COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER COUNTRY SECTIONS & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 2009 ANNUAL REPORT ON PHARE, TURKEY PRE-ACCESSION INSTRUMENTS, CARDS AND THE TRANSITION FACILITY  COM(2010) 793 final
Date: 2010-12-20
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU aid, EU programme, Türkiye, accession to the European Union, enlargement of the Union, pre-accession strategy

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION  

Brussels, 20.12.2010 
SEC(2010) 1604 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER 

COUNTRY SECTIONS & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

Accompanying document to the 

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

2009 ANNUAL REPORT ON PHARE, TURKEY PRE-ACCESSION INSTRUMENTS, 
CARDS AND THE TRANSITION FACILITY 

COM(2010) 793 final 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

List of Acronyms………………………………………………………………………………4 

PART I  COUNTRY SECTION……………….…………………………………………….8 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20. 

Albania ......................................................................................................................... 8 

Bosnia and Herzegovina ............................................................................................ 14 

Bulgaria ...................................................................................................................... 19 

Croatia ........................................................................................................................ 22 

Cyprus ........................................................................................................................ 33 

Czech Republic .......................................................................................................... 35 

Estonia........................................................................................................................ 37 

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia........................................................... 39 

Hungary...................................................................................................................... 45 

Kosovo ....................................................................................................................... 47 

Latvia.......................................................................................................................... 54 

Lithuania .................................................................................................................... 56 

Malta .......................................................................................................................... 58 

Montenegro ................................................................................................................ 60 

Poland......................................................................................................................... 63 

Romania ..................................................................................................................... 65 

Serbia.......................................................................................................................... 67 

Slovakia...................................................................................................................... 77 

Slovenia...................................................................................................................... 79 

Turkey ........................................................................................................................ 81 

PART II  MULTI-BENEFICIARY PROGRAMMES…..………………...……………...90 

21. 

22. 

Twinning and other institution building technical assistance .................................... 90 

Multi-country, regional and horizontal programmes ................................................. 91 

PART III  FINANCIAL DATA……………….…………………………….…………….101 

23. 

PHARE, Turkey pre-accession and transition facility funds committed by year 1990 
– 2007....................................................................................................................... 101 

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24. 

25. 

26. 

PHARE, Turkey pre-accession and transition facility funds implementation by 
country at the end of 2009........................................................................................ 101 

CARDS funds committed by year 2000 – 2006....................................................... 102 

CARDS funds implementation by country at the end of 2009 ................................ 102 

