Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, THE Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Sapard annual report : year 2007 {SEC(2009) 660}
Date: 2009-05-20
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Central and Eastern Europe, EU programme, accession to the European Union, activity report, aid to agriculture, rural development

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 20.5.2009 
COM(2009) 231 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

SAPARD ANNUAL REPORT – YEAR 2007 

{SEC(2009) 660} 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE 
COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE 
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

SAPARD ANNUAL REPORT – YEAR 2007 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Beginning in 2000, the EU reinforced its pre–accession assistance for the rural development 
of  ten  candidate  countries  of  Central  and  Eastern  Europe  by  creating  Sapard,  the  Special 
Accession  Programme  for  Agriculture  and  Rural  Development.  For  its  implementation  a 
unique approach was chosen: the national authorities in the applicant countries assumed the 
entire responsibility through fully "decentralised management" thus enabling the realisation of 
Sapard. One objective is to implement numerous small-scale rural development projects and 
the  other  is  to  create  structures  capable  of  applying  the  acquis  communautaire  upon 
accession. Detailed information regarding the implementation of Sapard can be found in the 
website 
previous 
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/external/enlarge/publi/index/en.htm. 

published 

Reports 

Annual 

EC 

the 

on 

as 

The  report  covers  both  2006  and  2007  due  to  the  limited  activities  under  Sapard  during  in 
particular  2006,  the  completion  of  the  programmes  of  the  eight  new  Member  States  and 
problems  encountered  with  the  implementation  of  Sapard  in  Bulgaria  (BG)  and  Romania 
(RO), which started in 2007. Implementation in BG and RO will be further dealt with in the 
Sapard annual report 2008, which is under preparation. 

On  1.5.2004  eight  Sapard  countries  joined  the  EU.  During  the  course  of  2004  they  stopped 
contracting  new  projects  under  their  respective  Sapard  programmes  and  switched  to 
contracting under the post-accession programmes. Payments to final beneficiaries under their 
Sapard programmes ended towards the end of 2006 due to the expiration of the deadline for 
de-commitment at 31.12.2006 as set out in the last annual financing agreements. 

On  1.1.2007  BG  and  RO  joined  the  EU  and  have  stopped  contracting  to  final  beneficiaries 
under Sapard on 31.10.2007 and 31.7.2007 respectively. 

The programme  of Croatia (HR) was approved by Commission  Decision  on  8.2.2006.  With 
the Commission Decision on conferral of management of 29.9.2006 HR became eligible for 
receiving Sapard funds. 

2. 

PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT 

In the report over 2005 an assessment was made of the achievement of the objectives in the 
eight new MS that had completed contracting. A similar analysis has been made in this report, 
following completion of contracting in BG and RO. 

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2.1 

Overall results of implementation1 

Under Sapard a total of €2 963,7 million was allo cated to the beneficiary countries from 2000 
to 2006, of which €1 334,2 million was  allocated to the eight Member States (MS) that joined 
EU in 20042 and €1 629,5 million to BG, RO and HR. During this period a total amount of 
€2 016,8  million 3  was  actually  paid  by  the  Commission,  representing  95,3%  of  the  total 
amount allocated to the eight new MS and 45,7% for BG, RO and HR. At the end of 2007 the 
total amount paid increased to €2 301,9 million an d the percentages to respectively 96,5% and 
62,3%. 

In  all  eight  MS  that  joined  EU  in  2004  the  amount  contracted  under  Sapard  to  the  final 
beneficiaries  went  well  beyond  the  100%  of  the  funds  available  under  Sapard.  Declared 
expenditure reached 100% of available funds, except in LV where the amount of eligible EU 
expenditure finally declared in euro was only 88% of the funds allocated to the programme. 
The number of contracted projects amounted to over 34 000 and accounted for €1 448 million 
of  Community  contribution.  Under  the  rules  of  the  transition  from  Sapard  to  rural 
development, outstanding multi-annual commitments under Sapard may be covered under the 
provisions of the rural development programmes 2007 to 2013 of the MS. 

