What is TAIEX?
TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) is a key European Union instrument for institutional capacity-building worldwide, providing targeted and rapid support to public administrations in EU candidate countries and beyond. As a cornerstone of EU integration efforts, TAIEX plays a pivotal role in accelerating legal and regulatory alignment with EU standards, strengthening governance frameworks, and driving socio-economic reforms. By drawing on the expertise of public sector from all 27 EU Member States, it fosters peer-to-peer exchanges, facilitates best practice sharing, and builds institutional resilience, ensuring that partner countries are equipped to implement meaningful and lasting reforms.
A key objective of TAIEX is to accelerate the Enlargement process, helping candidate countries align with EU laws and implement the essential reforms required for EU membership. At the same time, TAIEX extends its impact beyond Enlargement, supporting partner countries across the world in addressing critical challenges such as digital transformation, climate resilience, public health, economic modernisation and sound business environments.
With nearly 30 years of expertise, TAIEX stands as one of the most successful examples of Team Europe in action, uniting practitioners across EU Member States and partner countries in a shared vision of cooperation, trust, and progress.
How TAIEX Supports Accession Countries?
Facilitating Accession Negotiations
- Prepares governments for screening and negotiations, addressing legal, technical, and institutional gaps.
- Supports compliance with opening, interim, and closing benchmarks in accession negotiations.
- Assists in implementing recommendations from EU Enlargement Reports to advance reforms.
Aligning Laws with the EU Acquis
- Provides expert guidance on drafting, implementing, and enforcing EU-compliant laws.
- Identifies gaps in national legislation and supports alignment with EU policies.
- Facilitates legal harmonisation in justice, economy, trade, digital transformation, and the environment.
Strengthening Public Institutions
- Enhances the capacity of government institutions to implement and monitor reforms effectively.
- Provides strategic support for public administration reform, increasing transparency, resilience and efficiency.
- Reinforces anti-corruption frameworks and judicial reforms to uphold the rule of law.
- Builds long-term administrative capacity to sustain reforms beyond the accession process.
- Helps establish independent regulatory bodies and oversight mechanisms to ensure compliance with EU standards.
Advancing Growth Plans and Reform Agendas
- Supports the implementation of Growth Plans to boost socio-economic convergence with the EU.
- Helps design and execute Reform Agendas, ensuring progress in priority sectors.
- Strengthens policies to meet EU economic, governance, and institutional requirements.
Supporting gradual Integration
- Assists in aligning economic policies, trade laws, and competition rules with the EU Single Market.
- Helps establish a predictable regulatory environment, fostering investment and economic growth.
- Strengthens financial governance and risk management for long-term fiscal stability.
Promoting Regional Stability and Cooperation
- Encourages cross-border collaboration among candidate countries.
- Enhances cooperation in critical areas such as migration, security, energy, and infrastructure development.
Countering Disinformation and Engaging the Public
- Assists national institutions in developing clear, fact-based communication strategies on EU accession.
- Helps counter disinformation and misinformation, reinforcing public trust in the enlargement process.
TAIEX Modalities
- Workshops: EU Member State experts present specific areas of EU legislation to a large number of beneficiary officials.
- Expert missions: EU Member States experts are sent to a peer beneficiary administration to provide in-depth advice on the transposition, implementation or enforcement of a specific part of EU legislation.
- Study visits: a small group of practitioners from a beneficiary administration visit an EU Member State’s peer administration.
- Review of legal texts: as part of the accession negotiation.
- Peer reviews: Combination of work from home and expert missions. Peer review missions are very useful to assess the overall state of play in a policy or sector.
Who Benefits from TAIEX?
TAIEX extends its expertise, support, and cooperation across a diverse network of beneficiaries, strengthening public administrations and fostering international partnerships. Its mandate covers:
- EU Neighbourhood and Enlargement Partners – Supporting countries on their path to EU membership and deeper integration (ENEST).
- Global Development and International Partnerships – Assisting partner countries and territories in advancing key reforms (INTPA).
- North Africa and Middle East (MENA) Partners – Strengthening governance, stability, and sectoral cooperation in the region.
- Turkish Cypriot Community – Providing targeted assistance to enhance institutional capacity in the northern part of Cyprus.
- EU Member States in the framework of administrative cooperation with DG for Regional and Urban Policy (REGIO), DG Environment (ENV), and the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) to help Member States implement their national recovery and resilience plans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (post COVID-19 crisis).
No matter the region, TAIEX delivers fast, flexible, and impactful support to drive institutional reform and policy alignment.
