. It provides further guidance and recommendations to 60-70% of all proposals, modifying the drafts to comply with Twinning rules before the final bid is submitted. It also offers national financing of preparatory costs not covered by the EU funds (using the MFA bilateral assistance funds). As bid presentations are extremely important, the Danish NCP rehearses the presentations for new RTAs/institutions and offer their advice in terms of restructuring of presentations etc. The Danish NCP has no database of experts since it would be difficult to maintain it and keep it updated. The scarce availability of experts and special requirements make it necessary to announce for RTA candidates and often head-hunting is needed. The Danish NCP operates a special Twinning website31 providing general information on Twinning, including a Twinning brochure, the latest Danish Twinning status, Danish and EC Twinning rules, links to relevant websites, a questions and answers section, information on expert network (ERFA) meetings and other general meetings, listing of TWO projects submitted to the MS with deadlines for submission of proposals to the MFA, an overview of programmed projects as well as Danish “Twinning News”, Commission “News” and various updates and clarifications concerning Twinning rules and regulations. The NCP organises bimonthly ERFA meetings where mainly PLs discuss issues and hosts annual RTA and PL meetings.
31
www.euTwinning.um.dk.
32
The Danish NCP has not made any overall evaluation of Danish TWO projects, but has had an external independent evaluation of the national procedures for Danish participation in EU Twinning commissioned by the MFA and focussing namely on financial mechanisms.
FINLAND In Finland, the National Contact Point (NCP) was established in 1998. It was firstly located at the Ministry of Finance. The Twinning unit was one of the three units of the Department for Public Management Development. The Ministry of Finance consists of 7 Departments and the Public Management Department is responsible for organisational and management development of central state administration. Now, the NCP is located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As in other EU states, the Twinning activities have been extended to cover the EU ENP countries. Organisation and coordination The Twinning Unit within the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a small operation coordinating Twinning and TAIEX projects (4 members altogether – three permanent civil servants and one intern).32 The NCP itself is responsible for marketing Twinning opportunities within the Finnish public administration. Information on individual projects is sent directly to the bodies concerned. Additionally, all projects open for tendering are made available on Internet – Twinning website which includes also guidance for preparing the proposal. The NCP has not established any database of experts. Two to three times a year, all contact persons as well as civil servants working in the Twinning projects are invited to Twinning information meetings/workshops. The NCP also gives presentations on Twinning in various ministries and other institutions. Support Services The Finnish NCP does not have any support organisation for Twinning projects. The MFA Twinning team assists authorities with bid preparation, selection meetings and advises them on the application of the Twinning Manual during the whole life cycle of Twinning projects.
FRANCE The French National Contact Point (NCP) was created in 1998 when Twinning was launched. It was based at the SGCI, (Secrétariat Général du Comité Interministériel pour les questions de coopération économique européenne), an institution set up in the 1950s to co-ordinate ministerial activities related to European affairs. This institution has ever since been responsible for 32
Information about the Finnish NCP and Twinning can be found at: http://formin.finland.fi/public/?contentid=50320&contentlan=1&culture=fi-FI.
33
communication between the French Permanent Representation in Brussels, on the one side, and the French ministries and their related agencies, on the other. After the negative referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty in France of May 2005, the government decided to make European affairs more prominent and understandable at the national level and thus to change on the 1st October 2005 the name of the SGCI into SGAE (Secrétariat Général des Affaires Européennes). The NCP is still situated there (see organigram in Appendix 4).33 The French NCP consists of a civil servant in charge of the NCP and a long-term assistant. There is no special Twinning website. Organisation and coordination The French NCP is in direct contact with all ministries and mandated bodies, all of them featured on the NCP’s mailing list. As far as support and implementation structures are concerned, external cooperation activities mainly concentrate around two ministries: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a co-ordination centre for all non-financial and non-military projects, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance responsible for financial assistance activities. After the 1998 reform initiated by the left-wing government of Lionel Jospin in the field of international cooperation34, these two ministries institutionalised new pools for the coordination of sector-oriented expertise in 2001. Line ministries working with the ministry of Foreign Affairs are now linked to the GIP FCI (Groupement d’Intérêt Général France Coopération Internationale), those around the ministry of Economy and Finance are linked to the GIP ADETEF (Groupement d’Intérêt Général Assistance au Développement des Technologies Economiques et Financières) (see organigram in Appendix 4). Both structures aim at representing the French interests at the European level and in international organisations (the World Bank and United Nations). Official documents and persons interviewed in 2003 at these two organisations clearly indicate the major role played by Twinning in the restructuring of the French cooperation policy. Other ministries also have their own GIP or important mandated body. Project fiches are circulated by the NCP to the GIP, the relevant coordinators situated at the ministries, and to mandated bodies. Support services The GIP FCI (Groupement d’Intérêt Général France Coopération Internationale), located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the GIP ADETEF (Groupement d’Intérêt Général Assistance au Développement des Technologies Economiques et Financières), situated at the ministry of Economy and Finance, both assist their home ministries and other ministries cooperating with them in the preparation of proposals and the selection of experts. Further smaller GIP and mandated bodies fulfil a similar task at other ministries (e.g. Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, etc.). 33 34
For more see e.g. Bouquet 2006. For a contextualisation of this policy shift see Tomalová 2005.
34
Personal contacts with Twinning coordinators within the relevant ministries and mandated bodies play an important role to get proposals and to find quickly a suitable expert. At least one annual meeting is organised in the framework of the “club des jumelages” to get PLs and RTAs together to share and discuss their Twinning experience, with a representative of the Commission present.
GREECE The Greek NCP was founded in 1998 and has been located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.35 There are currently three persons working at the Greek NCP: one NCP and two assistants (civil servants). Organization and coordination The NCP’s main functions are distributing information on both Twinning and TAIEX, coordinating the network and organizing meetings. The NCP has established Contact points reponsible for the mobilisation of sectoral experts at all ministries and mandated bodies. The NCP also organizes quarterly meetings with institutional Contact Points and RTAs. There is no Greek database of experts at the moment.
ITALY The Italian NCP was created in 1998 and has been located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.36 The NCP is composed of two civil servants in charge of Twinning and TAIEX. Organisation and coordination The NCP posts all project fiches on its website and then contacts, directly by e-mail or phone, the Italian administrations that might be interested in bidding. The NCP mentions that it is much easier to mobilise STEs/MTEs than RTAs. Usually it is the authorities themselves that are able to find suitable experts, but the Italian NCP office relies on its own database as well. The NCP also elaborates statistics on Twinning. The Ministries of Economy and Finance, Agriculture, Environment, Health and some Italian regions are among the most active Italian TWO actors and those who are contacted most frequently. Support services The NCP runs a web site where overall information on Twinning/TAIEX is provided and project fiches are circulated. It also organizes meetings with the Italian administrations, regions and 35
The Greek NCP provided us only with the bare minimum of information. No further relevant information could be found at www.mfa.gr. 36 www.esteri.it.
35
mandated bodies, who refer to the NCP on the results and the problems they have faced during the implementation of the projects. Usually there is one annual meeting with all administrations, regions and mandated bodies and several meetings with RTA and experts that are preparing proposals or have problems during the implementation of the projects.
UNITED KINGDOM The UK NCP was established in 1998. Ever since it started operating, it has built its organisation and activities around clearly defined Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) priorities. There are no formal FCO or any other rules and procedures for Twinning, apart from the rules and requirements set out by the Commission. The UK approach is also marked by effectiveness- and efficiency-driven, strongly competitive practices. At the same time, the UK tends to rely on informal procedures. Organisation and coordination The UK “community of interest” approach is quite unique in the EU in the way that there is a frequent and direct contact between the NCP and all levels of TWO project implementation. This is due to the fact that hierarchies in the UK, as a rule, are rather flat and that local and regional actors as well as all mandated bodies are treated just as central government departments are (see organigram in Appendix 4). The UK NCP acts as a hub for all other national Twinning actors to build partnerships and exchange experience. Also, the UK NCP make extensive use of British embassies in Beneficiary Countries. Support services The UK NCP is preparing a Twinning website, due to launch in 2007, and is in frequent e-mail, phone and personal contact with all UK public sector bodies and mandated bodies (the NCP e-mail distribution lists are very comprehensive). They circulate a Twinning Newsletter every two to three weeks with a list of all “live” fiches (fiches in circulation, bids submitted, projects won) and any other items of news of interest, including letters from RTAs, to the UK Twinning Community in the UK and Posts abroad. Besides providing the addressees with all important news and distributing Commission materials, the UK NCP e-mails various practical documents such as audit templates and model documents (soon to be carried on the web site). Regular steering committees where all UK public sector bodies, local, regional and central government departments and mandated bodies are invited to the FCO are among the communication, planning and best practice sharing tools used by the UK NCP. At these Steering Committee Meetings, the FCO reports on progress on EU enlargement and the political background to Twinning, and other departments make presentations 36
on topics of general interest such as TAIEX. At least once a year, the Steering Committee meeting is followed by a “nuts and bolts” workshop session at which best practice in the practical aspects of Twinning, such as preparation of budgets, is exchanged. Apart from this, the NCP gives presentations and is a central actor at various informal interdepartmental and regional discussion groups, meetings and conferences. It has a small fund from which it provides support to UK authorities involved in Twinning in the bid preparation and contracting phases for items such as travel expenses and translation. The above description of different NCP models, far from being exhaustive, combined with the organigrams attached in Appendix 4, not only provides a picture of different institutional solutions of Twinning Out involvement but also shows how structural conditions, administrative legacies and foreign policy focus and priorities are decisive in organising, coordinating and administering Twinning Out activities. Still, no mater how critical NCPs are for the success or otherwise of Twinning Out efforts, they are only one, though very large and important, piece in a much larger TWO mosaic. The following section of the report seeks to complete the picture with our findings about the activities and issues related to the preparation, contracting, resources, implementation and evaluation of Twinning Out.
4.2 Preparation Preparation is a decisive phase in every project and Twinning is no exception to this. The questionnaires sent to and interviews held with experts in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom indicate similar perceptions and experiences. Furthermore, they also reveal some general positive and negative tendencies. The below figures are taken from statistically significant samples of Denmark, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom (see Chapter 3 - Methodology and Appendix 2) but are generally representative of the whole population considered for our research. Most PAAs/RTAs in our sample were or have been involved in Twinning for 2 to 4 years, often also as STEs/MTEs or PLs. Some of them included the long time of preparation of the project (from 4 months to 2 years) into their experience of Twinning. In the best case, it took about 30% of civil servants’ working time to prepare projects within 4-5 months. Very often, RTAs/PAAs had experience with several TWO projects as well as with international bilateral co-operation and could
37
therefore compare the benefits and downsides of Twinning as compared to other co-operative arrangements and assistance programmes. More than a half (66%) of the RTAs rated the cooperation between the country’s administration and the Commission in the pre-bidding phase as good (45%) or excellent (21%). A relatively high number of answers (26%) indicate that, not having been involved in the pre-bidding phase (generally taken care of by NCPs), RTAs had no contact or experience of co-operation with the Commission, besides the RTA training provided by the EC (see below). Figure 1 Cooperation between the country's administration and the Commission in the pre-bidding phase 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%
45%
26% 21%
6% 2% excellent
good
not very good
poor
don't know
As Figure 2 shows, most PAAs/RTAs (52%) indicated that Twinning bids have been prepared by prospective Project Leaders and RTAs, with some involvement of STEs/MTEs, especially in terms of technical input and acquis expertise. Figure 2 Preparation of the bids/proposals 60%
52%
50% 40% 30%
29% 24%
20%
15%
10%
2%
0% by prospective project leaders
by prospective twinners
by prospective project leaders and twinners
38
by a person responsible for twinning
don't know
As Figure 3 clearly reveals, most PAAs/RTAs and PLs have beed involved in the preparation of the proposals at the drafting stage (85%). Nevertheless, well over a half of the respondents gave us multiple answers since most of them have also been involved in recommending experts and sometimes also in feeding in some data on the sector and/or the beneficiary country. A number of our respondents indicated that they helped elaborating work plans, time tables, contributed to the strategic and design aspects of the bid, contributed to the financial arrangements, helped to identify the acquis to be covered on top of the project fiche request and prepared workshops and brainstorming sessions as a background for legislative analysis. Figure 3 Role in the bid preparation 90%
85%
80% 70% 60%
52% 45%
50% 40% 30%
16%
20% 10% 0% participating in the drafting stage
feeding in some data
recommending experts
other/don't know
In general, PAAs/RTAs have been contacted by a person/unit responsible for Twinning at the ministry/mandated body in their sector of specialisation (63%). Some of them indicated that the person responsible for Twinning at the ministry/agency was often the future PL and that they were selected for their specific expertise. Sometimes, the NCP contacted them directly. Interestingly, competitive selection (18%) was mentioned by UK and German respondents only.37 Figure 4
37
Competitive selection was also mentioned by some New Member States respondents (e.g. in Estonia).
39
Way of selection of project leaders and contact persons 80%
68%
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%
18%
16% 5%
10% 0% in a competitive selection
by the NCP
by a person responsible for tw inning at the ministry
don't know
Figure 5 shows that the most important criteria in the selection of Project Leaders and twinners were project management skills (63%), experience in similar projects (53%) and communication skills (45%). Several additional answers indicate that technical skills and expertise also played a role in the selection process. Several interviewees also mentioned language skills and suggested that this will be of growing importance in the next generation of Twinning and that NMS, especially with Slavic languages, might have some advantage in the TACIS region. Figure 5 Selection criteria for project leaders and twinners 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60% 63%
project management skills previous experience in the region
32% 58%
experience in similar project 45%
communication skills other/don't know
70%
29%
Most PAAs/RTAs and project leaders noticed some differences between past, recent and current projects, mainly at the level of the organisation of bid preparation (27%) and of the management of implementation (24%). In terms of the organisation of the preparation, future participants are more involved, experts are selected more strictly, and there is closer cooperation between the project RTA, PL, the ministry and Twinning partners. Some institutions now have contract templates and customise their CVs for individual bids (e.g. the Danish School of Public Administration or some 40
Dutch organisations), relying on an established network of partners and experts. As for implementation management, changes were also noticed. There are new or modified management tools, better selection of STEs/MTEs, flexible project implementation, new utilisation of financial resources, more institutionalisation and involvement of professional providers of financial and/or accounting services. Also, experts are now much better trained in the Logical Framework Approach and in “EU administration”. These changes are also linked to the modified EC rules and requirements for TWO preparation and execution. A large number of respondents (42%) however did not see any difference or gave no answer to this question, especially since they only had experience with fairly recent projects. Figure 6 shows that most PAAs/RTAs and PLs combined one to three different sources of information to prepare the Twinning project. Fact-finding missions have been organised in the form of workshops and missions, allowing PAAs/RTAs and sometimes also PLs to contact their future project partners (61%). Reports on previous (bilateral and EU projects) have also been used. MS embassies in BCs have often been involved (47%) during fact-finding missions and, chiefly, before the presentation of the proposals in the beneficiary country. Especially the Netherlands, France and the UK make full use of their embassies in BCs and are generally happy with their services. Figure 6 What have you done during the preparation phase? 70%
61%
60%
60% 47%
50% 40% 30% 20%
8%
10% 0% fact-finding missions
research of information on the country/field
involve the country's embassies in the CEECs
don't know
Following some earlier research on Twinning (Tulmets 2003a,b; 2004a,b,c; 2006; Königová 2003, 2004; Drulák, Königová 2005) and information gathered during previous data collection periods, we asked our respondents whether they knew about any deal-making between Member States (and/or with BCs) before, during or after bid presentation. Even though the majority answer was no, almost every interviewee mentioned that he/she heard the rumours and a number of respondents had direct experience with this phenomenon. Some interviewees indicated that deal-making did not happen before or during but after presentations. Also, respondents in several countries mentioned 41
that some countries’ embassies and/or MS officials were far too keen to make sure that the BC institution appreciated their bids.38 Also, experts from smaller states, like Finland, the Netherlands and Denmark, share the opinion, that small countries “have limited resources and cannot compete with big MSs”. Countries with a strong sense of fair-play and countries with a rather weak culture of lobbying also find it difficult to lobby for their bids. As far as international partnerships (i.e. the functioning and relationships in TWO consortia) are concerned, answers varied quite largely. Where evaluated as “good and easy”, based on “a trustful and demand-driven approach”, they often happened on the basis of previous bilateral or multilateral contacts and experience or using an already existing network. Some countries seem to be more open to international cooperation (e.g. the UK) and some tend to stick to preferred and proven partners (e.g. Denmark or Sweden preferring Scandinavian MS, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK). Even though previous agreement on a joint bid is always the first choice, if that is possible and necessary for good chances of the proposal, some “forced marriages”, as some respondents called consortia put together upon the suggestion made by the Delegation and/or the BC receiving institution, worked very well. That, however, was not the rule and even the Commission and previous Twinning evaluation reports acknowledged the difficulties with the management of international consortia, especially when having more than two members and when involving different public administration styles and traditions (e.g. some projects involving Scandinavian and South European MS). The most often cited cause of failing international partnerships was the lack of consensus on the questions of leadership, accountability and budget and the lack of commitment to a genuine partnership. When asked about any previous knowledge of the beneficiary country, sector or previous projects, respondents agreed that, on average, this was not required by Beneficiary Countries (even though in Poland, for example, recent fiches often included a note that “command of the Polish language” or “previous project experience in Poland” are welcome). Nevertheless, almost all respondents agree that previous knowledge of the beneficiary country / sector / project outputs is definitely a major advantage. Some respondents suggested that whenever this was highlighted in experts’ CVs and pointed out during presentations, the feedback from recipient institutions was very positive and it made a real difference. Some RTAs/PAAs/PLs even said that it was central in the preparation phase.
38
Invitations for officials from the beneficiary institution who were selecting the bidding winner to visit some countries that were pitching for the Twinning contract were mentioned, especially by some interviewees from New Member States who renounced these practices and said that this “overlobbying” was paradoxically detrimental to the countries seeking to support their bids in this way.
42
4.3 Contracting In general, most PAAs/RTAs/PLs (55%) indicate that contract negotiation went well, although all of the respondents did not fail to point out the sometimes unbearable delays in the contracting phase, be these caused by the personalities of recipient country’s PLs, turnover of staff in BC institutions, protracted and fragmentary EU commenting procedure where each function of DG Enlargement send their comments separately and at various times. Several respondents mentioned the first generation of Twinnings as a particularly painful experience in that respect.
Figure 7 Twinning contract negotiations 60%
55%
50% 40% 27%
30% 20%
15% 6%
10% 0% well, contract was easy to negotiate
well, but contract was not easy to negotiate
not so well, contract was not easy to negotiate
don't know
4.4 Domestic Resources The following section of the report sums up comments made by both NCPs and experts in respect of human and financial resources of their countries. While there are some general tendencies, which are outlined below, there is a clear difference between small and larger states (and public administration structures) in terms of human resource availability, capacity to participate, expert mobilisation strategies and mechanisms as well as financial support given to cover especially preparation costs. Project leaders and RTAs are typically civil servants or retired civil servants or persons from mandated bodies. More rarely, civil servants from regional administrations act as RTAs. In some cases, independent private advisors who used to work in public administration are invited to work as RTAs or as STEs/MTEs. Sending institutions often rely on the experience from bilateral 43
assistance to find experts to send abroad39 and on complementarities between Twinning and national means. The language (mainly English) is not a problem for the North European countries, even though a few of them mention having very little chance to win TWO contracts in the MEDA countries without partnerships with the French. On the contrary, respondents from France and the NMS mentioned the often-poor command of foreign languages by French experts who have often very good technical and management skills but language clearly is a limitation for some of them. For smaller administrations, such as the Austrian, Belgian, Danish, Dutch or Swedish ones, which have only limited financial and human resources, it is often quite difficult to participate in Twinning projects. As the respective country’s NCPs indicated, it is, in general, not easy for administrations to send their best experts for a long time abroad. It is not a big problem to find a Project Leader, but RTAs and MTEs are often very difficult to find. Therefore, experts from these countries typically show more interest in the TAIEX instrument, thanks to the short term expertise required and flexibility of the arrangement. This makes motivation activities by NCPs in smaller countries even more important and guarantees of cost recovery (though not complete in many cases) to the sending institutions40 even more decisive than in big member states with larger pools of experts and greater resources. What seems to be of particular help are regular and frequent meetings with top management of ministries and mandated bodies to convince them of the strategic and operational importance and benefit of TWO projects. Bigger countries with larger administrations, such as France, Germany or the UK, on the contrary, can rely on quite extensive networks of administrative institutions and mandated bodies. However, the danger in more centralised states, like France, is that no matter how big they are, experts tend to be selected primarily from central government bodies. Larger states, however, cal also benefit from the fact that technical assistance has traditionally played an important role in their international cooperation arrangements. Last but not least, experts from large countries seem to be quite willing to travel and stay abroad for longer periods of time. In some countries, the way RTAs are contracted presents various disadvantages in a carreer and it finally turns out that civil servants take a real risk in accepting to go abroad for a longer time. Interviews in France and with Commission officers, for example, revealed that French civil servants have to be officially employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the duration of the Twinning project. As a consequence, they often encounter difficulties in reintegrating into their “home institution” and their 39
Germany, for example, was initially able to draw upon an established and well-developed network of organisations involved in the national Transform programme assisting Eastern Europe to find and mobilise experts for Twinning. For more on this see Tulmets (2002). 40 For example, Danish experts, due to their national salaries and labour cost prices in general in Denmark, are among the most expensive RTAs and STEs in the EU and have a special arrangement regarding fees with the Commission. Cost recovery for their home institutions where they have to be either replaced or they must work on both Twinning and their home tasks is a key variable in deciding about their participation.
44
experience abroad is not really appreciated when they come back. The Commission believes that Twinning should be estimated higher in these countries and considered as a valuable career experience of civil servants. This approach with also help to professionalise twinners’ performance (Interview, DG Enlargement, February 2006).
4.5 Implementation The quality of project implementation varied according to persons, sectors and countries. In general, the beneficiary ministries or institutions have been evaluated as coping rather well with their Twinning contract commitments. Figure 8
How did the receiving institutions cope with their twinning contract commitments?
100%
6% 8%
80%
3% 8%
5% 2%
8% 2%
21%
25%
24%
37%
8% 11% 33%
60% 40%
68%
68%
67%
49%
48%
20% 0% time allocation
commitment well
expertise
not so well
poorly
communication language skills don't know
As evident from Figure 8, time allocation was one of the main constraints, even though the reasons for that were sometimes outside the powers of BC experts. BC expertise was evaluated as generally good, but communication and language skills varied a lot according to persons and working conditions. In general, BCs/receiving institutions could cope quite well with their commitments, although in some cases the commitments were hardly met in reality. Also, the pressure of accession being gone, several interviewees mentioned the disinterest and lacking commitment in NMS. Our research also shows that while some MS administrations welcome the idea of sending their own experts abroad, other do not. This was not a problem if the expert was already retired or if the project was seen as strategic due to the geographical proximity of the BC (e.g. the German Länder Saxony and Bavaria were keen on getting involved in Twinning projects in Poland and the 45
Czech Republic). Sending an expert for a longer period was seen as an opportunity for developing long-term contacts between neighbour countries or regions. Yet, other administrations reacted rather negatively, mainly since by sending an expert abroad, they were losing one at home. Sometimes they even did not have any expert on the subject.41 From the PAAs/RTAs’ point of view, the receiving country’s officials quite welcomed professional twinners. The subjective reasons for that were that “trustful relations developed between the officials”, partners were “glad about having professional twinners, as [they] know what it means to have unprofessional ones” or that the PAA’s expertise and experience was valued. Cooperation went particularly well during contracting. Some experts had more negative experience, mainly due to the fact that in some cases the BC experts learned about the RTA fees and, doing most of the Twinning project work without any remuneration and sometimes outside their working hours, as interviewes in Slovakia, for example, revealed. As far as the preparation of twinners is concerned, future PAAs/RTAs took part in a 3-day preparatory seminar on Twinning at the EC DG Enlargement. Sometimes they were also trained via preparatory seminars organised by their NCPs. Some experts had time to collect information on the country a few weeks in advance, others judged that they had no other preparation than reading the Twinning manual. Many PAAs/RTAs indicated that the preparation was not sufficient. The Danish, Dutch and UK respondents, however, agreed that their NCP and home institutions were very helpful in providing them with assistance and methodological guidance throughout the whole project cycle. The working conditions and environment in the Beneficiary Country were perceived in a very different way, depending on the country, the period of project implementation (there was a huge difference between the first and second generations of Twinning), and the personalities of partners. Interestingly, in many cases we came across mixed assessments: either working conditions (offices, equipment) were good and personal contacts (communication, working relationships) were bad, or the other way round. In general, however, communication and working relationships got better assessment, with almost no differences among BCs.42
41
Respondents pointed out that “they have ‘lost’ a specialist”, there was “a gap in the staff”, the situation was unfavourable because of administration cuts, administrations were not supporting projects and STEs had to “take holidays” for their missions abroad, “because the [administrations] have mostly no experts available and ask them later from the administrations they compete with” etc. 42 As for working and living conditions, general comments indicate that BC were sometimes not prepared to provide adequate office space, equipment and working conditions for RTA, PL and experts, that offices were too small or loud, or that the Twinning team had to bring their own equipment. Furthermore, PAAs/RTAs were losing time by looking for a place to live. In some cases, this took more than four weeks “even with the help of the EC Delegation” (a German interviewee). As for personal contacts, relations with the PLs were generally better that with persons below them. In some countries, there was almost “no communication and relationship”, sometimes also due to communication difficulties on both sides. The command of languages played a major role in facilitating or inhibiting personal contacts.
46
Figure 9
Working conditions and environment in the receiving country
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
8%
9%
17%
19%
36%
8%
8% 14%
8%
29%
39%
41%
33%
35% 34% 20% 14% 5% offices
25%
27%
14%
13% 2%
9% 2%
12% 2%
equipment
very bad
bad
working conditions
normal
good
communication
excellent
8% 9% 2% working relationships
don't know
Differences were noticed in the degree of commitment between Candidate Countries, which are now NMS, current Candidate Countries (mainly Croatia, Turkey), and Neighbourhood Countries. Although some PAAs/RTAs made very good experience in the past with former CCs / current NMS, they were more sceptical about some current Candidate Countries. Language skills were also described as making a key difference in the quality of the partnership between BCs and MS. PAAs/RTAs often had to work with documents in English and in the BC’ languages, which is impossible without the help of a good assistant and of interpreters/translators: “no PAA is able to master at the same time practical experience and legislative details in a foreign language”. As far as the implementation of Twinning is concerned, PAAs/RTAs gave a more or less positive evaluation of the transfer of knowledge, of rules, norms and standards as well as of technology. The sustainability of the transfers, the “continuity” and the “long-term effects”, however, are a moot point. In terms of the transfer of knowledge, Twinning was considered as an important instrument to deliver the necessary knowledge on the acquis and was generally judged as very successful, in particular when the partners were interested in the project (“openness to get new ideas and incentives”). The transfer was in particular noticed when knowledge from one Twinning project was positively used or discussed in the framework of a follow-up project. In some cases, however, the knowledge could be used only for a short period due to staff turnover and other constraints. The transfer of rules, norms and standards was rather limited. Finally, the transfer of technology was largely seen as a spin-off and an add-on, moreover not applicable to some projects.