By  the  end  of  2006  the  Commission  had  received  final  payment  claims  from  eight  MS, 
eligible for Sapard support. As regards the CZ the final payment was executed and the Sapard 
programme was closed already by the end of 2006. The programmes of EE, HU, SK and SI 
were closed in 2007. The programmes of PL, LT and LV remained to be closed in 2008. 

Progress  made  during  2006  and  2007,  measured  by  means  of  payments  made  by  the 
Commission  to  BG,  RO  and  HR  slowed  down,  particularly  in  2006.  Payments  to  RO 
accelerated in 2007, while progress in BG was below average and payments to HR started in 
2007. Total payment execution since the start measured as a percentage of funds available to 
the three countries at the end of 2005, 2006 and 2007 was respectively 41, 46 and 62%. 

Until the end of 2006 RO had contracted over 4 200 projects accounting for over €988 million 
of Community contribution. During the same period BG had contracted over 2 500 projects, 
involving €421 million of EU funds . After closing of contracting, RO had contracted close to 
4 600 projects at the end of 2007 with a value of €1 114 million of EU Sapard contribution. 
For BG the respective numbers were over 3 100 projects and €456 million. 

The  Sapard  programme  of  HR  was  adopted  in  February  2006  and  the  conferral  of 
management was adopted by the Commission in September 2006. An amount of €25 million 
was  committed  to  the  programme  on  the  basis  of  one  single  Annual  Financing  Agreement 
(AFA) for the year 2006 and has been allocated to the measures "Investments in Agricultural 
Holdings"  and  "Processing  and  Marketing  of  Agricultural  and  Fishery  products".  A  first 
Payment on Account was made in April 2007 and the first payment application was submitted 
to the Commission for the second quarter of 2007. At the end of 2007 EU funds for an amount 
of €0.9 million were paid to final beneficiarie s. Modifications to the programme, mainly on 
eligibility criteria, were adopted in October 2007 by means of a Commission Decision. 

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See Annexes A.1 and A.2. 
Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EE), Hungary (HU), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Poland (PL), Slovakia 
(SK), Slovenia (SI). 
Pre-financing and reimbursement payments. 

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The  total  amount  of  public  funds  paid  to  final  beneficiaries  declared  under  the  Sapard 
programme at the end of the year 2007 is €3 113 million (€2 722 million at the end of 2006), 
of which the Community contribution amounts to €2 333 million (€2 038 million at the end of 
2006).  As  a  large  share  of  the  investment  undertaken  under  the  Sapard  Programme  are 
revenue generating investments which are supported by up to 50% from public sources, the 
overall  direct  impact  of  Community  support  under  the  Sapard  instrument,  thus  including 
private financing, therefore amounts to a total of around €5 683 million (€4 988 million at the 
end  of  2006)  in  investments  and  services  provided.  Consequently,  each  euro  given  by  the 
Community under Sapard results in an investment of €2,40. This leverage factor was constant 
over the last three years. 

3. 

ASSESSMENT OF ACHIEVEMENT OF OBJECTIVES

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Now that contracting of projects to final beneficiaries under Sapard has also come to an end in 
BG and RO, it is possible to assess the overall impact of these country programmes. 

The assessment focuses on the implementation results as compared to the Sapard objectives. 
It  assesses  the  state  of  implementation  of  the  investment  measures  for  farms  and  the  food 
industry, which contribute, in particular, to the attainment of EU standards. It also assesses the 
investment  measures  for  diversification  of  economic  activities,  rural  infrastructure  and,  for 
BG, renovation and development of villages. These measures mainly contribute to sustainable 
economic  development  and  the  creation  of  job  opportunities  in  rural  areas,  and  account  for 
respectively 99% and 92% of the total Sapard allocation in BG and RO5. 

Detailed  information  and  figures  on  the  implementation  of  the  measures  of  the  Sapard 
programmes of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, in relation to their allocations and objectives, 
can be found in annex G to this report. 

A horizontal assessment will be done in the framework of the ex-post evaluation of the eight 
programmes already closed. 

4. 

PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT 

4.1 

Monitoring of programme implementation 

AFAs for  the year 2006 were signed with BG, RO and HR in 2006. The AFA 2006 signed 
with RO provides for an extension of the date for automatic de-commitment ("n+3 rule") for 
the AFA 2003 to 31 December 2007. 

