On 2 November 2020, the Croatian-German consortium took up its work within the framework of the  Twinning project “Assistance for implementing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement – The EU Services Directive 2006/123/EC”. The Twinning project will support Kosovo for the duration of 24 months in its efforts to implement the EU-Kosovo Stabilisation and Association Agreement by approximating the national law on services with the EU acquis.

Besides supporting legal approximation, the project’s activities include strengthening economic governance by improving the capacities of Kosovo’s administration to perform effective regulatory functions. Moreover, the project will support Kosovo in establishing a Point of Single Contact that provides information and e-government services for businesses that want to trade in services with Kosovo. 

Since Twinning projects are based on administrative partnership, this project brings together civil servants from the beneficiary administration, which is Kosovo’s Ministry for Trade and Industry, and the EU Member State consortium represented by the Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, the Croatian Financial Agency, and from the German side, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the Federal IT-Cooperation, ITZ Bund, and several German Federal States.

The service sector is key for Kosovo’s economy and external trade. Therefore, by reducing barriers to the trade in services between Kosovo and the EU, the project will have a significant impact in improving Kosovo’s economic perspectives.

The German Member State Partner is supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in all administrative and financial matters of this project.