Mr. Ferdinand Kopp, Acting Head of Operations in the European Commission Delegation to BiH, attended today's ceremony where Director of the Directorate for European Integration of BiH, Mr. Osman Topčagić and Director of the Civil Service Agency of BiH, Mr. Jakob Finci signed contracts with five civil servants who will attend postgraduate studies at University of the West of England in Bristol in the academic year of 2008/2009 – was stated at the web site of the Delegation of the Europan Commission to bosnia and Herzegovina.
The European Commission has provided 80 000 euro for these five students and their postgraduate studies and this is the fifth time that such arrangement has been made with BiH institutions with the aim of strengthening the civil service of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Emphasising the importance of such a project, Mr. Kopp reminded that Bosnia and Herzegovina with the status of a potential candidate country in the process of implementing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement would need qualified experts to work further on its integration. "The EU has been financing many projects for improving the capacity of all public institutions but these scholarships are certainly the most visible form of support in this long process.", concluded Mr. Kopp.
Mr. Finci also addressed the postgraduate students and said: "There is a major task in front of all of you, but you are the ones that give us a hope and trust that Bosnia and Herzegovina has young and prosperous people that are willing to learn and work and are prepared to help Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a member of the European Union and NATO."
Talking about benefits of such a project, Mr. Topčagić mentioned that besides solely gaining the specific knowledge, it was also important for students from BiH to spend one year abroad, meet with young people from all over the world and build valuable network of contacts. „I wish you to have great year after which you will come back to your jobs enriched with knowledge and great experience that would help all of us to help BiH in the European integration process“, concluded Mr. Topčagić.
About Scholarships
Interested civil servants were offered to decide for specialising in one of the following areas: European Law, European Integration or Public Administration Reform. The aim of this program is to educate larger number of experts for European Integration that will work on the task of BiH integration into EU.
According to their contracts, the students – civil servants who have signed them today will have to spend at least 3 years in civil service upon completion of their postgraduate studies.
The students who signed the contracts today are: Dejan Buha and Enida Šeharac – Public Administration Reform Coordinator Office, Željka Jurić – Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, Edina Avdić – Directorate for the implementation of CIPS Project and Adnan Rahimić – Ministry of the Education and Science of Sarajevo Canton.