The Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument (TAIEX) is a technical assistance and institution building instrument financed by the European Commission and targeted to the Western Balkans’ countries, to the Southern Neighbourhood and Eastern Partnership countries, to the beneficiaries of the NDICI Instrument, as well as some EU Member States.
The Instrument provides short-term technical assistance to the Public Administrations of the above stated countries, mainly by facilitating their adaptation process to the so-called acquis communautaire in the following sectors: Agriculture and Food Security, Freedom, Justice, Security, Environment, Transport, Energy and Internal Market.
The necessary expertise is provided by officials from the national Public Administrations of the Member States, or by officials of bodies accredited to the Commission as semi-public bodies, the so-called Mandated Bodies.
With some exceptions, in order to participate in a TAIEX event, the official shall first have personally registered with the database established at the Commission’s TAIEX Unit.
Since summer 2020, TAIEX support has also become available in a fully digital format. This has enabled the instrument to support beneficiaries in coping with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and post-Covid recovery strategies. The combination of offline and digital solutions makes the instrument flexible and resilient and allows for its rapid deployment in response to new needs.
PROGRAMME FEATURES
TAIEX is an instrument based on the beneficiary countries’ specific needs, and hence on their requests. The voluntary and direct request submitted by the beneficiary Public Administration starts the process for obtaining assistance.
The assistance provided under the Programme can be of three types:
workshops: officials from EU Member States present specific areas of EU legislation at workshops attended by officials from the Administrations of the beneficiary countries;
expert missions: one or more experts from EU Member States are sent to the beneficiary countries’ Administrations to provide in-depth advice on the transposition of specific parts of EU legislation into national law, as well as on the transposition of EU rules and provisions and their implementation in the respective Administrations;
study visit: a group of up to three applicants from a beneficiary Administration participate in a study visit to an EU Member State. The aim is to learn how to implement specific EU regulations and, above all, to gain knowledge of good practices.
PARTICIPATION IN EVENTS AND ROLE OF THE NATIONAL CONTACT POINT
The request for a TAIEX event shall be submitted by the Administration of a beneficiary country directly to the TAIEX Unit of the Commission, by filling in the electronic form on the Unit’s website.
The National Twinning Contact Point, based at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (e-mail : twinnings@esteri.it), is also involved in the coordination of the TAIEX Programme. In its search for experts, the Commission can in fact request the support of the NCP to disseminate requests for technical assistance among Italian Administrations potentially interested in providing their own experts or hosting study visits.