Egypt and the European Union implemented around 35 projects worth €70 million ($75.7 million) for institutional twinning over the past 10 years, said an official in the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation on Monday.
The institutional twinning project comes as part of the EU-led technical support programme, Dalia Salem, Head of European Cooperation sector from the Ministry of International Cooperation, further said during a conference in Cairo.
The Ministry is currently negotiating with the EU to start new twinning projects soon, Salem added.
Institutional twinning is an initiative of the European Commission that was launched in 1998 in the context of the preparation for enlargement of the European Union. Now, twinning is a joint implementation tool provided, by the Support to the Association Agreement Programme (SAAP) in Egypt, to raise institutional capacities of governmental bodies through providing the experience of a twin European institution. It follows a process starting with the governmental beneficiary reflecting its desire to benefit from the European expertise in its field of work and approximate European and Egyptian legislation. Nevertheless, the national priorities are maintained whilst developing the projects, and also within the context of the Action Plan.