Apply for TAIEX Assistance: Strengthen Your Public Administration
TAIEX provides targeted, rapid, and practical support to public servants working in national administrations and public bodies, helping them align with EU standards, implement reforms, and enhance governance.
Who Can Apply?
- National administrations and public bodies in eligible countries.
- EU institutions and services requesting support for public sector cooperation.
TAIEX does not provide direct support to civil society organisations, private citizens, or companies.
How to Apply?
- Submit your application at any time - requests are reviewed on a rolling basis to ensure fast and efficient support.
Find Inspiration: Explore the TAIEX Experience
Curious how TAIEX can support your institution? Thousands of public sector professionals have already benefited from TAIEX, aligning policies with EU best practices.
Search the TAIEX Database to explore past activities, event agendas, and real-world case studies tailored to your needs.
Join TAIEX as an Expert: Share Knowledge, Drive Change
Are you a public official from an EU Member State eager to share your expertise and shape international governance? Become a TAIEX expert and help public administrations in candidate and partner countries align with EU standards and best practices.
- Inspire change – Lead workshops, expert missions, and study visits.
- Expand your impact – Support key reforms in law, governance, economy, and beyond.
- Connect & collaborate – Join a prestigious network of public sector professionals across Europe.
Your expertise can transform institutions. Take the next step today!
Register as TAIEX Expert and be part of the change!
For more details, check the Frequently Asked Questions.
Where Can TAIEX Make an Impact?
TAIEX supports all Chapters of the EU Acquis and EU best practices, including:
- Justice and Home Affairs
- Public Administration Reform
- Economic and Financial Policies
- Environmental and Energy Standards
- Digital Transformation
- Trade and Market Regulation
The TAIEX instrument delivers assistance across the agriculture, food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary and fisheries sectors.
The timely provision of targeted expert help is of particular importance in the veterinary sector. Disease control simulation exercises, both before an outbreak of disease and a rapid deployment of experts immediately after disease detection, have been of significant benefit for the participants.
Priorities for agricultural policy assistance are centred on the establishment and development of paying agencies, delegated national institutions charged with the responsibility of administering trade mechanisms and processing farm support payments, from the application stage through to verification, payment and audit. Furthermore guidance is given on the implementation and enforcement of the Common Organisation of the Markets and a range of policy areas from state aids and rural development to quality issues such as the protection of geographical indications and organic farming standards.
Strengthening the European Union as an area of freedom, security and justice without internal borders continues to be a priority and it is a model that TAIEX assistance contributes to export.
The range of legislation is wide, covering issues such as free movement of persons, visa policy, EU external borders policy, Schengen area, immigration, asylum, judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters, drugs policy coordination, data protection, fundamental rights, racism and xenophobia, police and customs cooperation, crime prevention, fight against organised crime.
At the same time, the target groups remain varied and diverse, composed not only of officials of the Ministries of Justice and the Ministries of Interior but very often includes those who have to apply the acquis in their daily work: judges, prosecutors, police officials, other law enforcement agencies, border guards, officials from migration and asylum authorities, customs departments, etc.
Classical TAIEX assistance or support via the Environment and Climate Regional Accession Network (ECRAN) is provide to our beneficiaries in all fields covered by the environmental legislation (air quality, waste management, nature protection, chemicals, industrial pollution and climate change).
Environment and energy are key policies closely linked as production of energy has an impact on the environment and the climate. The topics addressed go from renewable energy and energy savings to market liberalisation in the oil, gas and electricity sectors.
In the area of transport, sectors covered include maritime, inland and aviation including joint programmes with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC).
Technical knowledge is also transferred on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its market regulation. TAIEX activities are organised on topics such as electronic communication, number portability, broadband infrastructure and postal services.
Activities cover a vast array of acquis measures related to the internal market: four freedoms, public procurement, company law, intellectual property rights issues, competition issues including state aids, competition policy, financial services, taxation, EMU, statistics, social and employment policy, SMEs and industry, regional policy and structural funds, science and research, education culture, sports and youth, financial and budgetary provisions, financial control and public administration reforms.
Against the backdrop of EU measures already taken, aimed at ending the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community by encouraging economic development, the TAIEX instrument has been designated as the vehicle for implementing all technical assistance to support the preparation of the Turkish Cypriot community's ability to apply EU legislation. The main objective of TAIEX assistance to the Turkish Cypriot community, in the framework of cooperation with the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission, is to assist with the preparation of legislative and enforcement capacity so that the EU acquis will be immediately applicable upon the entry into force of a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus situation.
