ABSTRACT
The network of National Contact Points (one in each Member State) provides a link between the partner administrations and the European Commission. In particular, beneficiary country contact points collect the twinning project ideas domestically and collate them into the annual financial request to the EU (country-driven assistance). Project leaders (one from each administration) are responsible for the overall direction of project implementation, and devote a portion of their time to the project. Resident twinning advisers are the key actors of any twinning project. They are made available by their home administrations to their counterparts in the host country through EU funding; providing technical advice and assistance to the administration according to a predetermined work plan.1 In addition, twinning projects employ short-term experts for specific defined tasks during programme implementation.
