Twinning is an initiative of the European Commission that was launched in 1998 in the context of the preparation for enlargement of the European Union. It was conceived as an instrument for targeted administrative co-operation to assist Candidate Countries (CC) to strengthen their administrative and judicial capacity to implement Community legislation as future Member States (MS) of the European Union. Since 1998 more than 1000 Twinning projects have been implemented in theCC and financed under PHARE or other pre-accession instruments. Twinning continues to play a vital role in the context of Institution Building in the new MS under the Transition Facility (TF) and it remains a crucial Institution building instrument in the present CC (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey). CARDS Twinning started in the summer of 2002 for certain Institution Building programmes, mainly in Justice and Home Affairs. One of the conclusions of the Thessalonica Summit was to enable CARDS countries to participate in Twinning Programme. Support will be continued under the new proposed Instrument Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance-IPA.

Twinning projects basic principles:

• As a rule, the beneficiary countries (BC) choose their Member State (MS) partners;
• Twinning projects must yield a concrete operational result in terms of the BC meeting a requirement in connection with the EU acquis or other EU policies open for co-operation;
• The Twinning partners (the public sector actors involved) commit themselves to achieving the result, and not only to the means to achieve it. At the end of the project a new or adapted system must function under the sole responsibility and means of the BC;
• Twinning is a joint project of a grant nature. It is not a one-way delivery of Technical Assistance from a MS to a BC. It is a joint project covering a process, in which each partner takes on responsibilities. The BC commits itself to undertaking and funding reforms, the MS to accompanying the process for the duration of the project;
• To underpin the credibility of their commitment, the Twinning partners draft a detailed Twinning work plan, before starting work. It may be adapted in the course of its implementation, but it must fix clear benchmarks to allow for close monitoring of progress towards the final result;
• Twinning projects are implemented to achieve a mandatory result through the transfer of hands-on public sector experience and expertise. The final and sole ownership of this mandatory result lies with the BC.

• Twinning (as with Technical Assistance) should not be demand driven but should be based on real needs and priorities,
  

• Serious consideration should be given to preparatory projects, either through TA or Twinning light,
  

• The question should always be asked ‘is this a case for technical assistance or twinning?’ Does the will and the resources exist on the counterpart side, is there commitment?
  

• Twinningis not ‘hands off’ but sometimes more time consuming than technical assistance; however as with TA, the better the preparation of twinning the greater the likelihood of success,
  

• Counterparts must have in place a sound understanding of what the EC Integration issues are – Twinning is chiefly driven by the acquis communautaire,
  

• The fiche is critically important and must be well designed – there are many examples of badly prepared documents and use of the checklist (available on intranet) can help this process to prepare better fiches,
  

• The quality of the contract and its ownership is vitally important,
  

• The legitimacy, communication & management skills, and credibility of the resident twinning advisor is crucial and also the role of assistant to the RTA is especially important – sometimes former civil servants have poor contacts at home and can’t deliver on results,
  

• Twinningpromotes ownership – but sometimes this is undeveloped,
  

• TwinningLight has elsewhere been used when needs were urgent or specific e.g. in Estonia prior to Enlargement. In this context use of Twinning Light has to be carefully assessed,
  

• A successful twinning has a committed Member State, with real expertise in the specific topic (e.g. Spain on Fishing polices.) MS selection is not always carried out on quality of proposals.
  

1. Internalidentification of priorities and drafting of project fiches (including Twinning fiches)
   

2. Consultations with the representatives of the Delegation of the European Commission
   

3. Completion of the Annual Programme of Support
   

4. Reviewing of Twinning Fiches with reference to the Twinning rules by the Twinning Coordination Team at Headquarters in DG Enlargement.
   

5. Sending of the Twinning fiches to the NCPs (deadline for reception of proposals for the implementation of the project defined)
   

6. Selection of the submitted proposals by Selection Committee (BC and Delegation)
   

7. The Commission- Delegation communicates the final choices of the BC to the MS partners individually-green light for the administrations involved to proceed with the drafting of the Twinning Work Plan (BC and MS).
   

8. Approval of Twinning Work Plan by Twinning Coordination Team
   

9. Signing of twinning Work plan
   

10. Signing of Twinning contract
    

11. Start of the project
    

Procedure for the following Twining projects is expected to start upon singing the Financial Agreement for the CARDS Programme 2006 (expected in June 2006.

• Support for the Supreme Audit Institution
  

• Support to the Commission for the Protection of Competition
  

• Support for Ministry of International Economic Relations
  

• Support for Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy
  

• Support for National Employment Service
  

• Twinning for implementation of Integrated Border Management Strategy
  

• Twinning for Bureau for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs