Report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Sapard Annual Report - Year 2008 SEC(2009)1715
Date: 2009-12-22
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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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 22.12.2009 
COM(2009)698 final 

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

SAPARD ANNUAL REPORT - YEAR 2008 

SEC(2009)1715 

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

SAPARD ANNUAL REPORT - YEAR 2008 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Beginning in 2000, the European Union (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  previous  Annual  Reports  as  published  on  the  Commission  website 
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/external/enlarge/publi/index_en.htm. 

This  report  addresses  in  particular  the  financial  implementation  of  Sapard  in  Bulgaria 
Romania  and  Croatia,  as  the  Sapard  Programmes  of  the  eight  new  Member  States  (MS), 
which  joined  the  EU  on  1  May  2004,  have  been  completed.  During  2004  they  stopped 
contracting  projects  under  their  respective  Sapard  Programmes  and  switched  to  contracting 
under the post-accession programmes for rural development. Payments to final beneficiaries 
under their Sapard Programmes ended towards the end of 2006. 

Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU on 1 January 2007, have also stopped contracting 
to final beneficiaries under Sapard on 31 October 2007 and 31 July 2007, respectively. 

The Programme of Croatia was approved by Commission Decision on 8 February 2006. With 
the  Commission  Decision  2006/658/EC  of  29  September  2006  on  conferral  of  management 
Croatia became eligible for receiving Sapard funds. Both contracting to final beneficiaries and 
financial execution were ongoing in 2008. 

2. 

PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT 

In  the  Sapard  Annual  Report  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 for Bulgaria and Romania in the Sapard Annual Report 2007, following completion of 
contracting in 2007 in these MS. 

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2.1 

Overall results of implementation1 

As the contracting to final beneficiaries under Sapard has stopped in Bulgaria and Romania in 
2007,  the  implementation  of  these  Programmes  mainly  focussed  on  financial  execution  and 
control  issues  in  2008.  Only  Croatia  was  still  in  a  position  to  contract  EU  funds  to  final 
beneficiaries during 2008. 

At the end of 2008 allocations under Sapard to the beneficiary countries for the years 2000 to 
2006 were made for a total of €2 936 million, of  which €1 334,1 million was allocated to the 
eight MS that joined the EU in 20042 and €1 601,9 million to Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia. 

During this period a total amount of €2 446,4 million 3 was actually paid by the Commission, 
representing 99,6% of the total amount allocated to the eight new MS and 69,8% for Bulgaria, 
Romania and Croatia. 

In  2008  the  Programmes  of  Lithuania,  Latvia  and  Poland  were  closed,  by  means  of  the 
payment  of  the  final  balance  to  Lithuania  and  Poland.  For  Latvia,  where  the  amount  of 
eligible EU expenditure finally declared in euro was only 88% of the funds allocated to the 
Programme, a recovery order has been made for the settlement of the negative final balance to 
be  repaid  to  the  Commission.  The  number  of  contracted  projects  in  the  eight  new  MS 
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,  the  new  MS  could  include 
payments  for  outstanding  multi-annual  commitments  under  Sapard  into  their  2004  –  2006 
transitional rural development programmes. 

Progress  made  during  2008,  measured  by  means  of  payments  made  by  the  Commission  to 
Bulgaria,  Romania  and  Croatia4  slowed  down,  also  due  to  control  issues  in  Bulgaria  and 
Romania  and  low  absorption  by  beneficiaries  in  Croatia.  Total  payment  execution  since  the 
start of the Programmes measured as a percentage of funds available to these three countries, 
was 69,8% at the end of 2008, compared to respectively 46% and 62% at the end of 2006 and 
2007. 

At  31  July  2007,  the  date  when  Romania  stopped  making  contracts  to  final  beneficiaries, 
contracted  amount  was  €1 132  million.  At  th e  end  of  2008  the  contracted  amount  had 
decreased to around €1 066 million of EU funds to  over 4 500 projects, of which almost 4 000 
were completed. This decrease of 6% is due to cancelled projects. 