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LIST OF ACRONYMS 

BSP 

CBC 

Business Support Programme 

Cross Border Cooperation  

CFCA  

Central Financing and Contracting Agency 

CFCD  

Central Financing and Contracting Department 

CFCU  

Central Finance and Contracts Unit 

CfP 

Call for Proposal 

CI         

CzechInvest 

CP        

Consumer Protection 

CIPS 

Citizen Identification Protection System 

CODEF 

Central Office for Development Strategy and Coordination of EU Funds  

CPIE 

Country Programme Interim Evaluation  

CPMA  

Central Programme Management Agency 

CRD     

Center for Regional Development 

CBIB   

Cross-Border Institution Building  

CSER   

Country Summary Evaluation Review  

DABLAS        Danube-Black Sea Task Force for 

                        co-operation on water protection in the wider Black Sea Region 

DEI 

Directorate of European Integration 

DFID   

United Kingdom's Department for International Development 

DIS 

Decentralised Implementation System 

EASA  

European Aviation Safety Agency  

ECENA 

Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network for Accession 

EAR     

European Agency for Reconstruction 

EBRD  

European bank for reconstruction and development 

ECAA  

European Common Aviation Area 

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ECLO   

European Commission's Liaison Office 

ESCB   

European System of Central Banks  

EDIS 

Extended Decentralised Implementation System 

EEFF     

Energy Efficiency Finance Facility 

EFSE    

European Fund for Southeast Europe 

EIB 

European Investment Bank 

ENPI   

European Neighbourhood and Partnerships Instrument 

ESF 

EU 

FDI 

European Social Fund 

European Union 

Foreign Direct Investment  

FIAS 

Multi-Donor Investment Climate Advisory Service  

GOEA   

Government Office for European Affairs 

GIS  

IA 

Geographical Information System  

Implementing Agency 

IBM      

Integrated Border Management 

ICT 

Information and Communications Technology  

ICTY    

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia  

IFC 

IFI 

International Finance Corporation 

International Financial Institutions 

IMF      

International Monetary Fund 

IPA 

Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance 

IPF       

Infrastructure Projects Facility 

IPR 

ISR 

ISIS 

IT 

Intellectual Property Rights 

Implementation Status Report 

Integrated Standby Instrument System  

Information and Telecommunication 

JMC 

Joint Monitoring Committee 

LPIS    

Land Parcel Identification System 

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LSDS   

Local sustainable development strategies  

MAFWE 
Republic of Macedonia) 

Ministry  of  Agriculture,  Forestry  and  Water  Economy  (the  former  Yugoslav 

MFF     

Municipal Infrastructure Facility 

MIS 

Management Information System 

MIPD   

Multi-Annual Indicative Planning Document 

NADSME  National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises  

NAO 

NAC 

NBS 

NGO 

National Authorising Officer 

National Aid Coordinator 

National Bank of Serbia  

Non-Governmental Organisation 

NIPAC           National IPA Coordinator 

NF 

NP 

National Fund 

National Programme 

NPP 

Nuclear Power Plant 

NROS   

Civil Society Development Foundation 

NTF      

National Training Fund 

OECD   

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 

OSCE   

Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe 

PAED  

Polish Agency for Enterprise Development  

PAO 

PAR 

Programme Authorising Officer 

Public Administration Reform 

PARCO 

Public Administration Reform Coordinator's Office  

PCM    

Project Cycle Management 

PIU 

Project Implementation Units  

PPP       

Public-Private Partnership 

PSK      

Probation service of Kosovo 

RDSA   

Regional Development Support Agency 

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ROM    

Results-Oriented Monitoring 

SAA     

Stabilisation and Association Agreements 

SCTM  

Standing conference of towns and municipalities  

SEE      

South East Europe 

SEETO            South East Europe Transport Observatory 

SF 

Structural Funds 

SIGMA 

Support for Improvement in Governance and Management 

SME 

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises 

SMSC  

Sector Monitoring Sub-Committee 

SEMS  

South-East European Messaging System 

SPO 

TA 

Senior Programme Officers  

Technical Assistance 

TAIEX 

Technical Assistance Information Exchange Unit 

UKIE   

Office of the Committee for European Integration  

UNDP  

United Nations Development Programme 

UNFPA        United Nations Population Fund 

UNODC 

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 

UNRC  

United Nations Resident Coordinator  

VAT 

VET 

Value Added Tax 

 Vocational Education and Training 

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PART I: COUNTRY SECTION 

1. 

ALBANIA 

1.1. 

Summary 

As  in  previous  years,  in  2009  the  implementation  of  CARDS  programmes  in  Albania  was 
managed by the EU Delegation to Albania.  

By  the  end  of  the  reporting  period,  CARDS  2001-2004  were  fully  contracted  and  paid; 
CARDS  2005  was  fully  contracted  and  the  contracting  period  of  CARDS  2006  reached  its 
deadline.  During  2009,  particular  emphasis  was  given  to  progress  in  the  implementation  of 
the remaining CARDS 2005 and 2006 programmes. This goal was achieved with reaching for 
all  CARDS  programmes  in  Albania an overall contracting rate of 97% and a rate of almost 
80% of allocations disbursed to beneficiaries.  

