Job Description
Providing legal and technical expertise to strengthen the approximation, alignment, and transposition of national legislation with the EU acquis, ensuring consistency with EU standards and accession requirements.
The Project “Support to European Integration of North Macedonia” supports North Macedonia’s EU accession negotiations and strengthens the country’s capacity to manage the overall European Union (EU) integration process. The Project is funded by Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the Ministry for European Affairs, and is implemented by United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
The Project’s goal is to enhance the country’s preparedness for EU membership by strengthening institutional capacities, coordination mechanisms, good governance, and public engagement in the EU reform process. In this context, the Project supports the Government to further strengthen its institutional, technical, and administrative capacity to advance EU accession priorities.
The Project will reinforce structured coordination among institutions responsible for the National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA) and promote the consistent and effective use of key law-approximation instruments, including the Table of Concordance and the Statement of Compliance. It will address institutional, procedural, and human-resource constraints that limit the quality and pace of approximation of national legislation with EU law, as well as the administrative capacity needed for effective implementation and enforcement. While the legal and institutional framework for approximation is in place, persistent challenges remain - particularly in analytical capacity for planning and sequencing legal acts within the NPAA, and in the accurate and consistent application of approximation instruments across institutions.
Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Capacity Building Specialist will provide legal and technical expertise to the Legislation Secretariat (LS), Ministry for European Affairs and national authorities to strengthen the approximation, alignment, and transposition of national legislation with the EU acquis, ensuring consistency with EU standards and accession requirements.
The assignment will also support the operationalisation of transposition frameworks and tools and reinforce institutional capacity through hands-on coaching and targeted trainings/workshops, including practical application of key approximation instruments (e.g., tables of concordance and related compliance tools) and good practices from completed accession processes
Functions
1. Senior legal and strategic advisory support on approximation/transposition
- Provide subject-matter legal expertise to beneficiary institutions on approximation, alignment, and transposition of national legislation with the EU acquis, ensuring coherence and consistency with EU standards and accession requirements
- Review existing national transposition frameworks, methodologies, guidelines, and supporting tools; benchmark against best practices from completed EU accession processes; identify gaps and areas for improvement.
- Participate in development of concrete, actionable recommendations to improve the quality, clarity, coherence, and usability of transposition guidance and tools.
2. Hands-on support to approximation outputs and quality assurance
- Support the preparation, review, and quality assurance of key approximation outputs, including legal gap assessments, tables of concordance, draft legislation, and related policy documents
- Provide practical, on-the-job technical support to relevant counterparts in applying approximation instruments and verifying the level of compliance, and flag issues requiring further follow-up/assistance.
3. Capacity Building and Institutional Strengthening
- Support beneficiary institutions to update/refine and operationalise transposition frameworks and guidance through tailored coaching and structured advisory support.
- Prepare and deliver targeted capacity-building activities (trainings, workshops, coaching sessions) for national institutions, using practical examples and applied learning.
- Promote integration of comparative accession experience into national practice, strengthening consistent application of transposition methodologies across sectors/institutions.
4. Coordination, documentation, and reporting
- Support coordination processes through technical meetings/consultations and structured follow-up, and prepare meeting records and concise progress updates.
Expected outputs
- Legal and strategic advisory inputs delivered to beneficiary institutions on the approximation, alignment, and transposition of national legislation with the EU acquis.
- Assessment reports reviewing existing national transposition frameworks, methodologies, guidelines, and supporting tools, including comparative analysis against best practices from completed EU accession processes.
- Recommendations package to improve the quality, coherence, and usability of transposition frameworks and guidance documents, aligned with EU standards and European Commission expectations.
- Updated and operationalised transposition frameworks and guidance materials, incorporating agreed recommendations and applied in practice by beneficiary institutions.
- Capacity-building activities delivered, including trainings, coaching sessions, and practical guidance materials, contributing to strengthened institutional capacity and consistent application of transposition methodologies across sectors.
