(07 February 2018) – 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the Twinning instrument, one of the most used tools for supporting the European Union’s neighbouring countries and regions.
With the recent launch of the newest Twinning project in Macedonia, the total number of Twinning projects implemented in the past 20 years surpasses 2700 in this anniversary year.
Twinning is a form of long-term cooperation between EU countries’ public administrations and their counterparts in candidate and potential candidate countries for EU membership as well as in the EU’s Neighbourhood region.
Key to the success of Twinning is the peer-to-peer expertise provided on the ground by civil servants from EU Member States which work hand-in-hand with national administrations in the partner countries.
In the Enlargement region, Twinning supports the transposition, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation. In this context, Twinning also provided extensive support to the countries which became EU Member States in 2004, 2007 and 2013.