Twinning and TAIEX
Successful instruments for institution-building and the promotion of partnerships between authorities
Twinning
Within the scope of twinning, experts from Federal Government and Länder authorities are posted to authorities in EU Member States, countries with EU accession prospects and countries in the European neighbourhood, usually for a period of up to two years, in order to work with local experts to promote the establishment of public structures in line with the EU’s administrative practices and European values and standards.
Since the beginning of the Twinning Programme (1998), more than 2,700 twinning projects have been carried out. The BMEL has made good use of this instrument in the past, participating in more than 155 twinning projects.
For further information including announcements and calls for twinning projects, please refer to the National Contact Point for Twinning as well as the EU-Commission.
Interested public-sector staff (current or retired) can obtain detailed information on these projects from division 624. For detailed information (manuals, staff regulations, etc.), please refer to the National Contact Point for Twinning.
TAIEX
TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) is an EU instrument for the short-term and flexible mobilisation of tailor-made expertise. It serves the purpose of supporting public administrations with regard to convergence with, application and enforcement of EU legislation and to simplifying the exchange of reliable administrative practices from EU Member States. A TAIEX measure in the form of an experts’ mission, a workshop or a study visit usually takes 2-5 days. TAIEX can also be used for the preparation and follow-up of twinning projects. In addition, TAIEX can be established in the partner countries in a targeted manner in order to facilitate exchanges. In general, the application must be submitted by the beneficiary country. TAIEX measures are completely financed by the EU.
Further information is available here:
National Contact Point Twinning/TAIEX
EU Commission registration as TAIEX staff
Bilateral twinning projects
Since 2023, the BMEL has also been providing limited funds for bilateral twinning projects. Complementary to bilateral cooperation projects, these bilateral twinning projects are aimed at flexibly and sustainably supporting the reform processes of partner countries by transferring proven administrative practices and targeted technical expertise. The twinning projects funded by the EU (EU Twinning) serve as role models for these partnerships. Staff regulations apply to the deployed qualified staff from Federal Government, Länder and municipalities, as they do for twinning projects.
