The Twinning project “Strengthening the Administrative and Performance Capacity of the Ministry of Transport and Transport Institutions” was conducted with the aim of improving the administrative capacity of the Ministry and other relevant transport institutions in Serbia to carry out tasks arising from the harmonization of national legislation with EU transport Acquis. The value of the project was 1.75 million EUR, and it was financed through the EU pre-accession program IPA 2013 with co-financing of the Republic of Serbia. On behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the contractor of the project was the Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Funded Programmes (CFCU, Ministry of Finance), which is responsible for the implementation of IPA projects implemented under the decentralized management of EU funds, and in this project was responsible for the administrative monitoring of the project implementation. The project has lasted two years since April 2015.

This is the first project that was contracted within the Decentralized management system for projects financed from IPA donor funds. The project was very complex, both in terms of results to be achieved, and organizational point of view, as besides the Ministry responsible for transport sector, other transport institutions (Directorate of Railway, Infrastructure of Serbian Railways, Roads of Serbia, Agency for traffic safety, Center for the investigation of accidents and serious incidents, Airport “Nikola Tesla”, Civil Aviation Directorate…) also participated in the project.

Through the five components of the project, civil servants of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and the relevant transport institutions, with the support of colleagues in the administration of EU member states: France, Finland and Lithuania, created a strategic framework for the development of the transport system in the Republic of Serbia and the tools for effective monitoring of the implementation of the strategy in accordance with the EU standards, introduced a system for the management of safety in railway traffic (SMS) and a verification system in accordance with the requirements and standards of the EU, and enhanced their knowledge and skills in performing the tasks arising from the harmonization of national legislation with EU transport Acquis.

Harmonization of national legislation with EU Acquis, as well as strategic planning and monitoring the implementation of the strategy, are continuous processes whose successful performance is one of preconditions for the successful conduct of the accession negotiations under Chapter 14 and 21, as well as the successful integration of the transport system of the Republic of Serbia with the EU.

This project has contributed to improving the efficiency of the transport sector in Serbia in all transport modes, better planning, monitoring and achieving strategic objectives in the field of transport. The strategic framework was developed based on the White Paper on EU transport policy and analyses in the sectors of road, rail, air and waterborne transport. Horizontal measures, such as safety and security, intelligent transportation systems, energy efficiency and inter-modality, have also been key issues. By the introduction of safety management system, the Serbian railway infrastructure manager got a tool to increase the level of safety on the national railway network at the level of European standards.

Improving the qualifications and competencies of the employees was supported by more than 100 trainings, seminars and workshops, and 8 study visits to France, Finland and Lithuania.

Twinning project included 50 international experts who, within two years, conducted 200 expert missions, wrote 12,000 pages of documents and 22 draft legal acts, in order to help Serbia in alignment with the best practices of the European Union.

French Transport Ministry has led this project together with the Finnish Transport Agency, and Lithuanian Ministry of Transport. More than 10 Serbian institutions participated in the project: Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, Directorate of Railway, Infrastructure of Serbian Railways, the Center for investigation of accidents and serious incidents, the Agency for Traffic Safety, Belgrade “Nikola Tesla” Airport, Civil Aviation Directorate and others.