The  three  largest  measures,  “Investments  in  agricultural  holdings",  "Processing  and 
marketing  of  agricultural  and  fishery  products"  and  "Investments  in  rural  infrastructure", 
representing 87% of the total amount allocated to the Programme had close to 3 300 approved 
projects,  of  which  nearly  3  000  were  completed  at  the  end  of  2008.  At  the  end  of  2008 
payments,  including  advances,  made  since  the  start  to  Romania  reached  €843,5  million,  or 
72,7% of the amount allocated to the Sapard Programme. 

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Annexes A and B contain a horizontal overview. 
Czech Republic (CZ), Estonia (EE), Hungary (HU), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Poland (PL), Slovakia 
(SK), Slovenia (SI). 
Pre-financing and reimbursement payments to all Countries. 
Annex C contains information per Country. 

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At 31 October 2007, the date when Bulgaria stopped making contracts to final beneficiaries, 
contracted amount was €458 million. At the end  of 2008 the contracted amount had decreased 
to  around  €376  million  of  EU  funds  to  over  2700  projects,  of  which  more  than  2  100  were 
completed. This decrease of 18% is due to cancelled projects. 

The  three  largest  measures,  “Investments  in  agricultural  holdings",  "Processing  and 
marketing of agricultural and fishery products" including sub measure “Wholesale markets” 
and "Development and diversification of economic activities", accounted for 80% of the total 
amount  allocated  to  the  Programme  with  close  to  2  300  approved  projects,  of  which  more 
than 1 900 were completed at the end of 2008. The low uptake of funds measured at the end 
of 2007 and during 2008 resulted in the de-commitment of EU funds of €27,6 million made in 
2008 and is expected to lead to a de-commitment of €45,7 million in 2009, thus reducing the 
total amount initially allocated to the Programme of €444,7  million by 16% to €371,4 million. 

At  the  end  of  2008  payments,  including  advances,  made  since  the  start  to  Bulgaria  reached 
€265,2 million, or 63,6% of the amount allo cated to the Sapard Programme. 

The Sapard Programme of Croatia, adopted in February 2006, with conferral of management 
in September 2006, obtained a committed amount  of €25 million on the basis of one single 
Annual Financing Agreement (AFA) for the year 2006. This amount has been allocated to the 
measures  "Investments  in  agricultural  holdings"  and  "Processing  and  marketing  of 
agricultural and fishery products". 

Contracting of EU funds was still ongoing at the end of 2008  and the contracted amount at 
that  moment  was  around  €10,5  million,  representing  42%  of  the  amount  allocated  to  the 
Programme. Out of 33 approved projects 16 were completed at the end of 2008. At the end of 
2008 payments made to Croatia since the start reached €9,5 million, including an advance of 
€7,2 million, representing 37,9% of the amount  allocated to the Sapard Programme. 

The  total  amount  of  public  funds  paid  to  final  beneficiaries  declared  under  all  Sapard 
Programmes at the end of the year 2008 is €3 415 million (€3 113 million at the end of 2007), 
of which the Community contribution amounts to €2 562 million (€2 333 million at the end of 
2007).  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 €6 123 million (€5 683 million at the 
end  of  2007)  in  investments  and  services  provided.  Consequently  each  euro  given  by  the 
Community under Sapard, results in an investment of €2,39. The value of  this leverage factor 
over the last three years was constant. 

3. 

ASSESSMENT OF ACHIEVEMENT OF OBJECTIVES 

The  assessment  of  the  overall  impact  of  the  Sapard  instrument  in  the  ten  initial  Sapard 
beneficiary  countries  with  regard  to  its  objectives  has  been  covered  in  detail  in  the  Sapard 
Annual Reports 2005 and 2007. It was found that the various measures financed under Sapard 
contribute  to  sustainable  economic  development,  improvement  of  environment  and  living 
conditions and the creation of job opportunities in rural areas. Investments made in farms and 
food industry contributed in particular to the attainment of EU standards. 

