1. EU instruments of funding and technical assistance
MGSC March 2017 Point 6.1 of the Agenda Rima Gerdziunaite Unit A3

2. Content General information Overview of the existing instruments:
TAIEX
Twinning
Tenders
Grants
Limitations of some of these instruments

3. General
All instruments are part of/funded by the relevant cooperation instrument
IPA (Instrument for pre-accession)
ENI (European Neighbourhood instrument)
DCI (development cooperation instrument)
IPA, ENI can use all 4 instruments, DCI is using mostly tenders and more recently TAIEX
TAIEX – is bilateral by nature
Twinning – is bilateral by nature
Grants – are bilateral by nature
Tenders – the instrument for regional programmes

4. TAIEX Technical Assistance and Information Exchange
Supports public administrations with regard to the approximation, application and enforcement of EU legislation and facilitats the sharing of EU best practices
It is largely needs-driven and hence the beneficiary countries need to send a request
NEW: Central Asia and other countries in the world can use TAIEX now
Can be organised relatively quickly
Eligible: experts from MS public administrations, retired experts from public administrations (2 years), private experts if proven that no public experts available

5. TAIEX
TAIEX delivers appropriate tailor-made expertise to address issues at short notice in three ways:
Workshops: EU Member State experts present specific areas of EU legislation in workshops to a large number of beneficiary officials
Expert missions: EU Member States expert(s) are sent to the beneficiary administration to provide in-depth advice on the transposition, implementation or enforcement of a specific part of EU legislation
Study visits: a group of three practitioners from a beneficiary administration take part in a study visit to an EU Member State’s administration

6. Twinning
Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between Public Administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary or partner countries
Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities
Twinning projects usually last months
"Twinning Light" is designed to offer a more flexible, mid-term approach (up to six months, in exceptional cases can be extended to eight months) without the presence of an RTA

7. Twinning's characteristics
Funded by the relevant national (IPA, ENI) programmes
Allocated with competitive procedures
Can consist of parts of project circles: transfer of know-how, study visits, trainings. Survey costs to be covered by twinning beneficiary
Contents, results and budget fixed from start
Involvement of Residential Twinning Adviser (except "Twinning Light") and short-term experts
Programme managed by Member State Twinning partner

8. Tenders
The Commission uses public contracts to buy goods and services, such as studies, technical assistance, training, consultancy, conference and publicity services, etc.
The providers are selected via calls for tender which are issued by the Commission departments, offices and agencies around Europe
Tenders for IPA and ENI assistance are based on project requirements agreed between the Commission and the beneficiary countries

9. Tenders' characteristics
Funded by National and regional programmes
Allocated with competitive procedures
Can consist of full project circles: transfer of know-how, study visits, trainings, surveys and dissemination of results
More flexible in term of contents and budget
Mainly involvement of short-term experts
Programme managed by Contractor

10. Grants
Direct financial contributions in support of projects or organisations which further the interests of the EU or contribute to the implementation of an EU programme or policy
Interested parties can apply by responding to calls for proposals

11. Grants' characteristics
Funded by national and regional programmes
Direct award in the area of statistics
Allocated after negotiations procedures with beneficiary NSI
Can consist of full project circles: transfer of know-how, study visits, trainings, surveys and dissemination of results
Contents, results and budget fixed from start
Involvement of short-term experts
Programme managed by beneficiary NSI

12. Limitations of the Tenders
Project Management by Contractor
Number of potential Contractors is low
Risk of badly performing company
Limited possibilities to influence the choice of the non-key experts by the company
No possibility to influence the involvement of the consortium partners
Profit is included into the price
BUT: quite some flexibility for implementation

13. Limitations of Twinnings
Intensive
Budget for survey implementations not included
Restricted number of areas can be covered
Difficulty to find twinning partners (requires lots of resources from twinning partner)
Very few MS have the structures in place to implement a twinning
No possibility to influence the involvement of the consortium partners
BUT: enables (long lasting) partnership between the MS and partner countries

14. Limitations of the Grants
Limited flexibility on contents and budget
Co-financing
Heavy procurement procedures for contracting the experts
Difficulty in finding available experts
BUT: increases ownership of the country