47
4.6 Evaluation In some Member States, like Sweden and Germany, general evaluations of Twinning have been done. Sweden has evaluated its participation in Twinning in concentrating on the efficiency of its own National Contact Point (Dixelius, Haglund, 2003). The German NCP and the GTZ office evaluated the implementation of some Twinning projects in CCs (BMWi/GTZ, 2006). In general, EU Member States do not take time or invest resources to evaluate their Twinning activities abroad. When asked if the quarterly reports have been relevant enough and provided a true picture of the project implementation, the majority of PAAs/RTAs gave positive answers. Some PAAs/RTAs even reported weekly on the project to show the gradual evolution of implementation. Sometimes, reports had to be carefully discussed between the contracting parties as there were arguments over some issues. Some respondents answered that the reports were only a formal exercise and that many practical difficulties that actually mattered a lot and hampered the projects’ implementation and/or success were left out or formulated very carefully. Also, reports were often written under time pressure and BC Project Leaders indicated that some elements described in the reports perhaps reflect the state of the art in terms of institutional changes and legislative reforms, but do not provide information on the shortcomings of implementation. What also plays a role, as suggested in one interview in Denmark, is that some RTAs wrote the reports knowing that they would be read back home and their further career growth might be stalled if failures were admitted. When asked if the targets, benchmarks and mandatory results of projects were easy to measure, PAAs/RTAs and PLs answered that this was indeed the case in many projects. The more experienced respondents said that it was due to the fact that attention was paid to this in the preparation phase and that clear definition of benchmarks and targets was crucial. A well-designed project fiche submitted by the BC is often decisive. In some cases, however, targets were not easy to define and quite often not easy to evaluate, especially in project components with no or little acquis involved or in relation of training or “general improvement of competencies”. Project evaluation has been largely used to prepare further Twinning projects. Sometimes, but not as a rule, lessons learned and feedback loops were taken into consideration by the management of sending institutions. Some projects have also been evaluated by the Commission and this had some impact on further Twinning projects implemented by the given MS provider. The use of project evaluation tools for feedback by MS, however, was not systematic and it was often difficult to say if the BC partners had really made use of these evaluations for new project fiches. The question is whether feedback loops should be taken care of by NCPs which may use them in trainings, workshops and seminars. In quite a few cases, feedback from the Beneficiary Country
48
was provided, appreciated and considered helpful. Some RTAs in Germany even pointed out that they were receiving feedback on the project continuously ever since the project finished. Our research reveals that only a few national, sectoral or interdepartmental evaluations were conducted in Member States on Twinning projects. Only the German, Swedish and Danish NCPs indicated that they made assessments of some of their Twinning projects. This is confirmed by the fact that most PAAs/RTAs have not been interviewed or contacted for evaluations done by the Commission or other institutions. A relatively small group of persons indicate that they have been interviewed by the contracting authority evaluation team, by someone from the EMS consortium for the interim evaluation of PHARE and Transition facilities of the Commission or that they have answered the questions of ECOTEC monitoring the Twinning project. Although the aim of Twinning is to share best practices among Member States as well, it is surprising to notice that this mainly takes place within the scope of a consortium (“more or less, this happens only in partnerships between a Junior and Senior partners”, as noted by one German interviewee). Study visits in the preparatory phase or during implementation are also mentioned as opportunities to exchange good practices among MS. Brussels is generally not considered as a place where this exchange of experience or best practices can take place, except during annual NCP meetings (but this involves only NCPs and there is little time for this kind of exchange). Neither is there any communication between PAAs/RTAs and members of sectoral committees in Brussels. Most PAAs/RTAs considered that management, coordination, communication, technical and language skills as important skills to participate to a Twinning projects. For some persons, PAAs/RTAs have to be efficient managers with good communication skills and trust the more technical expertise of STEs. Although language skills are always a plus, some consider this qualification less important as they work with bilingual assistants43 and interpreters/translators. Other respondents, however, insisted that poor command of the project language (typically English) was a major obstacle in establishing good day-to-day communication with the BC administration. While management, coordination and communication were considered as more relevant for project leaders and PAAs/RTAs, the last three or two ones seem to be more important for experts / STEs.
43
RTA assistants were generally considered very important, often described as the “doorway to the receiving institution” and sometimes, as indicated by interviewees from the UK and Sweden, taking on various other roles besides providing administrative services and translating/interpreting.
49
Figure 10 Most important skills, qualifications and competencies 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
management coordination communication
expertise language
The findings presented above provide us with large enough body of data to be able to identify the main benefits and drawbacks as well as the opportunities and risks of Twinning Out, both in general and for Member States and their institutions providing TWO assistance, as presented in the following Chapter. Also, the information and insights gained during the data collection phase and analysed together with previous Twinning evaluations and other secondary sources of Twinning information, allow us to formulate some key recommendations to the Czech administration and offer several models of Czech TWO involvement (Chapter 6).
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5
Benefits, Costs, Risks and Opportunities of Twinning
What makes Twinning an instrument the European Commission is so keen on extending to more countries and both Beneficiary Countries and Member States are willing to continue using? This chapter seeks to answer this question on the basis of data collected during our research project and evaluated with the view of providing argumentation for Czech but also other New Member States authorities to underpin their effort to mobilise domestic resources. Given the recommendations presented in Chapter 6, we decided to present the arguments in favour and against Twinning as an instrument as well as the risks and constraints linked to this tool mainly in the form of “argument sheets” presented below.
5.1 General Benefits and Drawbacks of Twinning The below lists present some of the key positives and negatives of Twinning in the context of EU external relations programmes. Far from being exhaustive, the argument sheets reiterate what our research revealed as the most important and relevant benefits and drawbacks of Twinning in general. Box 1
General Benefits of Twinning •
A two-way street – a learning and communication process for both sides.
•
A vehicle for the transfer of knowledge and hands-on experience.
•
An excellent PR tool for the EU – “sells Europe” to neighbouring countries.
•
A win-win situation for all parties involved: Beneficiary Countries get what they need (if they know what they want and learn how to put it in a project fiche) and Member States establish contacts with their colleague in the recipient states.
•
An important tool to make experts in Beneficiary Countries familiar not only with the EU legislation but also with the methods of implementation.
•
A potentially sustainable instrument: the work is done by the beneficiaries themselves, providers of assistance do not come to teach and preach – they come to assist them in what BCs would be doing anyway, only helping them to avoid dead ends and speeding the process up a bit.
•
A good vehicle for sharing professional knowledge.
•
A tool helping to change structures and processes where projects are linked specifically to the acquis and where projects benefit a specific unit of the recipient institution and a concrete group of people, instead of the system / institution in general.
•
A good basis for spin-offs (follow-up Twinning / Technical Assistance / other bilateral
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projects). •
A possibility to establish / extend sectoral professional networks.
•
Focus on hands-on experience and practical solutions.
•
An instrument for real change in policies and understanding perceivable in mid– to longterm perspective, as BC organisations grow and change, rather than after the project is wound up.
•
Different from the “project industry” (commercial enterprise): what is delivered must be good since MS work with their peers and future colleagues.
•
A multicultural experience broadening horizons of both sides and fostering diversity in the EU.
•
A platform for targeted, practical training.
•
A vehicle for study visits which are often the breaking point for convincing the recipient institutions of a value of changes in attitudes / practices proposed. Study visits are cited as a great inspiration and “eye-opener”; they also facilitate team building in and communication between BC institutions responsible for the implementation of a specific acquis.
•
Often facilitating cooperation between central and regional / local authorities and actors.
While the above benefits are recognised by both Twinning partners, acknowledged by the Commission and repeated in many different ways by our respondents, the drawbacks are acknowledged mainly by the sending and recipient institutions, even though DG Enlargement is aware of many of these issues and its revisions of the Twinning Manual as well as some of the rules under EDIS are a conscious reflection of the below criticism. The following argument sheet lists the negative sides of Twinning mentioned most frequently by our respondents, some of them having been also pointed out in previous Twinning evaluation studies. Box 2
General Drawbacks •
A slow instrument and a very bureaucratic one.
•
The Twinning Manual and procedures are rather complicated and time consuming to read, understand and use. Also in different delegations in different countries as well in different CFCUs the interpretation of the same rules and guidelines varies.
•
Tight and inflexible rules, especially with regard to minor changes to and amendments of Twinning contracts.
•
Too short if basic structures have to be changed in the recipient country (e.g. internal management, establishment of cooperation with other ministries/institutions etc.), i.e. when ambitions are high.
•
Limited absorption capacity of BC institutions: when the situation in the recipient country is not as expected, the BC institution’s experts are not readily available to receive all the requested assistance.
•
Often insufficient coordination between projects and national strategies.
•
The lack of flexibility allowing significant change to the project which would contribute to
52
the overall reform process. •
Participants from receiving institutions cannot be paid for any extra efforts from Twinning budget.
•
Uncertain sustainability due to high staff turnover and politicisation of public administration in Beneficiary Countries.
5.2 Benefits and Drawbacks of Twinning Out for Provider Countries While many of the previous benefits are highly relevant for countries and institutions providing Twinning Out assistance to Beneficiary Countries, there are also benefits and drawbacks that are specific to either providers or recipients of this type of aid. The following two tables, similarly to the above section, sum up the most relevant benefits that might be mentioned by the Czech NCP and other Twinning Out coordinators in their communication with the top management of ministries, other public administration authorities as well as mandated bodies. Box 3 indicates that Twinning brings mainly non-material (“soft”) benefits for MS providing TWO assistance. The list, however, reveals that these soft benefits are important and pave the way for some material (“hard”) benefits in terms of economic gains and political influence. Box 3
Benefits of Twinning Out for Provider Countries •
A tool for strengthening of the economic position of the provider country in the Beneficiary Country / region.
•
An opportunity for establishing potential voting coalitions in the Council formations.
•
A chance to increase the “return of investment in the EU.”
•
A way of reinforcing or improving the country’s image and reputation.
•
A mechanism helping to ensure stability of the European neighbourhood regions: more safety for Czech investors, more security for EU citizens.
•
A way of establishing good working relationships with colleagues in future EU Member States on peer positions.
•
A springboard for further bilateral / multilateral cooperation.
•
An instrument for spreading of democracy and stability to a wider European area.
•
A tool for creating network of contacts (development of sectoral professional networks).
•
An exceptional career and personal growth opportunity for experts, expanding their horizons and helping to put new perspectives on their work.
Box 4
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Costs and Drawbacks for Twinning Out Provider Countries •
Overhead costs of posted experts for sending institutions.
•
Uncertainty and financial losses related to late starts of projects.
•
Payment bureaucracy: Many RTAs are expected to self-fund parts of their secondment until approval of funding; they must rely on “bridging funds” from their home administrations which are sometimes extremely difficult to organise for legal reasons.
•
Sometimes problematic recovery of costs related to the preparation, bidding and other activities.
•
Loss of an expert who is missed back home (especially in small countries / administrations).
•
Organisational /management difficulties related to a posting of an expert with crucial expertise.
•
Tight and inflexible rules, which do sometimes not allow to respond adequate to a living learning process (unlike in Technical Assistance projects)
•
Twinning project approvals may be unforeseeable, which makes planning and preparation for the (home) government employer, experts and the family of the RTA very difficult
In order to design an effective strategy for Twinning Out, it is necessary to be aware of and deal with both benefits and costs of TWO. To be a successful provider of Twining assistance, New Member States must be able to “sell” the benefits to their home administrations and communicate them clearly and strongly enough to the top levels at ministries and mandated bodies. At the same time, however, it is necessary for them to take care of the costs and drawbacks as well as the risks and constraints related to Twinning Out preparation and implementation.
5.3 Risks and Constraints of Twinning Out The red line running through all of our interviews was that the best way to deal with risks and constraints of Twinning Out was to be aware of them and try to deal with them as early in the process cycle as possible, rather than shunning them or not revealing them to the institutions providing assistance. The big advantage of NMS is that many of their Project Leaders and RTAs/STEs have had some experience with Twinning at the receiving end (Twinning In), so they are often aware of the risks. Still, in order to find solutions for either eliminating or at least mitigating them, the following list highlights some key risks and constraints of Twinning Out that have been and/or will be faced by Czech experts. This list has been drawn on the basis of input from Old Member States as well as the information provided by Czech authorities that have already started TWO preparation, bidding or implementation activities. Box 5
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Risks and Constraints of Twinning Out •
Structural / institutional changes (changes in administration; management changes; changes of RTAs / PLs; turnover of staff on both sides)
•
Disinterest in New Member States (will most probably apply also to Romania and Bulgaria after their accession) when the pressure of pre-accession assessment is gone
•
Delays (in preparation, project launching, contracting, provision of offices to RTAs, reports)
•
Political externalities and slowness of policy-making
•
Staff problems on both sides (shortage of staff; insufficient training; lack of management skills on BC side; unavailability of STEs; unsatisfactory qualifications of short-term experts)
•
Lack of interministerial cooperation and coordination on the BC side
•
Uncertain sustainability
•
Budget problems (suboptimal use of project funds; budgetary underestimations; lack of BC co-financing)
•
Limited impact: recommendations not taken into account or not implemented
•
Inability to provide planned activities (for budgetary, organisational or other reasons)
•
Contract problems (poorly drafted contracts; need for several addenda)
•
Conflicting priorities between MS consortia members, MS and BC, BC institutions (especially when more than one BC institution is the recipient of TWO)
•
Training problems (insufficient numbers of BC institutions staff; training participants being chosen just to hit the numbers and not according to their area of specialisation)
•
Limited timeframe (need for project extension – not always approved)
•
Communication problems (between MS consortia members, between BC institutions, between BC and MS; lack of English language skills of BC experts)
The above argument sheets summarise most though not all of the major benefits and drawbacks as well as risks and constraints related to Twinning Out. At the same time, however, these lists can serve as practical tools for the Czech NCP and the top levels of TWO assistance providers from the Czech Republic to mobilise and motivate Czech experts and their managers to get involved in TWO projects.
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6
Recommendations
As we showed in the previous chapter, Twinning can be a very useful tool and a tremendous opportunity for assistance providers, be it from the Old or New Member States. Nevertheless, to be able to really benefit from this opportunity, some essential prerequisites need to be ensured. Following our mapping exercise covering the organisation of Twinning in New Member States44, we concluded that there is still room for improvement and that the majority of NMS still need some substantial changes in the way they coordinate, administer, promote and support TWO on a national basis.45 Chapter 6.1 therefore brings some recommendations regarding the organisation and coordination of Twinning Out in New Member States. These are applicable to more or less all NMS as they have been often mentioned by our respondents and some of them appeared in previous Twinning evaluations. Recommendations in Chapter 6.2, however, are formulated specifically for the Czech Republic. After describing and assessing the existing Twinning arrangements in the country, we proceed with presenting six scenarios for the location and empowering of the National Contact Point. Several recommendations are then given to improve the current TWO organisation and support services. Five models of Czech involvement in TWO are sketched out in section 6.2.4 and the recommendations chapter closes with a suggestion for organising an international Twinning Out seminar where the findings of this report would be presented and where interactive exchange of experience, advice and know-how between Old Member States and New Member States could take place.
6.1 General Recommendations for New Member States Based on our analysis of the data collected and information from previous evaluations, our research team has formulated the following recommendations, which have been split into several categories. We start with the most important, strategic recommendations, which are then followed by organisational and, finally, operational proposals and suggestions.
44
In this respect, we rely on data provided in questionnaires sent to us from NMS – see Appendix 2) and information about and from the “NCP workshop to promote successful donor Twinning activity” for NCPs from New Member States organised by the Hungarian NCP in Budapest, 24 – 25 November 2005. 45 Some NMS, however, have seen major developments in the institutionalisation and organisation of European affairs in general and Twinning assistance in particular. For example, Poland has been inspired in its EU affairs coordination by the French SGAE (see Bouquet 2006).
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Box 6
Strategic Recommendations •
Make Twinning Out one of the Government’s European priorities and advocate the country’s interests in providing TWO services (have a list of arguments ready – we shall have such a list of benefits in our report).
•
Use Twinning Out and TAIEX as complementary instruments.
•
Define and communicate the country’s competitive advantage and the unique area of expertise; identify and “market” the value that the country can add to the Beneficiary Country’s administrations and/or systems
•
Create more stable partnerships with some countries (building on previous experience of cooperation in TWI projects, established partnerships and good track-record from other bilateral and multilateral projects); yet, remain open to cooperation with any country. Good reputation of a lead partner is key.
•
Identify the country’s competitive advantage as a Junior Partner and market the country’s recent experience with the implementation of the acquis.
•
Make clear Twinning Out priorities (i.e. objectives, key regions, key areas of expertise, partnership policy etc). These priorities, consistent with the country’s foreign policy focus, should be preferably summarised in a fiche-like document. Most importantly, make these priorities known to: 1) 2) 3) 4)
National public administration bodies; Other MS NCPs and institutions; Beneficiary Countries; EU secretaries at NMS embassies in Beneficiary Countries.
•
Recognise Twinning Out as part of the country’s national experts career growth; communicate this to the management of government authorities and mandated bodies.
•
Formulate your own national Twinning Out guidelines, along with the Commission rules and provide relevant training for ministries, mandated bodies and other organisations concerned and interested
•
Make use of the command of Slavic languages, where applicable, in project bids and project implementation.
•
Consider involving regional and local authorities (STEs) where it might be beneficial
Organisational Recommendations •
Set up a special Twinning Out agency / unit / organisation to coordinate and concentrate TWO information. This TWO unit/agency shall be managed by and accountable to one public administration body only: one ministry or the Government Office.
•
Use the expertise of the people who have administered TWI and TWO so far (including the CFCU/AO staff).
•
Make sure that the NCP mandate and organisational status is strong enough to facilitate contacts and effective cooperation with top level management of ministries and mandated bodies.
•
Ensure enough resources to run the NCP daily business.
•
Establish a network of ministries and agencies and initiate and encourage active networking
•
Build Twinning institutional memory in order to set off staff turnover in NMS public
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administrations.
Operational Recommendations •
Create a special website dedicated to Twinning – list all project fiches there and update it frequently.
•
Have one person just for circulating fiches around ministries and mandated bodies, updating the website and generally taking care of incoming and outgoing e-mail.
•
Communicate regularly with the management of ministries and mandated bodies to convince them of the importance of TWO both for the country and for the institution. Remind SPOs and contact persons constantly about TWO opportunities but avoid “information overkill”. Provide timely, structured and clear information.
•
Make regular contact with, provide information to and make use of the information from embassy officers in Beneficiary Countries.
•
Provide training (most importantly in TWO preparation, Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and other relevant skills) and continuous support.
•
Publish a “smart version” of the Twinning Manual.
•
Allocate some funds for pre-bidding visits and preparatory work; establish bridging funding.
•
Be present at presentations / preparatory visits / fact-findings if possible.
•
Make information about cultural and interpersonal sensitivities part of the training provided to RTAs, PLs, STEs and MTEs.
•
Allow for flexibility and creative solutions.
The above recommendation sheets draw mainly upon the data collected throughout the time of our research project implementation. Some of them, however, also appear in previous evaluations of Twinning (Birker et al. 2000; MZV ČR 2001; Cooper, Johansen 2003; WM Enterprise 2006; Bouquet 2006; BMWi/GTZ 2006), which lends our findings and the subsequent recommendations some more credit and provides support to our proposals and advice. Besides these, we suggest that the Czech Republic’ decision-makers consider also some specific recommendations formulated in the following section of the report. Especially the last one, i.e. to organise and international Twinning Out seminar, might extend the above argument sheets and bring along some practical, effective and fast measures.
6.2 Recommendations Specific to the Czech Republic Twinning Out is a new instrument that Czech authorities are learning to use. Given the information gathered so far as well as the terms of reference for this research project, we feel that there is a need
58
for some key strategic and operational decisions to be taken to benefit as much as possible from the positive aspects of TWO and its spin-off effects. The following section therefore brings some specific TWO recommendations taking into account the structural and political conditions in the Czech Republic. It starts with a brief outline of the experience so far with TWO and the description of the public administration environment within which TWO is set in the country. Based on the analysis of Czech Republic’s foreign policy and assistance priorities as well as the structural conditions, particularly public administration capacities and human and financial resources, suggestions regarding the location, organisation and operation of the National Contact Point are made. Out of the five scenarios given, the research team recommends to choose an agency-based approach, inspired by one of the NCP models used in OMS. The chapter closes with a presentation of five models of Czech involvement in TWO projects and the outline of benefits and drawbacks as well as probability of and requirements for the use of each of them. 6.2.1 Czech Republic: Priorities, Prerequisites and Scope Conditions The Czech Republic is a small country with limited human and financial resources. In that respect, it is similar to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands or Sweden. Also, the continuing public administration cuts are making it rather difficult for the Czech Republic to become active participants in the TWO mechanism. Still the previously mentioned benefits and the fact that the European Neighbourhood Policy is a prominent priority in the EU policy and, last but far from least, the European Commission is planning to allocate substantial amounts of money to ENP assistance programmes should be enough of a reason for the Czech Republic to ensure that TWO opportunities are maximised by effective, efficient and economical participation in the instrument. Due to the fact that MS are already hitting their limits in terms of sending experts abroad Chapter 4 has shown that good Twinning Out performance is largely dependent on effective NCP and on the overall organisation and coordination of TWO activities as well as on the human resource and practices of TWO experts. The following section will therefore focus on the structural, financial and political conditions of the country. We will briefly describe the current system of TWO coordination and organisation in the Czech Republic and highlight the issues Czech TWO actors already have to deal with. The Czech Republic’s foreign policy objectives include involvement in the EU’s external activities. Twinning is one of the key instruments of this involvement. In order to implement this goal, the Czech government adopted the Main Territorial Priorities in the Framework of the Common
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Foreign and Security Policy (Government Resolution No. 388/2005).46 The main territorial priorities for the Czech Republic’s participation in Twinning Out have been identified as South European Countries supported within the framework of the EU Stabilisation and Association Process, in particular Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ukraine, Moldavia, Georgia and Palestine (European Neighbourhood Policy countries) (MF ČR and MZV ČR 2006).47 The Czech Republic would like to provide assistance specifically but not only to these countries in the field of Justice and Home Affairs; public administration reform; implementation of Structural Funds; trade policy, competitiveness and consumer protection; employment and social policy; harmonisation of technical standards; higher education systems; transport policy; statistics; environment; agriculture, veterinary and phytosanitary area, and food safety. Czech TWO, as well as TWI activities are administered and coordinated by the National Contact Point located at the Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance.48 Some administrative support is also provided by the Central Financing and Contracting Unit / Administrative Office (CFCU/AO). The NCP communicates with sending institutions, i.e. ministries and mandated bodies through Senior Programme Officers (SPOs) or other authorised contact persons. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Trade Policy and Agriculture Department) has a special role in terms of providing some political guidance and contacts with embassies in the Beneficiary Countries and other MFA departments. Czech authorities involved in Twinning Out (ministries and mandated bodies) are generally in favour of taking part in this form of assistance, both as Junior Partners and Project Leaders/Lead Partners and some of the ministries (particularly the Ministry of Environment) have been quite active in this respect. Moreover, many Beneficiary Countries have been expressing their interest in working specifically with the Czech Republic.49 The Czech Republic’s strength is an advanced level of acquis implementation, cultural links to many of the Beneficiary Countries (in the TACIS and CARDS regions as well as to Acceding and Candidate Countries) and similar administrative histories and patterns to be overcome. However, the first months of Czech involvement in TWO50 already revealed that there are some administrative obstacles and structural limitations to Czech participation in TWO. 46
The country’s territorial priorities are also identified in the Czech Republic’s Pro-Export Policy (Government Resolution No. 188/2003) and the Czech Republic’s International Development Assistance Policy (Government Resolution No. 91/2002). 47 The Czech Republic, however, does not exclude the possibility of providing TWO assistance to Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey as well as to Albania, Macedonia and Russia, or Belarus (if the political situation permits) and Egypt or other Mediterranean countries (MF ČR and MZV ČR 2006). 48 http://www.mfcr.cz/cps/rde/xchg/mfcr/hs.xsl/eu_Twinning_programy.html 49 One of the interviewees mentioned that even though the bid and the presentation of one Czech authority was far from well-done and impressive, one BC chose the Czechs because they badly wanted to have them there since the country’s preferred way of implementing that particular component of the acquis was the Czech one. 50 The implementation of first projects with Czech experts started in autumn 2005. 11 TWO projects were implemented as at the cut-off date of this report, with several other bids being prepared.
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Firstly, and most importantly, the major problem is the (un)availability of experts and the lack of support that TWO receives from the top levels of ministries and authorities. The issue of RTA/STE availability boils down to the size of the country and public administration and the pool of the Czech Republic’s human and financial resources. In that respect, the Czech Republic is in a similar situation as Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, or Sweden. There are few key experts who can be spared for a project abroad without being missed badly by their sending institution as finding a similarly trained and experienced replacement is very difficult. Moreover, due to the non-existence of the Civil Service Act, experts have no guarantee of returning to the same position they left. Also, the high turnover of staff in Czech ministries is a problem for both Twinning Out and Twinning In projects. Secondly, our interviewees mentioned that the financial methodology, as presented by the CFCU is not clear and is unadapted to the local situation. SPOs and Heads of EU Departments At different ministries express their fear of financial control and evaluation. The financial methodology was described as “just a translation of the EC document” (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). It was suggested that Czech SPOs and other authorised officers would welcome a “Twinning Out Cookbook,” i.e. a document well adapted to the Czech institutional environment. This document would set out clear rules in order to avoid misunderstandings and control problems. Some of the ministries (e.g. Ministry of Environment) have already drafted their own TWO guidance. Thirdly, some interviewees also highlighted difficulties related to financial flows which are, however, not specific to the Czech situation since other countries face the same problem. It generally takes a lot of time after the project starts to get an advance payment, if any is provided at all. Ministries in many MS often cover the expenses and pre-finance the missions of the experts without being reimbursed afterwards. To remedy this situation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs suggested setting up a special fund that could be administered by the Ministry of Finance (or another body responsible for TWO) and that might serve as a reserve fund, helping ministries and other institutions with pre-financing, especially with logistics-related expenses.51 Fourthly, where several sectors need to cooperate, complications arise due to unclear delimitation of competences and statutes. Similarly to other (post-Communist) NMS, the strong hierarchy in public administration in the Czech Republic is making inter- and intra-ministerial coordination quite difficult. And the willingness and readiness to take up responsibilities and make own decisions is quite underdeveloped (cf. Lippert, Umbach 2005). This is also why the Czech government has been discussing a draft legislation providing for the establishment of the Czech Agency for Development Cooperation (MZV ČR 2006a,b,c,d).
51
The existing system is difficult to synchronise with the budgetary calendars of Czech ministries.
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This development agency is to remedy the ineffective, uncoordinated and fragmentary situation development assistance provision by the Czech Republic, as it is at the moment. Interministerial barriers and rivalries prevent synergy and linkage in assistance provision and the administrative costs are quite high. The Czech Agency for Development Cooperation would be established by and work under the political guidance of the MFA. The agency is inspired by the Scandinavian model. The management and control of development assistance would rest with the MFA but all executive tasks would be delegated on this agency. The MFA would be advised by the International Development Assistance Council and the National Coordination Committee for Development Assistance (MZV ČR 2006b,d). Given the shifts of geographical and conceptual focus of Twinning (see Chapter 2.3) it might be quite effective to link TWO to other development assistance programmes and draw upon the benefits of a support infrastructure with relevant administrative capacity in the area of development assistance. Fifthly, the administrative burden linked to the preparation of bids and project monitoring and financial arrangements proves to be quite heavy for Czech TWO assistance providers, considering their workloads. As there is little chance of setting up special Twinning units at ministries, some interviewees suggested the use of outsourcing (e.g. relying on support structures such as the National Training Fund in case of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). That, however, may not be an ideal solution since this would further reinforce the fragmentation and exacerbate the uncoordinated system of assistance provision in the Czech Republic. As evident from the above description, the systemic and structural conditions make TWO provision quite challenging for Czech public administration bodies. The recommendations in sections 6.2.2 and 6.2.3 are designed to show how this situation may be improved, both on systemic and operational levels.
6.2.2 National Contact Point Location Taking into consideration the above structural conditions of the Czech Republic (a small country with limited human and financial resources) and the need to find an efficient, effective and economic solution for the future TWO coordination and organisation, the following scenarios have been formulated by our research team. The scenarios have been designed on the basis of TWO arrangements and NCP models described in Chapter 4. Of course, the EU-related administrative systems of Old Member States cannot be transposed as acquis has been. Indeed, that would be far from desirable. But they can serve as a source of inspiration for and consideration by Czech decision-makers. Each scenario gives an outline of the possible arrangements, linking them to specific Old Member States’ models and highlighting the benefits and downsides of the respective solutions. Having considered the current policy and legislative developments in the Czech Republic, 62
we suggest the second scenario as the solution of first choice if the Czech Agency for Development Cooperation is endorsed by the Czech government and the relevant law is passed by the Parliament. Scenario 1 NCP as a special unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs The NCP located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, like in Belgium or Denmark, has the benefit of linking the expertise in foreign policy matters (relations with third countries, overview of bilateral cooperation with third countries and strategic planning) with the specific “world” of Twinning projects. MFAs usually have enough information on recipient countries and make regular use the services of embassies. This solution would require the setting up of a special unit either within the European Union Section or the Department of Development Cooperation, Territorial Section II., or at the Deputy Minister level with enough funding for the operation of the NCP along the lines suggested in section 6.1 and below (see section 6.2.3) and . If this option was chosen, we would strongly recommend to use the expertise and knowledge of the current NCP, Jana Hendrichová and her team as well as the administrative experience of the CFCU/AO some of whom should be offered employment by the MFA in order to ensure a smooth transfer of know-how and experience from both TWO and TWI and guarantee continuity and building of institutional memory. The risk attached to this scenario is the potential lack of operational flexibility and the loss of direct contact with the executor of financial flows, i.e. the Ministry of Finance which must still be involved. . Scenario 2 NCP based at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but delegating services to an agency This model of Twinning Out organisation and coordination can be seen in Spain (FIIAPP), the Netherlands (EDV) and Austria (AEI). According to this scenario, the NCP would be located at the Czech MFA which would still provide political guidance but operational tasks would be executed solely by an agency. This agency can either be a special office set up specifically for this purpose (as the Agency for European Integration and Economic Development in Austria) and either be based at the Ministry of Finance, making use of the current NCP and CFCU/AO staff, or be an independent, small executive office for Twinning Out administration only which would be in direct contact with all Czech civil service authorities and mandated bodies. This option would have the benefit of retaining greater involvement of the Ministry of Finance. However, there is still a risk of 63
some activities running in parallel and the coordination being rather cumbersome. Nevertheless, this scenario is evaluated as the second best option by our research team.
