Effective implementation of the EU-UA Association Agreement, reform of public administration system and civil service requires bringing national legislation in line with EU standards, increasing the capacity of public authorities to implement it, as well as involving relevant knowledge, successful international experience and expert support, in particular from EU Member States. The key role in this process belongs to cooperation in the framework of international technical assistance, in particular, Twinning and TAIEX institutional building instruments, as well as the SIGMA and CIB programs.
TAIEX is one of the most common, effective and accessible among all possible European Union assistance instruments. TAIEX was founded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations in 1996 to help countries bring national legislation in line with EU standards and ensure compliance with legislation as soon as possible.
The task of TAIEX is a simplified mechanism for the transfer of information and the exchange of best practices between the Member States of the European Union and the beneficiary countries (candidate countries and the European Neighbourhood Policy countries).
The key features of the TAIEX tool are the focus on solving specific development and integration problems, which requires the administrations of the beneficiary countries to take an initiative, self-identify their needs, prepare and submit applications, mobility (it takes from two to three months from the on-line application to the assistance), which allows you to use it to resolve urgent issues.
Within the framework of the TAIEX , the following event types are implemented at the expense of EU funds:
- Expert Mission (lasts up to 5 days): experts (1-2) are provided to the beneficiary countries to give in-depth advice on harmonizing national legislation with EU legislation and drafting relevant legislation. In general, an expert mission involves intensive cooperation between experts and a limited number of representatives of a government authority on specific practical issues or a particular legislative act;
- StudyVisit (lasts up to 3 days): provides an opportunity for civil servants from the beneficiary country (3-5 representatives) to study the experience of an EU member state in addressing practical issues related to the implementation and enforcement of the acquis communautaire and interaction with stakeholders;
- Workshop(lasts 1-2 days): experts from EU member states address issues related to specific areas of EU legislation, regulation, procedures and best European practices. The workshop is intended for a large audience and is informational and introductory in nature.
Experts invited within the framework of TAIEX activities are mainly public sector employees from EU member states working in the same bodies of the beneficiary country. Very often, experts act as practicing specialists in a specific field. If necessary, officials of the European Commission and other EU institutions may also be involved in TAIEX activities.
An important condition for the successful implementation of TAIEX activities is that the beneficiary clearly defines its needs and the issues for which assistance is requested. This will help ensure that the issues are resolved and that the right experts are selected.
The main target groups of TAIEX:
- civil servants, who work in central executive bodies;
- civil servants, who work in local executive bodies and associations of local authorities;
- justice and law enforcement agencies;
- members of legislative bodies and civil servants, who work in legislative bodies and local self-government bodies;
Ukraine has started to use TAIEX instrument in 2006. The Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union coordinates the implementation of the TAIEX instrument in Ukraine (Program Administrative Office (PAO)).
Mechanism of using TAIEX in Ukraine:
