EU public sector expertise: a key asset at the service of EU’s partner countries

Summary:

Set of conclusions adopted by the Council of the European Union on 19 November 2021, concerning the role of European public sector expertise in the EU's external action.

Further information:

The Council highlights the need to overcome operational, administrative, financial constraints and challenges to mobilising European public sector expertise. Member States are encouraged to incentivise the involvement of their public experts in assignments in partner countries, and the European Commission is invited to present a legislative initiative aimed at addressing those challenges. The importance of existing networks such as Twinning and TAIEX National Contact Points is highlighted.

The conclusions also call on the Commission to strengthen coordination, synergies and learning between the European Union (EU) and its Member States, both on political and expert level, to raise awareness of the strategic importance of public sector expertise as a form of joint implementation and to facilitate learning from public sector expertise programmes supported by the EU and its Member States.