Scenario 3 NCP based at a special agency This scenario is inspired by the Irish and Swedish models where the NCP function has been transfered from the Ministry of Finance and MFA, respectively to the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Ireland and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in the Swedish case. This option might potentially suit best the next generation of Twinning focussing more and more on the European Neighbourhood countries. For this purpose, it would be more appropriate and potentially also more effective and efficient to still use the political guidance of the MFA, but delegating the administrative and operational tasks upon a Development Assistance Agency, like the Swedish SIDA. The currently debated draft legislation proposing the creation of the Czech Agency for Development Cooperation would allow for such a solution which would link other development assistance and draw upon experience and information from other cooperation projects in the region. At the same time, this option would allow for the use of the IT, human, technical and other infrastructure of the agency. The small unit might be partly financed from Twinning projects’ management fees (a percentage would have to be agreed with sending institutions/bodies) and would communicate directly with the MFA and all ministries, authorities, mandated bodies and organisations interested and participating in Twinning. Once again, we would recommend to use the expertise and knowledge of the current NCP staff who might become employees of the agency, along with some CFCU/AO officers to ensure continuity and transfer of Twinning know-how. The risk related to this option is that the legislation is not passed soon enough and that the agency is either set up too late for the purposes of effective Czech involvement in TWO or that it is not established at all because of the potentially different visions and policies of the next government.52
52
Following the general elections in the Czech Republic in June 2006, the country still has no regular government. The “caretaker” government will be replaced by a new one after the negotiations of parties are completed and the new government is endorsed in a Parliament vote. Alternatively, early elections might be necessary. There is therefore no guarantee of the continuity of decisions taken by the current central administration of the Czech Republic.
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Scenario 4 NCP as a special unit of the Ministry of Finance This scenario is drawing upon the arrangements Ireland used to have before the NCP was transferred to the Institute of Public Administration (IPA). This option would basically retain the current status quo but a change in the tasking and job descriptions of the NCP staff would be required. Currently, the staff are employees of the Finance Ministry with other duties as well and cannot concentrate on the full execution of NCP tasks as required. If this scenario was chosen, we would strongly recommend this to be changed and make such organisational changes to be made, which would allow the NCP to focus fully on its NCP duties and on the extended, more comprehensive portfolio of support services as proposed in sections 6.1 and 6.2.3. The risk attached to this scenario is that nothing much would change and that the Ministry of Finance might not have a strong enough mandate to coordinate TWO activities, as is often the case now. This scenario might just preserve the status quo with only a few changes made, moreover the pre-financing problem might still be left untackled. Scenario 5 NCP based at the Ministry of Finance but delegating services to an agency This option is best represented by the German model. The NCP would be located at the Centre for Foreign Assistance at the Ministry of Finance. It would be assisted by an agency for development cooperation (the GTZ office, in the German case, which has an extensive experience in the field of development policy and project management). Since Twinning projects also deal with economic relations and contracts, the experience of the Ministry of Finance (or the Ministry of Economy) is useful to create synergies between programmes of technical assistance and make full use of competencies in budgetary and economic issues (contacts with companies, etc.). Project management and human resource-related issues (e.g. search for expertise or preparation of experts) would be dealt with by the agency. The downside of this scenario would be the fact that the agency might be moving from one ministry to the other if there is a change at the governmental level and, in effect, in political priorities. Also, competition might take place between ministries to host the NCP and the agency. Finally, using the services of the Czech Agency for Development Cooperation would require a change in the legislation as it is currently drafted since the Agency would be established and tasked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the wording of the last draft.
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Scenario 6 NCP based at Government Office Being incorporated into the Prime Minister’s Office, as in France, would allow the NCP to play a real interministerial role. Moreover, if the NCP was situated at the Prime Minister’s / Government Office, it might have more political leverage than the MFA or the Ministry of Finance in terms of making Twinning a priority for the top management of the ministries, mandated bodies and other TWO actors, which is crucial, especially given the fact that Czech ministries face staffing problems and already have difficulties finding RTAs. As each ministry would take over the responsibility for the definition of its priorities, project proposals, management of projects, etc, there would be less managerial responsibility for the NCP. The disadvantage of this scenario, however, is that creating a brand new office might be difficult and even counter-productive in terms of development assistance concentration, coordination and streamlining. In this respect, it seems to be the least cost-effective option out of the six scenarios suggested.
6.2.3 Suggestions for Improved Performance in Twinning Out Coordination Irrespective of which, if any, of the above scenarios is selected, we point out which of the recommendations listed in section 5 we believe are crucial and should be seriously considered by Czech decision-makers: Box 7
Suggestions for Improved Performance Improved Internal and External Communication • •
• • • •
Make Twinning more visible and attractive. Make Czech territorial and technical priorities explicitly known to partners at home (Czech institutions and organisations) and abroad (other NCPs): create an electronic presentation package with information on the organisation of TWO in the Czech Republic, priorities, competitive advantage, capacities and possibilities of partnership; circulate this information around both EU Member States, BCs and Czech embassy officers in BC countries. Use the website as a real communication platform for partners at home and abroad and post all circulations there – get inspired by other NCPs whose experience with using the intranet and internet website has been very positive and appreciated by their RTAs, PLs and other “clients.” Keep your communication as open, transparent, simple and relevant as possible. Send domestic institutions clear and short notices highlighting the main points in the fiches to catch their attention – circulation is not enough, think about the “packaging” and time-effective solutions making it easier for SPOs and their colleagues to react Be in frequent personal contact with the management of Czech institutions and organisations and find effective ways of “selling” TWO (point at success stories etc.) – ensure political and management support.
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• • •
Organise annual meetings of TWO experts (RTAs, PLs, STEs and MTEs). Make full use of Czech embassy officers in ENP countries and let them inform you on any potential project fiches in the pipeline Print out a small, easy-to-carry version of the Twinning Manual and distribute it to SPOs, RTAs, PLs and other relevant TWO actors
Financial Support • • •
Try to identify and deploy sources of funding to cover preparation, pre-financing and other bridging costs Find a viable solution in terms of per diems. Redraft the financial flows guidance to better reflect the Czech institutional situation – make use of the experience of ministries so far and draft the guidance in consultation with them
Training •
Provide practical and focused training sessions for RTAs and PLs several times a year, on top of the general RTA training in Brussels,
•
Invite a current/former Czech RTA and/or PL to share their experience and answer specific, practical questions of Czech civil servants considering to work as TWO experts. Use the experience and formats of such training in other MS as an inspiration; explore opportunities for cooperation with the MS providers of training.
•
Make information about cultural and interpersonal sensitivities part of the training.
•
Highlight the career growth opportunities and personal development side of TWO involvement
Other Suggestions • • • •
Use Twinning Out and TAIEX as complementary instruments. Promote partnership and cooperation of sectors where it would be beneficial and enhance the chances of winning tenders. Be involved in the contracting phase as well. Use TAIEX experts for fact-finding purposes.
This set of recommendations does not claim to be all-embracing and several other recommendations might be added. Also, more input in this respect would be added by the international Twinning Out Seminar proposed in section 6.2.5. The above list of recommendations, however, is meant as an inventory for Czech authorities in general and the Czech NCP in particular from which to chose and to which to add if they want Czech TWO participation to be effective and successful. We believe these recommendations to be relevant irrespective of the models of Czech involvement in TWO activities presented in the final section of this report.
6.2.4 Models for Czech Involvement in Twinning Out
There are several ways in which small countries with limited human and financial resources can be involved in Twinning Out. This section looks into the prerequisites, advantages and disadvantages 67
of the various options, seeking to identify the probability with which these models of involvement will be used in the case of the Czech Republic.
Model 1:
Czech Republic as a Single Applicant and Provider of Twinning Out
Model Probability
Prerequisites - strong administrative and management skills
low
- good presentation skills - clear vision and welldeveloped workplan - strong language skills - a competent RTA and availability of STEs - top-level support
Model 2:
Positives - stronger image of the CR and the sending institution
Negatives - substantial demands on the time and availability of Czech experts
- no difficulties arising from consortium management issues - better control over project outcomes - higher management fees for sending institution
Czech Republic as a Lead Partner in Twinning Out Consortia
Model Probability
Prerequisites
low to medium
- strong management and administration skills - preferably experience from previous, similar projects - good coordination, communication and negotiation skills
Positives
Negatives
- stronger image of the CR and the sending institution
- consortium management and coordination difficulties
- more control over project outputs and outcomes
- substantial demands on the time and availability of Czech experts
- lesser capacity demands
- clear vision and welldeveloped workplan
- creation of partnership for future bids / cooperations
- a competent RTA and availability of STEs
- learning experience for Czech experts
- top-level support
Model 3:
Czech Republic as a Junior Partner in Twinning Out Consortia
Model Probability
Prerequisites - good partnership skills
high
- good technical expertise - good “marketing” of the country on the TW market
Positives - better chances of success - little or no demands for management and coordination skills
Negatives - some administrative demands on sending institution - lesser control over project outcomes
- flexibility - adaptability
Model 4:
Czech Republic as a Strategic Junior Partner of Some Member States
Model Probability
Prerequisites
medium to high
-commitment to strategic partnership
Positives - strengthened cooperation with some
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Negatives - restricted options for cooperation
- good “marketing” of the country on the TWO market - good technical expertise - provision of updated CVs of Czech experts - flexibility
MS with strong positions in some countries
- some administrative demands on the country
- little or no demands for management and coordination skills - guaranteed chances in certain sectors/domains/countries
- adaptability
Model 5:
Czech Republic providing Individual Experts for Consortia
Model Probability
Prerequisites
Positives
Negatives
high
- good technical expertise
- very little administrative and no management demands on home administration
- little control over project results and impact
- provision of updated CVs of Czech experts - frequent and extensive contact with other MS
- flexibility
- limited effect on the reputation of the country / sending institution
- good option to use the expertise of Czech STEs
- no management fees for home administration
- greater complementarity with TAIEX
Given the Czech Republic’s structural conditions and taking into consideration the findings from initial research among Czech TWO actors, models number three and five are given high probability rating. In other words, the Czech Republic might be expected to provide Junior Partner services and the expertise of individual experts on a most regular basis. These two models also suit best the current administrative / institutional capacities of and the level of commitment by Czech TWO actors (i.e. do not require top-level support and long-term secondment abroad) However, this is not to say that the other models should be dropped in the long-term perspective. Our conclusions only highlights the most probable and least demanding options for the near future which reflects the structural and other limitations presented earlier in the report. The models proposed also echoes the demands by BCs who trust the Czech Republic’ experts (and experts from other NMS) in their technical knowledge and value their accession experience but prefer OMS to manage Twinning projects. Finally, these two models suit best the preferences and capacities of the most active sectors in TWO, especially the Ministry of Environment. This report, nevertheless, seeks to provide some guidance and basis for Czech authorities to realise and fully exploit the benefits offered by Twinning. And in order to reinforce the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report, we propose to organise an international seminar where the options presented and recommendations made might be complemented and debated further, ideally followed by some strategic and operational decisions by relevant Czech decisionmakers. 69
6.2.5 International Twinning Out Seminar Apart from circulating this report to all respondents of this research project as well as to Czech SPOs and NCPs in other Beneficiary Countries, we propose to organise a Twinning Out seminar organised jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Czech National Contact Point and the Institute of International Relations. This seminar or workshop would present the findings and recommendations of this research project. These would be discussed by all participants. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Contact Point (Ministry of Finance) might have their contributions reflecting their opinions, comments and suggestions. In the second part of the seminar, Old Member States would present their national solutions and models as well as strategic priorities and there would be a round-table discussion of these issues. The emphasis would be on the exchange of experience with operational and practical issues such as strategies to mobilise domestic experts, financial flows, domestic regulations governing the secondment of experts, Twinning website administration, complementary funding, Twinning consortia mechanisms, key success criteria, RTA and PL training formats and content etc. In this respect, the seminar would be a follow-up on the Hungarian NCP workshop for New Member States organised in November 2005. However, the scope would be broader and more practical Apart from inviting the NCPs from Old Member States, we suggest inviting NCPs from New Member States, ambassadors and EU secretaries from the European Neighbourhood Policy countries and Old Member States. The Czech participants would include the Czech NCP, MFA officials as well as Senior Programme Officers and Contact Persons from all ministries and mandated bodies. Representatives of DG Enlargement and the Representation of the European Commission would also be invited. This seminar would be a practical and interactive extension of the outputs of our research project and might set the basic parameters for further development of Twinning Out cooperation in the Czech Republic. The seminar may also help to find a consensus over issues highlighted in this report and suggested for consideration by or even recommended to Czech authorities.
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Acknowledgements The research team would like to acknowledge the invaluable help of and thank in particular the following persons: - Alain Van Hamme, Stéphanie Palombi and Marcello Mori for providing us with updated information, statistics and the database on Twinning and allowing us to take part to the annual NCP meeting of June 2006. - The Austrian NCP and AEI, in particular Désirée Schweitzer and Stefan Meingast, for answering the questionnaire and taking time for interviews. - The Czech NCP, in particular Jana Hendrichová, Ludmila Lefnerová and, above all Jana Sklenářová, for their time, information, cooperation and assistance, as well as the Czech CFCU/AO for their time, materials and cooperation. - The Czech MFA, Department of Trade Policy and Agriculture, in particular Tomáš Kuchta and Vladimír Hradský for consultations and assistance. - The former Danish NCP Carl Balle Petersen and his assistant Lilian Jensen for their time, information, organisation of interviews and the invitation to the annual EFRA meeting. - the Dutch NCP Ida de Kat- van Meurs for information and help in arranging interviews. - The Finnish NCP Eija-Leena Linkola for her co-operation. -The French NCP George Canton-Bacara for her time, information and documents provided. - The German NCP, in particular Inge Toschev, Michael Bartels and Jürgen Rieck, for answering our questionnaire, taking time for interviews and forwarding our questionnaire to the German list of Twinning experts. - The Swedish NCP Ingrun Hattenbach for her time and assistance in organising interviews. - The UK NCP, Candida Slater and her deputy Katrina Ulysses for their time, assistance and information provided. - The British Embassy in Prague, particularly Stuart Summers, for assistance with contacting British RTAs and PLs.
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European Commission (1995), Preparation of the Associated Countries of Central and Eastern Europe for Integration into the Internal Market of the Union, COM (95) 163 final, 3 May. European Commission (1997), “Agenda 2000, For a Stronger and Larger Union” (COM (97) 2000 final), 5/97. European Commission (1998), Jumelage: un instrument d’‘institution building’, fascicule d’information, December. European Commission (1999), An Evaluation of PHARE Public Administration Reform Programmes : Final Report. Online on: http://europea.eu.int/comm/europeaid/evaluation/reports/PHARE/951465.pdf. European
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in
Action,
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/pas/Twinning/pdf/Twinning_en.pdf. European Commission (2001b) White Paper on European Governance, COM (2001) 428 final. http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf. European Commission (2002a), Preparing Candidate Countries for the Accession to the EU – Institution Building – A Reference Manual on “Twinning” Projects, Manual downloaded from the website of DG Elargissement (http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/pas/Twinning/htm), February. European Commission (2002b), « Communication de la Commission concernant les plans d’action dans le domaine des capacités administratives et judiciaires et le suivi des engagements pris, dans le cadre des négociations d’adhésion, par les pays participant à ces négociations », COM(2002) 256 final, Bruxelles, 5 June. European Commission (2002c), Annual Report 2001 from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the EC Development Policy and the Implementation of the External Assistance (COM(2002) 490 final), Bruxelles, 12 September. Online on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/reports/index-en.htm. European Commission (2002d), Vers l’Union élargie. Document de stratégie et Rapport sur les progrès réalisés par chacun des pays candidats sur la voie de l’adhésion (COM (2002) 700 final ; SEC (2002) 1400-1412), Bruxelles, 9 Oct. European Commission (2003a), Wider Europe-Neighbourhood : a New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours, communication to the Council and the Parliament, 11/03/2003, COM (2003) 104 final. European Commission (2003c), Convergence with EU environmental legislation in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia: a Guide, Luxemburg, Office for Official Publications of the EC. European Commission (2004a), European Neighbourhood Policy Strategy Paper, Communication from the Commission COM (2004) 373 final, 12 May. European Commission (2004b), Communication from the Commission to the Council on the Commission Action Plans under the European Neighbourhood Policy, COM (2004) 795 final, 9 Dec. European Commission (2005a), Consolidation, conditionality, communication – the strategy of the enlargement policy, IP/05/1392, 9 Nov. European Commission (2005b), Institution-Building in the Framework of European Union Policie. A Reference Manual on
Twinning
Projects,
Online
on:
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/institution_building/manual_2005_en.pdf European Commission (2006a), Twinning: Building Europe Together. Luxemburg, Office for Official Publications of the EC. European
Commission
(2006b),
“List
of
mandated
bodies “,
online
on:
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/institution_building/mandated_bodies_191006_en.pdf European Court of Auditors (1997), “Special Report n°3/97 concerning the decentralized system for the implementation of the PHARE programme (period 1990–1995) together with the Commission’s replies”, 97/C 175/02, Official Journal of the European Communities, pp. 4–47.
74
European Court of Auditors (2003), “Special Report No 6/2003 concerning Twinning as the main instrument to support institution-building in Candidate Countries together with the Commission’s replies”, June. European Parliament (2003), Report on 'Wider Europe - Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours' (COM(2003) 104 - 2003/2018(INI)), Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, Rapporteur: Pasqualina Napoletano. European Parliament (2005), Report on the European Neighbourhood Policy (2004/2166 (INI)), Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rapporteur: Charles Tannock. EuropeAid Co-operation Office / (in cooperation with) DG Enlargement, Institutional Twinning Projects Thesaurus, 1st version, 2005. Ferrero-Waldner Benita (2006a), “The EU in the World”, speech/05/59, European Policy Centre Breakfast Meeting, Brussels, 2 February. Ferrero-Waldner Benita (2006b), “The European Neighbourhood Policy – The EU’s Newest Foreign Policy Instrument”, European Foreign Affairs Review, 11, pp. 139-142. Hübner Danuta (2006), “The essential role of Community conditionality in the triumph of democracy and market economy”, speech 06/27, Conference: European Strategies for Promoting Democracy in Postcommunist Countries, Vienna, 21 January. Landaburu Eneko (2006), “From Neighbourhood to Integration Policy: are there concrete alternatives to enlargement ?”, conference CEPS “Revitalising Europe”, Brussels, 23 Jan. Ministerstvo financí ČR a Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR (2006), Účast České republiky v projektech Twinningové spolupráce v jiných zemích. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR (2006a) Finanční a personální vyhodnocení variant institucionálního uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky. Výňatky z analýzy firmy Deloitte, která byla zpracována na žádost MZV. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR / Odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci (2006b) Návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. 18.9.2006. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR / Odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci (2006c) Předkládací zpráva k návrhu věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR / Odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci (2006d) Stávající a návrh nového institucionálního uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky. Patten
Chris,
Solana
Javier
(2002),
Joint
letter
on
Wider
Europe,
http://europa.eu.int/comm/world/enp/pdf/_0130163334_001_en.pdf Prodi Romano (2002), “A Wider Europe. A Proximity policy as the key to Stability”, speech/02/619, Brussels, Dec. SIDA (2005) Twinning – hörnsten i EU:s utvidgning. Solana Javier (2003), “European Security Strategy. A Secure Europe in a Better World”, Brussels, 12 Dec. Underigsministret, Danmark (2006) Dansk Deltagelse i EU-Twinning. August 2006. Verheugen Günter (2004), “The European Neighbourhood Policy” Prime Ministerial Conference of the Vilnius and Visegrád Democracies: "Towards a Wider Europe: the new agenda" , Bratislava, Speech/04/141, 19 March. Vláda České republiky (2002) Koncepce zahraniční rozvojové pomoci ČR (Usnesení vlády č. 91/2002) Vláda České republiky (2003) Koncepce proexportní politiky ČR. Usnesení vlády č. 188/2003. Vláda České Republiky (2005) Teritoriální priority v rámci Společné zahraniční a bezpečnostní politiky. Usnesení vlády č. 388/2005.
75
Twinning Evaluations Birker et al, (2000), Report on an Assessment of the Twinning Instrument under Phare, Brussels. Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) / Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) (2006), Twinning e-VALuation: Effect and Value of Five Projects with German Participation, Berlin. Cooper Chris, Mikael Johansen (2003), An Evaluation of Completed Twinning Projects. A report presented to the meeting of National Contact Points in Brussels. Dixelius Paul, Haglund Peter (2003), Promotion of the Swedish Participation in EU Phare-Twinning, Sida Evaluation 03/14, Department for Central and Eastern Europe. DG Enlargement / OMAS Consortium (2001), Assessment of the European Union Phare Programmes, Multi-Country, Ad Hoc Report on the Twinning Instrument, Report No. S/ZZ/EUR/01006. DG Enlargement / EMS Consortium (2004), From Pre-Accession to Accession. Thematic Evaluation of Phare Suppport allocated in 1999-2002 and implemented until November 2003. Second Generation Twinning Preliminary Findings, Thematic Evalution Report. DG Enlargement (2006), Overall Assessment of Completed Twinning Projects (3rd follow-up). Twinning Evaluation Report. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ČR (2001), Twinning 1998, 1999 z pohledu přijímajících institucí české státní správy. WM Enterprise (2006), Interim Evaluation of European Union Funded Projects (Pre-Accession Instrument Phare) – Final Summary Report on the Phare Programme (2000-2003) in the Czech Republic.
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Appendix 1 – Questionnaires National Contact Points - TWO Questionnaire
Name: Position:
I – Creation / location of the NCP 1. When was the NCP created in your country?
2. Where was it first located? -
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Finance Organisation linked to the Prime Minister (please specify exact name): …….. Other (please specify): ………………………
(Can you provide with an institutional chart / organigram?)
3. Did your country encounter difficulties in establishing the NCP? If yes, why?
4. Did the location change over time? If yes, why?
5. What king of advice would you give to new member state regarding the creation / location of the NCP?
II – Staff / experts
6. How many people work at the NCP in general?
7. How many people work at the NCP on: -
Twinning TAIEX Other EU programmes/instruments: (please, specify)………………
8. What kind of status do these persons have? Please be precise: function (coordination of Twinning, etc…), status (civil servant, contractual, internships…)
9. Was it / is it easy to mobilise experts from national administration?
10. If not, what role did the NCP play in mobilising these experts? What kind of solutions did you find? (Please, detail)………………………………
11. Have you established a database of experts? If so, do you have some lessons learned to address?
12. What kind of advice could you give to member states with limited financial / human resources?
III – Proposals 13. How did / do you manage to get as many proposals as possible?
14. Has the ratio between the number of proposals and proposals accepted been satisfying? -
for Twinning:……………. for Twinning light:……….
15. Do you regularly elaborate statistics on this and other issues related to Twinning or TAIEX? If so: - on Twinning on TAIEX IV – Communication 16. What are your communication tasks? 17. Which persons / institutions do you communicate with most? Why? (Please, specify)……………………. 18. Did you create a web site? If yes, what are its functions? -
overall information on Twinning / TAIEX circulation of the project fiches communication with sectoral actors other (please specify):……………..
V – Evaluation 19. Did / do you conduct evaluations on specific projects? (If yes, could you make them available?)
20. Did / do you conduct overall evaluations on Twinning implemented by your national experts? (If yes, could you make them available?)
21. Did / do you organise annual meetings with PAAs / RTAs, projects leaders or other relevant persons (please, specify)?
22. If yes, when did you start organising them and how often? 23. Do you have any suggestions to improve evaluations and lessons learned?
V – Summary 24. What kind of advise would you give to new member states with regard to: •
The location of the NCP
•
The coordination tasks of the NCP
•
The selection of experts
•
The selection of partner countries
TWO – Questionnaire - Twinners (Project Leaders, PAAs/RTAs, experts)
Name Position Please mark all answers to multiple choice questions in bold. I.
Introduction and Perception of Twinning
1. For how long have you been/were you involved in twinning?
II.
Calls for Proposals
2. How do/did you find the cooperation between your country’s administration and the Commission in the prebidding phase? a) b) c) d) e)
excellent good not very good poor none of the above – please describe in your own words
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 3. How have the bids/proposals been prepared? a) b) c) d)
by prospective project leaders by prospective twinners in prospective project leaders and twinners by a person responsible for twinning.
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 4. What was/has been your role in the bid preparation? a) b) c) d)
participating in the drafting stage feeding in some data recommending experts other – please describe
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 5. How have project leaders and contact persons at individual ministries/institutions been selected? a) in a competitive selection b) by the NCP c) by a person responsible for twinning at the ministry (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 6. Which criteria have been considered in the selection of project leaders and twinners and which have been the most important ones? a)
project management skills
b) previous experience in the region c) experience in similar project d) communication skills (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 7. Is there any difference between the past, recent and current projects? If so, please specify whether in: a) organisation of the preparation b) implementation management c) selection of project leaders and/or twinners Please be specific about the differences if any. 8. Have you a) done any fact-finding missions, b) researched information on the country/field c) involve your country’s embassies in the CEECs? (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 9. Do/did you know about any deal-making before the presentations/during the selection process (between Member States’ administrations)?
10. How have international partnerships happened?
11. Has any previous knowledge of the target country/sector/previous project outputs and results been required or factored in? If so, by whom?
III.
Project Implementation
12. How do/did the twinning contract negotiations go? a) b) c) d)
well and the contract was quite easy to negotiate well but the contract wasn’t easy to negotiate not so well and the contract was not easy to negotiate Are/were the guaranteed results and other targets easy to define? Which criteria or previous experience are/were the targets based on?
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 13. How do/did the receiving ministries/institutions cope with their twinning contract commitments in terms of: a) time allocations: - well - not so well - poorly b) commitment:
- well - not so well - poorly
c)
- well - not so well
expertise:
- poorly d) communication: - well - not so well - poorly e)
language skills: - well - not so well - poorly
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 14. How have your administration’s officials look at the phenomenon of “professional twinners”? a) have welcome(d) them (if so, please indicate why) b) have not been very happy about them (if so, please indicate why) (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 15. How have the receiving country’s officials look at the phenomenon of “professional twinners”? a) have welcome(d) them (if so, please indicate why) b) have not been very happy about them (if so, please indicate why) (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 16. Have there been any requirements for twinners’ preparation and did twinning phases differ in that respect? 17. How have you find the conditions and environment of their work in the receiving country: - offices - equipment, - working conditions, - communication, - working relationships - other aspects? Please, rate each category on a scale between 5 (excellent) and 1 (very bad). If you rate any of the above 3,2 or 1, please add your comment on the specific problems you have encountered. 18. Have there been any regular contacts between PAAs/RTAs and/or their assistants, twinning partners, NCPs, staff of the EC delegations? If so, please give your evaluation.
19. Please, describe the partnership mechanisms in projects you have been involved in. Have there been any substantial differences between partnerships with certain countries/in certain sectors?
20. Can you provide a general assessment of the implementation of twinning projects in the following categories? (one sentence for each, please)
IV.
-
transfer of knowledge
-
transfer of rules/norms/standards
-
transfer of technology
Project Evaluation
21. Have the quarterly reports been relevant enough and have they provided a true picture of the actual implementation?
22. Have targets (benchmarks and guaranteed results) been easy to measure? 23. Have there been any project evaluation feedback loops? Have there been any lessons learned communicated to subsequent project bidders/project providers in the next rounds of twinning? 24. What has been the feedback from you like in terms of: - form, - regularity - content? 25. Have you had any feedback from the receiving country’s institutions?
26. Has there been any sharing of good practice with other countries at the EU level? If so, in what form?
27. Which skills, qualifications and competencies did you find/have you found most important for your work? -
management coordination communication specific expertise / technical knowledge language
( Be specific, please.) 28. Have there been any national / sectoral / interdepartmental analyses or surveys of twinning as such and individual twinning projects? If so, would they be available to us for analysis?
29. Have you participated in any way in the evaluation of twinning by the Commission and/or other twinning assessments or reviews? If so, in what way?
30. Please identify: a) b) c) d)
significant negatives of twinning: significant positives of twinning: what worked best in twinning: the major failures of twinning:
31. What advice would you give to CEECs as junior partners in twinning projects with regard to: • -
selection of projects importance of identification the competitive advantage specific experience of enlargement
• -
selection of experts selection criteria (manager vs. technical expert)
• -
selection of partner countries which criteria to use how to use the experience from one candidate/third country for another? is this type of experience transferable?
(One or two sentences per each of the three fields, please.) Thank you very much for your time and cooperation.
