© DR / National Tourist Office in Poland

The idea of institutional twinning follows on from the launch of the European Union’s “global enlargement process”, directed at the ten Central and Eastern European accession candidates. A major theme of “European citizenship”, the environment, was selected as one of the top priorities in this new kind of cooperation. In view of the volume and complexity of the environmental “acquis communautaire”, CEECs will need assistance to adapt their legislations to its requirements. “The principle behind twinning involves getting institutions from Member States that have experience in the Brussels negotiation processes and European policy implementation, to work together with their counterparts in accession countries”, explained André Yatchinovsky of ADEME’s European Affairs Department. The process comprises of three stages: incorporating European regulations into national law, expanding or setting up administrative and institutional bodies responsible for implementing them, and developing a set of inspection and monitoring procedures. Romania and Bulgaria apart, most of the CEECs are coming to the end of the first stage. The twinning programmes entered their implementation phase in 1999. They are financed by PHARE, one of the EU’s main instruments for providing CEECs with technical assistance. Each twinning scheme is steered by a “leading” organisation. “On the ground, pre-accession advisers from Member States coordinate the project and draw on missions carried out by experts specialised in a given field”, explained André Yatchinovsky. ADEME is involved in twinning arrangements with Hungary, Poland and Romania. It also took part in a twinning exercise in Bulgaria and will be involved in the Czech Republic. The time scale will depend on how long the implementation stage lasts, with each CEEC going at its own pace.