TACIS (Russian Federation) Nuc

In February 1995 the European Commission and Minatom - on behalf of the Russian Federation signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which the establishment of a Joint Management Unit was agreed in order to facilitate effective preparation and implementation of the TACIS programme and projects, to provide administrative assistance, and to carry out overall technical co-ordination and monitoring in the field of nuclear safety in the Russian Federation. The actual establishment of the Joint Management Unit (JMU) began with effect of 15 December 1997. It was funded under two separate contracts (25073 and 25074) for budgetary reasons because the finance was provided through two different budget years.

The main counterparts of JMU within the TACIS programme during the course of the present contract were:

The Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation (MINATOM).
The European Commission (EC), mainly the Common Service for External Relations (SCR) and the Directorate General (DG) External Relations (Relex), located in Brussels, who have the overall responsibility for project funding and project management.
The Federal Authority of Russia for Nuclear and Radiation Safety: Gosatomnadzor.
The EC Delegation in the Russian Federation located in Moscow as a direct extension of the EU.
The EC DG - Transport and Energy (former DGVII and DGXVII), DG Environment and DG Joint Research Centres (DG JRC of the European Union, in Brussels, Petten, Ispra, Geel, Seville and Karlsruhe).
The Russian Beneficiaries of TACIS projects (mainly Rosenergoaton (REA), Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant (LNPP) located in Moscow and Sosnovy Bor).
The TACIS "Contractors", European (or Russian) companies or institutes who are performing with their Russian Counterparts (Beneficiary, Regulatory Authority, Local Russian Subcontractor) projects contracted by the EC.
The EU Utilities working in the framework of the "on-site-assistance" to Russian NPPs, which is an important section of the TACIS nuclear program.
The TACIS Procurement Agents, working on behalf of the European Commission in order to prepare and perform procurement of equipment from EU to Russia.
The Monitoring Unit, Moscow Office (MOU) who works on behalf of the EC in order to ensure that the various TACIS projects are being achieved in accordance with the respective Terms of Reference.

The JMU function is to provide administrative, technical and logistics assistance in the programming, implementing and supervising stages of the TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme. The outputs of the project impact the successful implementation of the TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme for Russia (both programming and implementation stages).

The objectives of the JMU for the present contract were to:

Facilitate and improve the effectiveness of programme and project preparation/ implementation.
Provide administrative assistance, overall technical co-ordination and monitoring related to TACIS projects and programmes.
Prepare periodic reports to be submitted to the EC, MINATOM, other partner institutions and TACIS Co-ordination Unit.

During the course of the contract, JMU was charged with the provision of administrative, technical and logistic assistance in the following areas:

• Support to the following functions related to the programming of future TACIS projects:

o assistance in the preparation of pre-programming documents with respect to future projects, in consultation with MINATOM, technical agencies and representative groups;
o advising enterprises and Russian organisations on the planning of TACIS programmes in order to facilitate an effective access of a wide range of national participants and effective co-ordination with other national and international programmes;
o providing consulting on request from organisations and individuals/ enterprises on the procedures and documents relative to all the issues of training, implementation and use of results of the TACIS programmes;

• Support to the following functions related to the implementation of TACIS projects:

o securing necessary approvals of project/tendering documentation from the EC, MINATOM, other partner organisations and other participants in project operation;
o reporting and follow-up on bilateral and other donors' programmes and status of progress;
o facilitating and supporting on time involvement of Gosatomnadzor into the licensing process as early as necessary, and when this becomes mandatory according to Russian law;
o maintaining continuous working contacts with the TACIS Monitoring Unit;
o providing assistance in the preparation of proposals for reorientation of projects if necessary (in consultation/ collaboration with the Monitoring Unit);
o providing general advice on means of improving the effectiveness of the general impact / sustainability of projects;
o making proposals to enhance the capacity and professional development of staff involved in programme/project design implementation in Russia in the nuclear safety field;
o periodic reporting to the EC and Minatom;
o maintaining an overall time schedule and status database of all ongoing TACIS projects;
o co-ordination of Russian input to the implementation of the TACIS projects;
o assistance to the preparation and support for the organisation of workshops, executive meetings, ... );

• Assistance related to the TACIS Supervisory Board for the TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme in the Russian Federation

o Support the activities of the TACIS Supervisory Board (TSB) through overall technical co-ordination and monitoring in accordance with the TSB Terms of Reference;
o Facilitate the preparation of all relevant information in the Nuclear Safety area and provide related documents;

• Assistance in the dissemination of the results of the Implemented projects

o Collection / maintenance of databases, printed materials and electronic media containing the results of TACIS projects.
o Provision of assistance to organisations and individuals regarding the dissemination and use of project results.