News

The institutions of Armenia and the European Commission’s representation in Yerevan decided that the EU Twinning project “Strengthening the Enforcement of Competition and State Aid Legislation in Armenia” will be implemented by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in cooperation with the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania.

This project aims to contribute to strengthening of the competitiveness of Armenia’s economy and development of the functioning market economy in this country.

A consortium of institutions from Italy and the United Kingdom also applied to take part in this two-year project with the budget of over EUR 1 million.

The European Commission’s representation in Armenia announced this decision on 20 May.

In 1998, the European Commission launched the EU Twinning programme, which provides beneficiary countries with principal tools of strengthening institutional capacities.  The main principle of the EU Twinning Programme is the cooperation of public administration institutions of one party (beneficiary) with related institutions of another party (provider of assistance) in order to implement the necessary reforms.

In 1998-2008, 125 EU Twinning projects were implemented in Lithuania. In 2004, Lithuania joined the EU and Lithuanian institutions were qualified to provide assistance to other countries through the EU Twinning projects. So far, Lithuanian institutions have been selected to implement 12 EU Twinning projects.

On 15 September 2009, Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs took over the function of coordination of the EU Twinning Programme from the Office of the Lithuanian Government. Currently, the Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Department of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the implementation of the EU Twinning Programme.