Where is Moldova - just down the road from Steyning, actually
"Where is Moldova" - wasn't that the first thing David Beckham said when England were drawn to play them in the 1990s? It's also a board game, a kind of European Monopoly. And it's possibly the place Michael Praed came from when he was a Prince in Dynasty, give or take a vowel.
So Moldova still has an aura of mystery about it. At least for me. That's why I went along to Moldova - Moving Ahead, a Wilton Park conference, last week. We fund projects there under the SPFRE. I managed to get along on Friday, because in this job, covering seventeen countries, the chance to focus on just one for a short time should not be missed
Wilton Park nestles beneath the South Downs, just off the A283 near Steyning, north west of Brighton. If you don't get the train to Shoreham-by-Sea and then taxi it, you need to drive through several small villages like Henfield and Poynings which I've always thought might well have been a model for some of the early scenes in Thunderball. I managed to get there unscathed, though - despite roadworks near the Adur flyover - and took my seat for the Friday sessions.
The highlight for me was the session on Transnistria - which brought together Transnistrians and Moldovans, Ukrainians, EU officials, an American, Russians and Romanians, to talk seriously about what they think is going to happen, why, and what needs to happen to change anything. Moldova would, I think, like to be a full member of the EU; Transnistria is more attached to Russia. Poverty in both is still high by European standards - it is one of the two countries where DfID has a programme which is not already winding down.
Our FCO project work is focussed on capacity building with the government and work on Rules of Origin for goods. It's a small but busy programme - seven projects totalling £280,000 - and we work actively alongside our fellow EU members, especially Lithuania - who co-hosted the Wilton Park conference. An excellent example of new member state skills and expertise being used with non-members.
So I think I know a little more about Moldova now. But at the end of the day there's not substitute for actually being there. I won't manage a proper project-related visit to Moldova during by time on this desk. But I think I'll put my name down to be an election observer in March 2009.
Posted at 16:43 20 October 2008 by Chris Frean | Comments[0]
Play Brussels make it a reality
As the RE bids come in to the project officers, there's a rare chance here to focus on something else back here. So with my next job in mind - I'm going to work in the British Embassy in Zagreb next year - I signed up for one of the National School of Government's European Union training courses. Understand what goes on in Brussels in nine days, basically.
We're four days in (out of nine) and I think it is beginning to make some sense. Previously incomprehensible subjects like the Common Agricultural Policy have been brought to life by experts from DEFRA; BERR gave us the low-down on trade; and we've just had a simulated Working Group.
Maybe I should explain what that last bit means. Within the machinery of Brussels, there are Working Groups attended by reps from all member states. Working Groups form one level of the decision making process, below Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) and Ministers. The NSG include, in the course, a mock up Working Group: we all get given a brief and are appointed as representing one country - I was, for a day, Austria. We talked through the Articles of a Directive (actually here I should be able to explain the difference between a Directive and a Regulation) and discuss everyone's wish lists. We try to reach a conclusion that works for all. We do "brush-bys in the margins" and things like that. Interesting to see how it all really works. Good for those with a thespian bent too (not me, but the Honorary Finn had fun with his fjords).
The course also includes two days in Brussels itself. Pity the organisers here, the trip has been fraught with last minute reorganising. First there was the Chunnel fire which has affected services. Then UK Commissioner Mandelson moved on last week, presumably unaware that our course group were due to call on his office on Thursday to understand what it is the UK Commissioner does; then on Monday this week Belgian Railways went on strike. I think that was just a local little difficulty and it's all over now, but it'll be interesting to see if we get there. I have planned ahead and downloaded an Andrew Marr audiobook - History of Britain since 1945 or something like that - to while away the hours when we might be stuck; the Good Beer Guide to Brussels has been dusted down because I have confidence we will actually arrive; and there's the prospect of catching the Belgium-Armenia World Cup clash at the rebuilt Heysel on Saturday evening. Mention of football - I see Dinamo Zagreb are coming to Spurs on 6th November. Wonder how expensive that will be - might even be a chance of a ticket. Dinamo will have to be my team in Croatia, I think. Hajduk has a great ground but for a Brighton & Hove Albion fan to show allegiance to a team in red and blue stripes is asking a bit much. Partizan Belgrade got a pretty rough draw though - Liege, Stuttgart, Sampdoria and Seville.
Oh and the title of this entry refers to a SPFRE project we ran in Yerevan last year: Play Democracy, Make It A Reality. We funded the production of a computer game which introduced democracy to the youth of Armenia. Check out the SPFRE database for the details.
Posted at 18:05 07 October 2008 by Chris Frean | Comments[0]
Reuniting Europe bidding round launch
So this year's RE conference is over. Almost forty staff gathered in Istanbul for three days. This is practically the only time we can all get together away from our desks. This year we added training workshops to the conference, giving us a chance to improve skills on designing and evaluating projects. If you've not got a good design in the first place, how can you evaluate it; and once you have a good design, you need to know what to look for and where to find it.
People bring along example projects they have managed and discuss them with the trainers and then in breakout groups. We assess the Project Purpose, the Outputs, the Activities (and make sure people know what these words mean - what the difference is between one and the other).
After the training was completed we brought in our expert speakers to bring everyone up to date on what we call our Country Business Plans - basically what the Embassies want to do and why; on how to improve getting our messages across; we set up a teleconference to dig into solving technical headaches (and thankfully the technology worked); and trying to make Brussels funding systems more comprehensible. Having teams from everywhere from Albania to Zagreb in one place, we use the time to network and talk of lessons learned over the past year - what has worked and what has gone wrong and what we are going to do about it.
Teams are now heading back to base for the launch of the Reuniting Europe bidding round, on 1st October - and if you're a prospective project implementer, that's a key date for you. The month of October is the window for implementers to talk to Embassy contacts and see whether their ideas could be worked up into a bid. This coming week we in the London team will be updating the website with all the new information everyone needs. I'm working on it at the moment here in the lounge at Alexander The Great airport, Skopje, Macedonia - which has free internet, which is very convenient
Posted at 15:25 20 September 2008 by Chris Frean | Comments[0]
Welcome to my blog. This is quite new to me, although I have been trying to get IT-literate via facebook. My daughters assure me, with a mere 50-odd friends on that, though, that I am way behind. I'm based in London at the moment and have a central role in deciding how approximately £14m of British taxpayers' money is used. That sounds scary, although is £14m a lot in the bigger picture, when the Department for International Development can spend £50m a year in one country alone? There are several UK government Strategic Programme Funds out there which exist to support our policy goals. The one I work on is named “Re-uniting Europe” (RE). I also work on the Balkans Conflict Prevention Pool (BCPP), which funds work in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia,Herzegovina and Macedonia.
Our current RE focus is on our annual Re-uniting Europe conference, which we’re holding in Istanbul next week. It’s the annual get-together for staff from our Embassies throughout the countries where we fund projects – everywhere from Croatia and Macedonia to Belarus and Azerbaijan. We take stock of what we’ve achieved; listen to presentations from experts; and discuss how changes in London affect what we do; for example this year, we’ll be having the FCO’s new Strategic Communications experts explaining their role.
Istanbul is a convenient hub for the “Reuniting Europe” Fund’s countries, being a direct flight for almost all. But despite my best efforts to coincide the event with a Champions League tie, Galatasaray were knocked out, and Fenerbahce, whose qualification was decidedly lucky anyway, are away to Porto. I’ll let you know how the conference went in my next blog
Posted at 11:05 09 September 2008 by e-Media | Comments[0]