Administrative Twinning: Formez Activity of Support to the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies Continues

On February 26th and 27th, 2008 Formez organised two training days in Sofia directed to those responsible for dealing with information and publicity of the interventions co-financed by the Structural Funds of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies as well as by the three intermediary bodies such as the Ministry of Education and Science, the Employment Agency and the Agency for Social Assistance. The training activities were realised by an administrative Twinning with the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies and aimed at giving support to the Managing Authority (the DG for European Funds and International Programmes and Projects) on the management of the Operational Programme “Development of Human Resources”.
During the two-day training, topics regarding the European Union communication strategy, the EC Regulation N°1828 of December 8th 2006 as well as the methods for implementing and managing a communication campaign were faced. The first day focused on the communication strategies adopted by the European Union: the D Plan to encourage Discussion, Dialogue and Democracy in Europe, the European Initiative on Transparency, the White Paper on the European communication policy “Communicating Europe in Partnership” and the paper entitled “To communicate Europe online through greater citizens’ involvement” which was published in December 2007. In the afternoon session, the EC Regulation N° 1828 of 2006 was analysed with regard to the information and publicity actions referring to the Structural Funds, with particular attention to the obligations on information and publicity to be observed by the beneficiaries of public projects. The second day was dedicated to the implementation of a communication campaign about Structural Funds and to the examination of the Communication Plan presented by the Managing Authority which has been currently submitted for approval by the European Commission. Two new project guide-lines have been drafted: one concerning the realisation of a website aimed at providing information about the Operational Programme and the second focusing on the publication of a newsletter for communicating news, tenders and events with reference to the Structural Funds.