Better adaptation to EU legislation requires an overall institutional and legal framework that supports the required decentralisation process. Old and new Member States and candidate countries seek to improve the overall coordination and monitoring of this process, and to ensure strong administrative capacity of public servants at local levels.

The EU enlargement process has put pressure on many states to gradually devolve and increase the administrative and fiscal capacity of their sub-national actors. Successful integration depends on the application of EU legislation at all levels of government, and  well-managed decentralisation is positively linked to better EU compliance and to a more efficient absorption of EU funds.

With the objective of familiarising our participants with this topic,, our Winter School involves an exchange of knowledge and experiences, exposure to the work of regional and local entities, study visits, as well as comparative analysis. In order to ensure the understanding of the concept of decentralisation and the acquisition of the skills necessary to reform public administrations, this Winter School brings together actors from old and new Member States and candidate countries to provide expertise and experiences in various fields, such as: division of responsibilities between different levels of government, models of decentralisation, management of the civil service, lobby and European positioning.