TWI Questionnaire - Twinners (Project Leaders, PAAs/RTAs, experts) Name: Position: Twinning Project(s): Please mark all answers to multiple choice questions in bold. I.
Introduction and Perception of Twinning
1. For how long have you been/were you involved in twinning? II.
Calls for Proposals
2. How have you found the cooperation between your country’s administration and the Commission in the prebidding phase? a) b) c) d) e)
excellent good not very good poor none of the above – please describe in your own words
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 3. Who has initiated twinning projects at your ministry/institution? a) b) c) d)
a person responsible for twinning in (please, indicate if there is one) a prospective project leader EU department various actors (heads of department, section chiefs, foreign affairs department etc.) – please be specific about which one(s)
4. How have the project fiches been prepared? a) b) c) d)
by prospective project leaders by prospective twinners by prospective project leaders and twinners by a person responsible for twinning.
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 5. What was/has been your role in the project fiche preparation? a) b) c) d)
participating in the drafting stage feeding in some data recommending participants other – please describe
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 6. How have project leaders and contact persons at your ministry/institution been selected? a) in a competitive selection b) by the NCP c) by a person responsible for twinning at the ministry
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 7. Which criteria have been considered in the selection of project leaders and twinning participants and which have been the most important ones? a) b) c) d) e)
project management skills previous experience with foreign aid/international cooperation projects communication and/or language skills (please specify which one of these two) prospective involvement in the implementation of what is the subject matter of the twinning no particular skills – random choice and general availability
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 8. Is there any difference between past, recent and current projects? If so, please specify whether in: a) organisation of the preparation b) implementation management c) selection of project leaders and/or twinners Please be specific about the differences if any. 9. Has your ministry’s/institution’s representative been present at the selection meeting at the Commission delegation/representation a) b) c) d)
always (if so, what was his/her role?) sometimes (if so, what was his/her role?) rarely never
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 10. Do/did you know about any deal-making before the presentations/during the selection process (between Member States’ administrations)?
11. How have international partnerships happened?
12. Has any previous knowledge of the target country/sector/previous project outputs and results been required or factored in? If so, by whom? III.
Project Implementation
13. How do/did the twinning contract negotiations go? a) well and the contract was quite easy to negotiate b) well but the contract wasn’t easy to negotiate c) not so well and the contract was not easy to negotiate (Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 14. How has your ministry/institution coped with its twinning contract commitments in terms of: a) time allocations: - well - not so well - poorly b) commitment:
- well - not so well - poorly
c)
expertise:
- well - not so well - poorly
d) communication: - well - not so well - poorly e)
language skills: - well - not so well - poorly
(Please feel free to comment on any of these options) 15. How have your administration’s officials look at the phenomenon of “professional twinners”? c) have welcome(d) them (if so, please indicate why) d) have not been very happy about them (if so, please indicate why)
16. Have there been any requirements for twinners’ preparation from your side and have twinning phases differed in that respect?
17. How have the twinners, to your knowledge, found the conditions and environment of their work in your country in terms of: - offices - equipment, - working conditions, - communication, - working relationships - other aspects? Please, rate each category on a scale between 5 (excellent) and 1 (very bad). If you rate any of the above 3,2 or 1, please add your comment on the specific problems you have encountered.
18. Please, describe the partnership mechanisms in projects you have been involved in. Have there been any substantial differences between partnerships with certain countries/in certain sectors?
19. Can you provide a general assessment of the implementation of twinning projects in the following categories? (one sentence for each, please)
IV.
-
transfer of knowledge
-
transfer of rules/norms/standards
-
transfer of technology
Project Evaluation
20. Have the quarterly reports been relevant enough and have they provided a true picture of the actual implementation?
21. Have targets (benchmarks and guaranteed results) been easy to measure? (If not, please specify why)
22. Have there been any project evaluation feedback loops? Have there been any lessons learned communicated to subsequent project bidders/project providers in the next rounds of twinning?
23. What has been the feedback from you to your institution/ministry like in terms of: - form, - regularity - content? (e.g. written or oral reports, meetings, etc.) 24. Has there been any sharing of good practice with other countries at the EU level? If so, in what form?
25. Which skills, qualifications and competencies did you find/have you found most important for your work as a project leader/participant? -
management coordination communication specific expertise / technical knowledge language
(Be specific, please.) 26. Have there been any national / sectoral / interdepartmental analyses or surveys of twinning as such and individual twinning projects? If so, would they be available to us for analysis?
27. Have you participated in any way in the evaluation of twinning by the Commission and/or other twinning assessments or reviews? If so, in what way?
28. Please identify: a) b) c) d)
significant negatives of twinning: significant positives of twinning: what worked best in twinning: the major failures of twinning:
Thank you very much for your time and cooperation.
Appendix 2 – Data Collection Overview I.
Interviews and Questionnaires – NCPs Country Old Member States Austria Belgium Denmark Finland Greece France Germany Italy Ireland Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden UK New Member States Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Poland Romania Slovakia Turkey
Questionnaires and/or Interview
questionnaire & interview questionnaire questionnaire & interview questionnaire questionnaire Questionnaire & interview questionnaire & interview questionnaire questionnaire questionnaire & interview -* -* interview interview
questionnaire & interview questionnaire questionnaire interview -
TOTAL
* Several e-mail requests sent and phone contact made without any results.
II.
Interviews and Questionnaires – RTAs/PAAs, PLs, STEs, MTEs Country
Old Member States Austria Belgium Denmark Finland Greece France Germany Italy Ireland The Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden UK New Member States Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Poland Romania Slovakia Turkey
TOTAL
Respondents Contacted
-*** 21 34 11 27 61**** 6 5 9 55
27 11 19 23 54 46 13 8
Respondents Reached
Interviews and Completed Questionnaires
Reaction Rate*
Success Rate**
-*** 21 29 10 3 61 6 5 9 42
13 11 1 3 23 0 5 4 6
62% 32% 9% 11% 38% 0% 100% 45% 11%
62% 38% 10% 100% 38% 0% 100% 45% 14%
15 11 15 8 37 46 12 3
4 11 4 3 8 19 10 0
15% 100% 21% 13% 15% 41% 77% 0%
27% 100% 27% 38% 22% 41% 83% 0%
125
Note: The Respondents Reached figures include interviewees but exclude NCPs and CFCU/AO staff. * Calculated as a percentage of questionnaires returned and interviews made out of the total number of respondents contacted in the country. ** Calculated as a percentage of questionnaires returned and interviews made out of the total number of respondents reached in the country. *** Due to personal changes at the Austrian NCP, we were unable to contact the persons responsible of the NCP before the end of July and only met them in mid-September. We considered that September was thus too late to send the questionnaire around to Austrian RTAs **** In the German case (but that may also apply to other countries), it is impossible to evaluate exactly how many respondents have been contacted as some NCPs also accepted to forward the questionnaire to their national experts and did not inform us of the number of persons contacted.
Appendix 3 – List of Respondents The below list includes the information on the sources of primary data for our research project (i.e. interviewees and questionnaire completers).1
EUROPEAN COMMISSION Van Hamme, Alain, Institution-Building Unit, responsible for Twinning, DG Enlargement, European Commission, 22 February 2006 (Brussels), 8-9 June 2006 (Brussels) and 28 August 2006 (Copenhagen). Mori, Marcello, Task Manager, Neighbourhood Directorate Twinning Operations (MEDA & TACIS), EuropeAid Co-operation Office, European Commission, Brussels, 4 April 2006. Palombi, Stéphanie, Neighbourhood Directorate Twinning Operations (MEDA & TACIS), EuropeAid Cooperation Office, European Commission, Brussels, 4 April 2006.
“OLD” MEMBER STATES Austria •
National Contact Point
Meingast, Stefan, Project Manager, Agency for European Integration and Economic Development (former NCP), interview Vienna, 19 September 2006. Schweitzer, Désirée, NCP, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of EU-Enlargement, interview Vienna, 19 September 2006.
Belgium •
National Contact Point
Demesmaeker, Katty, Desk Officer, NCP for Twinning and TAIEX, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Denmark •
National Contact Point
Jensen, Lillian, Assistant to the Danish NCP, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview Copenhagen, 24 August 2006. Petersen, Carl Balle, Danish NCP (replaced as of 1 September 2006 by Thomas Djurhuus, Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview Copenhagen, 24 August 2006. •
Experts
Andersen, Niels Chresten, Head of Secretariat Growth and Regional Development Unit, Europe Direct Bornholm in Denmark, interview Copenhagen, 27 August 2006. Berg, Torsten, Manager International Projects Section, Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, Danish Ministry of Family and Consumer Affairs, interview Søborg, 25 August 2006. Brønnum, Lisa, Chief Consultant, Danish School of Public Administration, interview Copenhagen, 29 August 2006. 1
The interviews were conducted by Elsa Tulmets, Eliška Tomalová, Lucie Königová and Petra Häfner.
Christensen, Jens, Project Manager, professional consultant, Danish Institute for Environmental Management, interview Copenhagen, 28 August 2006. Gewalli, Lars Erik, Head of Division, International Consulting Statistics Denmark (DST), interview Copenhagen, 25 August 2006. Johansen, Frank, Danish Immigration Service, interview Copenhagen, 29 August 2006. Jørgensen, Henry, RTA in Romania, Danish Agricultural Advisory Service, interview Copenhagen, 28 August 2006. Linnemann, Lars, Programme Coordinator, Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Climate Change Unit, interview Copenhagen, 30 August 2006. Øllgaard, Else, Danish Immigration Service, interview Copenhagen, 29 August 2006. Pedersen, Klaus Balslev, International Consulting, Statistics Denmark (DST), interview Copenhagen, 25 August 2006. Percy-Smith, Alex, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, International Unit, Research Centre Flakkebjerg, interview Copenhagen, 29 August 2006. Simonsen, Bo, RTA in Croatia, International Consulting, Statistics Denmark (DST), interview Copenhagen, 25 August 2006. Sjørup, Karen, The Danish Research Centre on Gender Equality, Roskilde University, interview Copenhagen, 30 August 2006. Turner, Lone, Project Leader, International Project Coordinator, Danish Patent and Trademark Office, interview Copenhagen, 28 August 2006. vom Braucke, Thomas, Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs, interview Copenhagen, 29 August 2006. Warming, Peter, International Consultant, Local Government Denmark, interview Copenhagen, 24 August 2006.
Finland •
National Contact Point
Linkola, Eija-Leena, Counsellor NCP, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. •
Experts
Asikainen, Esa, former RTA in Latvia, Border Security Expert, Finnish Border Guard HQ. Grouev, Anne-Marie, PL in Bulgaria, National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) in Finland, International Development Cooperation. Heiskanen, Markus, PL, The Border Guard. Janhunen, Olli, PL, Statistics Finland. Kiesiläinen, Kari, Head of Department of Judicial Administration, Ministry of Justice. Kojonsaari, Tapani, RTA in Poland, Ministry of Labour. Liila, Eljas, Project Planner, Ministry of Labour. Loman, Timo, RTA in Romania, Improving Fight Against Corruption. Mylly, Markku, Director general, Finnish Maritime Administration. Sihvola, Ari, Head of HAUS International, HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management. Tikkanen, Jussi, Senior Adviser, International Affairs, Finnish Ministry of Justice. Vihavainen, Hilkka, Twinning projects Coordinator, PL and RTA, Statistics Finland, Director of International Affairs. France •
National Contact Point
Canton-Bacara, George-Elisabeth, NCP, General Secretariat of European Affairs (Secrétariat Général des Affaires européennes), Office of the Prime Minister. •
Experts
Andre, Daniel, expert, Adjoint au chef du service des nouvelles des marchés (SNM) Chef du bureau de la conjoncture et de l'observation économique des marchés (BCOEM), interview Paris, 24 May 2006.
Maitrepierre, Eric, Sous directeur des relations internationales, École Nationale de la Magistrature, interview Paris, 22 May 2006. Zigmant, Anne-Marie, PL, International team, DATAR-DIACT (Délégation Interministérielle à l'aménagement et à la compétitivité des Territoires), interview Paris, 23 May 2006. Germany •
National Contact Point
Bartels, Michael, German Twinning NCP, Ministry of Economy, interview Berlin, 4 September 2006. Toschev, Inge, Head of Unit, Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology. •
Experts
Bambauer, Robert, RTA in Poland. Bormuth, Claus, PL in Hungary, German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). Ferchland, Reinhard, former PAA in Hungary and RTA in Estonia, Niedersächsische Landesforsten. Fiedler, Johannes, former RTA in Bulgaria. Friedrichs, Stefan, RTA in Hungary. Gentzsch, Dieter, PL in Malta and Cyprus. Gossger, Klaus, PL in Hungary. Grosch, Ulrich A., RTA and STE in Poland and Slovenia. Herrmann, Anna-Henriette, STE, PAA, RTA in Latvia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Ministerialrätin at the Ministry for Economics of the Land Brandenburg. Jendrike, Harald, PAA in the Czech Republic, State Ministry of Environment and Agriculture of Saxony (SMUL). Kaschell, Gerd, RTA. Korts, Gerhard, RTA in Romania. Link, Dieter, former PAA and Team Leader in Hungary and Poland, retired. Messerschmidt, Bernd, RTA in Serbia. Rutz, Hans Walter, PAA, RTA, Coordinator in Bulgaria, Hungary and Lithuania. Sander, Andrea, Ministry of Rural Development, Environment and Consumer Protection of the Land Brandenburg (MLUV). Schmidt-Bens, Walter, RTA in Bulgaria. Schrader, Hans-Jörg, Niedersächsisches Umweltministerium. Spicka, Peter, RTA in the Czech Republic. Springer, Paul, RTA, German-Czech Twinning project on reforms in the field of Justice, Czech Ministry of Justice. Discussion on the phone, Prague, 5 September 2006. Steinhoff, Joachim, RTA. von Keitz, Stephan, Hessisches Ministerium für Umwelt, ländlichen Raum und Verbraucherschutz. Zehle, Eckhard, former PAA and STE in Latvia, Estonia and Slovakia, retired (previously Ministry of Rural Development), Environment and Consumer Protection of the Land Brandenburg (MLUV).
Greece •
National Contact Point
Bakatsianos, Georgios, NCP for Twinning and TAIEX, Expert in European Affairs, DG European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ireland •
National Contact Point
Clarke, Michael, Assistant Principal Officer, Internal Market Section/NCP for TAIEX, Market Access Unit, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Marcoux, Nicolas, Head of International Unit, Institute of Public Administration. Newberry, Ashling, Programme Manager, Institute of Public Administration.
Italy •
National Contact Point
Aliberti, Pier Giorgio, NCP for Twinning and TAIEX, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Netherlands •
National Contact Point
de Kat-van Meurs, Ida, NCP, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Southeast and Eastern Europe and Matra Programme Department, interview The Hague, 14 September 2006. Roymans, Anja, EVD, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, e-mail:
[email protected], interview The Hague, 14 September 2006. •
Experts
Hoogeweg, Jan, PL, Team International, Dutch Belastingdienst, interview Utrecht, 15 September 2006. Korver, Adriaan, former PAA and RTA in the Czech Republic, Netherlands School of Public and Occupational Health. de Kruif, Koen M., PL, Dutch Environmental Protection Service (DCMR), interview Schiedam, 14 September 2006. van Meggelen, Jos, PL, Senior Advisor International Co-operation, Dutch Plant Protection Service. Snaaterse, Jaap, PL, Team International, Dutch Belastingdienst, interview Utrecht, 15 September 2006. van den Weg, Sip, former PAA and RTA, Dutch Tax and Customs Service, DCMR, interview Schiedam, 14 September 2006.
Sweden •
National Contact Point
Hattenbach, Ingrun, NCP, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), e-mail:
[email protected], interview Stockholm, 10 August 2006. •
Experts
Ejdemark, Anders, Performance Management and Internal Control, Swedish National Financial Management Authority, interview Stockholm, 9 August 2006. Kjerf, Tomas, Analyst, Swedish National Financial Management Authority, interview Stockholm, 9 August 2006. Ormalm, Chris, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, interview Stockholm, 9 August 2006. Wiklund, Bengt, Swedish Customs. Wilholm, Gösta, Office for International Projects (OIP), Swedish Tax Agency Head Office.
United Kingdom •
National Contact Point
Slater, Candida, UK National Contact Point, EU External, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, interview London, 7 March 2006. Ulysses, Katerina, NCP, EU External, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, interview London, 7 March 2006. •
Experts
Barry, Kevin, International Development Manager, National Probation Service for England and Wales, Home Office, interview London, 7 March 2006. Bedingfield, John, RTA in Romania, Department of Trade and Industry DTI. Gilchrist, Rod, former RTA in Slovakia, GO-East. McLoughlin, Derek, RTA in the Czech Republic, Ni-co – project management company, interview Prague, 19 September 2006. Parker, Robin, RTA in the Czech Republic, National Probation Directorate, interview Prague, 18 September 2006. Smith, Mark, RTA in the Czech Republic, Hull Humberside Police. Thomas, Len, PAA, RTA in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Croatia, retired.
“NEW” MEMBER STATES:
Bulgaria Girginov, Plamen, Head of Unit Programming and Evaluation in Bulgaria. Manchev, Htisto, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Bulgaria, Head of the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor’s Office, Leader of the PHARE-projects of the PPO. Nikolova, Pavlina, Prosecutor, Head of “Information, Analysis and Euro Integration” Department to SCPO in Bulgaria, Manager of the PHARE-projects of the PPO. Pencheva, Boriana, Director Management of EU Funds Directorate in Bulgaria, Bulgarian NCP. Sachariev, Nedko, Chief Expert of the International Relation Department to the SCPO in Bulgaria, Coordinator of the PHARE-projects of the PPO. Sharenkov, Ivan, Head of Legal and International Cooperation Department in Bulgaria. Czech Republic •
National Contact Point
Hendrichová, Jana, NCP for Twinning, Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance. Lefnerová, Ludmila, Head of Department, Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance, interview Prague, 30 June 2006. Sklenářová, Jana, Programme Officer, Twinning Out, Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance, interview Prague, 30 June 2006. •
Experts
Bala, Liana, CFCU, Ministry of Finance, interview Prague, 21 August 2006. Brož, Luděk, Twinning contact person, EU Department, Czech Ministry of Agriculture, interview Prague, 27 September 2006. Dolníčková, Petra, Twinning out Contact Person, Czech Ministry of Justice, interview Prague, 3 October 2006. Heřtová, Dominika, Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance, interview Prague, 15 August 2006. Hradský, Vladimír, Twinning Out Contact Person, Trade Policy and Agriculture Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview Prague 26 October 2006. Havrlíková, Martina, Contact person for Twinning, VÚZE (Czech Research Institute for Agricultural Economy), Contact point for FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network), questionnaire forwarded by Renata Špillerová, Ministry of Agriculture Hercegová, Kristýna, Twinning Light Project Coordinator, Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Hunt-Šafránková, Veronika, Twinning out Contact Person, Vice Director EU Department, Czech Ministry of Environment, interview Prague, 13 October 2006. Kiliánová, Blanka, Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Centre for Foreign Assistance, Ministry of Finance, interview Prague, 15 August 2006. Kuchta, Tomáš, Deputy Director, Trade Policy and Agriculture Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview Prague 26 October 2006. Mravčík, Viktor, Head of the Czech National Focal Point for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Government Office, interview Prague, 27 September 2006.
Pelechová, Marta, SPO, Czech Ministry of Justice, interview Prague, 3 October 2006. Petrtýl, Martin, SPO, STE, Czech Ministry of Environment, interview Prague, 13 October 2006. Rázgová, Jana, Twinning Contact Person, International Relations and European Integration Department, Czech Ministry of Interior, interview Prague, 4 October 2006. Rozsívalová, Olga, Head of the EU Department, Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, interview Prague, 18 October 2006. Špillerová, Renata, Twinning contact person, EU Department, Czech Ministry of Agriculture, interview Prague, 27 September 2006. Zukalová, Jitka, Twinning contact person, EU Department, Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, interview Prague, 18 October 2006.
Estonia
•
Experts
Gallagher, Michael, Director, Estonian Law Centre. Gornischeff, Peter, Foreign Assistance Advisor (Monitoring), Estonian Ministry of Justice. Kõrts, Marju, Head of the Foreign Aid Bureau, Estonian Ministry of Interior. Läänerand, Viola, Advisor, Ministry of Justice. Hungary •
Experts
Debri-Révész, Tímea, Project Manager, questionnaire sent by Andrea Megyeri. Unknown, (summary of 2-3 persons), MoH, questionnaire sent by Andrea Megyeri. Weszelovszky, Eva, Twinning Coordinator, assisting the NCP, Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office. Poland
•
Experts
Bukowska, Bogusława, Deputy Director, National Bureau for Drug Prevention in Poland. Ciolkowska, Lucyna Dygas, PL, Regional Environmental Inspectorate in Zielona Góra. Dowgiałło, Jerzy, Main specialist in MARD, Polish Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Matters. Jablonski, Piotr, Director of National Bureau for Drug Prevention in Poland. Kominek, Andrzej, Chief Expert, Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Korowajczyk, Marek, Head of Unit, Polish Ministry of Justice. Norwa, Maksymilian, Specialist, Main Geodetic and Cartographic Office. Szelągowska, Aleksandra, Director, Department of Finance, Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, questionnaire forwarded by Agnieszka Dziurdzia.
Romania •
Experts
Barbatei, Gabriel, Head Projects Implementation Unit (PIU), Authority for Aliens, Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior. Bejinaru, Florica, Senior Project Officer, Directorate for European integration, Superior Council of Magistracy of Romania. Chirila, Liliana, Head of PHARE Unit, Director Structural Funds Directorate, General Directorate for Structural Instruments Management, Romanian Ministry of Environment and Water Management. Cistelecan, Cristin, Head of Investment Office, Regional Development Agency West in Romania. Cristea, Dan, PIU, General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. Dumitru, Elena, PL, Romanian Ministry of Environment and Water Management. Jurma, Anca, Chief prosecutor, Service for International Cooperation, Public Information and Relations, National Anticorruption Directorate, Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Romania. Leaota, Elena, PL, Romanian Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Rural Development (MAPDR). Lupaşcu, Eliza, Project Manager, RTA, PAA, Counsellor, General Directorate for Regional Development, Romanian Ministry of European Integration.
Marcu, Marinela Melania, Head of PIU, National Anti-Drug Agency in Romania. Mihailov, Luminita, PL, Director South-East Regional Development Agency in Romania. Musat, Liviu, PL, Director South Muntenia Regional Development Agency in Romania. Negulescu, Gabriel, former Project Manager, General Directorate for Intelligence and Internal Protection, Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior. Ontanu, Gheorghe, Chief of Department, Romanian Institute of Diagnostic and Animal Health. Predescu, Octavian, Head of PIU, National Refugee Office, Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior. Stefan, Bogdan, Counsellor of European Integration, Romanian Ministry of European Integration, seconded in the Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior, General Directorate for European Integration and International Relations, Project Coordination Unit. Tailup, Ciprian, IT Specialist, Romanian Ministry of Administration and Interior. Vasilescu, Lelia-Elena, Head of PIU, Anti-corruption General Directorate in Romania. Voicu, Andrei, Head of the European Integration and Programme Service.
Slovakia •
National Contact Point
Minarovičová, Jana, Slovak National Contact Point, Government Office, interview Bratislava, 2 August 2006. •
Experts
Alexyová, Katarína, Project Manager, Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, interview Bratislava, 18 August 2006. Gavora, Juraj, Head of Programming Department, Slovak Environmental Agency, Centre of the Environmental Projects Programming, interview Bratislava, 2 August 2006. Králik, Július, Senior Programme Officer, Ministry of Justice, interview Bratislava, 17 August 2006. Krbaťová, Iveta, Project Unit of Foreign Aid, Ministry of Health, interview Bratislava, 17 August 2006. Pätoprstá, Naděžda, Senior Programme Officer, Director of Foreign Aid Department, Ministry of Interior, interview Bratislava, 2 August 2006. Škublová, Zuzana, Senior Programme Officer, Project Unit of Foreign Aid, Ministry of Health, interview Bratislava, 17 August 2006. Tužinská, Miroslava, Senior Programme Officer, Programme Manager, Slovak Environmental Agency, Centre of the Environmental Projects Programming, interview Bratislava, 2 August 2006. Vakulová, Lucia, Ministry of Finance, Section for European Affairs, International Relations Division. Virčík, Mário, Director, Senior Programme Officer, International Relations Department, Ministry of Finance, interview Bratislava, 18 August 2006. Zvara, Peter, Project Manager, Public Administration Section, Ministry of Interior.
Participation at Meetings, Workshops and Presentations: Annual meeting of National Contact Points (NCP), Brussels, 8-9 June 2006. Discussions with participants from France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia/Montenegro, European Commission. Annual ERFA-meeting with RTAs (PAAs) and project leaders at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Copenhagen, 28 August 2006. Discussions with Danish RTAs, former PAAs, PLs and the Danish NCP as well as the representative of the European Commission. Presentation of the Final Summary Report on the PHARE Programme (2000-2003) in the Czech Republic, Prague, Ministry of Finance, 18 September 2006. TAIEX Information Meeting, Prague, Ministry of Finance, 25 September 2006.
Relevant background interviews: Möller Matthias, Transform programme, PHARE/Twinning and TACIS coordination, German Federal Ministry of Finance, Berlin, 12 February 2001. Horn Ursula, Transform, Twinning, German Federal Ministry of Economy, Berlin, 15 February 2001. Větrovský Jiří, Director of department for economics and financial affairs, Czech Ministry of Finance, Prague, 15 August 2001. Frühbauerová Jiřina, NF-PHARE, ISPA unit, Czech Ministry of Finance, Prague, 15 August 2001. Pálfi Katalin, PHARE and ISPA programmes, Hungarian Ministry of Environment, Budapest, 23 August 2001. Rozsa Judit, CFCU, national Treasury, Budapest, 24 August 2001. Zupan van Eijk Jerica, coordination of European programmes, PHARE/twinning, Governmental Office of European Affairs, Ljubljana, 17 July 2002. Speck Andreas, Zawadzki Detlev, German Pre-Accession Advisors, PHARE/Twinning project on strategy to combat illicit use of drogues, Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, Tallinn, 11 September 2002. Kern Martin, PHARE task Manager, EC Delegation in Tallinn, 12 September 2002. Hilep Ülle, PHARE/Twinning, Estonian Ministry of Justice, Tallinn, 13 September 2002. Sagstetter Norbert, PHARE/Twinning task manager, agriculture and regional policy, EC Delegation in Tallinn, 16 September 2002. Mändmets Ronaldo, CFCU, coordination of financial assistance, Estonian Ministry of Finance, Tallinn, 26 September 2002. Henkel Jürgen, Mächtel Robert, PHARE/Twinning task managers, SEQUA e.V., Bonn, 28 November 2002. Stadler Mrs, PHARE/Twinning in the Baltic States, IRZ-Stiftung, Bonn, 3 December 2002. Vreden Claus, Director of the IRZ-Stiftung, Bonn, 3 December 2002. Von Arnim Mr, Twinning National Contact Point, German Federal Ministry of Finance, Berlin, 28 January 2003. Cornuau Claude, French expert at the European Commission, DG Enlargement, participated to the creation of Twinning from 1997 to 2000, Paris, 19 March 2003. Debeusscher Anne-Louise, PHARE/Twinning and CARDS, DGCID, Bureau de l’ingénierie administrative, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, 20 March 2003. Canton-Bacara George, French Twinning National Contact Point, Secrétariat général du Comité interministériel pour les questions de coopération économique européenne (SGCI) (now SGAE), Office of the Prime Minister, Paris, 28 March 2003. Leffler-Roth Carolyn, Twinning Team, DG Enlargement, European Commission, Brussels, 1st April 2003. Van Hamme Alain, Institution-Building Unit, responsible for Twinning, DG Enlargement, European Commission, Brussels, 2 April 2003. Stausbøll Hans-Christian, AidCo, previously DG1A, European Commission, Brussels, 2 April 2003. Verger Myriam, Desk Estonia, coordination of PHARE for Estonia, DG Enlargement, European Commission, Brussels, 2 April 2003. Digne Marie, previously Pre-Accession Adviser in Hungary, DG Regio, European Commission, Brussels, 3 April 2003. Sinno Khaldoun, Task manager Twinning CARDS, EuropeAid Co-operation Office, European Commission, Brussels, 3 April 2003. Guyader Maurice, analysis on economics and trade, DG enlargement, European Commission, 3 April 2003. Schuebel Dirk, Desk Hungary, DG enlargement, European Commission, 3 April 2003. Burdin Catherine, coordination of bilateral and multilateral assistance to Eastern Europe (PHARE/Twinning), GIP ADETEF, French Ministry of Finance, Paris, 17 April 2003. Bouscharain Gérard, vice-director of GIP France Coopération Internationale (FCI), French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, 24 April 2003. Haworth Julia, Leigh Warren, British Twinning National Contact Point, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, 8 May 2003. McLeish Brian, Terzeon Rebecca, Latto Benedict, Department for international Development (DfiD), London, 9 May 2003. Schwartz Pierre, Pre-Accession Adviser, Zdenkó Ildikó, assistant PAA, French-Hungarian Twinning project on rural development, Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Budapest, 8 September 2003. Heil Péter, national development plan and EU programmes, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 10 September 2003. Krarup-Pétersen Tue, coordination of Twinning, EC Delegation in Hungary, Budapest, 10 September 2003. Szabó Terez, PHARE/Twinning and ISPA, EC Delegation in Hungary, Budapest, 10 September 2003.
