Ministry of Economy and Finance

Projects

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The projects awarded to the Treasury Department

The Treasury Department experience on administrative twinning includes twelve projects in seven countries during which the relevant office and other partner administrations have worked on different areas. These projects are entirely financed by the EU budget without additional financial burdens for Italy: the projects awarded to the Treasury Department amount to a total of about 11 million euros.

So far the Treasury Department has been awarded the following projects:

Adjustment of the regulatory framework for business development

Between November 2001 and February 2003 the twinning project with the Check Republic on  “Improvement of Legal and Institutional Environment for Business” was completed (budget: 1,2 Meur; duration: 15 month). It was the first project of this kind run by the Treasury Department that won it in 2001: in spite of the wide range of cooperation areas, the project results were achieved and appreciated by the beneficiary administrations and the European Community.

Regulation of the energy market

• Between October 2002 and September 2004 the Treasury Department ran the energy-market twinning project under the Phare programme with Lithuania; it was called  “Strengthening of the Energy Market regulator” (budget: 1.6 Meur; duration: 24 months). The Treasury was assisted by the Italian electricity and gas authority, the GRTN group and the  CINECA consortium.

Adjustment of the statistical system

• Between September 2002 and 2004 the Treasury ran project under the Phare programme with Romania “Compliance of Romanian statistics with the European statistical system” (budget: 1.2 Meur; duration: 2 years). The project has involved the active participation of  Istat, Icstat and the Ministry of the Environment .

Regulation of the financial sector

• Between April 2003 and January 2005 a project was ran with the Czech Republic on “Capital Markets Legislation and Regulation” in cooperation with  Consob and  Banca d’Italia (budget: 0,8 Meur; duration: 18 months). The project aimed at achieving the adjustment of the relevant regulations and authorities as well as establishing an efficient system for a centralised deposit of securities and regulating trading.

• Between October 2006 and December 2007 the Treasury Department, in cooperation with  Banca d’Italia, the Italian Competition Authority and  Studiare Sviluppo s.r.l., ran a Tacis project with the Russian Federation on privatisation and the protection of competition in the financial sector called  “Fair competition development in the financial sector of the Russian Federation through reduced participation of federal and regional state authorities in the capital of financial institutions” (budget: 0.6 Meur; duration 15 months). 

Strengthening institutional capacity against money-laundering

• In Autumn 2003 for 19 months in cooperation with the Italian Foreign Exchange Office a project with Romania was ran on money-laundering: “Strengthening the capacity of the National Office for Prevention and Control of Money Laundering (NOPCML) to collect, store, process, investigate and analyse large amounts of data” (budget: 1.0 Meur; duration: 19 months).

• Between June 2004 and July 2006 the Treasury Department ran a project  with Turkey called  “Strengthening the fight against Money Laundering” (budget: 1.8 Meur; duration: 25 months). It was implemented with the cooperation of the Italian Foreign Exchange Office and  Guardia di Finanza (Customs Police),  

Adjustment of the regulatory and institutional framework for public procurement

• Between March and July 2004 as far as public procurement is concerned, the Treasury Department, in cooperation with Consip S.p.A. and the public procurement watchdog  (Autorità per la vigilanza sui contratti pubblici) ran a twinning project with Cyprus “Enhancement of the administrative capacity in implementing the harmonised public procurement rules” (budget: 0.2 MEUR; duration: 6 months) which ended in July  2004.

• Between January 2005 and July 2006 again in cooperation with  Consip S.p.A. and the public procurement watchdog the Treasury Department ran a twinning project with Turkey on public procurement called  “Strengthening the Public Procurement System in Turkey” (budget: 1.3 Meur; duration: 18 months). The project, which aimed at supporting the Turkish Public Procurement Authority in performing its institutional tasks.

• Between August 2006 and July 2008 the Treasury Department ran another twinning project with Bulgaria again in the field of public procurement:  “Further Improvement of the Public Procurement System in Bulgaria” (budget: 1.1 Meur; duration: 24 months). The project was implemented with the cooperation of  Consip S.p.A., the  public procurement watchdog and the Public Procurement Office of Poland.

Capacity strengthening in State Aid

• Between October 2006 and April 2007 the Treasury Department ran another so called light twinning project, again with Bulgaria, but on a different subject matter – State Aid: “Strengthening the operational capacity of State Aid Department with a view to its future role as a State Aid monitoring and coordinating authority after the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union” (budget: 0.1 Meur; duration: 6 months). The project was implemented in cooperation with the Community Policy Department and the Development Policy Department, with the aim to provide assistance to the  State Aid Department established in the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance. 

• Between December 2007 and May 2008 the Treasury Department  ran a project called “Alignment of the State Aid Department evaluation practice of the state aid Group Exemption Regulations with the EU best practices and monitoring of the compliance of the use of Structural funds’ finances with the state aid rules”, is directly  linked to the previous one in that the beneficiary administration was the same and it addressed  closely related issues. Its aim is to provide assistance in the application of the exemption regulations as well as in the use of structural funds in compliance with EU regulations on State Aid. The project (budget: 110.000 euros; duration: 6 months) was implemented in cooperation with the Department of Community Policies and the Ministry of Economic Development.