To support this programme, TAIEX engages Member State experts in many of the thematic areas of the EU acquis in order to support the revision and implementation of legislation and standards; provide advice on the necessary changes to policies and strategies so as to facilitate their enactment in the relevant thematic areas; and provide guidance on procedures to ensure effective implementation and enforcement of the legislation and standards.
In order to provide the necessary assistance, assessment missions aimed at evaluating both legislation and administrative capacity and at developing in close cooperation with local counterparts, a structured plan for future technical assistance, are undertaken. Following on from these, Medium-term expert missions are undertaken to implement the agreed plans and to support capacity building and development of key co-ordination structures within the Turkish Cypriot community. Study visits to the Member State of the experts may also be undertaken, these allow the local counterparts to be provided with practical experience of the legislation and systems implemented in the Member State of the experts.
The TAIEX-REGIO Peer 2 Peer was created in cooperation with Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. It facilitates short-term exchange of know-how between cohesion policy experts and administrations involved in the management of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund in all Member States. It is part of the Commission's broader effort to help Member States strengthen their administrative capacity. Public sector institutions involved in the management of the ERDF or Cohesion Fund can request support.
As under the TAIEX instrument, three types of exchanges can be provided: short-term expert missions, study visits and workshops.
The tool is easy to use and flexible. The application can be submitted online, the main information required is:
- the type of exchange requested
- a short explanation of the need for assistance; the objective of the exchange for the applicant; the topics of interest
- a designated contact person and the profiles of the potential participants
- an estimated timeframe during which the exchange could be organised
More information:
TAIEX-TSI Peer 2 Peer is an instrument managed in cooperation with the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) of the European Commission, to implement part of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI). The instrument provides short-term exchanges of best practice between public sector experts of EU Member States through Expert Missions, Study Visits and Workshops. It aims to support EU Member States to carry out their institutional, administrative and structural reforms, in order to build up more effective institutions, stronger governance frameworks and efficient public administrations.
TAIEX-TSI Peer to Peer is only available to EU Member States that benefit from projects selected under the TSI and the technical support covers the entire reform process, from preparation and design to implementation and completion of reforms. For more information on how your Public Administration can benefit from the technical support under the TSI, please see here.
The Environmental Implementation Review (EIR) has mapped for each EU Member State the main challenges in the implementation of European environmental policy and legislation as well as existing good practices and points of excellence. In order to improve the implementation of environmental standards TAIEX-EIR Peer 2 Peer has been established as a new, practical tool that facilitates peer-to-peer learning between environmental authorities of EU Member States at all levels. TAIEX-EIR Peer 2 Peer provides tailored support to Member States' environmental authorities so their staff members can benefit directly from the experience of peers in other countries and regions. Across Europe, there are thousands of public experts working in environmental authorities who possess a wealth of knowledge and invaluable know-how. TAIEX-EIR Peer 2 Peer helps to share this expertise and good practice between Member States.
TAIEX-EIR Peer 2 Peer arranges expert missions, study visits and workshops with participants from environmental authorities from the national, regional and local level of EU Member States. The expert exchanges can address all issues covered by the EIR country reports: for example circular economy and waste management, nature protection, biodiversity, green infrastructure and soil protection, improvement of air quality, water quality and management, sustainable urban development. They can also deal with common root causes of implementation gaps, such as administrative capacity, skills, governance and coordination mechanisms or similar issues. Applications can come from environmental authorities of all levels.
More information, including the online application tool can be found on the TAIEX-EIR Peer 2 Peer website.
TAIEX INTPA geographically extends the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument (TAIEX) to partner countries and territories covered by Directorate-General for International Partnerships.
It provides rapidly mobilised short-term technical support using European Union Member States’ public sector experts in response to requests for assistance from public institutions or EU Delegations in partner countries. TAIEX events can be organised at the national and/or regional level and the request can be for a single event or a sequence of TAIEX events.
In order to ensure the maximum impact, TAIEX INTPA aims at strengthening the national development policy context. It supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, in line with the EU commitments to the Agenda 2030. TAIEX INTPA events will also be designed in synergy with other technical cooperation modalities active in the partner country.
Under the TAIEX instrument, the following types of activities can be organised: short-term expert missions, study visits, workshops, which can also be implemented online.
To learn more, you can watch the promotional videos for TAIEX INTPA (available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese), download the TAIEX INTPA leaflet in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese or near-taiex-intpa
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (contact us).”