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In  the  context  of  the  in  2008  ongoing  ex-post  evaluation  of  the  eight  Programmes  already 
closed, a horizontal assessment will be done. Following the closure and ex-post evaluations of 
the Programmes in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia a similar assessment will be carried out. 

4. 

PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT 

4.1 

Monitoring of programme implementation 

During  2008  the  EU  continued  to  work  closely  with  the  beneficiary  countries  Bulgaria, 
Romania and Croatia on monitoring and evaluation. In addition to the on going monitoring, 
six Monitoring Committees were held during 2008. 

Two  Commission  Decisions  amending  the  Programme  of  Bulgaria  and  one  amending  the 
Programme of Croatia were adopted in 20085. The main objective of the amendment adopted 
for Croatia was an adaptation of the financial table to concentrate the funds on the two only 
measures accredited, to better focus the Programme on the needs for preparation for accession 
and to improve the absorption capacity. 

The first Commission Decision in 2008 amending the Programme of Bulgaria concerned an 
adaptation  of  the  financial  tables  to  take  into  account  the  actual  stage  of  contracting  and 
implementation. The second amending Commission Decision adopted in 2008 concerned the 
modification of the financial tables to take into account the de-commitment of €27,6 million 
from the Annual Financing Agreement (AFA) 2004. This is the part of the committed amount, 
which has not been settled by the payment on account and for which the Commission has not 
received an acceptable payment application until the end of 2007 in accordance with Article 4 
of AFA 2006. 

4.2 

Legal framework 

In December 2008 the Commission extended the deadline for de-commitment for the AFAs 
2006 signed with Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009, to 
give the countries the opportunity to increase absorption by executing payments until the end 
of 2009 to projects contracted under Sapard. 

Considering  that  2008  is  the  last  but  one  year  of  implementation  of  the  remaining  Sapard 
Programmes  of  Bulgaria,  Romania  and  Croatia,  the  related  Regulations  have  remained 
unchanged in 2008. 

The  last  legislation  concerning  Sapard  is  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  248/2007  of 
8 March  2007,  which  specifically  addresses  the  transition  of  Bulgaria  and  Romania  from 
Sapard  to  Rural  Development  Programming  as  Member  States  and  the  continuation  of  the 
application of the Sapard AFAs and Multi-annual Financing Agreements (MAFA). 

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Annex D. 

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5. 

ACTIVITIES  IN  RELATION  TO  CONFERRAL  OF  MANAGEMENT,  AUDITS  AND 
CONTROLS 

5.1 

Update on Conferral of Management of Aid and monitoring missions6 

Conferral  of  management  of  the  Sapard  aid  is  issued  by  the  Commission  to  the  Candidate 
Countries. In 2008 no Commission Decision was issued and no conferral audit mission was 
carried out in this regard. 

According to Article 3(3) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 of 7 June 2000, the 
Commission  shall  also  monitor  continued  compliance  with  the  conditions  and  provisions  of 
that Regulation including its annex. On that basis, two monitoring missions were carried out 
to Bulgaria and Romania in May and June 2008, respectively. 

5.1.1  Bulgaria 

Given the results of the verifications performed during the mission of May 2008, it appeared 
that  certain  accreditation  criteria  with  regard  to  the  Bulgarian  Sapard  Agency  were  poorly 
implemented,  namely  the  ex-post  controls  (limited  to  checking  of  physical  existence  of  the 
investments),  the  human  resources  standard  (very  high  turnover  of  staff)  and  monitoring 
functions (internal audit department and Fight Against Fraud & Counteraction to Corruption 
Department  in  particular).  The  conformity  aspects  of  this  mission  are  described  in  heading 
5.3.1 of this report. 