During  2006  and  2007  the  EC  continued  to  work  closely  with  the  beneficiary  countries  on 
monitoring  and  evaluation.  In  addition  to  the  on-going  monitoring,  twelve  Monitoring 
Committees were held during 2006 and eight in 2007. 

Six  Commission  Decisions  amending  programmes  of  BG  and  RO  were  adopted  in  20066, 
three for each country. The main aim of two, out of three, Commission decisions adopted for 
RO  was  to  allow  the  RO  authorities  to  apply  the  special  provisions  for  exceptional  natural 

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Annexes B and C contain a horizontal overview. 
Annexes C.4 and C.5. 
See Annex D. 

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disasters contributing to provide relief to RO rural areas affected by floods (the first decision 
allowing to apply such provisions and the second decision allowing extending the deadline for 
their application). The main objectives of the three amendments adopted for BG (and the last 
one  for  RO)  were  mainly  to  better  focus  their  programmes  to  the  needs  for  preparation  for 
accession  and  to  improve  their  absorption  capacity.  In  2007  no  Commission  Decisions 
amending the programmes of BG and RO were adopted. 

4.2 

Regulations 

On  11.7.2006 
the  Commission  adopted  Regulation  (EC)  No  1052/2006  amending 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 laying down financial rules for the application of 
Sapard.  This  amendment  intends  to  minimize  the  implications  of  the  exceptional  natural 
disasters  in  BG  and  RO,  and  the  risk  of  cancellation  of  appropriations.  It  provides  for  an 
extension of the date for automatic de-commitment ("n+3 rule") for the AFAs 2003 and 2004 
to 31 December 2006 and 2007 respectively to these countries. 

The Commission Regulation (EC) No 248/2007 specifically addressing the transition of BG 
and RO from Sapard to Rural Development Programming as MS and on the continuation of 
the application of the Sapard AFAs and MAFAs was prepared in 2006 and adopted in March 
2007. 

4.3 

Update on mid-term evaluations 

According  to  MAFA,  the  mid-term  evaluations  should  be  updated  where  and  whenever 
appropriate.  Based  on  this,  it  was  decided  to  carry  out  such  updates  for  BG  and  RO  by 
31.12.2005.  RO  submitted  the  final  version  of  the  report  to  the  EC  in  May  2006.  The 
procedure  was  closed  in  November  2006.  BG  presented  the  report  in  March  2007.  The 
procedure was closed in January 2008. 

5. 

ACTIVITIES  IN  RELATION  TO  CONFERRAL  OF  MANAGEMENT,  AUDITS  AND 
CONTROLS 

5.1 

Update on Conferral of Management of Aid and monitoring missions7 

Conferral  of  management  of  Sapard  aid  is  issued  by  the  Commission  to  the  candidate 
countries.  In  2006  one  conferral  audit  mission  has  been  carried  out  to  HR  in  the  context  of 
accreditations,  covering 
issued  on 
29 September 2006. For the ‘third wave’ of accreditations, two other Commission Decisions 
were issued that year, on 22 April for RO and on 29 September for BG. In 2007 no conferral 
audit missions were carried out and no Commission decisions were issued in this regard. 

two  measures.  The  Commission  Decision  was 

Two  compliance  monitoring  missions  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  and  provisions  of 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  2222/2000  were  carried  out  to  HR  in  May  and  October 
2007.  It  appeared  that  certain  accreditation  criteria  were  seriously  deficient.  Thus  the  HR 
Authorities  were  requested  to  draw  up  a  plan  to  remedy  the  deficiencies  and  to  inform  the 
Commission of the implementation of such a plan before the end of 2007. The progress was 
monitored on a regular basis and a follow-up mission to HR was carried out in January 2008, 

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See Annex E. 

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from  which  Commission  services  have  noted  that  most  of  the  actions  have  been  properly 
implemented. However, a certain number of weaknesses remained to be corrected. 

5.2 

Clearance of accounts decisions 

On 29.9.2006 the Commission adopted a Decision on the clearance of the 2005 accounts of 
nine  Sapard  countries.  The  expenditure  declared  by  RO  in  2005  was  not  proposed  for 
clearance under this Decision, pending the results of some additional checks. 

