Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Twinning project for using EU pre-accession assistance announced

Belgrade, 12 April 2006

Head of the European Commission's delegation to Serbia-Montenegro Josep Lloveras said today in Belgrade that the European Union's Twinning project will help the ministries of the state union of Serbia-Montenegro and the member states learn how to get funds form the EU in a most efficient way.

Speaking at a presentation named "Building institutional capacities in the process of European integration", held to mark the start of the Twinning project for Serbia-Montenegro, Lloveras specified that the money the state union would receive from the EU is from the ''Instrument for pre-accession assistance'', adding that the assistance from EU experts is necessary so that these funds would be used in the best way.

Lloveras pointed to the importance of this concept which aims to support EU candidate countries and enables the exchange of experiences, knowledge and assistance from EU experts. He stressed that this process is more complex in the case of the state union of Serbia-Montenegro because it is conducted after the "two-track lane" principle.

Head of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) mission to Serbia-Montenegro Daniel Giuglaris explained that the Twinning project managed by EAR will last two years and that over 30 experts will take part in it, noting that partner countries in the project's implementation will be France and Slovenia.

According to Giuglaris, French experts will apply their experiences from the fields of EU's functioning and human capacities building, and will cooperate on boosting inter-institutional coordination, while the Slovenes will present their experiences from the pre-accession period and transition.

Giuglaris repeated that the project's beneficiaries are all institutions of state administration, both at the level of the state union and of the member states, while the most important beneficiaries are the bodies in charge of relations with the EU - the EU Integration Office of Serbia-Montenegro, the EU Integration Office of the Serbian government, the Serbian Ministry of International Economic Relations and the Montenegrin Ministry for European Integration.

Giuglaris said that the estimated budget for this project is €2.5 million and that its aim is to improve Serbia-Montenegro's process of stabilisation and association to the EU by restructuring all bodies of the state union and member states.