Participation of Member States in EU Functional Cooperation: The Case of Twinning in Ukraine

    • IMG_2749
    • Presentation speakers
      • Dmytro Panchuk, Ghent University, Belgium

    Abstract:

    The present paper means to explore and explain the process of selection of Twinning partners from different EU member states (MS) by the Ukrainian government. The Twinning instrument is an integral part of EU functional cooperation, which entails financial and technical assistance to the ENP countries in a bid to support the latter with administrative reforms and legislative approximation to the EU acquis communautaire. Although there exists a formal selection procedure drawing on the quality and relevance of MS administrative system for the needs of the beneficiary country, there has been little scholarly evidence of its actual application to date. Moreover, existing studies point to certain irregularities and other variables potentially affecting the outcome of the Twinning selection procedure. Those are, for example, a MS’ comparative advantage, administrative resources and capacity, size, availability of recent transition experience, cultural and political proximity between some MS and their neighbours, geostrategic interests of MS, and prior contacts between MS and BC officials. Hence, the paper aims to investigate the relative weight of those variables in the selection of particular MS partners or groups thereof by the Ukrainian government. Besides making a point about the transparency and equity of EU functional cooperation, this paper also checks a distinction between CEE and Western EU member states and their added value for the Twinning Instrument in Ukraine.