The European Commission is helping Member States and regions to improve their capacity to invest EU funds for better results through strengthening their professional and operational competencies. A brand new tool is now available for all public institutions involved in managing the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund - national coordinating bodies, managing, audit and certifying authorities, joint secretariats and intermediate bodies – in order to identify and address competency gaps and adapt their training and recruitment strategies.

The tool, designed by the Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) consists of:

• an EU Competency Framework which contains a set of competencies that administrations and officials should possess;
• a web-based self-assessment tool allowing employees to rate their proficiency level for each competency required for their job-specific profile. This will help to define future development objectives.

An important feature, especially for public managers, is the possibility to aggregate data from the self-assessments of all employees, thereby creating an overview of the administration as a whole. Thus, the findings can serve as a basis for developing learning and development plans to fill the gaps. This user-friendly and flexible tool covers a full range of competencies and can be applied to all kinds of administrations regardless of their size or whether they are managing a sectoral or regional operational programme. Its impact goes well beyond the management of the funds. It can also contribute to a greater focus and a strategic approach towards longer-term competency development, ultimately improving the functioning of the entire administration and the quality of the services it provides for citizens and businesses.

Read more about the competency framework and the self-assessment tool here. To get a copy of the self-assessment tool write to REGIO-COMPETENCY-FRAMEWORK@ec.europa.eu

Language versions: Currently in English only but in April the Competency framework, extensive user guidelines and glossaries on the content of the self-assessment tool will be available in most EU languages.