Project Beneficiary is the Centre for Support of Civil Service Institutional Development under the Main Department of Civil Service of Ukraine currently fulfilling the functions of Twinning Programme Administration Office (PAO), established for leading and coordination of activities aimed to prepare and implement Twinning projects in Ukraine. The Director of the Twinning Programme Administration Office and his staff are the direct recipients of the assistance. The Ukrainian public administrations and bodies who can benefit from twinning projects are other recipients of the assistance. Eventually, the citizens of Ukraine will be beneficiaries of this project as the Twinning projects aimed at strengthening and restructuring the public administration system will have a beneficial trickle down effect on the population.

Overall Objective is to support the capacity of Ukraine to make the best use of EU assistance, in particular the Twinning tool.

Project Objectives: To support the preparation and management of Twinning operations, according to EC rules and procedures. To assist the Ukrainian Government (in particular individual line ministries   and   other   public   bodies)   and stakeholders to understand and participate fully in the Ukrainian Twinning Programme. To support the Focal Points in the ministries and other public bodies in their identification, planning, launching and co­ordination of Twinning projects. To follow up on and support ongoing Twinning projects. To promote the long-term sustainability of the PAO. To prepare 1he PAO in view of the expected decentralized management of the twinning programme. To increase public awareness of EU assistance in the form of Twinning projects, in the overall framework of the EU external assistance to Ukraine. 

What is Twinning?
Twinning is an institutional building tool and a new form of direct technical co-operation between public bodies of Ell Member States and Ukraine that will provide for a transfer of know-how and good practices between public administrations of EU Member States and their Ukrainian counterparts. Twinning instrument has proved successful in legislation approximation and introducing public administration best practices in the Member States that joined the EU in 2004. Twinning has contributed to the development of a professional network of civil servants between EU Member States and public administrations of countries where Twinning projects were implemented and helped to develop all-round ties between these people, bodies and countries. More than a thousand Twinnings have been implemented so far. This mechanism has proved a powerful tool for the preparation of the new Member States for EU accession. The extension of the Twinning instrument to Ukraine, the first among the TAG IS countries, is therefore a development that shows the importance attached to increased integration between Ukraine and the Union. One of its key features is the concept of mandatory results: both the Ukrainian and the EU partner commit themselves to work towards a commonly agreed result, which should be measurable and precise. Twinning    projects    are   financed   by   the    European Commission. The Ukrainian partner will contribute to the project with human resources, fully equipped office space, training / conference venues and facilities.

Principles: A Twining project should be related to the domains of co-operation foreseen by the EU - Ukraine Partnership and Co-operation Agreement and the European Neighborhood Policy Action Plan; Entails elements of institutional and structural reforms. At the end of the project, the new or adapted system must be self-sufficient: it must function under the sole responsibility and means of the beneficiary country; Should be coherent in all its components; Is a   joint   project,   shared   by   the   two   partner administrations, committed at either side; includes at least some elements of approximation to the Acquis Communautaire (EU legislation).