An agreement was signed 13 December 2018 at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs on awarding grants for a project titled “Advancing know-how, skills and professional competence of civil and public servants for advocating national interests and harmonizing legislative proposals in the EU bodies”, which will finance the training of civil servants for Croatia’s presidency of the Council of the EU.
The agreement was signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić, Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić, and Croatian Employment Bureau Director Ante Lončar.
The project of civil servants training for Croatia’s Council of the EU presidency is 85% co-financed by the European Social Fund. Worth 7.3 million kuna, the project will involve 800 civil and public servants and is the largest of its kind to date.
Presiding over the Council of the EU is an extremely important role for a member state and presents numerous challenges and opportunities. Croatia’s first EU presidency will be the biggest and most complex task for the state administration in the last 20 odd years, and the agreement signed today will provide a powerful tool for a permanent enablement of civil servants.