TAIEX is the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument managed by the Directorate-General Enlargement of the European Commission. TAIEX supports partner countries with regard to the approximation, application and enforcement of EU legislation. It is largely demand driven and facilitates the delivery of appropriate tailor-made expertise to address issues at short notice.

What services does TAIEX offer?

TAIEX’ main tasks are:

• To provide short term technical assistance and advice on the transposition of EU legislation into the national legislation of beneficiary countries and on the subsequent administration, implementation and enforcement of such legislation.
• To bring ENPI partner countries closer to the European Union, through increased economic integration and a deepening of political cooperation by sharing the experience gained during the enlargement process.
• To provide technical training and peer assistance to partners and stakeholders of the beneficiary countries.
• To be an information broker by gathering and making available information.
• To provide database tools for facilitating and monitoring the approximation progress as well as to identify further technical assistance needs.
• Technical assistance through the TAIEX instrument comes in many different forms and across a wide range of areas. Partner administrations can benefit from TAIEX’s flexibility to help meet wider training needs in EU legislation by reaching a significant number of officials. At the same time, it is important to retain an awareness of and be responsive to more targeted requests. In this regard, the expert and study visit format, depending entirely on requests received from beneficiary partners, provides a complementary institution building service.
• As with other TAIEX training formats, experts and study visits are designed to provide short term assistance to beneficiary countries on the approximation and implementation of EU legislation. Study visits are visits made by a limited number of officials of the beneficiary countries to Member State administrations. They give an opportunity to the beneficiaries to work alongside Member State officials to discuss legislation, experience first-hand administrative procedures and infrastructure and see examples of best practices.
• Expert missions on the other hand involve usually one or two Member State experts travelling to beneficiary partner countries. They provide an opportunity to discuss draft legislation, present examples of best practices and lend assistance where requested. The preferred format is working sessions involving an exchange of knowledge between the beneficiary countries and the experts.

Expert Missions, Study Visits and Assessment Missions

Who are the Beneficiaries of TAIEX assistance?

The TAIEX mandate to provide assistance covers the following groups of beneficiary countries:

• Croatia (new Member State – still benefitting from assistance programmed);
• Iceland, Turkey, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia;
• Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo*;
• Turkish Cypriot community in the northern part of Cyprus;
• Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine and Russia.

The beneficiaries of TAIEX assistance include those sectors who have a role to play in the beneficiary countries in the transposition, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation or in the case of the ENPI countries, in deepening economic and political cooperation by sharing the experience gained during the enlargement process. The main target groups are:

• Civil servants working in public administrations; at national and sub-national level and in associations of local authorities;
• The Judiciary and Law Enforcement authorities;
• Parliaments and civil servants working in Parliaments and Legislative Councils;
• Professional and commercial associations representing social partners, as well as representatives of trade unions and employers’ associations;
• Interpreters, revisers and translators of legislative texts.

TAIEX does not provide direct support to civil society, private citizens, or to individual companies.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/99 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.