EU AND UKRAINE LAUNCH TWINNING MECHANISM BETWEEN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS

February 27, 2006.

    On 2 and 3 March 2006 the EU and Ukraine will jointly launch the EU Twinning Mechanism in Ukraine with a two-day workshop. Twinning is a most important tool under the European Neighbourhood Policy that can be used to approximate Ukrainian legislation to the European Union’s legislation. Ukraine is the first Tacis (Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States) country where Twinning operations will be launched.
    The workshop will be opened by Mr. Ian Boag, Ambassador, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Ukraine, Mr. Arseny Yatsenyuk, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Mr Anton Buteyko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tymofiy Motrenko, Head of the Main Department for Civil Service of Ukraine and Mr. Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, Head of the Twinning Unit within the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office.
    Press opportunities:
    The press is invited to attend the opening ceremony on 2 March at 9:00 am in Radisson SAS Hotel (22 Yaroslaviv Val Street). Accreditation with Ms. Iryna Stadniychuk, Tel: 253 30 20.
    An in-depth briefing with an opportunity for individual interviews with Mr. Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, Head of the Twinning Unit within the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office and Mr. Tymofiy Motrenko, Head of the Main Department for Civil Service of Ukraine will take place on 2 March, 12:00 in Radisson SAS Hotel (22 Yaroslaviv Val Street). Accreditation with Ms Iryna Stadniychuk, Tel: 253 30 20.
    The “institutional twinning mechanism” allows for direct co-operation between Ukrainian public authorities and any of their counterparts in the 25 EU Member States. It is currently used or will be made available in the partner countries involved in the European Neighbourhood Policy. Accordingly, the workshop will gather representatives from the Ukrainian Administration, the Moldovan Administration[1], the European Commission, and the EU Member States.
    The institutional twinning mechanism was first used in the recently accessed EU Member States, under the PHARE Programme. It has proved successful in introducing EU public administration best practices inspired by European legislation and regulations to the partner country, as well as enhancing collaboration among public administrations of both EU Member States and partner countries. The extension of the twinning instrument to Ukraine is therefore a significant development that shows the importance of ever increased integration between the EU and Ukraine.
    In practical terms, preparatory work for future Twinning projects is underway. A first group of ten pilot projects is under definition and four twinning projects fiches are expected to be launched by May/ June 2006, drawing on existing Tacis funds. To coordinate the Twinning work plan, an Administrative Office for Twinning Operations was set up in October 2005, within the Main Department for Civil Service of Ukraine.
    For further information please contact Ms Anje Schubert, Press Officer, Tel (044) 253 30 20.
    Background
    To implement twinning projects, a Project leader is assigned who is a high-ranking official in an EU Member State who continues to work in her/his Member State administration, but who devotes some of her/his time to conceiving, supervising and co-ordinating the overall thrust of the project. She/he will always be complemented by a resident twinning advisor. The Resident twinning advisor is a EU Member State’s civil servant seconded to work and be based in the partner country for at least 12 consecutive months. She/he works on a day-to-day basis with the Beneficiary Administration in Ukraine and accompanies the implementation of the twinning project. The Project leader, the Resident twinning advisor and the Beneficiary administration all follow a detailed twinning work plan which embraces all the actions necessary to ensure the success of the project and sets up benchmarks to mandatory project results.