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Working Better Together in a Team Europe Approach

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public
EU-official
Last Updated: 05 December 2025
A tool to help EU Delegations work better together with Member States as Team Europe and with like-minded partners and country stakeholders, through Team Europe Initiatives, joint programming and joint implementation.

Table of contents

3.1 The definition of joint implementation

The European Consensus describes joint implementation as follows:

Joint implementation is a way of promoting more coherent, effective, and coordinated EU support based on shared objectives in selected sectors or on specific cross-sectoral themes and tailored to the country contexts. Joint implementation will be grounded in joint analyses, will take account of available resources and will be monitored and evaluated jointly70.

Joint implementation can take various forms, financial and non-financial, and has developed towards becoming a collection of tools rather than a specific process. Whether financial or non-financial, it translates shared objectives into collaborative action by establishing arrangements for working together. The purpose is to maximise the impact of the actors following a Team Europe approach collective expertise and resources. Joint implementation should produce more coherent, effective, efficient and coordinated support at country and regional level, thus contributing to greater impact.

Key aspects of joint implementation

Figure 10: Key aspects of joint implementation
  • Joint implementation is a direct response to the EU’s Global Strategy (2016) which recognises that ‘a strong Union is one that thinks strategically, shares a vision and acts together (…) We know what our principles, our interests and our priorities are (…) We will deliver on our citizens’ needs and make our partnerships work only if we act together, united’.
  • Joint implementation can help operationalise joint programming and TEI objectives by combining relationships, technical and sometimes financial resources to increase political incentives and the likelihood of achieving results. Joint implementation can take place at country, regional and global level – although it is mostly being used at country and regional levels.
  • At country level, joint implementation builds on the experience and expertise of actors following a Team Europe approach to support sectoral activities that achieve results in line with partner countries’ development priorities.
Ethiopia

As part of the joint programming process in Ethiopia, three pilot programmes for joint implementation were identified in the nutrition, health and green sectors. In nutrition for example, a draft roadmap was drawn up and an EU+ Nutrition Group established. The roadmap, which sets out principles and guidelines for joint programming and allocates responsibilities within an estimated time schedule, is structured around three key phases:

  • Planning: defining membership, situation analysis, and prioritising the elements that make up a strategic response;
  • Point action framework: this principally relates to the development of an action plan incorporating joint initiatives and bilateral interventions; and
  • Accountability including resource tracking, results monitoring, evaluation, communication and visibility. Fourteen Member States participate in the EU-led joint nutrition strategy. The nutrition group is involved in all three joint programming clusters (job creation, governance and natural resources) to make nutrition a cross-cutting issue.

70 https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/24011/european-consensus-for-development-st09459en17.pdf