The Luxembourg Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn has signed a new convention with the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) based in Maastricht, which brings the scope and form of the cooperation between Luxembourg and EIPA into the 21st century. From the side of EIPA, the Convention was signed by the Chair of EIPA’s Board of Governors, Ms. Cecilia Wikström, EIPA’s Director General, Mr. Marco Ongaro, and the Director of EIPA’s European Centre for Judges and Lawyers in Luxembourg, Mr. Peter Goldschmidt.
EIPA’s core mission is to provide a combination of deep insights and practical knowledge about EU policies and governance to all professionals involved in EU public and regulatory affairs. The key objective of EIPA is to strengthen the skills and capacities of its stakeholders and clients to efficiently manage and implement the policies. EIPA Luxembourg, the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers, is specialised in the implementation, interpretation and enforcement of EU law.
The Directorate of European Affairs and International Economic Relations of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has a long-standing cooperation with EIPA Luxembourg to support the EU integration efforts of European countries, which have applied for EU Membership. Having initially supported EU accession efforts in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, the Ministry and EIPA Luxembourg now cooperate on the provision of targeted technical assistance (TA) projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. The cooperation covers a broad pallet of TA, including training of civil servants and members of the judiciary, consultancy related to the transposition of EU law into the national legal systems, training of trainers as well as combined training and study visits to relevant EU and national judicial bodies and other public institutions in Luxembourg and the Greater Region.
Since 2017, the Ministry has provided annual scholarships for up to five talented young professionals from the current TA beneficiary partner countries to attend EIPA’s Masters programme on European Legal Studies (MELS). The new Convention also establishes a regularised cooperation with EIPA to develop and deliver tailor-made training – as well as other capacity building services – to Luxembourg diplomats and civil servants from other line ministries.