The enlargement process currently involves nine countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine). The process encourages and supports democratic and economic reforms in these countries that aspire to become EU members.

The overall objective of the service is to support candidate countries in implementing the partnership principle in EU cohesion policy, which is enshrined in the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) and is reinforced by the European Code of Conduct on Partnership (ECCP). For this purpose, the service focuses on Interreg programmes covering candidate countries, assuming that they are valuable exercises in preparing the ground for possible future regional/national mainstream cohesion policy programmes.

The service will complement the Commission's knowledge on the state of implementation of the partnership principle in the candidate countries and feed into the Commission's analysis of capacities and needs in the context of the accession negotiation process (under Chapter 22 Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments), as well as inform possible future technical assistance and future legal framework aspects. It will also increase the knowledge of the enlargement countries on how to apply this principle in line with the best practices available in the Member States.

In particular, the study focuses on how the regulatory provisions relating to the partnership principle and multi-level governance have been implemented in the enlargement countries for the programming and implementation of current Interreg programmes.

The service includes the mobilisation of National Experts from the candidate countries. Their expertise is used to research additional relevant documents, enhancing the desk analysis. Furthermore, these experts play a crucial role in conducting interviews and surveys to complement data collection.

The study will produce conclusions for each enlargement country based on gap analysis and present good practice examples from Member States and enlargement countries.

The final report will be presented at a seminar organised in Brussels in early 2026.
The study is led by t33 in consortium with Naxta and ÖIR.