The project seeked to increase the capacity of the Romanian Local Public Administration (LPA) to successfully prepare project proposals in order to absorb funding from EU and internationally funded programmes. The wider objective of the project was to support and facilitate Romania’s accession preparations through strengthening and developing the capacity of the LPA to manage and implement EU polices and programmes.
The project consisted of three main components:
1. Training of Trainers (TOT): the objective here was to train a group of 35 Romanian specialists who then acted as local trainers on the project assisting the international team of trainers implement Component B;
2. Component B – Deliver Training Seminars in EU Affairs and PCM: the target here was to train 300 LPA civil servants across Romania;
3. Component C – Training Strategy: the requirement was to design a training strategy specifically for the LPA civil servants and those Romanian trainers that will be responsible for the delivery of similar training programmes in the future.
Key measures from the project as follows:
• Develop the skills and competencies of the local public administration (LPA) in project cycle management (PCM) and access to EU and other international funds needed especially to finance investment and upgrade the local infrastructure;
• Improve the general knowledge of EU matters, including pre-accession support instruments, at the level of the LPA;
• Develop the training skills of selected local EU affairs experts, with the purpose of establishing a core group of local trainers able to take over future training activities in this field;
• Develop a training strategy, which addresses the training needs in EU affairs of both the LPA civil servants and the trained group of Romanian trainers.