TAIEX (Technical assistance and information exchange)

Technical assistance and information exchange (TAIEX) and Twinning are European Union (EU) institution-building instruments managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood.

TAIEX provides short-term, targeted assistance to public administrations through peer-to-peer exchanges. Experts from the public sector in EU Member States share practical experience with their counterparts in partner countries on how to apply and implement EU legislation. The instrument complements Twinning, which supports longer-term institutional cooperation through structured partnerships between Member State administrations and beneficiary countries.

TAIEX supports the alignment of national legislation and administrative practices with the EU acquis. It also contributes to broader public sector reform in areas such as digital transformation, climate resilience, public health, economic governance and business environment improvement.

Beneficiaries

TAIEX assistance is available to a wide range of public sector actors, including:

• central public administrations;
• judiciary and law enforcement authorities;
• parliaments and their civil servants;
• regulatory and supervisory bodies;
• social partners, such as trade unions and employer organisations.

Eligible officials may request assistance by submitting a TAIEX application form.

Forms of assistance

TAIEX offers a range of flexible assistance formats tailored to the specific needs of each beneficiary:

• workshops, where EU Member State experts deliver presentations on specific areas of EU legislation to large groups of beneficiary officials;
• expert missions, in which EU Member State experts are sent to peer beneficiary administrations to provide in-depth, on-site advice on the transposition, implementation or enforcement of specific parts of EU legislation;
• study visits, in which small groups of practitioners from beneficiary administrations visit peer administrations in EU Member States;
• review of legal texts, carried out as part of the accession negotiations;
• peer reviews, combining remote work and expert missions to assess the overall state of play in a particular policy area or sector.

Since 2020, TAIEX assistance has also been available in fully digital format, enabling flexible responses to urgent needs and ensuring operational continuity during crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Geographical scope

TAIEX assistance is available to:

• candidate countries and potential candidates for EU membership (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Türkiye);
• the Turkish Cypriot community in the northern part of Cyprus;
• Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood countries under the European neighbourhood policy (Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine**, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine);
• partner countries and territories supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships;
• countries participating under the Partnership Instrument, generally industrialised and other high- or middle-income countries across the world;
• Member States, through administrative cooperation with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Directorate-General for Environment and the Technical Support Instrument, particularly in support of national recovery and resilience plans.

TAIEX has been operational since 1996 and facilitates around 1 000 peer-to-peer activities each year.

Further information

Public officials can consult a range of resources for more detail on how TAIEX works in practice. These include:

• a list of frequently asked questions;
• the TAIEX search tool, a searchable events database that provides examples of completed and ongoing activities;
• the latest annual activity report, presenting key figures and results;
• the official TAIEX website, which provides access to documents, application tools and news updates.