Projects: making it happen

Each IPA programme is made up of one or more projects: concrete actions to assist candidate countries and potential candidates in their preparations for joining the EU. There are hundreds of ongoing projects across all sectors, countries and regions, from combating child labour in Turkey to building new courthouses in Albania and constructing highways in Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/1999.

Contracting and tendering

The EU regularly publishes invitations to tender and calls for proposals. These are organised either by the Commission services in Brussels, by the Commission Delegation in a given beneficiary country or by the relevant contracting authority within the beneficiary country's public administration.

Grants decided and globally committed by the European Commission in the field of external aid are subject to an annual work programme which contains a list of all the grant schemes planned under all the IPA programmes for a given year. Information on invitations to tender and calls for proposals can be found in the following places:

The rules and procedures applicable to the European Commission's external aid contracts – including for IPA programmes - are are published on the EuropeAid website.

Programmes on the ground

At any one moment, hundreds of European Commission sponsored Member State experts and others are active in beneficiary countries reinforcing the institutional and administrative capacity of their administrations.

Technical and Institution Building assistance to the beneficiary countries aims to support their on-going efforts to implement, apply, and enforce the acquis communautaire. This assistance comes mainly through the Twinning Programme , which involves longer-term secondments of EU Member State experts, and the TAIEX instrument, which provides short-term expertise.