Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 12/5/2007
Twinning Projects: Analyzing the Experience of "Old" EU Member States and Evaluating Benefits of Twinning Out for the Czech Republic
November 2006
Institute of International Relations Prague
Abstract
Twinning has become the cornerstone of the European Union’s assistance to Acceding, Candidate or Potential Candidate Countries. Recently, Twinning has also started benefiting countries included in the programme of enhanced co-operation1 (European Neighbourhood Policy countries). The original aim of Twinning was and largely remains to be the building of capacity of these countries to adopt, implement and enforce the full acquis communautaire before joining the European Union (EU).
Being the instrument of choice for the European Commission (EC) in assisting Beneficiary Countries with their accession-related duties, Twinning helps the EU applicants and potential joiners to:
“reform, adapt, and strengthen their public institutions in order to apply well the EU rules and procedures (…) and benefit fully from membership of the Union” (European Commission 2006: 4).
Twinning was first launched in May 1998 and has become one of the key tools of institution building assistance within the larger context of enlargement initiatives. Twinning is a close and specific cooperation between a Beneficiary Country (BC) and a Member State (MS) to help BCs to develop modern and efficient administrations capable of applying the acquis.