Throughout 2009, the implementation of CARDS programmes was of valuable assistance to 
Albania,  as  programmes  targeted  mainly  relevant  EU  accession-related  areas  such  as  the 
judiciary  and  fundamental  rights,  police  and  border  management,  civil  society,  agriculture, 
environment, transport and municipal infrastructure.  

1.2. 

Financial assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched  

As  of  2007,  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  new  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance. Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

In 2009, the sector of justice, freedom and security remained an important area of assistance 
under CARDS. Projects under the CARDS 2005 programme in the fields of the judiciary and 
fundamental  rights  supported  the  sustainability  of  the  School  of  Magistrates  and  provided 
assistance  to  the  strengthening  of  the  administrative  capacity  of  the  General  Prosecutor 
Office.  A  CARDS  2004  project  provided  substantial  technical  assistance  to  the  juvenile 
justice system and penitentiary reform, offering alternative measures to detention at pre-trial, 
trial  and  post-trial  stages  and  promoting  prevention  of  juvenile  delinquency  and  social 
reintegration of offenders. 

Support  provided  to  the  justice  sector  through  the  Justice  Assistance  Mission  of  the  EU  to 
Albania (EURALIUS) brought the Albanian Justice System closer to European standards and 
EU best practices. The project was composed of technical assistance drawn from EU Member 
States and led to improvements in particular as regards: i) justice organisation; ii) drafting of 
legislation;  iii)  budget  management;  iv)  penitentiary  reform  and  development  of  probation 
services;  v)  enforcement  of  rulings;  vi)  criminal  justice;  vii)  court  administration  and  case 
management; viii) property rights.  

In order to strengthen Border Police surveillance, patrolling and border control capacity along 
Albania’s  borders,  a  contract  was  signed  in  May  2009  for  the  refurbishment  of  17  Special 

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Border  police  stations  located  in  Bajze,  Perrenjas,  Vicisht,  Kukes,  Spille,  Bllate,  Divjake, 
Tropoja,  Livadhja,  Dhermi,  Kakavije,  Kapshtice,  Liquenas,  Pogradec,  Shtik,  Tri-port  and 
Borsh.  The  value  of  construction  works  was  EUR  1.43  million.  The  scope  of  works 
comprised  main  infrastructure  upgrades  such  as  civil  construction  and  sanitary  works, 
installation  of  new  doors  and  windows,  new  heating,  ventilation,  air  conditioning,  security 
and fire fighting systems, other utilities and landscaping works.  

In  2009,  the  EU  Delegation  to  Albania  launched,  under  CARDS  2006,  three  calls  for 
proposals  for  Civil  Society  in  the  areas  of  support  to  the  media,  anti-corruption  and  the 
environment.  As  a  result,  eighteen  contracts  in  total  were  awarded,  among  which  four  to 
supporting  the  media  (totalling  about  EUR  380  500  of  CARDS  contribution),  seven  for  the 
promotion of anticorruption activities (totalling about EUR 600 000 of CARDS contribution) 
and seven for the protection of the environment (about EUR 580 000 of CARDS contribution 
in  total).  Support  under  the  first  set  of  contracts  was  focused  on  enhancing  the  role  of  the 
media in the country’s integration process, especially in terms of enhancing its independence 
and monitoring capacity. In the area of anti-corruption, assistance was provided to strengthen 
the role of Civil Society and promote transparency, accountability and good governance and 
fight  corruption.  Projects  in  the  environment  sector  sought  to  empower  civil  society  to 
contribute to solving the country’s environmental problems by promoting cooperation among 
institutions,  businesses  and  other 
environmental  organisations,  government,  private 
stakeholders.  

Through  such  targeted  assistance,  supporting  civil  society  organisations  to  strengthen  their 
role  in  the  country’s  public  affairs,  the  EU  is  contributing  to  promote  democratisation  and 
sustainable development in Albania. 

