Twinning is an initiative of the European Commission that was launched in 1998 in the context of the preparation for enlargement of the European Union.  It was conceived as an instrument for targeted administrative cooperation to assist Candidate Countries (CC) to strengthen their administrative and judicial capacity to implement Community legislation as future Member States (MS) of the European Union.

Twinning remains one of the principal tools of Institution Building accession assistance. Twinning aims to help beneficiary countries in the development of modern and efficient administrations, with the structures, human resources and management skills needed to implement the acquis communautaire to the same standards as the implementing Member States. Twinning provides the framework for administrations and semi-public organisations in the beneficiary countries to work with their counterparts in Member States. Together they develop and implement a project that targets the transposition, enforcement and implementation of a specific part of the acquis communautaire.

Twinning projects are built around jointly agreed EU policy objectives, such as the preparation of EU enlargement (Pre-Accession Funds) or further strengthening of the administrative capacity (Transition Facility).

The main feature of a Twinning project is that it sets out to deliver specific and guaranteed results and not to foster general co-operation. The parties agree in advance on a detailed work plan to meet an objective concerning priority areas of the acquis.

The key input from the implementing Member State administration to effect longer-term change is in the core team of long-term seconded EU experts, practitioners in the implementation of the acquis, to the beneficiary country (i.e a new Member State, acceding, candidate or potential candidate country). Each Twinning project has at least one Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) and a Project leader. The RTA is seconded from a Member State administration or from another approved body in a Member State to work full time for a minimum of 12 months in the corresponding ministry in partner country to implement the project. The Project Leader is responsible for the overall thrust and coordination of the project. They are supplemented by carefully planned and timed missions of other specialists, training events, awareness raising visits, etc to accompany the reform process towards the targeted result.

In Malta, Twinning started in 2000.  Since then 21 Twinning projects have been implemented and financed under the Pre-accession Funds and the Transition Facility.

Pre-Accession 2000

Pre-Accession 2001

Pre-Accession 2002

Pre-acession 2003

Transition Facility 2004

Transition Facility 2005

Transition Facility 2006