On May 14, 2025, a workshop “Building Effective Governance through Twinning and TAIEX” was held in a mixed format (offline and online). The event was organized in cooperation with the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union, the High School of Public Governance, and the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Ukraine.
In the welcoming speech to the workshop participants, Head of the NAUCS Nataliia Aliushyna emphasized the value of Twinning and TAIEX instruments in an important stage of Ukraine’s European integration – negotiations on European Union membership, their role in creating a new culture of public governance and building the European future of our country. Nataliia Aliushyna also noted the 20-year history of the Twinning instrument in Ukraine, which over the years has become a bridge of trust and professionalism between the Ukrainian civil service and European partners.
Maryna Kanavets, Director of the Center, thanked the participants for their engagement, active involvement and desire to use the Twinning and TAIEX instruments. The significant experience and achievements of the NAUCS and the Center in coordinating and supporting the use of these instruments in Ukraine were noted, as well as the work done and achievements in this area were detailed.
The main focus of the thematic panels of the workshop was to assess the role of the Twinning program in the development of public administration in Ukraine and other candidate countries; to familiarize participants with the features of Twinning in comparison with TAIEX and other instruments of international technical assistance; to discuss successful cases of Twinning in Ukraine and opportunities for its further development; to provide civil servants with practical skills in preparing Twinning and TAIEX project applications; to discuss the strategic role of these instruments in the process of Ukraine’s integration into the EU.
The key topics of discussion were:
- Twinning: 20 years of changes in public governance.
- Comparison of Twinning and TAIEX: what is the difference?
- Successful cases of Twinning implementation in Ukraine.
- The role of Twinning in the post-war reconstruction and European integration of Ukraine.
The second part of the seminar was practical and aimed at developing participants’ skills in working with the Twinning instrument. As part of the tasks, the participants modeled the process of preparing a project proposal, analyzed “mini-applications” for compliance with performance criteria, and compared the characteristics of the Twinning and TAIEX instruments. The practical involvement of the participants helped to consolidate the theoretical knowledge gained in the thematic panels of the first part of the seminar.
