On 4 February, the international conference “Mobilizing Public Sector Expertise for EU Development Cooperation” was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Participants discussed the importance of public sector experience in implementing the EU development cooperation projects.
One of the objectives of the EU development cooperation is to contribute to the economic and social development of its partner countries by integrating them into the world economy, while promoting democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Lithuania’s public sector actively shares its expertise and is among the leading implementers of the EU-funded Twinning projects aimed at upgrading the administrative capacities of the partner countries.
“It is not in vain that this event takes place in the capital of Lithuania. Public sector expertise is our strength in the development cooperation. Lithuanian experts still have institutional experience of European integration, which could benefit also those Eastern Partnership countries that have signed their Association Agreements with the EU,” said the Foreign Vice-Minister Neris Germanas.
Following the country’s accession to the EU, Lithuania’s public authorities have already participated in 104 Twinning projects in all the three regions covered by the programme: the Eastern Partnership countries, the Western Balkans and Turkey, and the Southern partners.
Lithuania has most actively shared its experience in the fields of customs, EU support, police, border protection, social security, anti-corruption, medicines control, statistics, telecommunications and communications regulation, civil service, veterinary and food safety.
The conference was organized in the framework of the project “Improvement implementation of Lithuanian development cooperation policy and strengthening capacities of Lithuanian public administration institutions and their employees”. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and the Central Project Management Agency.
