Commission Report (2002): Latvia

Twinning

The twinning process makes the vast body of Member States` expertise available to the candidate countries through the long-term secondment of civil servants and accompanying short-term expert missions and training.

A total of 503 twinning projects were funded by the Community between 1998 and 2001. Between 1998 and 2000, these projects primarily targeted the main priority sectors identified in the Accession Partnerships: agriculture, the environment, public finance, justice and home affairs and preparation for the management of Structural Funds. Since 2000, other important sectors of the acquis have also been addressed through twinning, such as social policy, the fight against drugs, transport, and telecommunications regulation. Twinning now covers all sectors pursuant to the acquis.

Thanks to the strong support of the EU Member States, 103 twinning partnerships were funded by Phare 1998, involving all the candidate countries and almost all the Member States. These first-generation projects have already come to an end. Under Phare 1999 a further 123 projects are currently being implemented and the programming exercise for Phare 2000 included a further 146 twinning projects. The 2001 programming exercise includes 131 twinning projects embracing all the Phare beneficiary countries, as well as Cyprus and Malta. Under the 2002 programming exercise, 119 twinning projects have already been planned and approved for implementation. A substantial number of additional twinning projects are planned, and these should be approved and implementation launched before the end of 2002. They include twinning projects identified in the Action Plans for strengthening administrative and judicial capacity in the negotiating countries. It is estimated that around 300 twinning projects are operational throughout the candidate countries at any one time. Furthermore, the candidate countries are being offered a further way of drawing on Member States' expertise through ``Twinning light'', a mechanism to address carefully-circumscribed projects of limited scope which emerge during the negotiation process as requiring adaptation.

In Latvia, ten projects are currently being implemented through twinning. They include a project with partners from France to help develop the capacity required for Latvia`s participation in the Structural Funds. A significant project in the area of public expenditure management, with a particular focus on external audit and procurement matters and audit issues in public agencies is being implemented together with UK partners. A drug prevention project with a Spanish partner organisation has just started.

In addition, an agricultural project to help Latvia develop the requisite management mechanisms for the Common Agriculture Policy is being implemented with a partner from the Netherlands. Another project, run in tandem with a team from Denmark, addresses the institutional strengthening of the Tax and Customs Administration. In the field of Social Policy and Employment, a project with partners from Germany and the United Kingdom focuses on strengthening the dialogue between the two side of industry. Another project with a team from Greece and Sweden will help Latvia establish a system for asylum and migration management. The remaining twinning projects financed under the 2001 programme are being prepared and are scheduled to start soon. They include support to enhance the administrative capacity of the Latvian maritime administration. Finally, another project to fight organised crime is being prepared with partners from Germany and Sweden.

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