In 2017, we led the preparation of the Presidency of the Council of the EU rotation for Bulgaria.
The main objective of the project was to improve and upgrade the relevant knowledge and skills of Bulgarian public officials, in preparation for the 2018 Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Being the first Presidency since the country’s entry into the EU, it was an extremely significant endeavour for Bulgaria, and required extensive support from us, and our project partner ENA.
While this training was an extremely important and intensive one for us, it is not the first time that we have led such a project. With a significant number of Presidency projects under our belt since our inception in 1981, we have extensive expertise in preparing countries for Presidencies of the Council of the EU.
This combination of practical knowledge for the Presidency, along with our experience in working with diverse Member States, were instrumental in the organization having received the Bulgarian contract.
Project details
Target group
There were 3 target groups:
- Future chairs and deputy-chairs of Council working groups
- Officials performing different functions in the national EU affairs coordination mechanism
- Policy coordinators
Over 1500 officials were trained through 54 group trainings in Sofia (BG) and 6 group trainings in Brussels (BE), delivered between March and October 2017.
Feedback
We received very good reviews from the participants, with almost 75-90% of the participants choosing the highest mark on the scale for overall evaluation of the course, depending on module.
“This is probably the best training related to the Presidency that I have attended. It was very well structured and gave me a lot of information. The trainers were excellent”
“It was very well structured and delivered. The practical examples were extremely useful”
“I am very happy that I participated in the training. The trainers were perfect and the presented information was very interesting. I think that the practical orientation of the training will be very useful for preparing the Bulgarian presidency of the Council. We received many tips and gained the experience how to facilitate the work of the upcoming Presidency”
Additional support
Besides the 3 training modules for the course, of which we were responsible for over 80%, we also designed and maintained an online platform to give the participants access to preparatory e-learning modules and other general reference materials and documents, to support them in self-learning.
We will continue to provide support to the Bulgarian Presidency during key events of the 2018 BG Presidency Calendar.
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