“Town Twinning between Turkey and the EU Project” is supported under the Instrument for the Pre-accession (IPA) II. The project has two components comprising “technical assistance” and “grant scheme” with a total budget of 4.5 million Euros. The implementation phase of the technical assistance component started on April 6th, 2018 with a Kick-Off Meeting. The Project has been implemented under the coordination of the Directorate for EU Affairs in cooperation with Union of Municipalities of Turkey, Ministry Union of Provinces and Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation Directorate-General for Local Authorieis.

Grant Scheme Component

A call for proposal for town twinning was published. The evaluation process for the proposals with the deadline of 23 March 2018 was completed in December 2018 by Central Finance and Contracts Unit. As a result of the evaluation, strengthening town twinning relations between local authorities from Turkey and the EU was prioritised. 23 local authorities identified have been provided with a grant ranging from 60,000 and to 130.000 Euros.

Technical Assistance Component

Within the scope of the project, a number of activities will be carried out in order to conduct town-twinning/sister city activities more effectively. The activities were listed below:

• Town Twinning Meeting; where the TWIN project and the grant scheme programme will be promoted and the contribution of the town twinning projects to the Turkey's EU accession process will be described in order to ensure the sustainability of the collaborations established in the fields of town twinning.

• Organising 4 capacity building trainings in the field of Town Twinning and also 4 trainings in the field of EU Acquis, geared toward the representatives of institutions responsible for town twinning in Turkey as well as the representatives of local authorities. 

•Organising two thematic workshops in the field of town twinning in Ankara and Çanakkale.

• Impact assessment study is currently being conducted for evaluation of the implementation of the EU acquis at the local level.

• Organising a two-week internship program to European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) so as to increase the knowledge and experience of town twinning for the staff of institutions working in the field of town twinning.

• An analysis on the legal and financial framework for town twinning between Turkey and the EU will be carried out. This analysis aims at identifying the current situation with its challenges and opportunities in the field of town twinning. Following the analysis, a Road Map for Turkish local authorities will be prepared for effective town twinning methodology in Turkey.

• Internet-based town twinning tool has been developed on yereldeab website in order to increase the number of town twinning applications and to enable new cooperations between the local governments in Turkey and EU member states.

• Following the launch of Grant Scheme, training activities will be organised to increase the capacity of the beneficiaries on grant implementation and monitoring.

• At the end of the Project, an introductory compendium about the grant projects will be prepared.

• At the end of the Project Implementation Phase, an International Town Twining Conference will be organised. This conference will also serve as a closing conference, where the representatives of Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and local authorities in the EU Member States participate. The road map to be completed within the scope of the Project will also be shared during this conference.