Also,  the  accounts  of  BG,  PL  and  RO  for  the  2003  financial  year,  which  were  disjoined  in 
2004, underwent additional checks in 2005 and a clearance decision on these three accounts 
was adopted by the Commission on 17.2.2006. 

On 28.9.2007 the Commission adopted a Decision on the clearance of the 2006 accounts of all 
Sapard countries, with the exception of the CZ where the programme was closed in the year 
2006.  Also  on  10.12.2007,  the  Commission  adopted  a  second  clearance  decision  relating  to 
the expenditure chargeable to Sapard for EE, HU, LV, LT, PL, SK and SI during the period 
2000–2006 and establishing the final balance to be paid or recovered. 

These decisions are without prejudice to any subsequent decisions, which may be adopted to 
exclude  expenditure  not  carried  out  in  accordance  with  Community  legislation  from 
Community funding. 

5.3 

Conformity clearance 

In  2006,  five  conformity  missions  were  carried  out.  Four  of  them  concentrated  on  the 
implementation of corrective measures to address the recommendations made during the first 
enquiries carried out in 2003 and 2004 (SK, SI, EE, LV). In 2007 two conformity missions 
were carried out, one in BG in March and one in RO in September, thus covering almost all 
expenditure in 2007. 

Moreover, two desk audits were opened in 2007 in order to take into account the findings of 
the Certifying Bodies for the year 2005 related to LT and SK. 

The audits and auditors focussed particularly on specific allegations in the context of OLAF 
findings, the respect of public procurement rules, eligibility criteria, the extent and quality of 
controls  and  on  specific  requirements  of  the  MAFA  that  were  also  considered  to  present  a 
higher  degree  of  risk  as  regards  the  principles  of  sound  financial  management  and  in 
particular, economy and cost-effectiveness; non-eligible expenditure, changes in key staff and 
ex-post checks. The audit in BG focussed also on the limited time procedures for the private 
measures,  a  procedure  introduced  by  the  BG  authorities  as  a  reaction  to  the  need  for 
examination  of  a  large  number  of  projects  in  a  situation  of  limited  time  and  resources.  The 
audit was closed without applying financial corrections. 

In RO a third and a fourth audit were carried out, respectively in 2006 and 2007, to follow up 
the findings made by the Court of Auditors and the Commission during previous missions and 
to cover the expenditure declared until the time of the mission, in particular for the measure 
"Rural infrastructure". Public procurement procedures have been considerably improved due 
to  new  legislation.  Selected  samples  of  payment  files  were  examined  and  some  final 
beneficiaries were inspected on the spot. 

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The  weaknesses  detected  were  addressed  to  the  authorities  concerned.  The  application  of 
possible financial  corrections  to the expenditure affected will be evaluated at the  end  of the 
clearance of accounts procedures linked to the present enquiry in application of the provisions 
of the MAFA. 

By Conformity Clearance Decision C(2006) 2405 of 22 June 2006 the Commission excluded, 
in  accordance  with  Article 12(7)  of  Section  A  of  MAFA,  an  amount  of  €531 333  from 
Community  financing  for  certain  expenditure  incurred  by  PL  under  Sapard  due  to  the 
payment of ineligible amounts of VAT to some beneficiaries, declared to the Commission in 
2003 and 2004. 

5.4 

Work carried out in relation to the European Court of Auditors (ECA) 

In  the  framework  of  the  DAS  2005  the  ECA  checked  the  Commission’s  handling  of  the 
Sapard  Annual  Implementation  Reports.  During  this  exercise,  specific  attention  was  paid  to 
the  documentation  of  the  Commission’s  analysis  of  the  reports  and  to  the  respect  of  the 
deadlines as laid down in the MAFAs. The comments made were duly taken into account by 
the Commission’s services. 

In the framework of its 2005 annual report the ECA carried out audits in BG and RO on five 
projects in each country implementation. 

