What we do
AMA’s International Cooperation
International Cooperation (IC-AMA) is an administrative unit of Agrarmarkt Austria (AMA, the Austrian Paying Agency for Agriculture and Rural Development) reporting directly to the board of management. It was established in 2003 in order to offer advice to Central and Eastern European countries during their process of accession to the European Union. Since then, on AMA’s behalf, IC-AMA has helped many new member states and candidates for accession to take over the ‘acquis communautaire’ and to set up the necessary administrative structures such as Managing Authorities and Paying Agencies, mostly by means of Twinning projects.Twinning was launched in May 1998 as a principal tool of pre-accession assistance for institution building during the EU enlargement process. It aims to help candidate countries in developing modern and efficient administrations with the structures, human resources and management skills needed to implement the ‘acquis communautaire’ to the same standards as existing member states. The European Commission has set out guidelines for the Twinning project process in a Twinning manual.
Candidate countries (green) and potential candidate countries (yellow) of EU, as at 2012 (Source: EC)
The most important principles on which Twinning projects are based:
- A beneficiary country (BC) can choose its own member state (MS) partners.
- Each Twinning project must yield a concrete operational result; it must lead to the BC meeting a requirement of the EU ‘acquis’ or of other relevant EU policies.
- The Twinning partners (the public sector actors involved) commit themselves to achieving the desired result, and not only to the means needed to do so. At the end of the project a new or adapted system must be in place, financed by the BC and with the BC taking sole responsibility for it
- Twinning is a two-way process: it does not merely involve an MS providing technical assistance to a BC. Twinning projects are joint undertakings in which each partner takes on responsibility. The BC commits itself to implementing and funding reforms, the MS commits to engaging with the process for the duration of the project.
- To underpin the credibility of their commitment, the Twinning partners draw up a detailed plan of their activities before starting work. It may be adapted in the course of its implementation, but it must set clear benchmarks to allow for close monitoring of progress and evaluation of the final result.
- Twinning projects are intended to achieve binding results through the transfer of hands-on public sector experience and expertise. The final and sole ownership of these results lies with the BC.
In addition to Twinning projects, IC-AMA organizes all kind of cooperation between Paying Agencies, exchange of expertise within the field of agricultural administration, and study visits within Austria and its neighbouring countries.
With more than 10 years of experience and more than 30 successfully implemented Twinning projects in 16 different European countries (many of which have become Member States of the EU), IC-AMA has gained significant experience in all fields of agricultural and rural development administration and offers support in particular in:
- Organizing study visits to Austria and neighbouring member state countries in the sector of agriculture and rural development administration
- Implementing CMO and direct payment measures (pillar 1) including SAPS and SPS
- Implementing rural development policy (pillar 2)
- Establishing administrative structures for IPARD implementation (managing authority, IPARD agency etc.)
- Developing an integrated administration and control system (IACS)
- Establishing internal audits, on the spot controls and data security systems
- Developing animal identification and registration systems (I&R)
- Establishing organic farming structures
- Establishing an advisory service and agricultural education system.
IC-AMA can make a significant difference in the development of administrative structures, capacity building and alignment with EU ‘acquis communitaire’.
To see the list of our successfully implemented projects, please click
here.