Conference on the financial assistance to countries wishing to join EU
On 25 January, the European Commission is hosting a conference in Brussels to discuss the renewed financial assistance to countries wishing to join EU.
European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle said, “when we designed the new Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, we put a lot of emphasis on increasing its efficiency, by making it more simple to implement, with less red tape and more choices to find the most appropriate form of support…Now we need to sit together and find out how these principles can best be put in practice.”
According to the Commission, the key issues to be addressed during the conference are: (i) the priorities for future assistance; (ii) details on the new simplified rules; (iii) how to improve ownership by the beneficiary countries; (iv) and how best to coordinate with stakeholders. Moreover, the conference will aim to establish a roadmap for planning and programming under the new Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for the period 2014-2020 (IPA II).
Overall, EU is dealing with four candidate countries (since Croatia will become the 28thmember state of EU on 1 July 2013) the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey. In addition EU hold talks with another four potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia as well as Kosovo.
Today’s conference gathered 400 participants, including representatives from all beneficiary countries, Member States and EU institutions. Moreover, delegates from international financial institutions, as well as international and regional organisations, participated in the conference.
Regarding the IPA I, technical and financial assistance to the Enlargement countries stood at €11.5 billion for the period 2007 – 2013.
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