Maastricht, NL: From 26 October to 30 October 2020 ReSPA hosted the 2020 Seasonal School on EU Accession Negotiations in collaboration with EIPA. EIPA and ReSPA have a long-standing cooperative relationship, which has recently been continued by winning a successive tender which called for EIPA to design a programme to prepare potential EU Member States for enlargement.

The 2020 Seasonal School

EIPA was the architect of the programme; proposing how best to disperse knowledge to officials of Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia to equip them for the upcoming EU accession negotiations. The autumnal school focused on the substantive competences and matters of the procedural aspects of accession negotiations. EIPA’s experts delivered training sessions on accession negotiations and the legal and political dimensions of enlargement.

The 2021 follow-up Seasonal School

This (initial) Seasonal School strives to be the first step in a two-step process, due to its well-founded success. Pending future developments, it is foreseen that the second step will be a 2021 Spring Seasonal School held in the South Western Balkans. The spring school would follow up and develop on the knowledge learnt this October; honing the professional skills required to engage in negotiations successfully. The skills taught include drafting legal proposals, legal analysis and positioning. These skills would increase the participant’s ability to participate in accession meetings.

As is the case for EIPA’s other long-term cooperations, EIPA aims to deliver a sequence of trainings, creating a learning path, hereby enabling the beneficiary parties to fully benefit from deepening and widening their knowledge and skills acquired from sequential trainings.

Long-standing cooperation with ReSPA

EIPA has a long-standing cooperation with ReSPA having been awarded the original and subsequent EU contract by the European Commission to establish the school in the Western Balkans in 2008. Since then, EIPA has remained involved at various degrees, continuing to host a spectrum of activities such as seminars, conferences, and workshops.

About EIPA

EIPA is one of the longest standing experts in European public affairs, having been established in Maastricht in 1981. Its mission is the dissemination of knowledge of EU policies related to EU public affairs to all professionals, with the key objective of further improving their skills and capabilities for efficient management of the policies. EIPA has its headquarters in Maastricht and an office in Luxembourg.

Annually, around 10,000 civil servants from the EU institutions, bodies and agencies, as well as national public administrations participate in the activities conducted by the institute, resulting in close to 14,000 days of activities per year. The institute is supported by the EU Member States as well as the European Commission through its Erasmus+ programme.

Note for the press:

For more information or photo material please contact Fiona Hartmann on f.hartmann@eipa.eu or call + 31 43 32 96 208