Wiley Thomas, general coordination of PHARE/Twinning, EC Delegation in Hungary, Budapest, 11 September 2003. Matheidesz Réka, institution-building, national development plan and EU programmes, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 11 September 2003. Rapcsák Janós, advisor of the government, Hungarian Twinning National Contact Point, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 11 September 2003. Nemes Richárd, assistance PAA, Franco-German-Hungarian Twinning project on water management, Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 11 September 2003. Henry de Villeneuve Pierre, PAA, Augusztinovicz Ádám, assistant to the PAA, French-Hungarian Twinning project on accidental water pollution, Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 11 September 2003. Ray Alex, PAA, British-Hungarian Twinning project on regional development and structural funds, National Office for Regional Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 12 September 2003. Böhönyey Ágnes, vice-director of department, Twinning project manager, National Office for Regional Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 12 September 2003. Poncelet Elisabeth, PAA, French-Hungarian Twinning project on Seveso directive, Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 12 September 2003. Tothné Pálfi Katalin, coordination of PHARE/Twinning and ISPA projects, department of international funds, Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 15 September 2003. Bóla Boglárka, PHARE and Twinning project manager, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 16 September 2003. Mautner Zsofia, director of department, Office of national development plan and EU programmes, Office of the Prime Minister, Budapest, 16 September 2003. Markó Csabá, vice-director of the department for waste management and environmental technologies, Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 17 September 2003. Jacobsen Maria, PAA, German-Hungarian Twinning on IPP directive, Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water, Budapest, 17 September 2003. Romeis Andrea, Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU, Brussels, 3 March 2004. Descôtes Anne-Marie, advisor on enlargement (PHARE committee), Permanent Representation of France to the EU, Brussels, 4 March 2004. Veyssière Gaël, advisor on development and cooperation, Permanent Representation of France to the EU, Brussels, 4 March 2004. Canciani Egidio, Task Force Wider Europe, DG Enlargement (previously desk Hungary), European Commission, Brussels, 25 May 2004. Cornelis Mr, DG Enlargement, European Commission, Brussels, 26 May 2004. Avigdor Gavriel, DG Enlargement (previously desk Estonia), European Commission, Brussels, 26 May 2004. Bonwitt Bob, Director, SIGMA programme (co-financed by PHARE), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, 2 June 2004. Joras Andrea, Director of GTZ Twinning Office, Berlin, 13 July 2004. Moran Mary-Teresa, General Coordination (Country Reports and Actions Plans East), European Neighbourhood Policy Coordination, DG Relex, European Commission, Brussels, 23 February 2006. Muscheidt Bettina, General Coordination, European Neighbourhood Policy Coordination, DG Relex, European Commission, Brussels, 23 February 2006. Wissels Rutger, Director, European Neighbourhood Policy Coordination, DG Relex, European Commission, Brussels, 5 April 2006. Gerstbrein Heike, General Coordination (Country Reports and Actions Plans South), European Neighbourhood Policy Coordination, DG Relex, European Commission, Brussels, 5 April 2006. Meijerman, Bernard G., Head of the MATRA Programme, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview The Hague, 14 September 2006.
Appendix 4 – NCP Location and Organigrams Location of NCPs in Old Member States: Prime Ministry of Minister’s Foreign Affairs Office X Austria X Belgium X Denmark X Finland X France Germany X Greece Ireland X Italy X Luxembourg X Netherlands X Portugal X Spain Sweden X UK
Ministry of Economy / Finance
Agency / Support Structure AEI
X
GTZ X (IPA)
EDV FIIAPP X (SIDA)
Source: Interviews with NCPs, NCP questionnaires and the DG Enlargement list of NCPs (http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/institution_building/current_ncpms_en.pdf)
Location of NCPs in the New Member States and Applicant Countries: Prime Minister’s Office Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Estonia Latvia Lithuania Hungary Malta Poland Romania Slovakia Slovenia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Economy / Finance
Other
X X X
X X X
X X X X X
X X Source: Interviews with NCPs, NCP questionnaires and the DG Enlargement list of NCPs (http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/institution_building/current_ncpms_en.pdf)
AUSTRIA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs NCP
Ministry of Finance Agency of European Integration (AEI)
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Ministry
Ministry
Mandated Bodies
DENMARK
Ministry of Foreign Affairs NCP
Ministry
Ministry
Ministry
Mandated Bodies
FRANCE Prime Minister’s Office
Secrétariat Général des Affaires Européennes (SGAE) NCP
GIP FCI
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
other Ministry
other Ministry
GIP Adetef
other GIP
Ministry of Finance
other Ministry
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Mandated Bodies
GERMANY Federal Ministry of Economy (BMWi)
NCP GTZ Office
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Federal Ministry
Mandated Bodies
Bundesland
Bundesland
Bundesland
Bundesland
Mandated Bodies
Bundesland
Bundesland
IRELAND
Institute of Public Administration (IPA) NCP Twinning Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment NCP TAIEX
Department
Department
Department
Department
Department
Mandated Bodies
NETHERLANDS
Ministry of Foreign Affairs MATRA NCP Ministry of Economic Affairs Agency for International Business and Cooperation (EVD)
Ministry
Ministry
Ministry
Mandated Bodies
Ministry
Ministry
SWEDEN Ministry of Foreign Affairs
SIDA (SIDA EAST) NCP Phare-Twinning (and Cards)
Ministry
Ministry
Ministry
Authorities
UNITED KINGDOM
Foreign and Commonwealth Office NCP
Government Department
Government Department
Government Department
Local Government Offices
Mandated Bodies
other UK Public Sector Bodies
Regional Government Offices
Appendix 6 – Summary Report from the Annual Meeting of Institution-Building Instruments (Twinning/TAIEX) Brussels, 8-9 June 2006
Executive summary
The main topics discussed during the NCP meeting were following:
- the complementarity between Twinning and TAIEX (but also SIGMA), between private consultancy and Twinning in enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) - the importance of Twinning and TAIEX in building networks and of having NCPs in charge of both Twinning and TAIEX - scope of the new rules introduced in the common Twinning manual of June 2005, like the “guillotine clause” of 6 months for the reimbursement of preparatory expenses, the rate of per diems (especially in Turkey), the list of mandated bodies, new training system for RTAs - the single frame proposed by the new Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) - Twinning as a factor of professionalisation in EU civil servants’ carrier and MS human resources’ policy - the emphasis put on decentralisation in the ENP and on the communication tasks of the NCPs - improving the quality of Twinning and its visibility as an EU assistance - the importance of the Transition Facility for new member states and of the role of the new MS to play in further enlargement and neighbourhood policies
***
Detailed summary
* Opening session by Alexander Italianer, Deputy Secretary General of the European Commission.
Mr Italianer stressed the necessity to have coherence and commonalities around EU instruments like TAIEX and Twinning. The meeting was the occasion to celebrate the 10th anniversary of TAIEX, created in 1996. Twinning (created in 1997) and TAIEX (Tw&T) should allow for a proper application of community law in proposing expertise in the field of public sector. Tw&T are instruments for peer assistance, they are different than business to business approaches and resemble government to government assistance. Since 1998, more than 1400 twinning project have been implemented, more than 1000 events have been organised (Tw&T), they cover
all beneficiary countries and regions. The Commission intends to offer as much as possible a common model of working with the EU, for example through the common Twinning manual agreed in June 2005. This offer of Tw&T has not been proposed anywhere else in the world. Since the failure of the constitutional treaty in 2005, the EU is questioned: what is its usefulness, what does it mean? What are the results? Tw&T are very concrete results. The Commission’s role as a political body is to diffuse political results. The large added value of Tw&T is their large networks, which is reflected in the number of participants to the conference (about 100 persons). Tw&T are different than a one way street, they show what happens in the member states, i.e. how implementation functions on the ground. Tw&T are typical instruments of European governance: community law is for example capitalising on the expertise of the member states (MS). Currently, there are more than 4000 new cases linked to incorrect implementation of EU law inside the EU, so even inside the EU, it is important to have a good cooperation between administrations. Tw&T are used in the fields of enlargement, the Stability Agreement for the Western Balkans and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
Discussion:
The Danish NCP Carl Balle Petersen asked what is the role of the private sector in the reform of public administration. For Alexander Italianer, if the knowledge comes only from the private sector, it would be difficult to reform the public sector, the reforming impact of Twinning has to be considered, it achieves a very high level of change. Alain Van Hamme and Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni insisted on the complementarity of the instruments in achieving changes. There is room for everyone.
Ms George Canton-Bacara (French NCP) pointed at a legal problem: the Twinning framework contract signed between the Commission and each MS concerns only PHARE, thus it is problematic when sending experts for TACIS, MEDA or CARDS. Alain Van Hamme (Twinning coordination, IB-unit, DG Enlargement) answered that the framework contracts signed after 1998 were conceived as a way to get MS involved into Twinning. Some MS even did not sign any, only 12 MS did so far. They were conceived as a way to anticipate the creation of the rules then set in the Twinning manual. In the next pre-accession instruments, the manual will be mentioned in the agreements, so the legal basis will be provided.
* Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni presented the experience of enlargement as adapted in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Tw&T is a way to build networks, to exchange practical innovations and to keep a diversity of languages. The Twinning NCP are very often the same as the programme coordinators of TAIEX or Programme assistant officers (PAO) in neighbouring countries. NCP are already settled in following countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan. The same person should deal with the coordination of Twinning and TAIEX.
Since the last enlargement, the EU launched a policy for its new neighbours: the aim is to offer the same kind of instruments to the neighbour countries. While during enlargement the mandate, aims and tools to reach these aims were clear for all, this is not the case in the ENP. The first idea was to offer a stake in all EU policies, except in the institutions (cf Prodi, 2002). The first Action Plans (AP) were negotiated too rapidly, the result was that Action Plans were all a bit too similar, there was a loss of specificity of each country in the APs. There are currently discussions at high level at the Commission in order to rethink the relationship with neighbouring countries. The EU wants to present a credible answer to the needs of countries like Algeria, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Bielorussia, Armenia and Georgia, in order for EU’s policy to be efficient and to have an impact there. Some ENP countries have very high expectations from the EU: they see the ENP either as a way to get closer to the EU, to go towards accession, to intensify trade relations or even as an alternative to the American foreign policy. If the EU wants to be credible, it needs some money, but it also needs to think intelligently about the instruments it proposes. These instruments have to offer an important quantitative and qualitative leverage. Operations of budgetary support and structural adjustment would allow to enter into an economic dialogue with EU’s neighbours. A novel instrument is cross border cooperation (CBC), which are projects difficult to set up. The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instruments (ENPI) should replace MEDA and TACIS in 2007 (final phase of discussion at the Council and the European Parliament). The ENPI will also contain possibilities of bank loans (European Investment Bank) and other financial transactions which would allow the EU to become a partner for important investments in infrastructure projects like transport. A whole range of other instruments will be offered in the ENPI like Twinning and TAIEX. Twinning was introduced in 2005 in the MEDA zone. The approach is mainly “demand driven”, i.e. the partner should progressively develop a sense of ownership according to its own experience. It should also favour Twinning projects along the priorities defined in each Action Plan. Therefore, Action Plans should be more compact in order to have more strategic priorities and benchmarks better defined. Twinning projects would be easier to define and priority projects could be identified. There is a difference in the way programmes are managed in the East and in the South. The management cycle is more developed in the South than in the East. MEDA is deconcentrated and decentralised to a certain extent, TACIS still functions on a rather centralised and unflexible way. In June 2006, there were around 80 Twinning projects in the pipeline, the first results were rather good when taking into account the constraints of non-accession. In the ENP, EU’s attractiveness is weakened by the absence of accession perspective, so it is more difficult to use Twinning. Since last NCP meeting, two workshops were organised on Twinning in ENP countries: one in Cairo and one in Kiev. In May 2006, a raw of Twinning projects were agreed with these two countries, which reflects the concrete results of the workshops. Other countries are interested, like Moldova and Azerbaijan. There is no association agreement yet with Syria and the EU has difficulties to define its relationship with Libya.
One important question needs to be raised, the one of delays currently needed to launch a Twinning project until the contract is signed. In 2005, the Commission introduced the rule of 6 months for the reimbursement of preparatory expenses (also called “guillotine clause”). The test was rather positive, excepting for one country, all Twinning contracts were signed on due time. The delays are still too long as the EU is in competition with
other donors. Coming closer to the EU is a very long process, in the meantime ENP countries receive proposals from other donors who are quicker than the Twinning procedures. The EU has to be sure that administrations are quicker in preparing Twinning projects, that project fiches are elaborated in a more detailed manner before rather than after the project is accepted. All necessary actors should be mobilised as soon as a first version of a project is ready: the junior partners, the NCP, the delegation of the Commission, etc. This could pose some budgetary problems to organise, but the meetings are necessary.
It was decided to enlarge TAIEX to the ENP. TAIEX is a huge machine which has to be used to stay financially profitable. Some TAIEX experts have also been invited to participate to Twinning projects. The demand driven approach also have to apply to TAIEX. DG Relex is working on a second version of the Twinning Thesaurus. The first version was appreciated as a way to share past experience on enlargement with third states.
As there are no Twinnings without member states, MS are not only in the position of advisors, they are also providers of human resources. It will not be possible to have a substantial Twinning policy as long as the MS do not consider Twinning as an important factor in a carrier, so the policy of human resources has to be improved in enlargement as well as in the ENP.
Discussion:
Mr Lilian Moraru, from the delegation of Moldova, explained that Twinning represents a very strong political signal from the EU, but that the administrations of ENP countries are not always ready to manage this kind of projects, they do not always have enough knowledge, for example on EU law. There is a risk of saturation and that Twinning will represent a “canon to kill a mosquito”. What can the EU propose to deal with such context, is there any possibility to play with intensity, with time, with more flexible instruments, can the EU offer salaries / training for more skilled staff?
Mr Mazzocchi-Alemanni highlighted the fact that the weakness of public administration is more present in the East than in the South. In the framework of MEDA, Twinning and technical assistance is possible. Due to the weakness of public administrations, technical assistance will first be mobilised and then Twinning. Programme management units will be settled to create administrative structures. The involvement of the delegation of the Commission will be crucial. TAIEX seems to be adapted to answer the challenges of the context of neighbourhood.
Mr Pablo Benavides, from the Spanish NCP, explained that even if the incentive of accession is absent in the ENP, there is a need for reforms in the ENP countries, whatever the political position of their government is. The problem is rather if administrations are ready and able to adapt. Technical assistance proved efficient, but it also showed some limits, more than Twinning. There is therefore a risk to spend a lot of money for reports which are going to stay in the cupboards of ministries. It is important to keep in mind this “flou politique” which is more problematic in the context of neighbourhood.
One should not be afraid of the “guillotine clause” (the 6 months). Both parts are involved, nevertheless, the problems more often occur on the beneficiary’s side than on the provider’s one. Some means need to be found to mobilise efficiently the beneficiary’s administrations. There is a strong diversity of motivations among the neighbouring countries to be part of the ENP (road towards accession, more intensive trade, counter-balance the USA). The delegations of the Commission thus need to be more present, the programme management units will need to make sure that projects are written in a more proper manner.
For the Italian delegation, adaptation to the local context is important, the EU has to use some kind of flexibility, some financial aspects can be improved and the use of Twinning light should be expanded. M. Mazzochi-Alemanni insists on the necessity of sequencing the instruments in order to gain flexibility, for example to have first Twinning light, then TAIEX, then a Twinning project. For Carl Balle Petersen (Danish NCP), there is no need to focus on the input, on the way project fiches are prepared. It is more important to see how the various instruments fit together, if the different instruments are going to reach the necessary impact, it is a question of programming exercise, not of a project view. One has to look at the background for each institutional reform: which expert was present before and who will come after? Mr Mazzocchi-Alemanni answers that the EU is spending a lot of money on project fiches, which are sometimes only copied and pasted when they are good. Twinning fiches have to be excellent, but of course they have to leave some lee-way for the MS and their own methodology.
* Anne-Marie Masquet from DG Enlargement presented the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA). After 2007, IPA will represent the single legal frame for candidate countries. IPA should replace PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD, Turkey’s pre-accession instrument and CARDS. The budget was signed on the 17th of May 2006. The financial envelope for 2007-2013 will represent €10 213 billion, 20% less than the initial proposal by the Commission. It will cover assistance to candidate countries and to countries which have a perspective of being a candidate country (Western Balkans).
IPA has five components: 1. Transition assistance and institution-building instruments, assistance related to taking over the acquis communautaire 2. Cross border cooperation between MS and candidate countries 3. Regional development: IPA will replace the ERDS for candidate countries 4. Human resources development 5. Rural development
It will also provide targeted assistance to all IPA countries. The Commission chose a differentiated approach between potential candidates and candidate countries so that assistance could be more targeted. Concerning potential candidate countries: IPA will support participation in the Stabilisation and Association process under component 1, there will also be possibilities of financing components 3, 4, 5 type measures. Concerning candidate countries: the 5 components should help the countries to:
-
adopt and implement the acquis
-
prepare for EU funds on accession
Decentralisation / deconcentration has to be present. The regulatory framework of IPA will be composed of - a Council framework regulation: the proposal of the Commission COM(2004)617 of 29 Sept. 2004 was still in discussion at the Council and the Parliament in June 2006. - a detailed implementing regulation: it will be prepared by the Commission and will be subject to discussion in the framework of comitology. It should have been presented to the MS through comitology soon before the Summer break.
The general policy and programming framework will be composed of: A) Political and strategic framework: enlargement package including the Multi-annual indicative financial framework (MIFF), per country and per component, 3 years rolling forward B) Strategic programming: multi-annual indicative planning document (MIPD). Per country and for all components, it will follow the logic of the MIFF C) specific programming: per country and per component
A
Enlargement package (MIFF)
B
MIPD
C
Comp. 1
Comp. 2
Comp. 3
Comp. 4
Comp. 5
national &
joint prog.
operational
operat.
rural
horizontal progr.
document
progr.
progr.
development
(large projects)
programme
The management of assistance will include: -
operations implemented through decentralised management, joint management or shared management
-
the final objective is a fully decentralised management
Institution-Building will function mostly under the transition assistance and the institution-building component which is included in the component 1 of IPA. Some institution-building actions will also fall under other components like 3, 4, 5 when some elements are not directly related to the acquis. This will be available only with some candidate countries and with strict limits.
Component 1 is about: - development of civil society and promotion of fundamental rights, as well as reconciliation and confidencebuilding measures. Support to the dialogue between civil society and government - Justice and home affairs, public administration - modernisation of the regulatory framework (+ access for SME for example) - financial control - administrative cooperation measures - grant schemes - technical assistance - investment in regulatory infrastructure - implementation of finance facilities - participation in EU programmes and agencies
What are the differences between IPA and the previous pre-accession strategy? - IPA offers a single legal base: it should provide coherence and efficiency, should allow for a better coordination of assistance and more targeted projects - the single implementation regulation will harmonise implementing procedures to the maximal possible extent - the framework has improved for institution-building projects.
* Morten-Jung Olsen, head of the Institution-Building Unit at DG Enlargement, presented some remarks on public administration reforms and possible synergies between Twinning, TAIEX and SIGMA. Accession offered various challenges, also quite similar in the ENP. During enlargement, the copy and paste approach of the EU acquis was running pretty good, but the institution-building part was more complicate. Assistance has been planned until accession in 2004, but not after. A transition facility was created for new MS, as the process of building EU acquis takes a lot of time. The EU cannot build institutions in a specific sector only, it has to train civil servants (long process). It cannot export its institutions, candidate countries cannot import exactly the same structures, but only best practices. The implementation gap is not only an issue for accession countries, but also for the MS, as some of them are not implementing or not correctly implementing the acquis. The acquis does not prescribe in detail how implementation works. But there are countries which are not candidate and are ready to take over the acquis in some sectors. The EU cannot have an impact at the sectoral level if it does not work at the central level (complementarity with SIGMA). There is no acquis on public administration, but there is a gradual convergence among MS on what is appropriate. These became EU’s benchmarks. This is the same with the new MS who will bring their own benchmarks. The problem is that these benchmarks are evolving all the time, thus the EU resembles a “moving target”. It is important that administrations develop “trading capacities” and that partners are aware of this and stay coherent in the process of changing institutions. So third states should not ask a Twinning for political reasons or in order to have a good screening process.
The Commission’s inclination is decentralisation, to move responsibility to partner countries. This is what is done through EDIS measures. The philosophy is “the more you manage, the more you get”, but it is difficult to implement on the ground, so partner countries should not underestimate that challenge. How can Tw&T help partner countries, especially to implement the acquis? It is a question of harmonisation and of expertise. In Twinning, RTAs are embedded in the administration of the partner, they are working for the administration of the partner, together. The Commission celebrates the 10th anniversary of TAIEX, a fast and flexible instrument based on peers and on the cooperation between colleagues. The SIGMA programme [launched in 1992, mainly financed by PHARE, implemented by the OECD] proposes thematic support in relation with internal/external financial control, public procurements, etc. SIGMA goes together with public sectoral reforms. The instruments proposed are complementary, it is about coherence, coordination and sequencing. There will be a general assessment on Twinning in 2007. What the Commission wants through meetings like this is to keep networking alive. The Commission is looking forward to having the new MS on board, so they can also propose some improvement of the instruments.
* Laia Pinos-Mataro and Alain Van Hamme presented the implementation of Twinning in PHARE, the Transition Facility (TF) and CARDS.
Laia Pinos-Mataro presented figures related to standard Twinnings in PHARE and CARDS. The database elaborated since 1998 on Twinning in PHARE, CARDS and the Transition Facilities contains 1179 projects for the period of 1998-2005. PHARE and TF represent alone around 1106 projects (1998-2005, figures not fixed yet). 244 projects took place in the field of Justice and home affairs (JHA). For CARDS, 73 projects were launched for the period of 2000-2005. There is still a tendency to design big projects. 31 projects concern JHA, internal market and agriculture also represent important sectors. Between 1998-2005, Germany proposed most projects (644), then France (476), the UK (390), Sweden (345), the Netherlands (313) and Austria (237). New MS also start sending proposals now.
Following number of project fiches is expected for 2006: - Transition facility: CZ: 2
EE: 4
MT: 1
LV: 5
LT: 1
PL: 10
- Candidate countries: BU: 9
RO: 27
TR: 10
- Cards: Armenia: 3; Bosnia & Herzegovina: 2; Rep. Of Macedonia: 4; Serbia (& Montenegro): 9 (no Twinnings for Montenegro)
(see further statistics on Twinning in enlargement, TF and CARDS)
Alain Van Hamme explained that the Commission has done a lot about quantity, but less about quality. Therefore, one needs to avoid a “Twinning fatigue”. The commitment to Twinning is good, but it has to be improved. Networking is thus important. The quality of Twinning depends on transparency and on
communication between the stakeholders. A good project starts with precise benchmarks, the quality of the project depends on the project fiches, it has to concentrate on results and to leave space for implementation. In practice, one can see that there are links between bilateral aid and EU assistance, projects fiches sometimes mention bilateral assistance from the MS. But it is important to indicate in the project fiches that Twinning is EU assistance. Benchmarks also take a different shape in PHARE and in CARDS project fiches. Twinning money is EU money, so projects should be implemented in a clear and transparent way. If national Twinning experts are involved in the preparation of project fiches, they should not be proposed as PAAs / RTAs. As for dead lines, one should take more into account the holiday periods. As for the scope of circulation: the best way to circulate them is putting them on a web-site. Twinning was evaluated several times, in particular by the European Court of Auditors, which formulated some recommendations for example on the List of mandated bodies. Now there are 25 MS with 460 mandated bodies. Mandated bodies attract rates from 2,5 to 4,5 with a possibility of increase: they should not be used to increase rates. The list is now open to new MS in order to have a larger pool of expertise.
The “guillotine clause” and other new provisions in the Twinning manual should be seen as an improvement: Twinnings should start when needed, so the new rules are useful. But the problems of EDIS blockage are still there. Some MS try to negotiate the rates and fees. They are fixed, there should be no negotiations about rates in order to become a mandated body. The fixed fees are there to facilitate the selection of mandated bodies. Enlargement was proposing different instruments, among them four different financial instruments. The common manual was created in order to avoid this, assistance policy should not become a supermarket where MS take what they like most. Technically, Twinning is a grant. There will be a revision in order to streamline the procedure. Twinning will then follow the same rules as IPA.
Among other innovations, the Commission set up a new training system in April this year on budgetary and management issues for Twinning managers. The same manual and the same skills will apply. Other trainings will be organised for raising Twinning advisors. The RTA training is where civil servants and experts get a feeling for EU issues as such. It is thus a good occasion to network and to make oneself acquainted with EU questions. Feedback on how to improve Twinning is welcome. The third term rule for RTA has been simplified. In a Twinning project, there are a project leader and short term experts. Temporary project leaders should be hired at least 6 months before the beginning of Twinning. The Commission counts on the NCPs to communicate. Some NCPs organise regular meetings with line ministries in order to identify positive and negative experiences. They sometimes also invite RTAs to share their experience on the ground, they plan evaluations of planning schemes and Twinning projects. MS have a solid back of experience which they should share with other (new) MS in order to build consortia. This could enhance the EU label, it would be also more challenging for the refinement of administrative capacity as such. Before August 2006, there should be a possibility to set up a new framework for grants and to have cooperation between public and private actors. There should also be a new Twinning contract in a revised version of the manual before the end of the year which could also allow to integrate case law. What is important is European visibility: bilateral means should be given a larger European flavour.
* Stéphanie Palombi and Marcello Mori from the Twinning Operations Unit of EuropeAid Co-operation Office presented Twinning as an instrument of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). In 2005, it was decided to enlarge Twinning to MEDA. Recommendations came from the MS to have a common set of procedures. The elaboration of the common manual was a long and extensive work of one year and a half. A thesaurus 2003 was also edited, there should be a new updated version by the end of 2006. The figures presented concern Twinning light only to a small extent.
There should be greater synergy between private consultancy and Twinning: there is a need of time to prepare a Twinning project. Old and new MS should work more together. Old and new MS have a different knowledge on twinning. In MEDA, there is a PAO, the contracting authority is the ministry in charge of the PAO, which has thus some staff to manage operational accounts. In TACIS, the construction is different: as there is no PAO, the EU has to publish a tender to recruit the staff. It is for example the case in the Ukraine: a director was hired to recruit the rest of the staff. Tenders have also been launched in Moldova and Azerbaijan. Denmark was the first country to propose a Twinning project in the ENP, in Jordan.
(Report drafted by Elsa Tulmets who took part in the meeting)
III.
Návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí
A. Přehled právních předpisů, k nimž se věcný záměr zákona váže 1. Oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce Oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce není dosud v podmínkách České republiky upravena žádnou jednotnou zákonnou normou. Jedinou zákonnou normou, která se o této oblasti zmiňuje, je zákon č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů (tzv. „kompetenční zákon“). Kompetenční zákon vymezuje působnost Ministerstva zahraničních věcí v oblasti rozvojové spolupráce. Tento zákon v § 6 odst. 1 stanoví: „Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí je ústředním orgánem státní správy České republiky pro oblast zahraniční politiky, v jejímž rámci vytváří koncepci a koordinuje zahraniční rozvojovou pomoc a koordinuje vnější ekonomické vztahy“. Pro aktivity v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce však existuje celá řada dokumentů na úrovni usnesení vlády. V březnu 1995 – po vstupu České republiky do OECD a obnovení systému zahraniční rozvojové pomoci - přijala vláda usnesením ze dne 15. 3. 1995 č. 153 Zásady pro poskytování zahraniční pomoci. Česká republika se dokumentem přihlásila k pozicím mezinárodního společenství vyjádřeným v závěrech konferencí OSN a nové rozvojové strategii OECD. Zásady stručně definovaly podmínky pro poskytování pomoci a popisovaly role jednotlivých aktérů. Koordinační role připadla Ministerstvu zahraničních věcí, nicméně za implementaci projektů a správu finančních prostředků byla zodpovědná jednotlivá sektorová ministerstva. Na přelomu století přišel nový impuls pro reformu systému zahraniční rozvojové pomoci České republiky, neboť se dosavadní praxe ukázala jako nevyhovující, a to i v souvislosti se závěry tzv. Miléniového summitu OSN v roce 2000 a mezinárodní konference o Financování rozvoje v Monterrey v roce 2002. Na základě zevrubné analýzy byla vládě předložena Koncepce zahraniční rozvojové pomoci ČR na období 2002-2007, kterou vláda vzala na vědomí usnesením ze dne 23. ledna 2002 č. 91. Nová koncepce se přihlásila k mezinárodním rozvojovým principům jako je princip partnerství, respektování priorit partnerských zemí a zvyšování efektivnosti pomoci. Za hlavní cíl rozvojové pomoci bylo v Koncepci deklarováno přispět k omezení chudoby cestou udržitelného ekonomickosociálního rozvoje. Kromě toho existuje řada dalších podpůrných cílů (šíření demokracie a lidských práv, integrace rozvojových zemí do světové ekonomiky atd.). Koncepce poprvé definovala teritoriální a sektorové priority (tehdy cca 20 zemí) a načrtla změnu systému organizačního zajištění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce s cílem posílit jeho transparentnost a efektivnost. V souvislosti s členstvím České republiky v EU je současný systém zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce postupně transformován a přizpůsobován praxi a závazkům vyplývajícím ze členství v unii. Částečnou úpravu přinesl materiál „Zásady zahraniční MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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rozvojové spolupráce po vstupu ČR do EU“ schválený vládou usnesením ze dne 31. března 2004 č. 302. Ten představuje nově formulované zásady zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce zohledňující členství České republiky v EU a definuje prioritní programové země, na které se má Česká republika orientovat v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Dle těchto zásad zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci České republiky koordinuje Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí, které současně vede evidenci poskytované rozvojové pomoci a zajišťuje výkaznictví pro účely OSN, OECD a dalších mezinárodních organizací. Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce ze strany České republiky se řídí ročním plánem, který je vždy do 21. května předchozího kalendářního roku předložen Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí ke schválení vládě, a to v souladu s usnesením vlády ze dne 31. března 2004 č. 302. Součástí návrhu je věcné a teritoriální zaměření rozvojové spolupráce, je stanoven její dvoustranný a mnohostranný podíl. Současně se předkládá i návrh rozpočtu rozvojové spolupráce pro další rozpočtový rok a střednědobý výhled na následující dva roky v souladu s usnesením vlády ze dne 12. března 2003 č. 248 ke Střednědobému výhledu financování zahraniční rozvojové pomoci ČR. Za účelem upřesnění a kontroly programu spolupráce svolává Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí nejméně jednou za tři měsíce porady zainteresovaných resortů. Zainteresovaná ministerstva vykazují v pravidelných termínech přehledy o realizované rozvojové spolupráci. Konkrétní finanční prostředky na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci České republiky jsou schvalovány každoročním pravidelným usnesením vlády, které umožňuje čerpání finančních prostředků státního rozpočtu z kapitoly Všeobecné pokladní správy jednotlivými resorty na základě vládou schváleného plánu (viz výše) v členění podle regionů a zemí a na základě hodnocení rozvojových projektů z předcházejícího roku. Realizátoři projektů jsou vybíráni ve výběrových řízeních uskutečňovaných v souladu s platnou legislativou a s pravidly výběru a financování projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, která byla schválena usnesením vlády ze dne 12. října 2005 č. 1311. Česká rozvojová spolupráce je realizována především formou konkrétních projektů, což souvisí především s využíváním dlouholetých zkušeností a tradiční angažovaností českých expertů (životní prostředí, tropické zemědělství, geologie, vodní hospodářství) v řadě rozvojových zemí. V loňském roce byly schváleny usnesením vlády ze dne 1. června 2005 č. 664 střednědobé programy spolupráce s prioritními zeměmi, díky čemuž by projekty měly být lépe koncentrované do větších sektorových celků. Součástí rozvojové spolupráce je i tzv. transformační spolupráce, která je na základě usnesení vlády ze dne 9. února 2005 č. 188 financována ze samostatné položky s názvem „Transformační spolupráce“ v rámci specifického dílčího ukazatele „Transfery mezinárodním organizacím, zahraniční pomoc“ v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa. Transformační spolupráce je v gesci Ministerstva zahraničních věcí. Specificky se zaměřuje na podporu demokracie, obhajobu lidských práv, vytváření a posilování demokratických institucí a občanské společnosti v zemích procházejících procesem společenské transformace i v zemích nedemokratických. Je realizována ve spolupráci s nevládními organizacemi v přijímajících zemích a v těsné spolupráci s českým nevládním sektorem. Poskytování stipendií studentům z rozvojových a jiných zemí pro studium na českých vysokých školách je upraveno usnesením vlády ze dne 25. července 2001 č. 773 o zřízení vládních stipendijních míst ke studiu na veřejných vysokých školách v České republice pro občany z rozvojových a dalších potřebných zemí na léta 2003 až 2007.
MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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2. Oblast humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí Humanitární pomoc do zahraničí je poskytována na základě zákona č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky. Humanitární pomoci poskytovaná do zahraničí zde sice není explicitně zmíněna, je však považována za součást zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Problematika humanitární pomoci do zahraničí je dílčím způsobem upravena v zákoně č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, který upravuje povinnosti zejména Ministerstva vnitra v oblasti integrovaného záchranného systému, a v příslušných pasážích i v případě poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí. V § 7 odst. 1 písm. b) je uvedeno: „Ministerstvo vnitra plní úkoly v oblasti zapojení České republiky do mezinárodních záchranných operací při mimořádných událostech v zahraničí a poskytování humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí v součinnosti s Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí; humanitární pomocí se pro účely tohoto zákona rozumí opatření prováděná za účelem pomoci obyvatelstvu postiženému mimořádnou událostí, v jejichž rámci se využívají lidské a materiální zdroje.“. Dále je v § 7 odst. 2 písm. i) cit. zákona uvedeno: „Ministerstvo vnitra rozhoduje v dohodě s Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí o humanitární pomoci poskytované státem do zahraničí a zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací.“. V ustanovení § 7 odst. 3 cit. zákona je zakotvena působnost Ministerstva vnitra v tom směru, že zabezpečuje ústřední koordinaci záchranných a likvidačních prací i tehdy, jestliže mimořádná událost přesahuje státní hranice České republiky a je nutná koordinace záchranných a likvidačních prací nad rámec příhraničních styků. Pravidla pro zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací a pravidla pro poskytování a přijímání humanitární pomoci jsou stanovena nařízením vlády č. 463/2000 Sb., ve znění nařízení vlády č. 527/2002 Sb. Obecný rámec pro poskytování pomoci do zahraničí, včetně pomoci humanitární, byl stanoven v „Zásadách pro poskytování zahraniční pomoci“, které vláda schválila svým usnesením ze dne 15. března 1995 č. 153. Tyto zásady byly v bodech týkajících se humanitární pomoci novelizovány usnesením vlády ze dne 31. března 2004 č. 302 o Zásadách zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce po vstupu ČR do EU. V zásadách je stanoveno (v bodě 33), že „humanitární pomoc vzhledem ke svému specifickému charakteru není součástí plánu zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Prostředky se rozpočtují v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa v rámci ročního státního rozpočtu a ve střednědobém výhledu na následující dva roky. Humanitární pomoc je koordinována MZV“. Dále je v bodě 34 uvedeno, že rozhodnutí o poskytnutí humanitární pomoci do zahraničí přísluší ministru zahraničních věcí do 5 mil. Kč a vládě nad 5 mil. Kč a je zde popsán způsob uvolnění finančních prostředků na humanitární pomoc. V bodě 35 je pak stanoven termín pro podání informace vládě o poskytnuté humanitární pomoci. Možnost zajištění materiální humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí prostřednictvím Správy státních hmotných rezerv byla stanovena v usnesení vlády ze dne 21. dubna 1999 č. 381 k výběru a pořízení materiální humanitární pomoci vlády do zahraničí, které se týkalo poskytnutí humanitární pomoci Kosovu. Dle tohoto dokumentu bylo pořízení materiální humanitární pomoci České republiky do zahraničí zajišťováno Správou státních hmotných rezerv, a to na základě žádosti ministra zahraničních věcí. Explicitní zmínka o humanitární pomoci je rovněž v zákonu č. 137/2006 Sb., o veřejných zakázkách, který stanoví, že v souvislosti s poskytováním humanitární pomoci není zadavatel povinen podle tohoto zákona zadávat podlimitní zakázky na dodávky či služby (§ 18 odst. 2 písm. c), přičemž tyto podlimitní zakázky mají zákonem stanovený limit do 4.290.000 Kč v případě, že zadavatelem je státní orgán. MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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Dalšími důležitými právními předpisy, které souvisejí s humanitární pomocí poskytovanou do zahraničí, jsou například: • • • • • •
zákon č. 133/1985 Sb., o požární ochraně, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, zákon č. 219/1999 Sb., o ozbrojených silách České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, zákon č. 221/1999 Sb., o vojácích z povolání, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, zákon č. 238/2000 Sb., o Hasičském záchranném sboru České republiky a o změně souvisejících zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, zákon č. 240/2000 Sb., o krizovém řízení a o změně některých zákonů (krizový zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů, ústavní zákon č. 300/2000 Sb., který upravuje rozhodování o vyslání ozbrojených sil ČR do mírových operací a jejich účast na záchranných pracích v zahraničí při živelních pohromách, průmyslových nebo ekologických haváriích.
Dosud nejrozsáhlejší a nejkomplexnější materiál zabývající se pouze poskytováním humanitární pomoci byl schválen Bezpečnostní radou státu v roce 2001 – „Postup při zapojování České republiky do záchranných operací a poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí“ (Informace MZV a MV z 23.5.2001, schválená Bezpečnostní radou státu). V současné době v České republice humanitární pomoc koordinuje Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí ve spolupráci s Ministerstvem vnitra – generálním ředitelstvím Hasičského záchranného sboru (MV-GŘ HZS ČR). Postupy v případě humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí jako bezprostřední reakce na mimořádnou událost jsou dále rozpracovány v nařízení vlády č. 463/2000 Sb., o stanovení pravidel zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací, poskytování a přijímání humanitární pomoci a náhrad výdajů vynakládaných právnickými osobami a podnikajícími fyzickými osobami na ochranu obyvatelstva, ve znění nařízení vlády č. 527/2002 Sb. Česká republika v současné době – bez ohledu na nedostatečnou právní úpravu poskytuje humanitární pomoc jako: okamžitou reakci na mimořádnou událost (např. přírodní pohromu, technologickou havárii), na výzvu postižené země či mezinárodní komunity, jako okamžitou pomoc obětem konfliktu aj., kterou realizuje vysláním záchranářů, lékařů a jiných expertů nebo poskytnutím materiálu do několika hodin či dní po události či finančního příspěvku mezinárodní humanitární organizaci aj.; dále jako následnou humanitární pomoc (pomoc postiženému obyvatelstvu v překonání období po události, po ukončení bezprostřední krize – týdny, měsíce až zhruba do půl roku po události, případně obnova infrastruktury, budov aj. – tato fáze může trvat několik měsíců i let), na tuto pomoc pak případně navazuje pomoc rozvojová; a jako pomoc v případě vleklých humanitárních krizí. Humanitární pomoc bývá poskytována jako záchranářská pomoc (záchranáři, lékaři, případně jiný odborný personál), jako pomoc materiální nebo formou finanční (prostřednictvím mezinárodních organizací, zastupitelských úřadů, nevládních neziskových organizací). Do poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí může být rovněž zapojen soukromý sektor, případně dobrovolníci.
MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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B. Zhodnocení stávající právní úpravy 1. Oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce Současná situace v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce se opírá o jedinou zákonnou normu, které se o této oblasti zmiňuje, a tou je zákon č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů. Dle kompetenčního zákona je Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí jediným ústředním orgánem státní správy pro zahraniční rozvojovou pomoc. Žádný jiný ústřední orgán státní správy v České republice nemá v této oblasti explicitně stanovené pravomoci. Za zásadní problém je třeba považovat skutečnost, že stávající znění kompetenčního zákona a neexistence samostatné právní úpravy pro tuto oblast měly za následek vznik situace, kdy je rozvojová spolupráce, konkrétně realizace rozvojových projektů, roztříštěna mezi 9 ministerstev. Základ současného systému zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky položily Zásady pro poskytování zahraniční pomoci schválených usnesením vlády ze dne 15. března 1995 č. 153. Zásady vycházely z kompetenčního zákona, který pojímá zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci jako integrální součást zahraniční politiky. Zároveň však byla odpovědnost za realizaci bilaterálních projektů v rámci jednotlivých sektorů přenesena na rezortní ministerstva, přičemž Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí má pouze roli koordinační. Každé ministerstvo odpovídá za realizaci projektů ve své sféře působnosti (např. Ministerstvo zdravotnictví je odpovědné za projekty v oblasti zdravotnictví, Ministerstvo zemědělství za projekty v oblasti zemědělství apod.). Jednotlivá rezortní ministerstva přitom často chápou účel rozvojové spolupráce odlišně. Mezirezortní bariéry jsou překážkou synergického působení spolupráce v souvisejících sektorech. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí plní roli koordinátora s podporou tzv. Rozvojového střediska Ústavu mezinárodních vztahů, postrádá ale efektivní nástroje pro dosažení jednotnosti politiky v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Pro zajištění závaznosti pro ostatní resorty musí i v méně podstatných otázkách rozhodovat vláda. Současná právní úprava kompetencí Ministerstva zahraničních věcí v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce je tedy zcela nedostatečná. V současné době, která naléhavě vyžaduje zejména účinný, závazný, pružný, transparentní a nediskriminační systém zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí nemá žádný efektivní nástroj k vlastnímu řízení a financování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, která je nedílnou součástí vnějších vztahů státu. Prostředky na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci (kromě prostředků na pomoc uprchlíkům v České republice, příspěvků mezinárodním finančním organizacím a příspěvků do rozpočtu ES a do Evropského rozvojového fondu) jsou rozpočtovány v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa. To je však v rozporu s charakterem těchto prostředků, neboť se nejedná o nic neurčitého a všeobecného, ale naopak o zcela určité a v podstatě v rámci mezinárodního společenství povinné každoroční poskytování peněžních prostředků na konkrétní účel. Převádění prostředků z kapitoly Všeobecná pokladní správa do kapitoly jednotlivých resortů na počátku kalendářního roku vede pravidelně ke zbytečným průtahům při zahájení realizace zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Ve stávající právní úpravě rozpočtových pravidel rovněž chybí specifická pravidla pro uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce tak, aby její financování mohlo být pružné, soustavné a bez nadbytečných a administrativně náročných operací. Dokonce v ustanovení § 7 MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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odst. 1 rozpočtových pravidel, upravujícím taxativním způsobem výdajovou stránku státního rozpočtu, není dosud výslovně uvedeno, že ze státního rozpočtu se hradí právě i výdaje související s prováděním zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Problémem je rovněž aplikace vyhlášky č. 231/2005 Sb., o účasti státního rozpočtu na financování programů pořízení a reprodukce majetku, ve znění vyhlášky č. 269/2005 Sb. a vyhlášky č. 466/2005 Sb., na oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, a to zejména v souvislosti s nutností evidovat projekty obsahující investiční prvek v Informačním systému programového financování ISPROFIN. Vyhláška je nastavena na realizaci aktivit v České republice, cíl i účel kapitálových výdajů vynakládaných v rámci rozvojové spolupráce je však odlišný (cíl – mimo ČR, účel – pomoc/dar). Problémem je zejména skutečnost, že v rámci rozvojové spolupráce je velmi obtížné aktivity naplánovat na více let dopředu a reálně je zařadit do dokumentace příslušného programu před jeho schválením Ministerstvem financí, resp. vládou. Rovněž nelze v mnoha konkrétních případech u akcí realizovaných v rozvojových zemích zajistit všechny požadavky investičního záměru podle § 4 výše uvedené vyhlášky a požadavky na závěrečné vyhodnocení akce podle § 8 výše uvedené vyhlášky například z důvodu rozdílné místní praxe a legislativy. Problematické je rovněž i to, že jednak chybí jednoznačná definice, co je zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce, a jednak nejsou upravena práva a povinnosti právnických a fyzických osob při realizaci projektů rozvojové spolupráce. Dodržování některých povinností ze strany právnických a fyzických osob podílejících se na zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci má natolik mimořádný význam pro její úspěšné uskutečňování, že je žádoucí nespoléhat jen na správnou aplikaci smluvních vztahů či dodržování norem rozpočtového práva a správních aktů vydaných na jeho základě, ale vyjádřit je přímo zákonnou formou. Překážku pro úplné statistické vykazování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce financované z veřejných zdrojů pro Organizaci pro ekonomickou spolupráci a rozvoj představuje skutečnost, že samosprávné celky (obce a kraje), z nichž mnohé z vlastních rozpočtů uskutečňují zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci, nemají povinnost o těchto svých aktivitách informovat Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí. 2. Oblast humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí Současná legislativa týkající se humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí je nedostatečná. Humanitární pomoc je dílčím způsobem výslovně upravena pouze v zákoně č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, který ji ale chápe velmi úzce, a to pouze jako vysílání záchranných týmů a poskytnutí materiální humanitární pomoci – tedy jako bezprostřední reakci na mimořádnou událost. Další formy humanitární pomoci jako pomoc finanční, pomoc prostřednictvím národních nebo mezinárodních humanitárních organizací nebo další fáze pomoci jako pomoc následná nebo pomoc v případě vleklých humanitárních krizí zmíněny vůbec nejsou. Humanitární pomoc je však komplexní oblastí související např. s rozvojovou spoluprací, zahraniční politikou, s činností mezinárodních organizací aj. Za klíčový problém je třeba považovat skutečnost, že v současné době jednak chybí jednoznačná definice, co je humanitární pomoci poskytovaná do zahraničí, a jednak jsou v této oblasti nevyjasněné rozhodovací kompetence. V rozporu se zahraniční dimenzí těchto aktivit je ustanovení v zákonu č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, dle něhož má o humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí rozhodovat Ministerstvo vnitra v dohodě s Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí. Výše uvedený zákon byl koncipován primárně s ohledem na zajištění MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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operací civilní ochrany v souvislosti s mimořádnými událostmi na území České republiky a je tedy pro účely humanitární pomoci do zahraničí nevhodný. V oblasti materiální humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí není vyjasněná působnost Správy státních hmotných rezerv. Tato působnost byla explicitně upravena pouze v souvislosti s poskytnutím humanitární pomoci Kosovu, na základě usnesení vlády ze dne 21. dubna 1999 č. 381, takže není zcela jasné, zda lze obdobný mechanismus využívat i pro ostatní případy poskytování materiální humanitární pomoci. Za problém pro rychlé a efektivní poskytování humanitární pomoci při použití speciální letecké dopravy lze považovat i ustanovení zákona č. 546/2005 Sb., kterým se mění zákon č. 219/1999 Sb., o ozbrojených silách ČR. V § 24 tohoto zákona je stanoveno, že k zabezpečení humanitární a zdravotnické pomoci použije armáda letecké dopravy na základě rozhodnutí vlády. To v praxi znamená, že nelze rozhodnout o vyslání leteckého speciálu do postižené oblasti bezodkladně na úrovni rozhodnutí ministra, jako tomu bylo až do vstoupení v platnost výše uvedeného zákona dnem 1. 7. 2006, nýbrž nejprve musí být předložen tento návrh vládě ke schválení, což ve výsledku znamená zpoždění o několik dnů. Významným problémem je mechanismus financování humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, jak je zakotven v usnesení vlády ze dne 31. března 2004 č. 302, které vychází z platného znění rozpočtových pravidel. Podle tohoto usnesení rozhoduje ministr zahraničních věcí o poskytnutí humanitární pomoci do 5 mil. Kč v jednotlivém případě, a v těch případech, které svým rozsahem vyžadují poskytnutí pomoci ve větším rozsahu či které vyžadují spolupráci více ministerstev, rozhoduje vláda na návrh ministra zahraničních věcí. V praxi pak musí každé poskytnutí humanitární pomoci do zahraničí (do 5 mil. Kč včetně) schválit kromě ministra zahraničních věcí i ministr vnitra, a to i v případech, kdy není Ministerstvo vnitra do poskytování humanitární pomoci vůbec zapojeno – např. při poskytování humanitární pomoci formou finančního příspěvku prostřednictvím mezinárodních organizací (případ okamžité humanitární pomoci i déle trvajících humanitárních krizí) či formou dotace na projekty nevládních organizací. Nutnost žádat o souhlas vládu, pokud je humanitární pomoc vyšší než 5 mil. Kč, která vyplývá ze skutečnosti, že prostředky na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí jsou rozpočtovány v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa (VPS), účelová položka Humanitární pomoc, vede k časovým prodlevám v případech, kdy je nezbytná okamžitá reakce na mimořádnou událost. Zároveň je výrazně omezena (pouze převodem do rezervního fondu) možnost použít prostředky schválené na humanitární pomoc i v následujícím roce (případně letech). V současné době musejí být prostředky využity v daném roce (do 31.12.), kdy byla pomoc schválena. Jako omezující faktor se toto pravidlo jeví zejména v případě poskytování humanitární pomoci formou poskytnutí dotace na projekty nevládních neziskových organizací, a to především pokud se jedná o reakci na náhlou událost v druhé polovině kalendářního roku. Za limitující pro uskutečňování účinné a efektivní humanitární pomoci je tedy třeba stejně jako u zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce označit stávající znění rozpočtových pravidel, která neobsahují potřebná specifická ustanovení směřující k tomu, aby financování humanitární pomoci mohlo být pružné, soustavné a bez nadbytečných a administrativně náročných operací. Obdobně jako u zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce je problémem rovněž aplikace vyhlášky č. 231/2005 Sb., o účasti státního rozpočtu na financování programů pořízení a reprodukce majetku, ve znění vyhlášky č. 269/2005 Sb. a vyhlášky č. 466/2005 Sb., a to zejména v souvislosti s nutností evidovat akce obsahující investiční prvek v systému ISPROFIN. Vyhláška je nastavena na realizaci aktivit v České republice, cíl i účel kapitálových výdajů vynakládaných v rámci rozvojové spolupráce je však odlišný (cíl – mimo MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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ČR, účel – pomoc/dar). Problémem je zejména skutečnost, že v rámci humanitární pomoci je zcela nemožné aktivity naplánovat na více let dopředu a reálně je zařadit do dokumentace příslušného programu před jeho schválením Ministerstvem financí, resp. vládou. Rovněž nelze v mnoha konkrétních případech zajistit všechny požadavky investičního záměru podle § 4 a požadavky na závěrečné vyhodnocení akce podle § 8 například z důvodu rozdílné místní praxe a legislativy. 3. Závěr Z tohoto zhodnocení stávající právní úpravy vyplývá, že dosavadní právní úprava problematiky zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí je nedostatečná a je třeba přijmout zcela nový zákon upravující tuto problematiku komplexně a v celé její šíři.
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C. Návrh věcného řešení Návrh věcného řešení navazuje na výše uvedené zhodnocení a rozbor stávající právní úpravy. Hlavním cílem je komplexně upravit v jediném právním předpise se silou zákona problematiku zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí a reagovat tak na závazky a posilující se roli České republiky v této oblasti v rámci mezinárodního společenství. Obsahem zákona by mělo být zejména vymezení jednotlivých pojmů, vymezení působnosti orgánů státní správy, definování postupů při financování relevantních aktivit v této oblasti a stanovení práv a povinností fyzických a právnických osob a samosprávných celků. Navrhované věcné řešení vychází ze zkušeností získaných v průběhu uskutečňování rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci do zahraničí za podmínek, kdy právní úprava pro oblast rozvojové spolupráce neexistuje a pro oblast humanitární pomoci je nedostatečná. Při přípravě návrhu věcného záměru zákona bylo přihlédnuto rovněž k právním úpravám uvedené problematiky v jiných evropských státech, které byly přijaty nebo podstatně novelizovány v nedávné době a odrážejí tak současné trendy na tomto poli, např. Španělsko, Rakousko, Švýcarsko a k doporučenému vzoru ze strany OECD. Návrh věcného řešení je postaven na těchto základních východiscích: 1) Oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce -
Pojem zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce bude definován v souladu mezinárodního konsensu (např. Evropský konsensus o rozvojové spolupráci, Miléniová deklarace OSN apod.).
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Působnost orgánů v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce je navržena na základě osvědčené praxe vyspělých dárcovských zemí, které zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci v podmínkách demokratického zřízení a tržní ekonomiky poskytují po několik desítek let. Navržené institucionálního zakotvení předpokládá zapojení ministerstev do formulování politiky rozvojové spolupráce prostřednictvím koordinačních a konzultačních orgánů a jejich pracovních skupin.
2) Oblast humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí -
Pojem humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí bude definován v souladu se zásadami tzv. dobrého humanitárního dárcovství, k nimž se Česká republika přihlásila.
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Působnost orgánů státní správy a vymezení rozhodovacích procesů je navrženo tak, aby bylo možné na mimořádnou událost v zahraničí reagovat rychle, pružně a efektivně a zároveň aby byla dostatečně zohledněna zahraničně-politická dimenze humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí.
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Oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce I. Vymezení pojmů Zákon bude jednoznačně definovat, co se rozumí zahraniční rozvojovou spoluprací. Při vymezení tohoto pojmu se doporučuje vycházet z doporučení OECD; navrhuje se následující definici: Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce České republiky je souhrn činností hrazených z veřejných prostředků, jejichž cílem je omezení chudoby v rozvojových zemích v kontextu ekonomického, sociálního a environmentálního rozvoje. Do zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce nelze zahrnovat poskytování vojenského materiálu a služeb s výjimkou přesně vymezených případů vycházejících z dokumentu OECD1. II. Působnost orgánů podílejících se na zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci Základem věcného řešení je systémová změna dosavadního stavu spočívající v novém vymezení působnosti orgánů podílejících se na zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci tak, aby tato mohla být vykonávána účelně, hospodárně a efektivně. Toto institucionální vymezení je založeno na řízení veškerých činností z jednoho centra, přičemž řídící činnosti jsou svěřeny Ministerstvu zahraničních věcí a výkonné činnosti specializované nově vytvořené instituci (agentuře). Předpokládá se, že v navrženém uspořádání zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci řídí ministerstvo zahraničních věcí, a to na základě vládou schválené koncepce zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce obsahující sektorové a teritoriální priority a schválených programů rozvojové spolupráce s prioritními zeměmi. Mezi úkoly, které Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí bude v rámci řízení zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce plnit, bude obdobně jako dnes patřit zajištění koordinace přípravy a předkládání koncepce zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, včetně stanovení teritoriálních a sektorových priorit zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a výhledu objemu a struktury financí na její poskytování, dále příprava programů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce s prioritními zeměmi a sjednávání memorand o porozumění a dohod o spolupráci s přijímajícími zeměmi. Dále Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí bude připravovat rozpočet zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce na následující rok, včetně střednědobého výhledu na následující dva roky a bude předkládat vládě informace o realizaci zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v předchozím roce. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí bude rovněž koordinovat rozvojové aktivity ostatních orgánů státní správy, které v rámci svých kompetencí provádějí činnost v zahraničí a bude zajišťovat koherenci politik České republiky s cíli a prioritami zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v součinnosti s ostatními resorty. Bude spolupracovat se soukromým sektorem, s nevládními neziskovými organizacemi a dalšími subjekty. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí rovněž zajistí koordinaci rozvojových aktivit s dalšími dárci, zejména v rámci EU a OECD, a spolupráci s mezinárodními organizacemi v rámci mnohostranné zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. V neposlední řadě zajistí statistické výkaznictví zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. V souvislosti s nárůstem pomoci směřované do prioritních zemí se předpokládá, že Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí vytvoří organizační
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Dokument OECD DCD/DAC/STAT(2001)8.
