Twinning

What is Twinning?

Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between public administrations of EU Member States and partner countries through peer to peer exchanges.

Twinning empowers civil servants around the world to implement more effective and efficient public policies. In this way, Twinning serves as a catalyst for social and economic growth in partner countries. It also helps deal with uncertainty and build sound business and administrative environments.

Twinning cooperation projects lasts for up to 3 years and are focused on achieving concrete mandatory operational results for the benefit of the partner country. Twinning is a strong geopolitical tool for building ecosystems, creating opportunities and shaping reform processes thus translating priorities into action. It is also a human adventure based on mutual trust between practitioners from the EU Member States and Partners countries, making EU a reality.

Twinning beneficiaries and partners

Twinning  assists partner countries and territories covered by:

• the EU’s enlargement and Eastern neighbourhood policies (ENEST),
• the international partnership and development policy (INTPA),
• and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Objectives and timeline

Since 1998, Twinning supports the transposition, implementation and enforcement of the EU body of legislation (the Union acquis). With its special focus on supporting the EU accession process and preparing candidate countries for EU Membership, Twinning builds up capacities of beneficiary countries' public administrations. Twinning strives to share good practices developed within the EU with beneficiary public administrations and fosters long-term relationships between EU and partner countries’ administrations even beyond the lifecycle of a Twinning project.

Since 2004, the Twinning also assists the EU’s southern and eastern neighbours. Twinning helps upgrade administrative capacities of partner countries through the on-the-job training of its civil servants and support to institutional modernisation and reorganisation. It also assists in the approximation of national laws, regulations and quality standards to those of EU Member States in the framework of cooperation or association agreements signed with the EU in line with their relevant reform agendas.

Since 2020, Twinning is also available to partner countries and territories covered by the EU’s international partnership and development policy (INTPA). Twinning supports the implementation of national development strategies in line with EU standards, contributing to the Global Gateway strategy, the achievement of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Twinning INTPA complements the existent EU development toolbox, working in synergy with other technical cooperation modalities.

Transferring expertise

To set up Twinning projects, the European Union relies on the cooperation and administrative experience of EU Member States.

Two Project Leaders (one on behalf of the EU Member State leading the project, the other from the beneficiary administration) and a Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) are the backbone of Twinning projects. The RTA is seconded to the beneficiary administration for the entire implementation period and coordinates the project's activities.

Twinning step by step

To request a Twinning project, please contact the EU delegation in your country.

1. Once a partner country and the Commission decide that Twinning is the appropriate instrument to support reforms within the public administration, a Twinning fiche is prepared and a call for proposals is launched to all EU countries.
2. After receiving the proposals, a selection committee awards the project either to a single Member State or a consortium. This committee also includes representatives from the partner country.
3. Two project leaders, a Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) and an RTA counterpart in the partner administration are responsible for the implementation. The RTA is seconded to the partner institution for the full duration of the project. In addition, subject matter experts from all EU Member States are mobilised to support project implementation.
4. Evaluation. All Twinning projects are reviewed 6-12 months after their implementation.

How to prepare a Twinning project?

• Define clear objectives and concrete results the project should achieve.
• Make sure that the project is accompanying the reforms that are mature and part of the EU-partner country joint policy agenda.
• Ensure that there is political consensus on the reforms and the management buy-in at the beneficiary institution.
• Check that there is a clear advantage of using public sector expertise. 
• The beneficiary institution needs to be sufficiently staffed in order to deliver on its mission and on the objectives of the project.
• The mandatory results need to be realistic, attainable within the project duration and budget, and accompanied with well-defined indicators of achievement.

Twinning principles

The beneficiary administration in a Twinning project is a public administration with sufficient staff and absorption capacity to work with a Member State institution having a similar structure and mandate. The beneficiary country must mobilise its staff, demonstrate enduring commitment and ownership and take on board changes and best practices in a sustainable way. Twinning is not a one-way technical assistance instrument but a shared commitment.

Twinning projects are implemented with a view to the mandatory results to be achieved. They are usually structured in components corresponding to the expected results and foresee a number of activities including workshops, training sessions, expert missions, study visits, internships and counselling. Twinning relies on ‘learning by doing’ and sharing of best practices among public sector peers.

Twinning Light

"Twinning Light" is designed to offer a more flexible, mid-term approach (up to eight months, in exceptional cases can be extended to ten months) without the presence of an RTA.