European Commission: Strategy Paper and Report 2003

Institution building

The process of building up administrative and judicial capacity will need to continue after enlargement. A number of transitional arrangements agreed in the negotiations also demonstrate that in certain areas candidate countries need to continue efforts until they are in a position to apply fully the Community acquis. This is why the Commission has proposed to make available for the first three years after enlargement a special transition facility for institution building (see Annex 2).

The Commission proposes to continue to use in specific identified areas Community financed instruments which have proven their usefulness, such as twinning and twinning light. Moreover, mobilisation of experts from other Member States through such tried mechanisms as TAIEX will continue to be used in order to provide peer assistance. Furthermore, the Commission proposes to finance short-term placements of the new Member States' officials in the administrations of the EU 15. Additionally, the transition institution building facility could also be used to co-finance investments in the acquis in particular in such areas as border controls, customs administrations, statistics, food safety and integrated agricultural administration and control systems.