The steering committee of the twinning project held a seventh meeting

Vushtrri, 12 December, 2017 – The Steering Committee of the Twinning Project, which aims to "Further Support Education in Public Safety in Kosovo", held today the seventh meeting at the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, where it was estimated that so far has made important progress in the implementation of the project.
 

Present at this meeting were the Director General of the Academy Mr. Ismail Smakiqi, Mr. Rafael Nievergelt, the representative of the European Union Office in Kosovo, the Head of the Twinning Project Mrs. Krista Haak, the Resident Twinning Adviser Mrs. Ritva Vahakoski, Mr.  Nderim Gerguri from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mrs. Shpresa  Muharremi from OSCE, Mrs. Taibe Canolli from Kosovo Police, Mr. Adem Shala from Kosovo Probation Service, Mr. Bujar Mustafa from Kosovo Police Inspectorate, Mrs. Tefta Bytyqi from Kosovo Correctional Service, Mr. Bashkim Arifi from Kosovo Customs and Mustaf Gashi from Emergency Management Agency.
 

By evaluating that the Twinning Project is being developed with the appropriate dynamics, Director General of the Academy Ismail Smakiqi expressed his satisfaction with the realization of the project so far. Mr. Smakiqi, said  that the achievements are a result of joint work between public safety agencies and Academy officials and experts, also informed the attendees that the Academy has applied to the National Qualifications Authority for the purpose of accreditation of  the institution as well as validation of vocational programs.

Director Smakiqi also spoke about the visit to the Academy of Congressman Eliot Engel who appreciated that this visit to the Academy is a privilege.

By mentioning the cooperation that the Academy has with the security institutions in the region and beyond, Mr. Smakiqi informed the participants for signing a co-operation agreement with the Faculty of Security of St.Kliment University in Skopje last month.
 
Mr. Smakiqi said the purpose of the project is to support education at the professional and higher level, including research in the field of public safety in Kosovo, which fully complies with EU and international standards.
Director General of the Academy, Mr. Ismail Smakiqi expressing his happiness for the achievements, thanked ICITAP and OSCE for its continued support to the Academy.

 The Head of the Twinning Project Mrs. Krista Haak thanked all the actors involved in the implementation of the twinning project, saying that their focus in the past three months has been the finalization of twelve applications for the Academy's institutional accreditation and validation of vocational programs.
"The work has been finalized on time and I want to emphasize that now everything has been submitted to the Qualifications Authority office. This great work has been done by achieving results thanks to the cooperation with the agencies, the Academy staff and the experts, "said Haak, saying that so far has been done a good job and there are achievement of results.

"From the point of view of the member states we are pleased to support not only the Academy, but all the public security institutions that have a key role in public security in the country," said Haak.

Mr. Rafael Nievergelt, the representative of the European Union Office in Kosovo, gave a positive assessment of the realization and progress of the twinning project.
"I am proud of you and the work you have done up to this phase of the European Union project," Nievergelt said.
The official for European Integration in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Nderim Gerguri, was pleased with the progress of the twinning project.
While Mrs. Ritva Vahakoski presented the twinning project's quarterly report when reporting on the progress of the components.