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ACTIN

Introduction
ACTIN stands for Acquis Communautaire Training INitiative. Enlargement will affect the postal sector in a number of ways; in addition to the two postal directives, which set out a timetable for the liberalisation of the postal sector, the eastern European postal operators will be affected by a great deal of Internal Market and competition legislation. All of this means these posts will have to change the way they work.
 
As the name suggests the aim of the ACTIN project was to provide postal operators and stakeholders in Eastern Europe with the knowledge and tools they will require to implement European legislation relating to the postal sector. They will also be taught how to adapt their business practices so they can compete successfully in the enlarged Union. The project works on a “training the trainers” model; this means that the people who benefit directly from the ACTIN training sessions will be able to go back to their home countries and businesses and pass on the knowledge they have acquired.
 
 
Project Partners and Funding
The ACTIN project is supported by the European Commission under its BSP2 Business Support Programme, a part of the PHARE initiative, and is coordinated by PostEurop (the Association of European Public Postal Operators), in cooperation with FEDMA and IPALMO (an Italian Research Institute). In addition to this, the national postal operators in the following countries are participating in the project as associated partners or observers:

EU Partners – Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands and Portugal.

and the Slovak Republic.
 
Observers – Cyprus, Malta and Turkey.
 
 
Project Objectives
  • Strengthening the remaining harmonisation process and culture of Postal Operators in the candidate Countries to the requirements of the EU Internal Market, including the postal directives and quality standards, as well as the broad enlargement policies and programmes of the EU.
 
  • Increasing the Candidate Country Postal Operators’ role by assisting their business relations and strengthening their capacity to deal with enlargement whilst supporting the interests of the wider postal industry, SMEs, social partners and involved institutions, in bridging the remaining gaps in the implementation of the relevant internal market acquis.
 
  • Fully familiarising target business organisations with the relevant Internal Market acquis together with its implications regarding industrial changes (growth of goods and business support services, quality control / assessment, total quality management, up-grading of national performance indicators) and business development capacity (new products development and access to value added services, ICT applications, benchmarking, exchange of business excellence models customised for businesses and local communities, economic / social impact analysis).
 
  • Strengthening the EU / Candidate Country Postal Operators’ existing twinning relations.
 
The Project in Practice
The first task of the project partners was to carry out an analysis of the training needs of the participating accession countries. Using information gathered during this exercise, a set of training tools and information kits on the internal market and postal acquis will be designed.
 
A broad range of experts will then carry out training sessions for representatives of the Candidate country posts and stakeholders. Two sessions will take place in Brussels, and one will take place in each of the participating candidate countries. The results of the project will then be disseminated in each of the candidate countries.
 
 
Contact ACTIN
ACTIN Project Manager
PostEurop Headquarters
Avenue du Bourget 44
1130 Brussels
Belgium

Tel: +32 2 724 7280
Fax: +32 2 726 3008
E-mail: actin@posteurop.org or go to the: Actin website
 
 
Past Bulletins:  
24 March 2004 - First Training Session held in Brussels - Read the Press Release in English or French
Central and Eastern European Country Partners – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania