Brussels, 28/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's EuropeAid initiative will very soon be taking the first “twinning” actions linking Mediterranean and EU Member States. The first countries to be involved are Jordan, Morocco and soon, Tunisia and Lebanon and later on, Egypt. This cooperation, which will be expanded to East European countries covered by the “neighbourhood” policy, will take the form of sponsoring public sector modernisation in partner countries. This will involve assistance to this sector for acquiring greater efficiency in providing a public service, as well as an improvement in the private business sector environment, whose action is often hampered by red tape. This programme will see public administration in an EU country provide its experience to equivalent structures in beneficiary countries. The approach will be based on the experience already gained by the ten candidate countries that become EU members in May 2004. Knowledge results from around 1,200 different projects undertaken in these countries during the pre-enlargement phase, explained Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, Head of the Commission's twinning programmes in the neighbourhood zone.
This original cooperation, devised as part of the bilateral relations, will become a reality in the near future via implementation of the support programme for the Jordanian public services. Three projects have been maintained. They include the offer of support in the area of: quality inspections of food products (out of a MEDA covered budget of EUR 1.9 million) with aid from Denmark; (phytosanitary and veterinary controls (1.6 million euro) with aid from the United Kingdom; industrial standards and norms (1.9 million euro); Germany will be helping Jordan. The Commission is planning to fund other
The Commission is planning to finance other means of support for Jordan with regard to customs administration, justice, industry and audit. Morocco will also benefit from this support. Calls for expressions of interest have been issued for projects concerning maritime safety, the simplification of customs procedures and integrated management of the environment. Other projects concerning management of migration flows and border control, as well as the fight against money laundering, consumer protection and cooperation between police forces are also planned. With Tunisia, the planned cooperation will concentrate on phytosanitary control, customs, trade and statistics. In the case of Libya, cooperation will concentrate on the functioning of the tax authorities, insurance supervision and consumer protection. In most cases, approximation to European regulations is envisaged.