What is ENTO?
ENTO is a European Network of Training Organisations for local and regional authorities from almost all of the 39 Council of Europe member States. There are currently over 70 member organisations.
ENTO is a "child of the Council of Europe" although it "grew up" into an independent organisation in January 1995 when it was registered in France.
Its main aim is to develop the capacity of local and regional authorities to fulfill their roles by ensuring that their staff are well trained and qualified and can undertake their duties in a democratic, legal, professional and efficient manner. In pursuing this aim ENTO is seeking also to support the Council of Europe's and the European Union's work for better standards of public administration all over Europe.
The office of ENTO is in Strasbourg and from here the day to day administration is carried out. Overall management is the responsibility of the Bureau which has nine members, each from a different country. Bureau members are elected for a period of two years by the membership at the General Assembly, once elected they select the President, Vice President(s) and Treasurer from their number.
ENTO is a non-profit making and an NGO. It is financed from membership fees, sponsorship from some of the member organisations and the Council of Europe also provides financial support. Member organisations also support ENTO through the provision of staff, equipment and resources.
The benefits of ENTO membership
As is the case in many networks the membership of ENTO is diverse, some organisations are long-established with extensive experience in training while others are relatively new, members work within and across different national systems and member organisations have different specialisms.
It is this diversity that gives rise to the benefits of membership, including:
- Contacts across Europe who can help with obtaining information and getting in touch with other people and organisations in their country
- Opportunities for exchange of ideas and experience with others working in a similar field
- A pool of people with expertise in training and development, research, political administration, training resource development
- The opportunity to share training and teaching materials and resources
- Assistance and support from fellow members in developing and implementing activities
- Developing bi-lateral and multi-lateral partnerships for funding applications, proposals and responses to tenders
- Being invited to join missions, seminars and other activities within projects/programmes of the Council of Europe and the European Union
- Opportunities for organising placements, study tours and exchanges with members in other countries for training organisation staff and/or staff of local and regional authorities
ENTO activities
- We discise one or two seminars each year on topical issues for the management of local and regional authorities, focussing particularly on the implications for training and development services. Each seminar is hosted by an ENTO member and is held in a different European country.
- We publish a newsletter with details of the network's activities, updates on the Council of Europe's and the European Union's work, information about members and their activities, articles of general interest, opportunities for members to publicise their activities and products and to request help or information from other members.
- We publish a Directory that provides details of all member organisations including contact names, addresses, telephone/fax/E-mail numbers, description of the organisations, their objectives and activities.
- We facilitate partnerships among the membership.
- We encourage exchanges of the staff and elected representatives of local and regional authorities, trainees, teachers and students.
- We help members with setting up study tours to other countries by providing contacts and information.
- We act as brokers between "experts" and the Council of Europe/EU in respect of staffing projects funded by the Council and the EU.
- We support various kinds of research in the area of European public administration.
