The Committee of National Coordinators has recently approved the co-financing of 7 projects under the Know-how Exchange Programmes (KEP) supported by the CEI Fund at the EBRD, financed by Italy. With a total contribution amounting to 262,000 EUR, the projects will foster cooperation among institutions of several CEI member states, on significant topics aimed at strengthening European integration such as countering corruption, improving legislation pertaining to sustainable agriculture, environmental management and policy dialogue.
The project “Countering Corruption within Public Administration through Transparency” coordinated by LUISS University’s School of Law and Government (Italy) in collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia will strengthen public administration capacity. It will specifically focus on governance reforms aimed at eradicating corruption and organised crime, promoting the rule of law, increasing the digitalisation of public services, and developing transparency policies.
“Harmonising the Regulatory Framework for the organic food production in Montenegro with the Regulation (EU) 2018/848" promoted by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (Italy) will involve the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Montenegro to review and update the regulatory framework of organic agriculture and food products in the country. The project aims at encouraging the alignment of the existing national legal framework of organic food production in Montenegro with the one enforced by the EU.
The project “Strengthening ties and learning between the twinned municipalities of Centar Sarajevo and Reggio Emilia” - led by the Institute for Development and European Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina will target the Centar Sarajevo Municipality, leveraging the twinning agreement signed with the Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia in May 2022. Capacity-building activities will focus on policies for inclusion and social innovation.
The project “Habitat, landscape, forest and water management: experiences in the mirror between Italy to Moldova. will provide good practices on water and forest management as well as on environmental conservation and sustainable development.
The project “Programming the EU Cohesion Policy: Exchange Programme on chapter 22 in Serbia and Montenegro” is coordinated by the Italian National Research Council in collaboration with the Ministry for European Affairs of Montenegro and the Ministry of European Integration of Serbia. It will contribute to the preparation of target countries for the implementation of the EU Cohesion policy in its programming phase. It will be implemented through training activities for strengthening the quality and capacity of public institutions to implement policy changes.
“Assessing the effectiveness and affordability of tariff-setting methodologies in covering drinking water and wastewater services costs in the Western Balkans will target the national water regulators of Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia by providing support for increasing the effectiveness of their tariff-setting powers, in line with their strategies in implementing EU water legislation. The project will also be the first instrument of regional cooperation ever used by the three regulators to share knowledge on common water sector problems The activities are coordinated by WAREG, the Association of European Water Regulators.
Finally, the project “Reducing the impact of earthquakes in Albania through collaboration: computing seismic hazard to support the update of Albania's building code” will strengthen the capabilities of the Albanian Institute of Geosciences to predict seismic hazards, moving towards significant improvements in environmental risk prevention, including the improvement of seismic safety of future infrastructures and the effective management of seismic risk for the Albanian conventional buildings stock
More info: dovier@cei.int