What is Twinning?
Twinning is an institution-building instrument of the European Union (EU) for the exchange of expertise and assistance in the field of public administration, as well as the alignment of national legislation with EU standards. It is an EU instrument for institutional cooperation between public authorities of EU Member States and beneficiary or partner countries. Twinning, an initiative of the European Commission, was launched in 1998 to support the integration process of candidate countries into the European Union. Twinning has been implemented in Azerbaijan since 2006 as part of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument and brings together the public sector experience of EU Member States and the beneficiary country in order to enhance cooperation in various areas.
In the Azerbaijani context, Twinning is of strategic importance as it creates effective conditions for the adoption of certain parts and best practices of EU legislation and assists the government in achieving its set goals.
“Support to the Civil Service Commission in further reforms of the civil service system in Azerbaijan” (AZ/15/ENP/OT/40)
The “Support to the Civil Service Commission in further reforms of the civil service system in Azerbaijan” (AZ/15/ENP/OT/40) is being implemented by the State Examination Center (SEC) of the Republic of Azerbaijan within the framework of the EU Twinning instrument. The project envisages the classification of civil service positions by areas according to the content of their functions, as well as the provision of proposals on the application of the new classification system in the recruitment to the civil service, the assessment of the performance of civil servants and their remuneration.
The project is implemented jointly with the relevant institutions of the Republic of Lithuania as a member state:
The Government of the Republic of Lithuania – is the main institution for the coordination of state policy in Lithuania. www.lrv.lt
The Public Management Agency of the Republic of Lithuania – in addition to implementing state policy in the field of civil service, participates in the creation of a professional and efficient civil service system and ensures the implementation of legislative acts. www.vtd.lrv.lt
European Social Fund Agency – implements the logistics (financial and administrative management) of this project. www.esf.lt
Lithuanian state institutions will share their experiences within the project and contribute to strengthening the efficiency and expanding the capabilities of the SEC in line with the best European practices. The project will support the further development of a professional and sustainable civil service system in Azerbaijan.
The main objective of the project is to establish a new, content-based classification system for civil service positions, to link this system with the civil service recruitment, performance assessment and remuneration system, as well as to increase the tools of the SEC, capacity and efficiency in this area.
The project aims to achieve the results in 4 components:
- job classification system;
- recruitment to the civil service;
- performance assessment;
- payment system in accordance with the new classification of civil service positions.
At the end of the project, in accordance with the general objective, certain results will be achieved for each component. The activities within the project will help to identify existing shortcomings and necessary changes to the legislation to eliminate them, and to align the legislation with the European Administrative Space and EU best practices.
The project will achieve its main outcomes (drafting of legislative acts, classification of civil service positions, improvement of the civil service recruitment and remuneration system) by conducting trainings, workshops, expert missions, study tours, as well as through meetings and exchange of experience with representatives of various public authorities.
The project includes:
- Periodic visits of over 20 experts from the Member States to the SEC;
- 4 training visits involving 20 participants (Latvia/Lithuania; Austria/Hungary; Portugal/Spain; France/Belgium);
- 4 trainings involving 100 participants and selection of a group of trainers from among the participants;
- Study of best practices from 8 European countries.
The project is funded by the EU and its budget is 1.2 million euros. The project duration is two years. The project officially started on 17 November 2016 with the arrival of the Resident Twinning Advisor to our country. The official presentation of the project was held on February 14.