In 2009, a CARDS 2006 funded project of EUR 5 million provided support to the Ministry of 
Environment to adopt environmental legislation in a 4-components project. In addition, in the 
context of remediation of hazardous waste hot spots, a PVC1 factory in Vlora was supported - 
the  factory  had  used  mercury  in  the  production  process  thus  severely  contaminating  large 
areas around the factory site.  

In the agricultural sector, in the last years wine consumption in Albania increased at an annual 
rate  of  16  %  and  such  an  increased  demand  encouraged  farmers  to  plant  new  areas  with 
vineyards.  In  order  for  the  sector  to  become  competitive  and  to  use  better  its  resources,  a 
project  under  the  CARDS  2006  programme  worth  EUR  650  000  assisted  the  Ministry  of 
Agriculture,  Food  and  Consumer  Protection  to  establish  the  vineyard  cadastre,  taking  into 
consideration  the  relevant  EU  legal  acts  reflecting  the  most  recent  amendments  of  the 
legislation on the common market organisation in wine. About 9,000 vineyard units or around 
50  %  of  the  total  number  were  registered  into  an  open  source  GIS2  system.  The  project 
terminated in May 2010. 

With  regard  to  economic  and  social  development,  a  CARDS  2005  project  establishing  a 
National  Food  Authority  worth  EUR  3  million  was  ongoing  in  the  course  of  2009  and  is 
foreseen to terminate in February 2011.  

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Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), third most widely produced plastic 
Geographical Information System (GIS) 

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In the field of protection of cultural heritage, in 2009 the CARDS 2006 programme assisted 
the  Ministry  of  Tourism,  Culture,  Youth  and  Sports  to  improve  urban  infrastructure  around 
historical sites in Tirana, Kruja and Himara. The project included three works contracts and 
one supervision, as follows: in Tirana, the reconstruction of the road near Tirana castle was 
financed with EUR 1.98 million; the rehabilitation of the Old Bazaar road in Kruja and inner 
roads  in  the  Kruja  Castle  were  financed  with  EUR  760  000;  infrastructure  works  in  the  old 
castle of Himara were supported with EUR 410 000. Finally, EUR 300 000 were contracted 
for the supervision of these works. The works are expected to be completed in 2011. 

iii) Cards management performance 

In  2009,  performance  in  managing  CARDS  programmes  in  Albania  was  well  on  track. 
CARDS  2001-2004  were  considered  fully  contracted  and  disbursed.  CARDS  2005  was 
almost fully contracted (95%) and disbursement advanced well (72%). CARDS 2006 was also 
almost  fully  contracted  by  the  end  of  the  reporting  period  (96%  of  allocated  funds, 
corresponding  to  EUR  40.8  million).  However,  payments  for  CARDS  2006  were  lagging 
behind, with only EUR 14.6 million disbursed (42%).  

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual programmes   

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
TOTAL 

Allocated  Contracted RAC3  % contracted
98% 
97% 
98% 
99% 
95% 
96% 
97.1% 

32.68 
41.53 
37.83 
58.07 
38.03 
40.85 
248.99 

33.50 
42.90 
38.50 
62.00 
40.20 
42.50 
259.60 

0.82 
1.37 
0.33 
0.00 
2.17 
1.65 
6.34 

Paid 
29.16 
40.39 
37.40 
49.78 
27.57 
14.68 
198.98 

RAL4  % paid
89% 
97% 
99% 
86% 
72% 
42% 
78% 

3.52 
1.14 
0.43 
8.29 
10.46 
24.44 
48.28 

iv) Institution Building highlights  

No  twinning  contracts  were  signed  during  2009  under  CARDS  .  However,  some  ongoing 
twinnings projects funded by CARDS continued to be implemented in 2009. 

