User:Consultant2756

Twinning is a European Commission initiative that was originally designed to help candidate countries acquire the necessary skills and experience to adopt, implement and enforce EU legislation. Since 2003, twinning has been available to most of the Newly Independent States of Eastern Europe and to countries of the Mediterranean region. The first NIS country that started twinning (in 2006) was Ukraine, where in June 2009 more than 40 project initiatives and twinning projects were in the pipeline. Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of enhancing co-operative activities. They must yield concrete operational results for the beneficiary country under the terms of the Association Agreement between that country and the EU. In addition to meeting requirements laid down in the EU’s agreements with third countries, twinning must also aim at developing structural reforms. Projects must also include some elements relating to the adoption of EU legislation. An approximation to the acquis communautaire is called for, rather than full integration of EU legislation as was demanded of the candidate countries. The local partner in a twinning should be represented by a public body that is capable of working with an EU Member State organisation which has a similar structure and function. The beneficiary country partner must be able to adapt and take on board change: the twinning project is not about the EU providing one-way technical assistance. However, in most of the NIS countries the EC launched special technical assistance support projects, (such as the ‘Implementation of Twinning Operations in Ukraine – ITO’ project) to help stakeholders to bring about good results in their twinning operations and in improving their absorption capacity.