„Twinning partnerships“

EU programme for the development of modern, efficient administrative structures in countries outside the EU and the establishment of long-term administrative partnerships between these countries and EU member states

What is twinning?

Twinning is an instrument financed by the European Union (EU) to support the development and expansion of modern and efficient administrative structures in countries outside the EU. Twinning projects are designed so that a public authority from an EU member state, or if necessary several authorities from various different EU member states, can enter into a partnership with an authority in a country supported by the EU. “Twinning partnerships” arise between the authorities in the context of these projects. Target countries for twinning projects include EU accession candidates, potential EU accession candidates and countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy as well as European development cooperation countries since 2020: https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/european-neighbourhood-policy_en.

Germany is among the most active EU member states and has participated in twinning projects since their introduction 20 years ago. German ministries and authorities such as the BVL have helped to realise around 800 projects at federal and state level.

Who takes part?

Focus regions for twinning projects include Southeast Europe and also Mediterranean coastal states such as Morocco or Tunisia for a number of years now. To date, the programme of the European Neighbourhood Policy has supported, to the East of the EU, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and the Ukraine as well as, in the Mediterranean region, Egypt, Algeria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.

The BVL’s engagement with twinning

The BVL’s engagement in twinning projects ranges from sending individual employees as “short-term” experts to taking over the management of twinning projects.

The BVL participated in twinning projects, among others, in Lithuania (Strengthening of Food Safety Control and Food Safety Laboratories), Poland (Strengthened Food Safety Control of Irradiated Foodstuffs, Improvement of Implementation of Food Safety Surveillance, Strengthening Administration Responsible for Phytosanitary and Fertiliser Issues), Turkey (Restructuring and Strengthening of the Food Safety and Control System), Tunisia (Renforcement des capacités des structures chargées de la surveillance du marché, du contrôle de la qualité et de la protection du consommateur) and Morocco (Control of Pesticides, Fertilizers and Culture Substrates). From 2022-2024 BVL is working with a consortium of German and Swedish institutions to advise the Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) on standardisation and certification issues. Here BVL focuses on controls, accreditations, laboratory analyses and certifications for certain foods.

Morocco is an important trading partner of Germany, particularly as a supplier of vegetables, fish, fresh fruit and citrus fruit. The BVL showed its commitment to the use of safe products in agriculture: From 2015-2017 the BVL was a project partner together with the French Ministry of Agriculture in the “Control of Pesticides, Fertilizers and Culture Substrates” twinning project with its Moroccan counterpart authority “Office National de Securité Sanitaire des produits Alimentaires (ONSSA)”.