A CARDS 2004 Twinning project aiming at enhancing the Albanian judiciary in commercial 
matters  was  implemented  in  the  period  2007-2009  and  assisted  the  Judiciary  through 
increasing court capacities to deal with commercial cases, as well as with training of judges 
and  lawyers.  It  also  supported  the approximation  and  harmonisation  of  Albanian  legislation 
on commercial issues with EU standards and best practices. In the framework of the project, 
the  publication  of  the  first  legal  commentary on  the new  Albanian  Company  Law  was 
financed. 

A  CARDS  2005  Twinning  project  with  the  Albanian  General  Prosecutor's  office  on 
evaluations  and  inspections  was  implemented  throughout  2009,  starting  in  2008  and 
terminating in 2010. The project supported the office capacity to inspect and evaluate those 
under its command and enable investigations and prosecutions to be conducted diligently and 
expeditiously,  in  order  to  result  in  a  more  efficient  and  transparent  judiciary  and  decreased 
corruption within the judicial system. 

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4  

Remains to be contracted (Reste à contacter) 
Remains to be disbursed (Reste à liquider) 

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The CARDS 2004 project: "Training of prison staff: managing prisons in a humane way" was 
also  implemented  in  the  years  2007-2009  and  provided  support to  the  Albanian  prison 
administration  to  improve  prison  management  by  adequate  training  of  high  management 
prison staff.  It also developed the establishment of a complete human resources system from 
recruitment  to  basic  training  and  other  further  adequate  training  of  prison  staff. The  project 
further assisted the trainers' team coming from different penitentiary institutions by means of 
a better curricula and providing them with further training skills. 

In 2009, the EU continued its contribution to the development and modernisation of the civil 
registry  system  in  Albania  (CARDS  2004).  The  project  started  in  2006  and  ended  in  2010. 
The project also assisted the development of data protection requirements and standards and 
the setting up of the Data Protection Commissioner's Office. 

1.3. 

Results and impact 

i) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

No new evaluations of CARDS financial assistance took place in Albania in 2009. However, 
some  of  the  lessons  learnt  from  the  Ad-Hoc  Evaluation  of  all  CARDS  Programmes  in 
Albania5,  for  which  the  Final  Report  was  issued  on  17  December  2008,  were  relevant  and 
were taken into consideration for the implementation of CARDS programmes in 2009. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  projects’  relevance:  i)  the  relevance  of  CARDS  funded 
projects  was  good,  but  not  consistently  based  on  sector  strategies  and  in-depth  needs 
assessments; ii) CPS had a limited strategic planning value, the MIPs made a good effort in 
aligning  CARDS  priorities  to  the  rapid  development  of  Albania  in  line  with  SAP,  but 
especially  with  NSSED;  iii)  Ownership  in  the  programming  process  at  the  line  ministry 
level  was  found  to  be  weak  in  the  beginning  of  the  period,  which  had  an  impact  on  the 
needs assessment and thereby on the relevance of the assistance. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  effectiveness:  i)  the  missing  public  administration  reform 
strategy  and  the  poorly-implemented  civil  service  law  were  seen  as  impacting  the 
effectiveness of CARDS assistance to the area, despite its limited level; ii) the impact of 
civil  society  projects  was  also  assessed  as  limited,  due  to  the  focus  and  implementation 
mechanisms of civil society activities.  

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  efficiency:  i)  overall,  CARDS  support  to  strengthen 
institutional  capacity  for  strategic  planning  was  weak;  ii)  the  sectors  supported  have 
suffered  from  inadequate  project  design  or  needs  assessment,  which  has  impacted  on 
CARDS  performance;  iii)  overall  CARDS  has  performed  better  in  acquis-related  areas 
than  in  support  to  public  administration  as  such;  iv)  the  inadequate  needs  assessment 
reflects  that  there  was  a  lack  of  capacity  for  both  programming  and  project  design  and 
development, especially in line ministries; v) project implementation registered delays, due 
to lack of administrative capacity and shortage of staff allocated to this in line ministries. 

