Close inter-institutional cooperation

Close inter-institutional cooperation (Twinning) is a mechanism of targeted financial assistance to third countries and a key instrument for developing the public administration capacity in beneficiary countries.

Beneficiary countries

Countries eligible for the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey; and for the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI): Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Moldova, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine.

Eligible project partners and implementing institutions

The partners in inter-institutional cooperation projects are EU Member States on the one side and beneficiary countries on the other. Institutions and experts participating in the projects act on behalf of the Member State, which is the contracting partner implementing the project in the beneficiary country.

EU Member States may participate in the call for proposals by presenting a project independently or as one of the partners in a consortium of several Member States, depending on the scope of the project. In the case of a consortium, one country is designated as the lead partner taking over the coordination of the project, while other partners contribute their experts and implement their part of the agreed activities.

On behalf of the Member States, these projects may only be implemented by state authorities and mandated bodies listed in the record of competent authorities drafted by the European Commission based on the authorities’ statement of compliance with the prescribed conditions.

Inter-institutional cooperation projects may only include experts who are public employees and can attest to their operational experience in the respective areas covered by the project.

Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX)

TAIEX is an EU instrument offering support to beneficiary countries for harmonising their national legislation with the acquis and adapting its implementation accordingly. This is an on-demand instrument tailored to the needs of the applicant country. One of the advantages of this instrument is the relatively short response time from the filing of the application to the actual implementation.

TAIEX may take three different forms:

• Study visits in EU Member States,
• Missions by experts of EU Member States in the beneficiary country,
• Workshops for several beneficiaries organised in a beneficiary country or an EU Member State.

Beneficiary countries

TAIEX beneficiaries are countries eligible for IPA and ENI, and the Turkish community in Cyprus.

Who may apply for TAIEX?

TAIEX is intended for public employees working in the State administration; judiciary and law enforcement bodies; parliaments and public officials working in parliamentary and legislative committees; representatives of social partners, trade unions, and employers’ associations. TAIEX does not provide direct assistance to the civil society, private entities, or companies.

Participation of Slovenian experts

The participation of Slovenian experts and state authorities is coordinated by the national contact point for Twinning and TAIEX, or agreed directly between the European Commission and the expert/state authority.

Following a request by the European Commission, the national contact point sets out to find the right expert or institution to implement this type of technical assistance through the network of contact persons at ministries and government agencies.

Public employees - experts in individual areas of EU acquis interested in this type of cooperation are welcome to join the list of experts for TAIEX.

Calls for applications under EU external action instruments

Slovenian citizens and legal persons with headquarters in Slovenia may participate in calls for applications and tenders for projects with external action instruments, funded by the EU. Information on tenders and projects is available on the website of the European Commission and the Western Balkan Investment Platform.