Following the mission the Bulgarian Authorities were requested by letter sent in June 2008 to 
draw  up  a  plan  to  remedy  the  deficiencies  and  to  inform  the  Commission  of  the 
implementation  of  such  a  plan.  The  Bulgarian  Authorities  were  also  informed  about  the 
interruption of reimbursements by the Commission for three important measures until proper 
implementation  of  the  action  plan.  The  report  of  the  independent  audit  authority  (Ernst  and 
Young)  submitted  by  the  Bulgarian  Authorities  to  the  Commission  in  November  2008 
confirmed that all actions foreseen in the action plan with regard to accreditation weaknesses 
were implemented. In December, the National Authorising Officer (NAO) declared by letter 
that  the  action  plan  had  been  implemented  and  this  was  confirmed  by  an  independent  audit 
authority.  The  services  of  DG  Agriculture,  after  having  examined  in  detail  the  audit  report 
received,  concluded  that  important  progress  had  been  made,  but  that,  as  confirmed  by  the 
independent audit authority, two important actions were only partially implemented. This was 
reported to the Bulgarian Authorities by letter in January 2009, stating that, as soon as these 
remaining issues were addressed in an appropriate manner and Bulgaria maintained its efforts 
in implementing the new control procedures following the action plan, the Commission would 
consider resuming the reimbursement of declared Sapard expenditure. 

Given that at the end of 2008 the action plan was not fully implemented, reimbursement by 
the  Commission  of  declared  expenditure  of  €11,4  million  for  the  measures  concerned, 
remained  interrupted  at  that  date.  Reimbursements  to  Bulgaria  were  resumed  in  September 
2009. 

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Annex E. 

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5.1.2  Romania 

Another monitoring mission was carried out to Romania in June 2008. The objective of the 
mission  was  to  seek  reasonable  assurance  on  continued  compliance  of  the  NAO,  National 
Fund and the Sapard Agency with the conditions and provisions of the MAFA and to ensure 
that the accredited and conferred procedures and structures operate in a satisfactory manner. 

The  audit  revealed  that  the  internal  control  system  and  several  accreditation  criteria  were 
seriously  deficient  and  raised  considerable  doubts  about  the  efficiency  of  the  control 
procedure regarding the attribution of investment aid. 

Following  these  findings,  the  Romanian  Authorities  were  requested  by  letter  sent  in  the 
beginning of July 2008 to draw up an action plan to remedy the shortcomings identified and 
to inform the Commission once implemented. The letter underlined the responsibilities of the 
NAO  to  ensure  the  proper  implementation  of  the  remedial  actions  which  also  had  to  be 
confirmed by an independent audit authority. In view of the seriousness of the findings, the 
NAO  was  also  requested  not  to  introduce  requests  for  reimbursement  of  expenditure  to  the 
Commission  and  stop  payments  to  final  beneficiaries  until  remedial  measures  were 
implemented. Furthermore DG Agriculture interrupted the reimbursement to Romania of the 
declared expenditure of all measures of the Programme. 

DG Agriculture also informed Romania that it would consider resuming the reimbursements 
once it had received confirmation that the action plan had been properly implemented and that 
this was confirmed by an independent Audit Authority. 

At the end of July 2008 Romania submitted the action plan. By letter sent in October 2008, 
the  Romanian  Authorities  informed  the  Commission  services  that  payments  to  final 
beneficiaries  were  resumed  on  1  October  2008.  By  letter  sent  in  November  2008  the 
Romanian Authorities informed the Commission services that they considered the action plan 
as implemented. This assessment was based on the report of the Romanian Court of Auditors. 
Although in general the report concluded positively on the adequacy of the remedial actions 
undertaken, it nonetheless identified a number of accreditation deficiencies, which had not yet 
been  properly  rectified.  Furthermore,  the  audit  report  did  not  systematically  describe  and 
substantiate  the  concrete  work  carried  out  by  the  Romanian  Authorities  and  the  results 
achieved  by  the  implementation  of  the  action  plan,  especially  with  regard  to  conformity 
issues. 

