A high delegation of the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency led by the Acting Deputy Director General of the Croatian Civil Aviation Agency (CCAA) Zlatko Širac paid a working visit to the Civil Aviation Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia from 08-10 October this year.

The purpose of the meeting between the Croatian and Macedonian aviation authorities were the preparations for implementation of the Twinning Light project “Support for participation in the ECAA-European Common Aviation Area” in the amount of 250.000 EUR.

The project is aimed at providing expertise and assistance to Macedonian civil aviation authorities in an effort to support the sustainable development of civil aviation in accordance with the international standards and EU acquis in the field of civil aviation. That will be achieved by aligning national legislation with European laws and increasing the aviation capacities and technical competence of the Civil Aviation Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia.

In preparation of the implementation of the project the collaborators of both delegations exchanged opinions and experiences related to the achieved level of implementation of international standards in the field of civil aviation. In addition, a framework plan for realization of the project Twinning Light according to individual components was presented before the Macedonian partners and the implementation thereof will begin after the signing of the Agreement.

We remind that the EU Delegation to North Macedonia at the end of August announced that the CCAA would be the promoter of the project Twinning Light “Support for participation in the ECAA- European Common Aviation Area” in the amount of 250.000 EUR.

The HACZ’s international success as a partner to Macedonian aviation authorities in this project is yet another recognition of its successful work so far and confirmation of the HACZ’s institutional status within the framework of the relevant civil aviation authorities in the EU.

The Agency underlined that over the past ten years it has developed into a respectable and desired partner in the EU, primarily due to its human potential and system of values, and this has been confirmed with a successfully completed Twinning project with Georgia in 2015-2017, when HACZ was a junior partner to the Austro Control GmbH in the implementation of that project.

EU has conceptualized Twinning as an instrument for administrative cooperation between public administrations of the Beneficiary Countries and the institutions of EU Member States in order to provide assistance and transfer knowledge for application and implementation of EU acquis.

Started in May 1998, Twinning is an instrument for assistance to the Beneficiary Countries for development of modern and effective administration, as one of the main tools of EU for assistance in institutional development. The purpose of Twinning is to provide support to the Beneficiary Country through development of human resources, modernization and reorganization of public administration, as well as harmonization of the laws and regulations with EU acquis.