Photo: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock
The very first Twinning project in North Macedonia implemented in 2004-2005 provided a real breakthrough experience for the Macedonian administration in terms of the acquis and all the steps needed in the country's accession to the EU. The Twinning partner, Slovenia, was very enthusiastic about providing its very fresh accession experience. Sharing the same legal system in the past, the Slovenian counterparts provided very frank advice on the ways forward in the EU accession process. It was a very complex Twinning project with an extensive team consisting of 64 experts coming to assist various institutions in North Macedonia.
Project outcomes include an electronic archiving application and database at the Secretariat of Legislation as well as numerous law amendment proposals, including the Law on Civil Servants and amending the rules of procedure Macedonian Assembly.
Here is how the project is remembered today by the two project leaders, Andrej Engelman, Former Deputy Minister for European affairs from Slovenia and Dragan Tilev, State Counselor for EU Affairs from North Macedonia:
Andrej Engelman: It was the first Slovenian Twinning, launched just a few months after our accession to the EU. Slovenian experts were very keen to share their very fresh knowledge and experiences. On the Macedonian side, they were met by partners who were highly motivated to receive assistance and implement the proposed recommendations. I am convinced that these two facts were key to the successful implementation of the project. The project has achieved many results: coordination structures for EU accession were established within the Government and with the Parliament, draft laws and guidance documents in the field of Internal Market were prepared; a terminology database was set up, nomotechnical guidelines for the transposition of the acquis have been drawn up, and last but not least, knowledge and awareness about the EU were substantially raised among the Macedonian administration. For me, however, the most valuable outcome of the project is the long-lasting partnership between experts. We are still in contact and regularly exchange our views even 18 years after the project has ended.
Dragan Tilev: The Macedonian first-ever Twinning project is one of the best experiences in my long professional career working on the EU integration process of my country. It was successful to the level that has exceeded all our expectations. Implemented in 2004-2005, at a time full of euro-enthusiasm, right after the historic Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, when, besides the promised EU perspective, we were allowed for the first time to benefit from the TAIEX and Twinning. Thanks to the assistance and guidance from the Slovenian administration, we successfully completed the Questionnaire and became a candidate country in 2005, completely ready to start accession negotiations in 2006. Slovenian relevant experience helped us to reorganise our EU integration institutional coordination mechanism and to raise the level of the Sector of EU integration to a level of the Secretariat for European Affairs at the beginning of 2005. The established EU coordination structure is still in place and fully functional, which shows that the project is sustainable up to the present day. The work of the Twinning project in the Parliament was really a pioneering effort, and the three-day workshop was even broadcast on television. The experience and knowledge of Slovenian experts, thanks to excellent project leadership and precise planning, were also spread throughout several line ministries responsible in the area of the internal market, one of the most important sectors within the EU-North Macedonia Stabilisation and Association Agreement. The friendship established through this Twinning lasts over all these years to the current day, and was a kind of entry ticket for further assistance in the following years.
Project title: Approximation of Legislation to the Internal Market acquis
Project ID: MK 00 IB FI 01, 2004-2005