The  Commission  services  also  analysed  the  report  with  a  view  to  establish  whether  on  this 
basis the Sapard payments to Romania could be resumed. The result of this analysis was that 
with  regard  to  certain  issues  more  information  on  the  scope  of  the  work  carried  out  by  the 
Romanian  Authorities  was  required.  This  concerned  in  particular  the  question  whether 
projects had been subject to unauthorised procedures and therefore constituted a financial risk. 
Moreover,  more  information  regarding  additional  checks  carried  out  with  regard  to 
investment  projects  as  well  as  information  on  the  coverage  and  the  contents  of  the  checks 
carried out, both at the level of the Paying Agency and the Audit Authority was requested. 

By  letter  sent  in  December  2008  Romania  submitted  a  supplementary  Declaration  of 
Expenditure and Payment Application covering the period up to 30 November 2008. As the 
Romanian  Authorities  were  not  yet  in  a  position  to  evaluate  the  underlying  financial  risk, 
Commission’s  analysis  concluded  that  for  certain  issues  more  information  is  required.  The 
decision to resume the payments will depend on the satisfactory follow-up to the additional 

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requests made to the Romanian Authorities. Given that at the end of 2008 the action plan was 
not  fully  implemented,  reimbursement  by  the  Commission  of  declared  expenditure  of 
€141,5 million remained interrupted at that date . Reimbursements to Romania were resumed 
in July 2009. 

5.2 

Clearance of accounts decisions 

Following the requirements set down in Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000, the Commission has 
to clear the account(s) of the Sapard Agencies, which have been established in the Candidate 
Countries. 

On that basis, on 30 September 2008 the Commission adopted a decision, which cleared the 
2007  accounts  of  Bulgaria  and  Croatia.  Pending  the  review  of  supplementary  information, 
which has been requested from Romania, the Clearance of Accounts decision concerning this 
country could not be adopted at that stage. 

5.3 

Conformity clearance 

In 2008, two conformity missions were carried out by the DG Agriculture responsible unit for 
the audit of Sapard expenditure, one in Bulgaria and one in Romania. 

5.3.1  Bulgaria 

In  the  light  of  cases  of  alleged  fraud  revealed  by  OLAF,  an  audit  mission  to  Bulgaria  took 
place  in  May  2008  to  assess  whether  the  alleged  fraud  cases  are  linked  to  systemic  control 
deficiencies.  The  conformity  audit  carried  out  focused  on  measures  “Investments  in 
agricultural  holdings”,  “Processing  and  marketing  of  agricultural  and  fishery  products", 
"Diversification of economic activities  providing  for  alternative  income” and  “Development 
and improvement of rural infrastructure”. 

In  particular,  checks  were  carried  out  to  obtain  assurance  that  the  control  system  was 
implemented in accordance with the accredited procedures and that the controls were carried 
out  to  the  required  standards.  The  audit  brought  to  light  serious  weaknesses,  as  a  result  of 
which, by letter sent in June 2008, DG Agriculture interrupted its payments to Bulgaria for the 
measures  "Investments  in  agricultural  holdings",  "Processing  and  marketing  of  agricultural 
and  fishery  products"  including  sub  measure  “Wholesale  markets”  and  "Development  and 
diversification  of  economic  activities",  mainly  for  reason  of  non-respect  of  the  rules  for 
making  offers,  while  accepting  contracts  under  Sapard.  These  measures  represented  around 
80 % of the total amount allocated to the Programme. The deficiencies detected resulted in the 
already mentioned interruption of payments by the Commission (see 5.1.1). 