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předpoklady na zastupitelských úřadech v prioritních zemích pro efektivní realizaci rozvojové spolupráce. Na rozdíl od současného stavu se navrhuje přesunout kompetence spojené se zajištěním realizace dvoustranné rozvojové spolupráce (zejména odpovědnost za řízení projektů) z jednotlivých resortů na specializovanou instituci (navrhuje se název Česká agentura pro rozvojovou spolupráci), kterou Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí zřídí jako organizační složku státu pro zajištění realizace dvoustranných projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Tato instituce bude hlavním výkonným orgánem v oblasti dvoustranné zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a jejími úkoly bude identifikace témat rozvojové spolupráce na základě vládou schválených programů, formulace zadávací dokumentace veřejných zakázek a podmínek dotačních výběrových řízení, vypisování a vedení výběrových řízení a uzavírání smluv s realizátory a vydávání rozhodnutí o poskytnutí dotace. Dále agentura zajistí řízení, průběžnou kontrolu realizace projektů a evaluaci programů a projektů rozvojové spolupráce. Agentura bude také připravovat podklady a zprávy o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a poskytovat informace zainteresované veřejnosti. Poradní a koordinační funkci budou zajišťovat orgány, vytvořené za tímto účelem. Jedním z nich bude Rada pro zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci jako poradní orgán ministra zahraničních věcí pro oblast zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Dalším poradním orgánem bude Národní koordinační výbor pro rozvojovou spolupráci jako orgán pro koordinaci a koherenci mezi jednotlivými sektory státní správy a dalšími subjekty, které mohou spolupracovat v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce (například zástupci podnikatelských a nevládních organizací). Tímto návrhem nebudou dotčeny kompetence ostatních ministerstev v oblasti mnohostranné rozvojové spolupráce včetně agendy poskytování příspěvků do mezinárodních finančních organizací, do rozpočtu Evropské unie a Evropského rozvojového fondu Ministerstvem financí. V oblasti dvoustranné rozvojové spolupráce nebudou dotčeny dosavadní kompetence Ministerstva školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy v oblasti poskytování stipendií, kompetence Ministerstva financí v oblasti odpouštění dluhů rozvojovým zemím a kompetence Ministerstva vnitra při poskytování pomoci uprchlíkům z rozvojových zemí na území České republiky. Zároveň všechny orgány státní správy České republiky v rámci příslušných kompetencí, které se mohou týkat rozvojových zemí, budou mít povinnost zohledňovat princip koherence politik pro rozvoj, tedy zajistit, aby ostatní „nerozvojové“ politiky České republiky nebyly v rozporu s cílem omezování chudoby v rozvojových zemích.
III. Pravidla pro nakládání s prostředky na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci Navrhuje se, aby v zákonu byly upraveny způsoby využití prostředků vyčleněných na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci. Zákon by měl stanovit, že prostředky poskytnuté na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci budou spravovány způsobem, který zajistí jejich transparentní a účelné použití. Navrhuje se, aby prostředky na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci nebyly nadále rozpočtovány v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa, a to z toho důvodu, že nejde o nic neurčitého a všeobecného, ale naopak o zcela určité a v podstatě v rámci mezinárodního společenství povinné každoroční poskytování peněžních prostředků na konkrétní účel. Navrhuje se tedy, aby byla vytvořena samostatná kapitola státního rozpočtu České republiky MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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„Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc poskytovaná do zahraničí“ v gesci Ministerstva zahraničních věcí, jejíž výše bude každoročně určována v závislosti na mezinárodních závazcích, na ekonomických možnostech České republiky a na efektivním využívání poskytnutých prostředků. V této kapitole budou rozpočtovány prostředky na jednotlivé formy zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce rozdělené minimálně do tří položek (Dvoustranná rozvojová spolupráce, Mnohostranná rozvojová spolupráce, Transformační spolupráce), další samostatnou položkou bude položka Humanitární pomoc poskytovaná do zahraničí. Navrhujeme, aby prostředky na pomoc uprchlíkům v České republice, příspěvky mezinárodním finančním organizacím a příspěvky do rozpočtu ES a do Evropského rozvojového fondu byly i nadále rozpočtovány v rozpočtech příslušných gesčních ministerstev. Předpokládá se, že návrh rozpočtu na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci bude tak jako dosud vládě předkládán na následující kalendářní rok s výhledem na další dva roky ke schválení vždy do 21. května a že Ministerstvo financí přihlédne při sestavování návrhu státního rozpočtu České republiky a jeho střednědobého výhledu ke schválenému rozpočtu zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Zákon by měl umožnit převedení finančních prostředků, které nebyly v rámci příslušného kalendářního roku využity, do rezervního fondu, který bude vytvořen v rámci kapitoly Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce v gesci Ministerstva zahraničních věcí. Další ustanovení týkající se vracení nevyužitých prostředků do státního rozpočtu by mělo umožnit jejich vypořádání až v roce, v němž bude program nebo projekt ukončen. Zákon by rovněž měl upravit mechanismy zajištění průběžné kontroly, závěrečné veřejnosprávní kontroly a evaluace dvoustranných rozvojových projektů ze strany České agentury pro rozvojovou spolupráci. Zákon by měl dále výslovně stanovit, že na majetek pořízený podle tohoto zákona se nevztahují ustanovení zákona č. 219/2000 Sb., o majetku České republiky a jejím vystupování v právních vztazích, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, upravující podmínky převodu do vlastnictví jiné právnické nebo fyzické osoby (§ 21 až 24 cit. zákona), a měl by dále výslovně stanovit, že tento majetek může být převeden přijímající straně i bezúplatně. Zákon by měl výslovně stanovit, že se na prostředky určené pro účely vymezené tímto zákonem nebudou vztahovat ustanovení o programech podle rozpočtových pravidel s odkazem na ustanovení § 12 a 13 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech. Tímto krokem se dosáhne toho, že ve vztahu k těmto prostředkům nebude uplatňována vyhláška č. 231/2005 Sb., ve znění vyhlášky č. 269/2005 Sb. a vyhlášky č. 466/2005 Sb., a nebude pak nutné tyto prostředky registrovat v Informačním systému programového financování ISPROFIN. Navrhuje se, aby zákon stanovil možné způsoby využití prostředků na spolupráci dvoustrannou, tedy poskytovanou přímo přijímající rozvojové zemi, i mnohostrannou, tedy poskytovanou prostřednictvím mezinárodní organizace, a upravil pravidla pro každou z těchto forem. Dvoustranná rozvojová spolupráce Dvoustranná rozvojová spolupráce je realizována v následujících formách: odborná (technická) spolupráce, spolupráce v oblasti ekonomických a sociálních infrastruktur, finanční spolupráce, odpouštění dluhů rozvojovým zemí, pomoc uprchlíkům na území České republiky, poskytování vládních stipendií, rozvojová výchova, vzdělávání a osvěta
MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci, rozvojový výzkum a posilování kapacit nevládních neziskových organizací působících v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. a) Odborná (technická) spolupráce2 zahrnuje všechny varianty pomoci zaměřené na školení lidských zdrojů partnerské země cestou zlepšování její úrovně vyučování, výcviku, kvalifikace a technických či výrobních kapacit v institucionální, správní, ekonomické, zdravotnické, sociální, kulturní, vzdělávací, vědecké nebo technologické oblasti. Odborná spolupráce je realizována nejčastěji formou projektů za účasti expertů, sociálních pracovníků, nevládních organizací, podniků nebo převodem technologií.3 Prostředky určené na realizaci odborné (technické) spolupráce mohou mít charakter výdajů za služby a dodávky zboží nebo účelových dotací neziskovým a dalším oprávněným subjektům. b) Spolupráce v oblasti ekonomických a sociálních infrastruktur je realizována prostřednictvím investičních projektů pro navýšení fyzického kapitálu partnerských zemí a projektů na pomoc ekonomickým sektorům. Prostředky na budování ekonomických a sociálních infrastruktur mohou mít charakter výdajů za služby, dodávky zboží a stavební práce, účelových dotací neziskovým a dalším oprávněným subjektům nebo zvýhodněných úvěrů ve prospěch sociálního a ekonomického rozvoje partnerských zemí. c) Finanční spolupráce zahrnuje poskytování finančních darů (v rámci konkrétního projektu nebo jako příspěvek do sektoru či státního rozpočtu přijímající země), vládní úvěry za účelem rozvoje přijímajících zemí, odpouštění dluhů rozvojových zemí, půjčky a mikrogranty obyvatelstvu těchto zemí. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí/ Česká agentura pro rozvojovou spolupráci nebo Ministerstvo financí bude zmocněno poskytnout finanční dar do zahraničí v rámci zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. d) Pomoc uprchlíkům na území České republiky spočívá v poskytnutí ochrany uprchlíkům cestou umožnění pobytu a lidsky důstojné existence na území České republiky. Tato agenda je v souladu s kompetenčním zákonem v gesci Ministerstva vnitra a je hrazena z jeho rozpočtu. e) Poskytování vládních stipendií studentům z rozvojových a jiných potřebných zemí ke studiu na veřejných vysokých školách, včetně úhrady zdravotní péče poskytované stipendistům. Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy je oprávněno vyplácet prostředky určené ke zřízení vládních stipendijních míst ke studiu na veřejných vysokých školách pro studenty z rozvojových a jiných potřebných zemí, včetně úhrady zdravotní péče poskytované stipendistům. Celkový objem prostředků na stipendia v daném roce bude rozpočtován v kapitole Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc do zahraničí, kterou spravuje Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí. f) Rozvojová výchova, vzdělávání a osvěta o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci zahrnuje vzdělávání a osvětu české společnosti s cílem zlepšit pochopení ekonomických, sociálních, náboženských, politických, kulturních a environmentálních vlivů, které působí na obyvatele rozvojových zemí. Prostředky 2
Termín „odborná spolupráce“ je odvozen z mezinárodně užívané terminologie pro tento typ spolupráce doporučené OECD („technical cooperation“). 3
Realizátory projektů se v zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci či v humanitární pomoci rozumějí dodavatelé zboží, služeb a stavebních prací, příjemci dotací nebo partnerské instituce. MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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určené pro tuto oblast mohou mít charakter výdajů za služby a dodávky zboží, účelových dotací neziskovým a dalším oprávněným subjektům. g) Rozvojový výzkum je systematický sběr a analýza informací vedoucí k prohloubení znalostí o ekonomických a sociálních problémech v rozvojových zemích a nalézání nových postupů řešení těchto problémů. Prostředky určené pro tuto oblast mohou mít charakter účelových dotací neziskovým a dalším oprávněným subjektům nebo výdajů za služby. h) Posilování kapacit nevládních neziskových organizací probíhá za účelem zvýšení jejich podílu na řešení problémů obyvatel rozvojových zemí. Prostředky mají charakter účelových dotací nevládním neziskovým organizacím činným v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. V rámci dvoustranné spolupráce lze realizovat společné aktivity s dalšími dárci v rozvojových zemích (např. tzv. trojstranná spolupráce) včetně spolufinancování. Mnohostranná rozvojová spolupráce Mnohostrannou zahraniční spolupráci vyvíjí Česká republika prostřednictvím mezinárodních organizací systému OSN, mezinárodních finančních institucí, ES a dalších mezinárodních organizací. Podmínkou pro poskytování této formy spolupráce je soulad mezi zaměřením aktivit a prioritami jednotlivých organizací a prioritami České republiky. Česká republika realizuje zahraniční mnohostrannou rozvojovou spolupráci formou: a) povinných či dobrovolných příspěvků do rozpočtu mezinárodní organizace; b) účelově vázaných příspěvků mezinárodní organizaci s přihlédnutím k prioritám zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky (např. svěřenecké fondy, specifické projekty, vysílání expertů apod.); c) participací na rozhodovacích procesech mezinárodních organizací. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí/ Česká agentura pro rozvojovou spolupráci bude oprávněno poskytnout příspěvky mezinárodním organizacím podílejícím se na rozvojových aktivitách, a to v souladu s koncepcí mnohostranné rozvojové spolupráce schválené vládou. Ministerstvo financí bude oprávněno poskytnout příspěvky mezinárodním finančním organizacím a příspěvky do řádného rozpočtu EU, do Evropského rozvojového fondu či do jiných fondů rozvojového charakteru.
IV. Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob a samosprávných celků podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce budou založeny především na smluvním základě, pokud bude v jednotlivých případech uzavírána mezi Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí, popřípadě Českou agenturou pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a osobou, která bude zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci realizovat, smlouva podle příslušných ustanovení obchodního zákoníku. Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce mohou být rovněž odvozeny ze zákona č. 218/2000 Sb., o rozpočtových pravidlech a o změně některých souvisejících zákonů (rozpočtová pravidla), ve znění pozdějších předpisů, pokud bude v jednotlivých případech peněžní plnění uskutečňováno MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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prostřednictvím dotačního titulu a rozhodnutí o přidělení dotace; v takovém případě mohou být některá specifická práva a některé specifické povinnosti i obsahem rozhodnutí o přidělení dotace. Jelikož však jde o problematiku z hlediska celkového uskutečňování zahraniční politiky České republiky a prvořadého zájmu na udržení a další posílení dobrého jména České republiky v zahraničí velice významnou, bude účelné, aby zákon o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí přímo stanovil některá oprávnění a některé povinnosti osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, a to především ty z nich, které jsou obecné a zásadní povahy. Zejména dodržování některých povinností má natolik mimořádný význam pro úspěšné uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, že je žádoucí nespoléhat jen na správnou aplikaci smluvních vztahů či dodržování norem rozpočtového práva a správních aktů vydaných na jeho základě a vyjádřit je přímo zákonnou formou. Budou-li některé povinnosti osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce stanoveny přímo zákonem a dojde k jejich porušení, dopustí se taková osoba nejen porušení smluvní povinnosti, ale povinnosti zákonné, čímž i její odpovědnost za takové jednání bude spíše postižitelná adekvátními právními prostředky, včetně případné trestní odpovědnosti těch fyzických osob, které za tuto osobu jednaly či se dopustily opomenutí jednání, ke kterému byly povinny. Porušení smlouvy je jednak mnohdy složitě prokazatelné, mezi smluvními stranami nemusí být dosaženo shody ohledně toho, zda k takovému porušení opravdu došlo a může být i předmětem dlouhodobého posuzování příslušnými soudy či rozhodci, kdy i často stát nemusí být úspěšný z důvodů třeba pouze procesní povahy, zatímco porušení povinnosti stanovené zákonem vyvolává samo o sobě právní důsledky zákonem stanovené. Zákon o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí by měl výslovně stanovit zejména tyto povinnosti osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci : a) povinnost postupovat při uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce hospodárně a s veškerou odbornou péčí,
účelně,
b) povinnost o všem podstatném při uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce informovat Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí, popřípadě Českou agenturu pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a umožnit jim v kterémkoli okamžiku provedení kontroly, včetně kontroly konkrétního použití poskytnutých peněžních prostředků, c) povinnost ověřit si právní řád státu, ve kterém je zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce uskutečňována, a postupovat při své činnosti podle právních norem platných v tomto státě, d) povinnost postupovat tak, aby za žádných okolností nebylo poškozeno dobré jméno České republiky v zahraničí. Z důvodu zachování potřebné míry vyváženosti práv a povinností osob podílejících se na provádění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce by mělo být zákonem o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí výslovně stanoveno rovněž toto jejich oprávnění : a) právo na zajištění potřebné součinnosti Ministerstva zahraničních věcí, popřípadě České agentury pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a to v jakékoli fázi uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Navrhuje se, aby zákon stanovil samosprávným celkům uskutečňujícím zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci povinnost informovat Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí nejméně jednou MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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za rok (vždy s údaji za předcházející kalendářní rok) a nejméně v rozsahu zahrnujícím informace, do kterých zemí byla pomoc poskytnuta, v jakém objemu prostředků, jakou formou a do jakého sektoru. __________________________________________________________________________
Oblast humanitární pomoci I. Vymezení pojmů Zákon bude výslovně definovat, co se rozumí pojmem humanitární pomoci poskytovaná do zahraničí, bude specifikovat jednotlivé fáze humanitární pomoci, stanoví, o jaké formy aktivit se může jednat a pro které země je tato pomoc určena. Navrhuje se, aby se zákon nevztahoval na pomoc při řešení následků mimořádných událostí v zemích zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany Evropské unie4 ani na operace na záchranu občanů těchto států na území třetích zemí. Pomoc těmto zemím a jejich občanům v případě mimořádné události by měla být ošetřena připravovanou novelou zákona o integrovaném záchranném systému. Navrhuje se následující definice humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí v souladu s principy dobrého humanitárního dárcovství: Humanitární pomoci poskytovaná do zahraničí je souhrn činností hrazených z veřejných prostředků, jejichž cílem je zmírnit utrpení, zachovat lidskou důstojnost a zamezit ztrátám na životech a zdraví občanů nečlenských zemí EU5 v důsledku přírodních pohrom nebo lidmi způsobených mimořádných událostí, k nimž došlo mimo území EU6. Humanitární pomocí do zahraničí se rozumí také pomoc při obnovení základních životních podmínek po mimořádných událostech mimo území EU7 a pomoc při předcházení jejich negativním následkům. Humanitární pomoc se poskytuje bez diskriminace některé ze skupin postižených lidí a nezávisle na politických, ekonomických, bezpečnostních nebo jiných cílech dárce. Civilní obranné a vojenské prostředky mohou být při poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí použity pouze jako krajní řešení a pokud má jejich použití jasnou přidanou hodnotu oproti jiným řešením8. Na základě časového hlediska se doporučuje upravit následující fáze pomoci: Okamžitá humanitární pomoc do zahraničí - takovouto pomocí se rozumí humanitární pomoc poskytnutá bezprostředně po mimořádné události se zaměřením na záchranu lidských životů a zajištění základních životních podmínek postiženého obyvatelstva.
4
Mechanismus civilní ochrany EU byl vytvořen na základě rozhodnutí Rady EU ze dne 23. října 2001 o vytvoření mechanismu Společenství na podporu zesílené spolupráce při asistenčních zásazích v oblasti civilní ochrany (2001/792/ES, Euratom). Do mechanismu je v současné době zapojeno 30 zemí, z toho 25 členských zemí EU, dále Bulharsko, Rumunsko, Norsko, Island a Lichtenštejnsko. 5
Kromě občanů zemí zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany EU.
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A mimo území států zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany EU.
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A mimo území států zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany EU.
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V souladu s Pravidly OSN pro použití vojenských a civilních obranných prostředků pro pomoc při katastrofách (UN Guidelines on the Use of Military and Civil Defence Assets in Disaster Relief) přijatými v Oslo v roce 1994. MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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Následná humanitární pomoc do zahraničí (až do 2 let po události) - takovouto pomocí se rozumí pomoc postiženému obyvatelstvu zaměřená na postupné obnovení základních socioekonomických aktivit (tzv. rehabilitace), případně obnova infrastruktur (tzv. rekonstrukce), zajištění návratu obyvatelstva do původních domovů (tzv. repatriace). Pomoc při vleklé humanitární krizi – takovouto pomocí se rozumí pomoc obyvatelstvu dlouhodobě trpícímu následkem přírodních pohrom nebo lidmi způsobených krizových situací. II. Působnost orgánů podílejících se na humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí Předpokládá se, že na základě vládou schválené koncepce humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí a v rámci schváleného celkového objemu prostředků na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí pro daný kalendářní rok rozhoduje o poskytnutí humanitární pomoci České republiky do zahraničí ministerstvo zahraničních věcí (v případě okamžité reakce na mimořádnou událost po dohodě s ministrem vnitra). V případech, které svým rozsahem vyžadují poskytnutí pomoci nad rámec těchto finančních prostředků, učiní rozhodnutí vláda na návrh ministra zahraničních věcí. Jedná se o změnu současného stavu, kdy o humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí do výše 5 mil. Kč rozhoduje dle zákona č. 239/2000 Sb., ve znění pozdějších předpisů, ministr vnitra po dohodě s ministrem zahraničních věcí a kdy o humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí nad 5 mil. Kč rozhoduje vláda. V případě okamžité reakce na mimořádnou událost rozhodne ministerstvo zahraničních věcí po dohodě s ministerstvem vnitra o poskytnutí humanitární pomoci do zahraničí, o jejím rozsahu a formě. V případě záchranářské či materiální pomoci postupuje ministerstvo vnitra v souladu s mechanismy integrovaného záchranného systému (včetně součinnosti s dalšími orgány státní správy, samosprávy, nevládními či soukromými subjekty). Zodpovědnost za předání materiální pomoci přijímající straně nese ministerstvo zahraničních věcí. Poskytnutí okamžité humanitární pomoci ve finanční formě, a to dvoustranně i mnohostranně, provádí ministerstvo zahraničních věcí. V případě následné humanitární pomoci či pomoci při vleklých humanitárních krizích rozhodne ministerstvo zahraničních věcí o poskytnutí humanitární pomoci do zahraničí, o jejím rozsahu a formě. Realizaci humanitární pomoci ve formě projektů zajistí Česká agentura pro rozvojovou spolupráci. Agentura zajišťuje vypisování a vedení výběrových řízení nebo dotačních výběrových řízení na projekty humanitární pomoci a řízení, průběžnou a závěrečnou kontrolu a evaluaci projektů humanitární pomoci. Poskytnutí humanitární pomoci ve finanční formě, a to dvoustranně i mnohostranně, provádí Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí rovněž koordinuje orgány státní správy, které se na základě výzvy ministerstva zahraničních věcí mohou do této pomoci zapojit. Dále ministerstvo zajišťuje koordinaci přípravy a předkládání koncepce humanitární pomoci, včetně výhledu objemu a struktury financí na její poskytování, spolupracuje s rezortními ministerstvy, mezinárodními organizacemi, nevládními neziskovými organizacemi a jinými subjekty v rámci oblasti humanitární pomoci, předkládá informace o poskytnuté humanitární pomoci vládě a připravuje statistické výkaznictví humanitární pomoci.
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III. Pravidla pro nakládání s prostředky na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí Navrhuje se, aby v zákonu byly upraveny způsoby využití prostředků vyčleněných na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí. Zákon by měl stanovit, že prostředky poskytnuté na humanitární pomoc do zahraničí budou spravovány způsobem, který zajistí jejich transparentní a účelné použití. Navrhuje se, aby prostředky na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí nebyly nadále rozpočtovány v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa a aby byla vytvořena samostatná kapitola státního rozpočtu České republiky „Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytovaná do zahraničí“ v gesci Ministerstva zahraničních věcí. Prostředky na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí by byly rozpočtovány v samostatné položce této kapitoly. Výše prostředků by vycházela ze schváleného střednědobého plánu, přičemž součástí těchto prostředků by již nebyly prostředky na operace civilní ochrany v rámci zemí EU a na záchranu obyvatel těchto zemí ve třetích zemích, ale ty by zůstaly i nadále v kapitole Všeobecná pokladní správa Předpokládá se, že návrh rozpočtu na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí na následující kalendářní rok s výhledem na další dva roky bude předkládán vládě ke schválení vždy do 21. května a že Ministerstvo financí přihlédne při sestavování návrhu státního rozpočtu České republiky a jeho střednědobého výhledu ke schválenému rozpočtu zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Zákon by měl výslovně stanovit, že se na prostředky určené pro účely vymezené tímto zákonem nebudou vztahovat ustanovení o programech podle rozpočtových pravidel s odkazem na ustanovení § 12 a 13 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech. Tímto krokem se dosáhne toho, že ve vztahu k těmto prostředkům nebude uplatňována vyhláška č. 231/2005 Sb., ve znění vyhlášky č. 269/2005 Sb. a vyhlášky č. 466/2005 Sb., a nebude pak nutné tyto prostředky registrovat v Informačním systému programového financování ISPROFIN. Zákon by měl upravit možnost, aby finanční prostředky, které nebyly v rámci příslušného kalendářního roku využity, bylo možné převést do rezervního fondu, který bude vytvořen v rámci kapitoly Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc v gesci Ministerstva zahraničních věcí. Prostředky rezervního fondu určené na financování projektů humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, které na tyto programy a projekty nebyly použity, organizační složka státu vrátí nejpozději ve lhůtách finančního vypořádání se státním rozpočtem za rok, ve kterém byl program nebo projekt ukončen. Zákon by měl dále výslovně stanovit, že na majetek pořízený podle tohoto zákona se nevztahují ustanovení zákona č. 219/2000 Sb., o majetku České republiky a jejím vystupování v právních vztazích, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, upravující podmínky převodu do vlastnictví jiné právnické nebo fyzické osoby (§ 21 až 24 cit. zákona), a měl by dále výslovně stanovit, že tento majetek může být převeden přijímající straně i bezúplatně. Navrhuje se, aby zákon stanovil možné způsoby využití prostředků na humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí, a to jak pomoc dvoustrannou, tedy poskytovanou přímo přijímající zemi, i mnohostrannou, tedy poskytovanou prostřednictvím mezinárodní organizace, a upravil pravidla pro každou z těchto forem: a) Záchranářskou pomoc zahrnující vyslání záchranářů, lékařů, odborníků apod. do postižené oblasti bezprostředně po mimořádné události. Záchranářská pomoc je uskutečňována v souladu s postupy integrovaného záchranného systému.
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b) Materiální pomoc spočívající v poskytnutí potřebného materiálu (léků, vybavení, přístrojů apod.) do postižené oblasti bezprostředně po mimořádné události. Finanční prostředky na materiální pomoc by měly charakter plateb za dodávky zboží či služby spojené s realizací humanitární pomoci. Za předání materiální humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí odpovídá Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí, které v součinnosti s orgány státní správy ČR a dalšími subjekty zabezpečí předání materiální humanitární pomoci v přijímající zemi včetně uzavření darovací smlouvy se zástupcem přijímajícího subjektu. c) Finanční pomoc zahrnující finanční příspěvky mezinárodním organizacím nebo nevládním neziskovým organizacím, poskytování finančních darů přijímajícím zemím nebo vybraným skupinám obyvatelstva, vládní úvěry přijímajícím zemím, půjčky a mikrogranty obyvatelstvu těchto zemí. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí/ Česká agentura pro rozvojovou spolupráci nebo Ministerstvo financí by mělo být zmocněno poskytnout finanční dar do zahraničí v rámci schválené objemu prostředků vyčleněných na humanitární pomoc do zahraničí. d) Odbornou (technickou) pomoc ve formě vysílání expertů nebo realizace projektů zaměřených mimo jiné na psychosociální podporu, školení a výcvik personálu, posilování kapacit v institucionální, správní, zdravotnické, sociální nebo technologické oblasti a při předcházení negativním následkům mimořádných událostí. Prostředky na odbornou (technickou) pomoc by měly charakter plateb za služby či dodávky zboží spojené s realizací humanitární pomoci nebo účelových dotací neziskovým či jiným oprávněným subjektům. e) Pomoc v oblasti infrastruktur realizovanou v rámci následné humanitární pomoci prostřednictvím investičních projektů pro navýšení fyzického kapitálu přijímajících zemí (zejména rekonstrukce sociálních a ekonomických infrastruktur). Prostředky na pomoc v oblasti infrastruktur by měly charakter plateb za služby, dodávky zboží a stavební práce spojené s realizací humanitární pomoci nebo účelových dotací neziskovým či jiným oprávněným subjektům. IV. Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob podílejících se na provádění humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí budou založeny především na smluvním základě, pokud bude v jednotlivých případech uzavírána smlouva podle příslušných ustanovení obchodního zákoníku mezi Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí nebo Ministerstvem vnitra, popřípadě Českou agenturou pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a osobou, která bude humanitární pomoc do zahraničí realizovat. Práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí mohou být rovněž odvozeny ze zákona č. 218/2000 Sb., o rozpočtových pravidlech a o změně některých souvisejících zákonů (rozpočtová pravidla), ve znění pozdějších předpisů, pokud bude v jednotlivých případech peněžní plnění uskutečňováno prostřednictvím dotačního titulu a rozhodnutí o přidělení dotace; v takovém případě mohou být některá specifická práva a některé specifické povinnosti i obsahem rozhodnutí o přidělení dotace. Jelikož však jde o problematiku z hlediska celkového uskutečňování zahraniční politiky České republiky a prvořadého zájmu na udržení a další posílení dobrého jména České republiky v zahraničí velice významnou, bude účelné, aby zákon o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí přímo stanovil některá oprávnění MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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a některé povinnosti osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí, a to především ty z nich, které jsou obecné a zásadní povahy. Zejména dodržování některých povinností má natolik mimořádný význam pro úspěšné poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí, že je žádoucí nespoléhat jen na správnou aplikaci smluvních vztahů či dodržování norem rozpočtového práva a správních aktů vydaných na jeho základě a vyjádřit je přímo zákonnou formou. Budou-li některé povinnosti osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí stanoveny přímo zákonem a dojde k jejich porušení, dopustí se taková osoba nejen porušení smluvní povinnosti, ale povinnosti zákonné, čímž i její odpovědnost za takové jednání bude spíše postižitelná adekvátními právními prostředky, včetně případné trestní odpovědnosti těch fyzických osob, které za tuto osobu jednaly či se dopustily opomenutí jednání, ke kterému byly povinny. Porušení smlouvy je jednak mnohdy složitě prokazatelné, mezi smluvními stranami nemusí být dosaženo shody ohledně toho, zda k takovému porušení opravdu došlo, a může být i předmětem dlouhodobého posuzování příslušnými soudy či rozhodci, kdy i často stát nemusí být úspěšný z důvodů třeba pouze procesní povahy, zatímco porušení povinnosti stanovené zákonem vyvolává samo o sobě právní důsledky zákonem stanovené. Zákon o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci by měl výslovně stanovit zejména tyto povinnosti osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí: a) povinnost postupovat při poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí účelně, hospodárně a s veškerou odbornou péčí, b) povinnost o všem podstatném při poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí informovat Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí nebo Ministerstvo vnitra, popřípadě Českou agenturu pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a umožnit jim v kterémkoli okamžiku provedení kontroly, včetně kontroly konkrétního použití poskytnutých peněžních prostředků, c) povinnost řídit se v případě okamžité záchranářské pomoci postupy vyplývajícími ze zákona o integrovaném záchranném systému, c) povinnost ověřit si právní řád státu, kterému je humanitární pomoc poskytována, a postupovat při své činnosti podle právních norem platných v tomto státě, d) povinnost zapojených subjektů spolupracovat v postižené oblasti se zastupitelským úřadem České republiky a s koordinátorem záchranných prací, e) povinnost postupovat tak, aby za žádných okolností nebylo poškozeno dobré jméno České republiky v zahraničí. Z důvodu zachování potřebné míry vyváženosti práv a povinností osob podílejících se na poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí by mělo být zákonem o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci do zahraničí výslovně stanoveno rovněž toto jejich oprávnění: a) právo na zajištění potřebné součinnosti Ministerstva zahraničních věcí nebo Ministerstva vnitra, popřípadě České agentury pro rozvojovou spolupráci, a to v jakékoli fázi poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí. Dále bude v zákoně stanovena samosprávným celkům uskutečňujícím humanitární pomoc poskytovanou do zahraničí povinnost informovat Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí nejméně jednou za rok (vždy s údaji za předcházející kalendářní rok) a nejméně v rozsahu
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zahrnujícím informace, do kterých zemí byla pomoc poskytnuta, v jakém objemu prostředků, jakou formou a do jakého sektoru.