In the framework of its 2006 annual report for Sapard, at Commission level, the ECA's audit 
involved  an  appraisal  of  the  supervisory  and  control  systems  including  the  Commission’s 
review  of  the  certifying  bodies’  reports  and  tests  of  transactions  on  a  sample  of  six 
Commission payments. Furthermore, the ECA's audit comprised tests of controls and tests of 
transactions on five projects in RO and an additional sample of five projects in LV, covering 
main measures implemented at the time of the audit. 

The  Commission  services  examined  these  reports  as  well  as  the  replies  from  the  countries 
concerned,  and  followed  up  on  some  of  the  issues  raised  during  the  national  audits  in  both 
countries. After this examination the Commission considered with the possible exception of 
public  tendering in  RO,  that  there was no evidence of serious system weaknesses regarding 
Sapard.  From  findings  of  audits  carried  out  by  DG  Agriculture  in  2008,  thus  after  the 
reporting  period  of  this  report,  it  was  found  that  national  authorities  may  not  have  fully 
complied with the requirements of the Sapard Instrument. Both MS were requested to draw up 
an  Action  Plan,  which  addresses  the  control  deficiencies.  The  Commission  will  consider 
resuming  the  reimbursement  of  expenditure  concerned  once  it  has  been  confirmed,  that  the 
Action Plans have been properly implemented. 

5.5 

Information of irregularities 

5.5.1 Operational cases by OLAF 

In  2007  OLAF  became  increasingly  aware  and  concerned  with  possible  irregularities,  fraud 
and  corruption  involving  SAPARD  funding  in  Bulgaria  and  Romania  which  resulted  in  the 
opening of 23 cases. 

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5.5.2. Irregularities notified by Member States to the Commission8 

The obligation to report detected irregularities is established in Section F of the Multiannual 
Financing Agreement signed with the beneficiary countries. In 20079 OLAF received 145 first 
notifications (163 in 2006) and 582 updated communications on irregularities detected under 
SAPARD  programme  (641  for  all  the  years).  The  number  of  reports  decreased  by  11%  in 
comparison  with  2006.  This  could  be  related  to  the  fact  that  for  EU-8  SAPARD  has  been 
closed. As the checks can be carried out five years after the final payments to the beneficiaries 
it  is  likely  that  some  new  irregularities  will  still  be  detected  in  the  coming  years.  The 
geographical distribution of cases has changed in comparison to 2006. The biggest numbers 
of  reports  came  from  Romania,  Bulgaria,  and  Poland.  There  is  a  sharp  increase  of  cases 
detected  in  Bulgaria  and  a  decrease  in  Romania  and  Poland.  Romania  accounts  for  44%  of 
reported detected irregularities, Poland for 20% and Bulgaria for 12%. 

The  quality  of  the  reports  is  gradually  improving;  however,  the  majority  of  administrations 
fail to indicate whether the reported cases are ‘irregularities’ or ‘suspected fraud’10. There are 
some  inconsistencies  in  the  financial  aspects  of  the  reports  especially  with  reference  to  the 
Community  irregular  amounts,  amounts  not  paid  due  to  detection  of  irregularities,  amounts 
recovered and to be recovered. 

Most frequent methods of detection in 2007 appear to be ‘national administrative or financial 
control’, ‘on the spot control of achievements’, ‘control of documents’. In other words both 
ex-ante and ex-post controls are effectively used. Most frequent types of irregularity in 2007 
were ‘failure to fulfil commitments entered into’ (45% of cases, compared to 13% in 2006), 
‘failure to respect other regulations/contract conditions’ (19%, 12% in 2006) and ‘non-eligible 
expenditure’  (16%,  27%  in  2006).  Irregularities  on  ‘Infringement  of  rules  concerned  with 
public procurement’ occur in 7% of cases. In comparison to 2006 the number of cases with 
non-eligible  expenditure  decreased  from  27%  to  16%.  The  changes  in  the  modus  operandi 
reflect  the  transition  to  subsequent  stages  of  the  project  cycle  i.e.  from  selection  and 
contracting,  to  implementation  and ex-post  checks.  Clearly  fraudulent  types  of  irregularities 
‘falsified  supporting  documents’  and  ‘false/falsified  certificates’  have  a  share  of  2%  within 
reported cases. 

