26. Calls on the Member States, supported by the Commission and in coordination with local and regional authorities, to pay attention to better management of human resources by making further efforts to attract and retain qualified staff to manage EU funds, by promoting high-quality training for them, and by avoiding any replacement of staff unless this is strictly necessary and guided by the sole aim of improving their effectiveness and consequently the absorption capacity; recalls in this regard the possibilities for using funds from the ESF and technical assistance for building capacity necessary for programme im ...[+++]plementation and follow-up; stresses the importance of one-stop shops at decentralised level to assist the partners in the programme; calls on the Member States to create ‘European One-Stop Shops’ as close as possible to the citizens with a view to helping with Cohesion Fund applications, both for local authorities and EU citizens;

The customs authorities may provide technical cooperation to each other and exchange personnel and expertise on measures to improve customs techniques and procedures and on computerised systems with a view towards achieving these objectives in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement.

The Info Points Europe and Carrefour information networks will, of course, continue to benefit from the technical assistance that the Commission intends to step up within the framework of the enlarged EU, in particular in the form of: free supply of documentation and publications for the general public (around 1 500 000 copies a year – EUR 15), access to the relays and networks intranet, specialist assistance via a relays and networks help desk (at an annual cost of around EUR 1 500 000 – EUR 15), free staff training courses (800 person/days a ye ...[+++]ar – EUR 15), events and networking, in particular regular coordination meetings, visits, exchange programmes for relay staff (over 1 000 person/days a year – EUR 15) and original information products tailored to their specific needs.

The customs authorities may provide technical assistance to each other and exchange personnel and expertise on measures to improve customs techniques and procedures and on computerised systems with a view towards achieving these objectives in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement.

technical assistance to help implement the actions, including from expatriate and local staff;

* The parties should also agree to co-operate on the protection of personal data in order to improve the level of protection, and to work towards the elimination of obstacles to the free movement of personal data between the parties, created by insufficient protection of personal data. Co-operation on personal data protection may include, inter alia, technical assistance in the form of exchange of information and experts.