Twinning projects aim to institutionally support and develop EU candidate and neighbourhood countries, as well as some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Twinning takes place between public institutions from the EU Member States and recipient countries and is financed from EU funds. It involves the exchange of experience in the implementation of EU law and allows for long-term cooperation between partners. The implementation of Twinning projects is based primarily on the organisation of specialised training courses in the beneficiary country and conducting study visits to institutions in the EU Member States country.

This cooperation contributes to the strengthening of Poland's international position by building a positive image on the international arena, developing political and economic contacts in beneficiary countries, promoting the Polish know-how, and supporting institutional transformation of aid recipients.

“Strengthening the institutional capacities of the Competition Council for the enforcement of competition and state aid policy in line with EU best practices” (2024-2026)

In December 2024, the Office launched a twinning project for the Moldovan Competition Council. As a junior partner, it is implementing the project in a consortium with the Romanian Competition Council (lead partner) and the Lithuanian Competition Council (junior partner). UOKiK is responsible for Component 1, which aims to strengthen the beneficiary's institutional and administrative capacities. The activities will last 27 months.

“Advancing the Capacities of the Market Surveillance Agency of Georgia" (2023-2025)

As a junior partner, UOKiK implemented a twinning project in Georgia, in a consortium with Lithuania (State Consumer Rights Protection Authority, SCRPA, lead partner) and Germany (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, BMWK, junior partner). UOKiK played a leading role in the component ‘Strengthened legal framework for market surveillance’. The project took place between October 2023 and June 2025.

Previous projects:

• Morocco: "Strengthening institutional capacity of the Competition Council" (2021-2023)
• Serbia: “Strengthening the consumer protection system in Serbia in response to new market challenges” (2021-2023)

TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) is a key European Union instrument for institutional capacity-building worldwide, providing targeted and rapid support to public administrations in EU candidate countries and beyond. As a cornerstone of EU integration efforts, TAIEX plays a key role in accelerating legal and regulatory alignment with EU standards, strengthening governance frameworks, and driving socio-economic reforms. By drawing on the expertise of public sector from all 27 EU Member States, it fosters peer-to-peer exchanges, facilitates best practice sharing, and builds institutional resilience, ensuring that partner countries are equipped to implement meaningful and lasting reforms.

The duration and details of each TAIEX project are tailored to the needs of its beneficiary, but there are three main forms of support: workshops, expert missions, and study visits. The cooperation is financed by EU. Between 2022 and 2025, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) implemented 12 TAIEX projects concerning consumer protection, competition, and state aid, including:

• consumer protection for Montenegro, Armenia, Morocco, Ukraine, Albania, and Peru;
• competition protection and state aid for: Moldova, Libya, Albania, Georgia, Montenegro.

Polish Aid is a development cooperation programme financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is implemented in partnership with government bodies, social organisations, and local entities in developing countries, as well as through international organisations. These programmes are planned on a multi-year basis. The binding strategic document is the Multi-Year Development Cooperation Programme for 2021–2030, titled ‘Solidarity for Development’. Solidarity for Development'. Operational documents take the form of annual development cooperation plans, which specify the details of cooperation and the amount of funds allocated to individual priority countries or a given development cooperation task.

Project for Armenia (2025)

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is the beneficiary of the project entitled ‘Institutional support to the Competition Protection Commission in developing a consumer and competition protection system in the Republic of Armenia. The CCPC is responsible for shaping competition and consumer protection policy in Armenia. The project aims to strengthen the CCPC in its reform process, democratic development, and rapprochement with the European Union, in accordance with the provisions of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which has been in force since 2021.

The project includes the following activities, designed to share best practices and transfer practical knowledge in the application of consumer and competition law in Poland and the European Union:

• a study visit to Poland, including job shadowing meetings at the UOKiK offices in Poznań and Gdańsk, and a training session at the Office's headquarters in Warsaw;
• an expert mission of the UOKiK to Armenia.

Project for Moldova and Ukraine (2024)

The project entitled ‘Institutional support for the antitrust authorities of Moldova and Ukraine in the development of a competition protection system’ was a continuation of the activities undertaken in 2023 for the Moldovan Competition Council (CC) and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). These activities aimed to provide experts from Moldova and Ukraine with practical knowledge of national and EU competition law. Above all, they familiarised the beneficiaries with the most interesting cases handled by the Office and the daily challenges faced by the Polish antitrust authority.

The project included:

• a visit by representatives of the beneficiaries to the UOKiK offices in Poznań and Łódź in the form of job shadowing on market research, commitment decisions and dawn raids;
• workshops on unfair practices in the agri-food market (UTP), with the participation of practitioners from the competition authorities of states that have signed the regional agreement on competition protection in Central and Eastern Europe;
• a three-day training session in Chișinău on the practical aspects of competition law enforcement.

Project for Moldova and Ukraine (2023)

The project, titled 'Institutional Assistance for Antitrust Authorities in Ukraine and Moldova', was implemented from April to December 2023. The beneficiaries were two antitrust authorities: the Moldovan Competition Council (CC) and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). The project aimed to provide the CC and the AMCU with institutional support in the areas of competition law enforcement and state aid. The project was announced as part of a regional cooperation agreement in Central and Eastern Europe, which was signed at the headquarters of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) on 18 April 2023.

The project included the following activities for Moldovan and Ukrainian experts:

• workshops in Chișinău on state aid, competition law, and communication;
• workshops in Chișinău on planning and conducting antitrust proceedings, detecting cartels and bid rigging, and on contractual advantage;
• job shadowing at the UOKiK branches offices in Bydgoszcz and Poznań;
• a study visit to the UOKiK branch office in Łódź on dawn raids;
• workshops in Warsaw on market research, monitoring and digital markets.

On 18 April 2023, the heads of the competition authorities of Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia, as well as the competition authorities of two European Union candidate countries, Moldova and Ukraine, signed a regional cooperation agreement for the protection of competition in Central and Eastern Europe at the headquarters of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK). Austria joined the initiative in December 2023.

Its main objective is to strengthen regional cooperation and take joint action to develop competition protection. The exchange of experiences and good practices takes place in the form of:

• working groups;
• study visits;
• workshops;
• informal exchange of information, for example, on ongoing proceedings and market research.

The agreement has created a regional cooperation platform and contributes to the development of multilateral capacity. It operates on a voluntary and complementary basis, without interfering with the activities carried out within the framework of the European Competition Network. The initiative is led by a rotating presidency, held in alphabetical order. UOKiK assumed the leadership first in 2023, followed by Romania (2024) and Slovakia (2025).