5.3.2  Romania 

In addition to the mission carried out in June 2008 a conformity audit was also carried out in 
Romania  in  September  2008,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  ensure  that  the  management, 
control  and  sanction  procedures  established  in  Romania  in  connection  with  some  of  the 
accredited  measures  of  the  Sapard  Programme  "Improving  the  structures  for  quality, 
veterinary  and  plant-health  controls, 
foodstuffs  quality  and  consumer  protection", 
"Investments in Agricultural Holdings", ''Agricultural production methods designed to protect 
the  environment  and  maintain  the  countryside'' and  ''Forestry"  were  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions of the relevant MAFA. The main findings concerned the adequacy of the private 
procurement  procedure,  inconsistencies  related  to  the  public  procurement  procedure,  the 

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supervision by the Sapard Agency at the central level and the evidence and documentation of 
the on-the-spot checks carried out. 

The outcome of the conformity audits, such as the possibility of financial corrections to the 
expenditure concerned will be considered at the end of the clearance of accounts procedures. 

5.4 

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

For the purposes of the Statement of Assurance for the year 2007 (DAS 2007), the audit of the 
European  Court  of  Auditors  involved  a  review  of  the  Commission's  accounting  clearance 
procedure  for  Romania  and  Bulgaria.  Furthermore,  the  Court's  audit  comprised  a  review  of 
the Commission's conformity clearance procedure for the same two countries. Following this 
second review, the ECA noted that the conformity audit mission to Romania failed to cover a 
risk area concerning the compliance with Community public procurement rules (the so called 
"Instruction No. 104"). The Commission services examined the work performed by the ECA 
as well as the replies from the Member States, and followed up on some of the issues raised in 
both countries. 

5.5 

Information on irregularities 

In  2008  OLAF  received  230  first  notifications  and  632  updated  communications  on 
irregularities detected under all Sapard Programmes (876 for the whole period 2003-2008)7. 

The  number  of  reports  increased  by  8%  compared  to  2007.  There  are  several  reasons 
explaining  this  change.  Croatia  started  reporting  Sapard  irregularities  only  in  2008.  Poland 
and  Hungary  have  detected  new  irregularities  as  a  result  of  ex-post  controls  after  the  final 
payments to the beneficiaries. Romania reported twice as many cases as in 2007. 

The highest numbers of reports came from Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland. Comparing with 
2007  figures  there  is  an  increase  in  the  number  of  cases  detected  in  Bulgaria,  Hungary, 
Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Romania. A decrease is observed in Czech Republic, Slovenia 
and Slovakia. 

Communities'  financial  contribution  affected  under  Sapard  Programme  has  increased  by 
334% in comparison to 2007 and the amount to be recovered has increased by 294%. It seems 
that a number of irregularities were detected after final payments and resulted in full recovery 
of the committed amount. 

Suspected  fraud  cases  were  only  reported  by  Bulgaria,  Romania  and  Croatia.  They  account 
for 71% of 2008 cases in Bulgaria, 50% of cases in Croatia, and 6% of cases in Romania. 

Most frequent methods of detection in 2008 are ‘national administrative or financial control’, 
‘on-the-spot control of achievements’, 'whistleblower' and ‘control of documents’. The same 
tendency  was  observed  in  2007,  but  'whistleblower'  is  a  new  important  element  and  those 
cases are reported by Bulgaria. 

Most frequent types of irregularity in 2008 were ‘failure to fulfil commitments entered into’ 
(23%  of  cases),  'falsified  supporting  documents'  (19%)  and  ‘failure  to  respect  other 
regulations/contract conditions’ (19%). The biggest change in comparison to 2007 is noticed 

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Annex F. 

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in  the  share  of  cases  involving  'falsified  supporting  documents'  i.e.  from  4%  to  19%.  The 
majority of those cases are reported by Bulgaria. 

6. 

CO-OPERATION WITH INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS 

The  European  Commission  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  Commission  services  in  this  field. 
The  approach,  established  with  Sapard,  is  now  used  under  the  IPA  rural  development 
component. 

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