Twinning: Excellent recognition to Finland from European Commission
The European Commission has selected a Twinning project carried out by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Finnish Environment Institute as one of last year’s most successful Twinning projects. Finland conducted the project together with two other EU Member States, Austria and Latvia, in Azerbaijan in 2016–2019. The European Commission recognises only a few similar success stories every year.
“We are happy that the European Commission decided to select our project from among all European Twinning projects to represent a success story. This is a welcome acknowledgement of our work. At the final stages of the project, we saw that something was coming when officials in a delegation representing the EU told us that they were very satisfied with our project,” says Harri Pietarila, Junior Project Manager of the Twinning project, from the Meteorological Institute.
The project, which developed air quality monitoring in Azerbaijan, was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan. In the two and a half years of the project, measures were taken to strengthen the ability of the Azeri Ministry to report and analyse the data they had compiled, and a national action plan was prepared to support the system monitoring air quality. The Meteorological Institute of Finland led the consortium formed by Finland, Austria and Latvia.The Finnish Environment Institute participated in the project.
“The project reached significant results and, right from the beginning, we considered it important to get as wide visibility to them as possible. Thanks to our work, the Azeri Ministry continues to compile monitoring data on its website from one of the air quality measurement stations in Baku. The project itself has ended but the measurement results are still openly available. The European Commission’s recognition tells that they appreciate our work. I consider this a valuable message from the point of view of the sustainability of the results,” says Katja Lovén, Resident Twinning Adviser in Baku.
The Commission selected four Twinning projects as success stories in 2019.
Finland is active in Twinning contexts
Twinning is an EU-funded instrument for the development of public administrations and judiciary mainly in the European Union’s neighbouring areas. The instrument supports projects related to the EU’s enlargement and neighbourhood policy. EU Member States are invited to submit their tenders and partner countries select the actors to carry out the projects. Individual Twinning projects last approximately two years, and one project budget ranges between EUR 1 to 2 million. In Finland, Twinning activities are coordinated by the Twinning team at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Finland has participated in Twinning activities since 1998 and, in relation to its population, is one of the most active EU Member States to participate in the projects. The European Commission’s recognition is timely also in that last year Finland reached the notable milestone of 200 Twinning projects. By coincidence, the 200th project is also carried out in Azerbaijan.
“Twinning is an excellent institution-building instrument that supports collaboration between different countries’ public administrations. Finnish expertise is known for its high quality, which is why our experts’ proposals have won many tendering procedures for a Twinning project. Through the projects, we can effectively use EU-funding in the export of our expertise,” says Pilvi-Sisko Vierros-Villeneuve, Director-General of the Department for Europe at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Eerikki Vainio, Specialist, the Twinning Team of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
- More about the European Commission's Twinning and TAIEX activities in 2019(Link to another website.) (pdf).
- Twinning team on Twitter: @Twinning_FI.