With  regard  to  the  reported  irregular  amounts  there  occurs  an  increase.  For  2007  cases  the 
greater  part  of  the  affected  amounts  has  been  unduly  paid  and  has  to  be  recovered  by  the 
national authorities. 

6. 

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 

6.1 

Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) 

The  reform  of  the  external  aid  policies  proposed  by  the  Commission  in  the  Financial 
Perspective  2007-201311  resulted  in  the  elaboration  of  the  new  single  Instrument  for 

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See Annex F. 
Data available on 13.3.2008. The deadline to send notifications is end of February but data from some 
Member States have not been received yet. Some figures cover only three quarters of 2007. 
Article  3(1)(e)  of  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1681/94  as  amended  by  Regulation  (EC) 
No 2035/2005. 
COM(2004) 101. 

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Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) replacing the five former instruments PHARE, ISPA, Sapard, 
CARDS and the Turkey (TR) pre-accession assistance. 

On 17.7.2006, the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 establishing an Instrument 
for  Pre-Accession  Assistance  (IPA).  The  IPA  Implementing  Regulation  (EC)  No  718/2007 
was adopted on 12.6.2007 and was communicated to all candidate countries. 

IPA  supports  the  candidate  countries  in  five  areas  (components),  one  of  them  being  rural 
development.  The  IPA  Rural  Development  component  (IPARD)  helps  the  countries  to 
prepare  for  implementation  of  the  acquis  communautaire  of  the  CAP  and  to  align  to  EU 
structures, through the provision of financial assistance under multi-annual rural development 
programmes,  provided  that  the  candidate  countries  have  set  up  the  required  institutions  and 
management capacity. 

Budgetary commitments have been made for the year 2007 for the three IPARD programmes, 
which were approved for HR, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and TR. 

With this view, several fact-finding audit missions were carried out in 2006 and 2007 to the 
candidate  countries  TR  and  the  former  Yugoslav  Republic  of  Macedonia.  The  objective  of 
these missions were both to give a comprehensive overview of the road towards accreditation 
of the Rural Development Component of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance and to 
assess  the  progress  made  in  setting  up  the  management  and  control  system  required  by  the 
Commission.  For  both  countries,  the  most  tangible  achievement  in  IPARD  implementation 
has been so far the elaboration of the national law establishing the IPARD management and 
control system. 

6.2 

Co-operation with international organisations 

The  EC  has  increasingly  developed  cooperation  with  International  Financing  Institutions 
(IFIs) in the field of pre–accession assistance to rural development in recent years. The result 
has  been  a  better  understanding  of  the  functioning  of  Sapard  and  the  potential  areas  of 
collaboration  between  the  IFIs  and  the  EC  services  in  this  field.  These  activities  continue 
under the IPA rural development component. 

Close  coordination  and  cooperation  with  the  World  Bank  (WB)  has  been  undertaken 
concerning  the  implementation  of  the  WB  Agricultural  Acquis  Cohesion  Facility  for  HR 
(€25,5  million),  designed  to  build  up  capacities  within  the  HR  Ministry  for  Agriculture, 
including support for the establishment of an Sapard/IPARD Agency and the preparation of 
Sapard/IPARD measures. Cooperation with the WB has been also related to the elaboration of 
the WB "Agriculture Strengthening and Accession" project for the former Yugoslav Republic 
of Macedonia, which is now being implemented. 

Under  the  Agriculture  Reform  Implementation  Project,  the  WB  supported  IPARD–type 
measures  in  TR.  The  project  provided  funding  of  €39,7  million  for  farmers,  processing 
enterprises as well as producer organisations and co-operatives for agricultural production or 
processing  related  investments  with  the  aim  to  increase  income  in  rural  areas  and  to  raise 
social standards by conserving national resources. As the Project implementation framework 
was  designed  to  take  account  of  Sapard/IPARD  requirements,  it  also  fostered  capacity 
building with regard to the further implementation of IPARD. The EC has also been in close 
contact with other international donors, such as the UNDP to better coordinate the respective 
rural development activities. The EC is furthermore a member of the East–Agri group which 

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is a network of agricultural and agri–business institutions working in the region of Central and 
Eastern Europe under FAO coordination. 

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