Twinning

Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between Public Administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary or partner countries. Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities. As an initiative of the European Commission, the Twinning instrument was launched in 1998 to support candidate countries in their integration process to the EU. As an instrument for cooperation, twinning is being implemented in Azerbaijan since 2006. It ensures institutional cooperation bringing together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary country of the Programme.

The project will support the development of professional and stable civil service system in Azerbaijan.

“Support to further reforms in civil service system of the Republic of Azerbaijan” (AZ/15/ENP/OT/40)
The project - “Support to further reforms in civil service system of the Republic of Azerbaijan” (AZ/15/ENP/OT/40) is being implemented by the State Examination Center of Azerbaijan Republic (SEC) within the framework of EU Twinning instrument. The overall objective of this Twinning project is to contribute to the further development of a professional and sustainable Civil Service system in Azerbaijan in accordance with the best European practices. The project purpose is to improve the capacity, tools and efficiency of the Civil Service Commission to develop and implement the new classification of occupations and to link it to the recruitment, performance appraisal and remuneration systems.

The project is being implemented with the support of following state bodies of the Republic of Lithuania:

The Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania is the main body of coordination of state policy in Lithuania. www.lrv.lt

Civil Service Department of the Republic of Lithuania is a governmental institution engaged in the management of the civil service, involved in the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of management of civil service entrusted to the Minister of the Interior. www.vtd.lrv.lt         

European Social Fund Agency is in charge of financial management and project administration. www.esf.lt

Highly experienced Lithuanian experts will share their best practice with the colleagues from State Examination Centre. The project will contribute a lot to establish powerful civil service system in Azerbaijan.

The project purpose stands in improving the capacity, tools and efficiency of the State Examination Centre, developing and implementing the new classification of occupations and linking it to the recruitment, performance appraisal and remuneration systems.

The project aims to achieve results in 4 components:

1) The classification system of Civil Service positions;
2) Admission to Civil Service;
3) performance appraisal;
4) The remuneration system modernized in accordance with the new classification of Civil Service positions.

The project aims at upgrading the administrative capacities of the public administration. It also supports the approximation of national laws, regulations and quality standards to those of EU Member States in the framework of Cooperation or Association agreements signed with the EU. 

Twinning projects are implemented with a view to the mandatory results to be achieved. They are usually articulated in components corresponding to the expected results and foresee a number of activities including workshops, training sessions, expert missions, study visits, internships and counselling. Twinning lies on learning by doing principle and sharing of best practices.

During the project it is envisaged to:

• Periodic visit of more than 20 experts from the member countries to SEC;

• 4 training trips covering 20 participants (Latvia / Lithuania, Austria / Hungary, Portugal / Spain, France / Belgium)

• 4 trainings involving 100 people and selection of a group of trainers among the participants;

• Study of the best practices of 8 European countries. 

The two-year project, with a total budget of 1,2 million EURO, is financed by the European Union. The project was officially launched on November 17, 2016 with the visit of Resident Twinning Adviser to our country. The official presentation of the project was held on February 14, 2017.