Broadening the Pool of Experts Brings Benefits for Participants, Lecturers and Us
We coordinate together with the City of Vienna the priority area of Institutional Capacity and Cooperation in the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), which covers, inter alia, eight CEF constituency countries. At the CEF, we address reform challenges that our beneficiaries experience by offering them top-notch practical and participant-oriented learning solutions. The EUSDR network provides us an excellent opportunity to reach out to additional experts in the region for knowledge exchange and cooperation.
When preparing our PFM program in support of EU accession processes and EU convergence requirements, we constantly capture new areas that need to be addressed and search for experts who could share their expertise on such areas. Accordingly, we invited Mr. Tomislav Belovari, Head of Sector at the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds and Steering group member of our priority area within the EUSDR, to work with us on our recent workshop on IPA II Novelties. His involvement has broadened our pool of experts from the region, contributing to our efforts in helping the region accelerate its reform efforts. As Croatia is the last country that joined the EU, its recent experience as a candidate country is particularly valuable. Mr. Belovari contributed significantly to Croatia’s accession process.
Mr. Belovari expressed appreciation for the opportunity to cooperate with the CEF in sharing his experience with other countries in the region: "My cooperation with the CEF started five years ago when I became a steering group member of a priority area in the EU Danube Strategy. Our partnership expanded when I had the opportunity to work with the CEF in February 2016, supporting their efforts to redesign their learning program related to IPA II Novelties. My work experience with the CEF colleagues was very positive. The IPA II workshop was a successful learning event, with topics well selected by the CEF, and participants were clearly satisfied. They expressed interest in similar workshops in the future too. The results of this face-to-face learning initiative go beyond the knowledge gained, being thus difficult to measure. I see great value added in the practical learning approach, which enabled participants to learn from each other and progress at their best. I also benefited personally from my cooperation with the CEF, as it gave me an opportunity to discuss the issues of IPA II with other lecturers, participants and real beneficiaries of the IPA II program. We had a good debate that helped me develop IPA II modalities even more in depth and understand the real needs and challenges of the beneficiary countries."
Such cooperation is an example of the CEF’s openness and flexibility in achieving its main objective: to develop the capacities of finance officials in South Eastern Europe to effectively respond to current and future challenges that they face in their important work.