The 133 participants learned what specific instruments are available for municipal entities

The third edition of the Seminar on European funds: tools and financing opportunities for local bodies came to an end on Wednesday 15 February. The course was organized by DIPLOCAT and the two municipal entities that are part of the consortium, the Catalan Association of Municipalities and Counties (ACM) and the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia (FMC), with the collaboration of the Ministry for Foreign Action and European Union of the Catalan Government and Catalonia's School of Public Administration (EAPC). The third edition started in September 2022 and had 133 participants from town councils, county councils and other local entities, who have been trained on European funds and programs, with a special focus on the NextGenerationEU funding plan.

The closing session was attended by Àlex Garrido, vice-president of the FMC and mayor of Manlleu; Glòria Marull, vice president of the ACM and mayoress of Serra de Daró; Ismael Peña, director of the EAPC; Meritxell Serret, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Union; and Laura Foraster i Lloret, secretary general of DIPLOCAT. They all agreed to emphasize the success of the course, both in registration and attendance.

Foraster explained that DIPLOCAT has three main areas of work -connecting, projecting and empowering- and that the seminar is a clear example of the consortium's training role. With the seminar, workers of municipal entities have been trained to improve their knowledge and increase their chances of successfully accessing European funding. The seminar was taught by more than thirty experts, including officials from the European Commission, university professors, project managers from the Catalan Government in charge of managing European funds, project managers from the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the EU and project managers from city councils that have obtained funding from European funds, who provided a global view on the different funding plans and the specific tools and instruments that Europe has to offer.

The seminar was held online except for the last session, which was face-to-face and included a workshop in which students could jointly put into practice the theoretical concepts learned during the last months. As a novelty for this edition, students who have attended 80% of the sessions and pass a knowledge test will get a certificate from the EAPC.