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D. Způsob promítnutí navrhovaného věcného řešení do právního řádu Navrhované věcné řešení předpokládá přijetí samostatného zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, jehož struktura a obsah by odpovídaly věcnému řešení uvedenému v části C věcného záměru zákona. V tomto zákoně by dále bylo obsaženo zmocňovací ustanovení pro Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí k vydání prováděcí vyhlášky, ve které by byla blíže upravena technická pravidla pro realizaci projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce, která nevyžadují zákonnou formu. V zákonu bude dále stanoveno, že k určitému datu zřídí Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí Českou agenturu pro rozvojovou spolupráci jako organizační složku státu k plnění úkolů v rámci působnosti Ministerstva zahraničních věcí. Nabytí účinnosti zákona se předpokládá ke dni 1. ledna 2009 s tím, že během jara 2008 by byl připraven návrh rozpočtu pro zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci na rok 2009 a došlo by k zajištění přesunu funkcí v oblasti dvoustranné rozvojové spolupráce z jednotlivých resortních ministerstev, které až dosud spravovaly přidělené prostředky na tyto projekty na sekci rozvojové spolupráce a Českou agenturu pro rozvojovou spolupráci. Výše uvedené právní řešení je v souladu s Ústavou České republiky a Listinou základních práv a svobod. Přijetí navrhované právní úpravy si bude vyžadovat vytvoření některých dílčích novelizací stávajících právních předpisů, které se předmětu právní úpravy určitým způsobem dotýkají. Půjde zejména o tyto zákony: •
zákon č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
•
zákona č. 218/2000 Sb., o rozpočtových pravidlech a o změně některých souvisejících zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
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zákon č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
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zákon č. 219/1999 Sb., o ozbrojených silách České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
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zákon č. 97/1993 Sb., o působnosti Správy státních hmotných rezerv, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
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zákon č. 586/1992 Sb., o daních z příjmu, ve znění pozdějších předpisů,
a o nařízení vlády č. 463/2000 Sb., o stanovení pravidel zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací, poskytování a přijímání humanitární pomoci a náhrad výdajů vynakládaných právnickými osobami a podnikajícími fyzickými osobami na ochranu obyvatelstva. 1) Zákon č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů Především bude nutné novelizovat kompetenční zákon tak, aby v tomto zákoně stanovené působnosti Ministerstva zahraničních věcí odpovídaly obsahu nového zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Bude nezbytné v ustanovení § 6 stanovujícího působnost Ministerstva zahraničních věcí výslovně zakotvit jeho novou působnost spočívající v řízení zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, přičemž v rámci této činnosti toto ministerstvo koordinuje spolupůsobení ostatních ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy na tomto úseku. 2) Zákon č. 218/2000 Sb., o rozpočtových pravidlech a o změně některých souvisejících zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů (dále jen „zákon o rozpočtových pravidlech“) V § 7 odst. 1 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech upravujícím výdaje státního rozpočtu se navrhuje doplnit nové písmeno, ve kterém by bylo výslovně uvedeno, že ze státního rozpočtu se hradí výdaje související s prováděním zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Tímto se vytvoří naprosto jednoznačná zákonná opora pro uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí ze státního rozpočtu, která je s ohledem na taxativní povahu ustanovení § 7 odst. 1 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech dosud postrádána. V § 10 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech upravujícím kapitoly státního rozpočtu se navrhuje doplnit nový odstavec, který by založil novou kapitolu státního rozpočtu Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc. Z legislativně technického hlediska lze využít zavedené právní úpravy v § 10 odst. 3 až 5 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech, kdy zvláštní kapitoly Všeobecná pokladní správa, Státní dluh a Operace státních finančních aktiv již jsou zřízeny a jejichž správcem je rovněž organizační složka státu, a to Ministerstvo financí, která tak kromě své vlastní kapitoly spravuje i tyto tři další kapitoly státního rozpočtu. Doplněný šestý odstavec v § 10 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech by tedy přibližně zněl takto: „Příjmy a výdaje státního rozpočtu spojené s prováděním zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí tvoří kapitolu Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc poskytovaná do zahraničí, jejímž správcem je Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí.“. Povaha zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, kdy jednotlivé projekty se zpravidla uskutečňují dlouhodobě, a tedy i v delším časovém horizontu než pouze v období jednoho kalendářního roku, si vyžaduje přijmout taková pravidla, aby finanční prostředky mohly být využívány soustavně, bez přerušení a ty, které by nebyly využity v průběhu kalendářního roku, by mohly být přesunuty do kalendářního roku následujícího. Zároveň je třeba vyloučit administrativně náročné a zcela zbytečné operace spočívající v přesunu zbývajících dosud nevyčerpaných prostředků dotace, která je určena k víceletému použití, na konci kalendářního roku směrem od příjemce dotace k poskytovateli, v jejich následném naprosto formálním převodu do rezervního fondu a po opětovném vydání rozhodnutí o poskytnutí téže dotace pak ve zpětném přesunu týchž prostředků na začátku příštího kalendářního roku směrem právě opačným, tj. od poskytovatele k příjemci dotace. Legislativně by naplnění tohoto cíle mělo umožnit systematické propojení následujících konkrétních úprav. a) V § 48 odst. 1 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech upravujícím problematiku, které peněžní fondy organizační složky státu tvoří, doplnit specifické ustanovení v tom smyslu, že Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí tvoří v rámci kapitoly Zahraniční rozvojová spolupráce a humanitární pomoc poskytovaná do zahraničí zvláštní rezervní fond, pro jehož použití obdobně platí obecná pravidla o použití rezervního fondu s výjimkou těch ustanovení, jejichž aplikace je z povahy věci u tohoto zvláštního rezervního fondu vyloučena. Tím se dosáhne toho, že bude možno uplatnit i ustanovení § 47 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech o možnosti převedení částek ze státního rozpočtu do tohoto zvláštního rezervního fondu na konci roku.
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b) Platnost ustanovení § 48 odst. 6 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech, které zakládá možnost organizační složky státu vrátit prostředky rezervního fondu určené na financování programů spolufinancovaných z rozpočtu Evropské unie až v tom roce, kdy byl program nebo projekt ukončen, rozšířit i na projekty financované podle zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. c) V § 14 odst. 8 zákona o rozpočtových pravidlech, kde je zakotveno pravidlo, že příjemce dotace je povinen ji s poskytovatelem vypořádat v rámci finančního vypořádání s odkazem na § 75, tj. na zásady finančního vypořádání stanovené vyhláškou č. 551/2004 Sb., doplnit specifické ustanovení, které by stanovilo, že dotace poskytnuté v rámci zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci pro víceleté použití se mezi příjemcem dotace a poskytovatelem vypořádají až po jejich vyčerpání nebo po ukončení možnosti jejich použití pro stanovený účel. Takový způsob finančního vypořádání poskytnutých dotací byl ostatně zvolen např. pro vypořádání dotací poskytnutých obcím a krajům na řešení povodňových škod vzniklých v letech 1997, 1998 a 2002. 3) Zákon č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému a o změně některých zákonů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů Nezbytné budou rovněž změny v zákoně 239/2000 Sb., z jehož uplatňování by měla být důsledně vyňata oblast humanitární pomoci do zahraničí v souladu s předkládaným věcným záměrem. Působnost Ministerstva vnitra by měla být pro účely tohoto zákona v ustanovení § 7 důsledně omezena pouze na integrovaný záchranný systém, operace civilní ochrany, záchranné a likvidační práce uskutečňované při řešení následků mimořádných událostí v zemích zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany Evropské unie9. Novela zákona by dále měla upravovat působnost orgánů státní správy a ekonomické zajištění operací civilní ochrany na území států zapojených do mechanismu civilní ochrany Evropské unie a operací na záchranu jejich občanů v souvislosti s mimořádnými událostmi ve třetích zemích. Tato novela by měla být projednávána společně s paragrafovaným zněním předkládaného zákona. 4) Zákon č. 219/1999 Sb., o ozbrojených silách České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů V ustanovení § 24 tohoto zákona, které upravuje podmínky, kdy se armáda použije k zabezpečení letecké dopravy, by pro takové použití z důvodu humanitární a zdravotnické pomoci měla být dosavadní kompetence vlády k přijetí příslušného rozhodnutí nahrazena kompetencí ministra obrany. Důvodem je skutečnost, že mnohdy hrají podstatnou roli i minuty a hodiny a jakákoli prodleva může efekt poskytnutí humanitární a zdravotnické pomoci značně snížit. 5) Zákon č. 97/1993 Sb., o působnosti Správy státních hmotných rezerv, ve znění pozdějších předpisů 9
Mechanismus civilní ochrany EU byl vytvořen na základě rozhodnutí Rady EU ze dne 23. října 2001 o vytvoření mechanismu Společenství na podporu zesílené spolupráce při asistenčních zásazích v oblasti civilní ochrany (2001/792/ES, Euratom). Do mechanismu je v současné době zapojeno 30 zemí, z toho 25 členských zemí EU, dále Bulharsko, Rumunsko, Norsko, Island a Lichtenštejnsko. MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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Při poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí se předpokládá spolupráce se Správou státních hmotných rezerv. Vzhledem k tomu, že zákon č. 97/1993 Sb., o působnosti Správy státních hmotných rezerv, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, nepočítá s poskytováním pomoci do zahraničí, doporučuje se zvážit doplnění příslušné úpravy cit. zákona. 6) Zákon č. 586/1992 Sb., o daních z příjmů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů V ustanovení 15 odst. 1 zákona č. 586/1992 Sb., o daních z příjmů, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, které pro stanovení daně z příjmů fyzických osob vypočítává odečitatelné položky od základu daně a které již výslovně zahrnuje hodnotu darů pro účely humanitární, by byl doplněn i účel jejich poskytnutí v rámci zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Obdobná úprava by se provedla v ustanovení § 20 odst. 8 cit. zákona, které obdobným způsobem vypočítává možnosti odečtení hodnoty poskytnutých darů pro stanovení daně z příjmů právnických osob. Touto navrženou úpravou by se stimulovalo poskytování darů fyzickými i právnickými osobami v rámci zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci do zahraničí. 7) Nařízení vlády č. 463/2000 Sb., o stanovení pravidel zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací, poskytování a přijímání humanitární pomoci a náhrad výdajů vynakládaných právnickými osobami a podnikajícími fyzickými osobami na ochranu obyvatelstva Nařízení vlády č. 463/2000 Sb., o stanovení pravidel zapojování do mezinárodních záchranných operací, poskytování a přijímání humanitární pomoci a náhrad výdajů vynakládaných právnickými osobami a podnikajícími fyzickými osobami na ochranu obyvatelstva, bylo vydáno na základě zmocnění v zákonu č. 239/2000 Sb. a upravuje způsob financování (§ 4 odst. 2) odlišně, než předpokládá připravovaná právní úprava (hradí se z kapitoly Všeobecná pokladní správa). V návaznosti na schválenou variantu institucionálního zabezpečení předmětné oblasti a na samotný text paragrafového znění zákona bude třeba zvážit novelizaci nařízení vlády č. 463/2000 Sb.
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E. Předpokládaný hospodářský a finanční dosah navrhovaného věcného řešení, zejména nároky na státní rozpočet Celkový objem finančních prostředků na zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci České republiky (kromě prostředků na pomoc uprchlíkům a na příspěvky do mezinárodních finančních organizací, EU a na oddlužování, které budou tak jako dosud rozpočtovány v kapitolách Ministerstva vnitra a Ministerstva financí) bude tvořit samostatnou kapitolu státního rozpočtu ČR v gesci MZV ČR, jejíž výše bude každoročně určována v závislosti na závazcích vyplývajících pro ČR z mezinárodních smluv a v závislosti na ekonomických možnostech ČR. Návrh institucionálního zajištění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce nebude znamenat zvýšení finanční zátěže pro rozpočet ČR oproti stávajícímu stavu, naopak se předpokládá, že dojde ke snížení nákladů. Na základě analýzy provedené auditorskou společností Deloitte, v níž byly náklady na zajištění současného administrativního uspořádání porovnány s výší nákladů na nové uspořádání, se ukázalo, že jako nejméně efektivní se jeví zachování současného stavu institucionálního uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce ČR. Nové uspořádání se jeví nejen jako levnější, ale jako lepší i z hlediska procesních a informačních toků. Níže je uvedena tabulka, z níž vyplývá porovnání finanční náročnosti návrhu se současným stavem. Podrobnější rozbor je uveden v příloze č. 2. Konkrétnější vyčíslení finančních dopadů bude provedeno při zpracování paragrafovaného znění zákona. Tabulka č. 1 – Křížové porovnání finanční náročnosti administrativního zajištění zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce podle jednotlivých variant (stav v roce 2008)
Zachování současného stavu Finanční náročnost Úspora
96,1 mil. Kč 0
MZV + Agentura 62,3 mil. Kč 33,8 mil. Kč
Změnou institucionálního uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v souvislosti s návrhem uvedeným ve věcném záměru tak nedojde ke zvýšení nákladů uhrazených z veřejných rozpočtů oproti stávajícímu stavu. Centralizace řízení dvoustranných projektů do jednoho místa zvýší transparentnost při kontraktaci realizátorů projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce podle zákona č. 137/2006 Sb., o veřejných zakázkách. Snížení počtu zadavatelů a jednotná projektová metodika podstatně sníží riziko korupce a zpřístupní oblast realizace projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce subjektům ze zemí EU. Současně je nutné zdůraznit, že zřízení jednoho centrálního místa pro vypisování výběrových řízení na realizátory či projekty zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce přispěje k transparentnosti vztahů mezi státem a dalšími partnery (soukromým sektorem, nevládními organizacemi a akademickou obcí) a potenciálně zvýší konkurenceschopnost českých podniků a organizací i v mezinárodním prostředí. Lze tedy předpokládat, že nová právní úprava bude mít pozitivní vliv v těchto oblastech. Zákon nebude mít přímé sociální dopady ani přímé dopady na životní prostředí. MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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F. Soulad navrhovaného řešení s mezinárodními smlouvami a se závazky vyplývajícími pro ČR z jejího členství v EU 1. Zhodnocení souladu navrhované právní úpravy s mezinárodními smlouvami Navrhovaná právní úprava není v rozporu s mezinárodními smlouvami, kterými je Česká republika vázána. Oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce se týkají tyto smlouvy: •
Dohoda mezi vládou Československé socialistické republiky a Programem OSN pro rozvoj (Zvláštním fondem) ve věci příspěvku z Programu OSN pro rozvoj (Zvláštního fondu) ze dne 13.7.1967,
•
Memorandum k Dohodě mezi vládou Československé socialistické republiky a Organizací spojených národů pro průmyslový rozvoj o spolupráci při rozvoji průmyslu ze dne 27.4.1987,
•
Dohoda mezi vládou České republiky a Programem dobrovolníci Organizace spojených národů ze dne 4.8.1997,
•
Dohoda o úplném financování mezi Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí České republiky a Programem dobrovolníci Organizace spojených národů ze dne 6.12.2001.
Mnohostranné smlouvy, které se týkají oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce (vyhlášené mezinárodní smlouvy, k jejichž ratifikaci dal souhlas zákonodárný sbor a jimiž je Česká republika vázána): •
Konvence o Organizaci pro ekonomickou spolupráci a rozvoj (OECD) ze dne 14. prosince 1960.
•
Dohoda o Mezinárodní bance pro obnovu a rozvoj ze dne 22. července 1944.
•
Dohoda o Mezinárodním sdružení pro rozvoj ze dne 26. ledna 1960.
•
Statut Mezinárodní banky hospodářské spolupráce ze dne 22. října 1963.
•
Dohoda o založení Evropské banky pro obnovu a rozvoj ze dne 29. května 1990.
•
Dohoda o zřízení Světové obchodní organizace (WTO) ze dne 15. dubna 1994.
•
Úmluva o boji proti podplácení zahraničních veřejných činitelů v mezinárodních podnikatelských transakcích ze dne 17. prosince 1997.
•
Úmluva OSN o změně klimatu z roku 1992.
•
Úmluva OSN o biologické rozmanitosti z roku 1992.
•
Úmluva OSN o boji proti rozšiřování pouští v zemích, zejména afrických, stižených úporným suchem z roku 1994.
•
Tamperská úmluva o poskytování telekomunikačních zdrojů pro zmírňování následků katastrof a záchranné práce z roku 1989.
•
Úmluva o účincích průmyslových havárií přesahujících hranice států z roku 2000.
Navrhovaná právní úprava je plně v souladu s uvedenými mezinárodními smlouvami. Další mezinárodní smlouvy, jimiž je Česká republika vázána, se na tuto oblast nevztahují. Navrhované řešení je rovněž v souladu s doporučeními Výboru pro rozvojovou pomoc OECD a OSN.
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2. Zhodnocení slučitelnosti navrhované právní úpravy s právními akty ES/EU Navrhovaná právní úprava je plně v souladu s právem ES/EU. Vnitrostátní právní úprava obecně respektuje zásady vyplývající ze Smlouvy o založení Evropského společenství, zejména vztahy upravené v Hlavě XX, části čtvrté (články 177 – 181), a to i pro ty vztahy, které nejsou právními akty ES přímo upraveny. Z právně závazných aktů ES, které byly v oblasti rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci přijaty, se na návrh věcného záměru zákona vztahuje nařízení Rady (ES) č. 1257/96 ze dne 20. června 1996 o humanitární pomoci, zejména čl. 10 odst. 1 tohoto nařízení týkající se povinnosti informovat Komisi. Obdobné povinnosti jsou pak zakotveny například v nařízení Rady (ES) č. 2258/96 ze dne 22. listopadu 1996 o akcích obnovy a rekonstrukce v rozvojových zemích a v nařízení Rady (ES) č. 1658/98 ze dne 17. července 1998 o společném financování akcí na pomoc rozvojovým zemím s evropskými nevládními organizacemi. Předmětu věcného záměru zákona se dotýkají i tyto právně nezávazné akty Společenství: a)
Sdělení Rady – zásady posilování operativní spolupráce mezi Společenstvím a členskými státy v oblasti rozvojové spolupráce (text přijatý Radou dne 9. března 1998), Úřední věstník C 097, 31/03/1998, celexové označení 31998Y0331,
b)
Sdělení Komise Radě a Evropskému parlamentu o komplementaritě politik Společenství a členských států v oblasti rozvojové spolupráci, COM/99/0218 final, celexové označení 51999DC0218,
c)
Závěry Rady EU z dubna 2006, které v § 15 explicitně uvádějí, že „závazky EU si mohou vyžádat úpravu systémů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v některých členských zemích“.
Tyto akty jsou právně nezávazné, jak již bylo uvedeno, na druhé straně však do určité míry provádějí ustanovení primárního práva ES (zejména čl. 180 a čl. 181 Smlouvy o založení Evropského společenství) a lze z nich případně vyvodit povinnosti příslušných vnitrostátních orgánů, které by se při formulaci paragrafovaného znění návrhu zákona mohly promítnout do jednotlivých kompetenčních ustanovení.
MZV/odbor rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci, 18. září 2006
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Příloha I. Stávající a návrh nového institucionální uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky
Schéma č. 1 - Stávající institucionální uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky
Stávající a navrhované institucionální uspořádání MFspolupráce MZV zahraniční rozvojové v České republice Rozvojové středisko Schéma č. 1: Stávající institucionální uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v České republice MPSV
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Schéma č. 2 - Navrhované institucionální uspořádání zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce v České republice
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Předkládací zpráva k návrhu věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí
Předkládá se návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí na základě usnesení vlády č. 1311 ze dne 12. října 2005. Hlavním cílem materiálu je komplexně upravit v jediném právním předpise se silou zákona problematiku zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, a reagovat tak na rostoucí závazky a posilující se roli České republiky v této oblasti v rámci mezinárodního společenství. Obsahem zákona bude zejména vymezení základních pojmů, vymezení působnosti orgánů státní správy, definování postupů při financování relevantních aktivit, práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob zapojených do poskytování pomoci do zahraničí. Zároveň je také sledován záměr vytvořit podmínky pro efektivní a transparentní uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí v souladu s mezinárodními závazky České republiky. Česká republika realizuje svou politiku zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce od roku 1995 a v současné době na tuto oblast vynakládá přibližně 3 mld. Kč ročně, což představuje 0,11 % hrubého národního důchodu (HND). V souvislosti s mezinárodními závazky, zejména pak v návaznosti na závěry Evropské rady z června 2005, by Česká republika měla v nadcházejících letech usilovat o další navyšování prostředků, a to na 0,17 % HND v roce 2010, což by v absolutním vyjádření mělo činit kolem 6,5 mld. Kč, a 0,33 % HND v roce 2015, tedy více než 15 mld. Kč. Stávající systém neumožňuje řádné plnění mezinárodních závazků, neboť v důsledku silné decentralizace není rozvojová politika České republiky jednotná. V roce 2005 se ČR přihlásila k tzv. Pařížské deklaraci o efektivnosti pomoci, mezi jejíž nejdůležitější body patří důraz na harmonizaci poskytování pomoci mezi jednotlivými dárcovskými zeměmi. Principy obsažené v Pařížské deklaraci uvádějí i dokumenty schválené Radou Evropské unie, zejména pak dokument „Urychlování pokroku směrem k dosažení Rozvojových cílů tisíciletí“ a tzv. „Evropský konsensus o rozvojové spolupráci“. Dále Českou republiku zavazují závěry Rady Evropské unie k efektivitě pomoci, které byly přijaty v dubnu 2006. Česká republika však svoji rozvojovou spolupráci nemůže efektivně harmonizovat s ostatními dárcovskými zeměmi v situaci, kdy je pro ni vážným problémem i sjednocení aktivit jednotlivých rezortních ministerstev. Stávající legislativa tuto oblast téměř neupravuje. Jedinou zákonnou normou, kde je uvedena explicitní zmínka o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci, je zákon č. 2/1969 Sb., o zřízení ministerstev a jiných ústředních orgánů státní správy České republiky, ve znění pozdějších předpisů, podle něhož
Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí „vytváří koncepci a koordinuje zahraniční rozvojovou pomoc“. Avšak stávající znění zmíněného zákona a neexistence samostatné právní úpravy pro tuto oblast způsobují, že realizace bilaterálních projektů rozvojové spolupráce je roztříštěna mezi 9 ministerstev. Ministerstva pak disponují prostředky na realizaci dvoustranných projektů v zahraničí, které jsou jim přidělovány z rozpočtové kapitoly Všeobecná pokladní správa z položky Zahraniční rozvojová pomoc. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí jako koordinátor však nemá dostatek pravomocí k rozhodování o způsobech využití těchto prostředků ani ke korektnímu zapojení do mezinárodních aktivit směřujících ke snižování chudoby v rozvojovém světě. Současný systém neodpovídá požadavkům na efektivitu. Jednotlivá rezortní ministerstva často chápou účel rozvojové spolupráce odlišně, přičemž Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí postrádá účinné nástroje pro dosažení jednotné národní politiky zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. I méně podstatné problémy si proto vyžadují řešení na mezirezortní úrovni. Mezirezortní bariéry jsou překážkou synergického působení spolupráce, ve většině případů chybí mezi aktivitami zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce České republiky v jednotlivých sektorech žádoucí provázanost, která by odpovídala komplexnosti rozvojových problémů. Stávající systém brání efektivní funkční specializaci pracovníků zapojených do administrace rozvojové spolupráce. Roztříštěnost institucionálního rámce také negativně ovlivňuje kvalitu rozhodovacího procesu. Předkládaný návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí navrhuje zřízení svodného a jednotného pracoviště pro technické, finanční a další specializované jakož i administrativní činnosti související s organizací, výkonem a kontrolou primárně dvoustranných projektů zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce. Toto pracoviště – svého druhu agentura – bude působit v těsném provázání s Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí jako organizační složka státu. Předkládaný návrh institucionálního zakotvení rozvojových aktivit České republiky vychází z osvědčeného organizačního modelu uplatňovaného státy, které zahraniční rozvojovou spolupráci v podmínkách demokratického zřízení a tržní ekonomiky poskytují po několik desítek let. Navržené institucionálního zakotvení předpokládá využití již získané expertízy a dalšího zapojení rezortních ministerstev do formulování politiky rozvojové spolupráce prostřednictvím mezirezortních koordinačních a konzultačních orgánů a jejich pracovních skupin. V oblasti poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí se Česká republika přihlásila k zásadám tzv. dobrého humanitárního dárcovství (Good Humanitarian Donorship Principles) přijatými nejvýznamnějšími světovými poskytovateli humanitární pomoci ve Stockholmu v roce 2003. Tyto zásady se opírají o principy lidskosti, nestrannosti a nezávislosti, zdůrazňují nezbytnost dodržování mezinárodního humanitárního práva a vytvářejí rámec pro postup při řešení humanitárních krizí v postižených oblastech. Rozhodující pravomoci při poskytování humanitární pomoci do zahraničí přísluší dle zákona č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému, Ministerstvu vnitra, což není v souladu se zahraničně-politickou dimenzí humanitární pomoci do zahraničí ani s kompetenčním zákonem.
Stávající systém humanitární pomoci je legislativně nastaven na záchranné práce na území České republiky a jen málo bere v úvahu její nasměrování do zahraničí. Některé modality humanitární pomoci (např. následnou pomoc při obnově infrastruktur postižených míst) pak nejsou upraveny vůbec. Navrhuje se, aby předkládaný návrh věcného záměru zákona řešil pouze tu oblast, která se týká poskytování humanitární pomoci do zemí mimo Evropskou unii a Evropský hospodářský prostor. Operacemi civilní ochrany v souvislosti s mimořádnými událostmi na území Evropské unie a Evropského hospodářského prostoru a záchranou jejich obyvatel na území třetích států se tento návrh nezabývá. Úprava těchto činností včetně rozhodovacích mechanismů a ekonomického zajištění bude řešena v rámci optimalizace současného bezpečnostního systému na základě usnesení vlády č. 1214 ze dne 21. září 2005. Doporučuje se, aby projednání novely zákona č. 239/2000 Sb., o integrovaném záchranném systému, proběhlo současně s projednáním paragrafovaného znění zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Vážným problémem je i skutečnost, že ve stávající právní úpravě rozpočtových pravidel chybějí pravidla nutná pro uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, která by vzala v úvahu specifickou povahu těchto aktivit a umožnila pružné a kontinuální financování bez nadbytečných a administrativně náročných operací. Předkládaný návrh věcného záměru zákona by měl také odstranit problémy spojené s uplatňováním vyhlášky č. 231/2005 Sb., o účasti státního rozpočtu na financování programů pořízení a reprodukce majetku, ve znění vyhlášky č. 269/2005 Sb. a vyhlášky č. 466/2005 Sb. Pravidla stanovená touto vyhláškou nebyla koncipována s ohledem na specifika zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí a představují proto vážnou překážku pro jejich realizaci. Předkládaný návrh věcného záměru zákona dále upravuje práva a povinnosti fyzických a právnických osob a samosprávných celků v oblasti zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí. Návrh věcného záměru zákona o zahraniční rozvojové spolupráci a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí byl vypracován Ministerstvem zahraničních věcí ve spolupráci s dalšími ministerstvy, Legislativní radou vlády, se zástupci nevládních organizací zapojených do uskutečňování zahraniční rozvojové spolupráce a humanitární pomoci poskytované do zahraničí, se zástupci soukromého sektoru a dalšími externími odborníky.
