ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we analyzed how the European Commission monitored the Baltic states in the accession process. The role of inquisitory forms of governance was discussed. In this chapter, we will focus more on governance activities involving meditation, namely, those taking place during the implementation of twinning projects. Twinning was (and still is) one of the European Union’s most frequently used pre-accession instruments, and has been developed by the European Commission to support candidate countries in their efforts to reach the EU-required level of administrative performance. Twinning will be described and analyzed as a meditative process that, by virtue of its characteristics and specific procedures, encourages mimetic behavior in public administrations. Meditation processes connected with twinning and the inquisitory processes connected with monitoring described in Chapter 3, are examples of softer forms of governance that have had clear and distinct effects on the studied states.
