The EU Twinning Project “Strengthening the National Bank of Belarus”

Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities.

Since 2004 the Twinning instrument is available to some of the EU Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood partner countries. In this framework it aims at upgrading the administrative capacities of the public administration of a partner country through the training of its staff and the support to the reorganisation of its structure. It also supports the approximation of national laws, regulations and quality standards to those of EU Member States in the framework of Cooperation or Association agreements signed with the EU.

Within European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) current beneficiaries are:

• ENI South: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.
• ENI East: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Twinninig Principles

The beneficiary / partner administration in a Twinning project is a public administration with sufficient staff and absorption capacity to work with a Member State institution having a similar structure and mandate. The beneficiary / partner country must mobilise its staff, demonstrate enduring commitment and ownership and take on board changes and best practices in a sustainable way. Twinning is not a one-way technical assistance instrument but a shared commitment.

Twinning projects are implemented with a view to the mandatory results to be achieved. They are usually articulated in components corresponding to the expected results and foresee a number of activities including workshops, training sessions, expert missions, study visits, internships and counselling. Twinning lies on learning by doing principle and sharing of best practices.

To set up Twinning projects, the European Union relies on the co-operation and administrative experience of EU Member States (MS) which mobilise public expertise both from public administrations and semi-public bodies.

Two Project Leaders (one on behalf of the EU Member State leading the project, the other of the beneficiary administration) and a Resident Twinning Adviser (RTA) are the backbone of Twinning projects. The RTA is seconded to the beneficiary administration for a minimum of 12 months up to 36 months throughout the entire duration of the implementation period of the Action and coordinates the project's activities.

To see more: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/tenders/twinning_en

• Component 1: Payment Systems - the establishment of a revised legal and regulatory framework for payment systems in Belarus.
• Component 2: Financial Stability - Enhanced capacity of the NBRB to effectively monitor risks, take mitigating action and manage systemic problems.
• Component 3: Banking Supervision - The enhancement of the NBRB’s capacity to perform the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP), including review of banks’ internal capital & liquidity assessment processes (ICAAP and ILAAP), to conduct off-site surveillance, including in the context of an early warning system, and to compare banks’ prudential reports with those resulting from the application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
• Component 4: Financial Risk Management - The introduction and full implementation of a revised system for managing the NBRB’s overall financial risk, which incorporates best international practice.
• Component 5: Financial Consumer Protection - Improving the system of protection of rights and legal interests of consumers of financial services.
• Component 6: Communication Policy - A new Communication Policy designed with and implemented by the NBRB to help it in pursuing its core missions, including a new system for assessing the performance of the communications department.

European Union -Twinning

• http://ec.europa.eu/twinning
• https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/belarus/947/eu-projects-belarus_en
• https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/news_corner/news/eu-supports-belarus-central-bank-1st-twinning-project-country_en