5  

the  following  sectors:  Justice  and  Home  Affairs, 
Evaluation  (EU/2008/154-009)  covering 
Administrative  Capacity  Building,  Economic  and  Social  Development,  Environment  and  Natural 
Resources, Civil Society Development 

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–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  impact:  i)  weak  project  design  impacted  negatively  on 
relevance  and  on  the  overall  performance  of  CARDS;  ii)  while  ownership  of  the  overall 
programming  process  seemed  satisfactory,  thanks  to  the  increasing  coordinating  role  of 
Ministry  of  European  Integration  (MEI)  and  Department  of  Strategy  and  Donor 
Coordination  (DSDC),  future  assistance  should  give  more  attention  to  increasing 
beneficiaries’ ownership during the implementation phase;  

–  Lessons learned in relation to sustainability: i) further development of the administration in 
terms  of  staff  numbers  and  competences  as  well  as  at  the  top  level  in  the  ministries 
engaging  in  the  reform  processes  will  be  a  prerequisite  for  sustainability;  ii)  the  missing 
public  administration  reform  strategy  and  the  poorly-implemented  civil  service  law  were 
seen  as  impacting  also  the  sustainability  of  the  results  of  CARDS  assistance  to  the  area; 
iii)staff  (at  all  levels)  was  no  longer  in  place  due  to  replacements  generally  in  the 
administration  (especially  after  the  2005  elections);  iv)  sustaining  the  results  of  many  of 
the  projects  funded  by  CARDS  in  the  sectors  covered  by  the  evaluation  will  demand  a 
significant investment from both the Albanian state budget and donors.  

ii) Sectors with positive results 

One of the main sectors profiting from CARDS programmes in 2009 was the area of justice 
and  home  affairs.  This  sector  had  been  identified  as  an  area  of  special  concern  in  previous 
progress reports, analyses and monitoring exercises, even if important work was achieved in 
the framework of the visa liberalisation dialogue. With this regard, progress in the areas of the 
judiciary, freedom and security was especially valuable. A project of particular importance in 
this respect was the EURALIUS project (Justice Assistance Mission of the EU to Albania), 
which successfully brought the Albanian justice system closer to European standards and EU 
best practices. 

iii) Success stories 

"Construction  of  reintegration  centre  for  minors  in  Kavaja"/"On  the  Rights  Track: 
Establishment  of  Preventive  and  Restorative  Juvenile  Justice  System  in  Albania" 
(CARDS 2004) 

The  situation  in  pre-detention  facilities  in  Albania  was  of  great  concern,  as  facilities  were 
overcrowded and juveniles were not separated from adults. Albania lacked a proper juvenile 
reform institution and existing centres were in a state below human dignity. Therefore under 
CARDS 2004, the EU supported the strengthening of a functioning juvenile justice system in 
accordance with EU standards and international human/children rights instruments. 

With the help of CARDS funds, the construction of a reintegration centre for juveniles for an 
amount of EUR 1.7 million (100% EU Contribution) was made possible. The Reintegration 
Centre  for  Minors  in  Kavaja  provides  accommodation  for  around  40  juvenile  inmates.  The 
centre consists of various blocks including areas for detention, classrooms, workshops, leisure 
facilities,  doctors’  facilities,  kitchen,  laundry,  visiting  areas  and  administration.  The  gross 
floor area is around 3.200 m2. The new juvenile detention centre in Kavaja has been built in 
accordance with EU standards and international human/children rights instruments. The new 
facility is a specialised centre for minors fully operational in terms of adequate infrastructure, 
equipment and professional staff. 

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"Construction  of  the  Joint  Border  Crossing  Point  at  Murriqan/Sukobin  with 
conventional building technologies" (CARDS 2004) 

The  EU  helped  to  renovate  the  border  police  and  customs  facilities  at  the  border  crossing 
point  between  Albania  and  Montenegro  (EUR  1.1  million  of  CARDS  contribution).  It  also 
supplied border control equipment and provided specialised training and technical assistance 
to  border  police  and  customs  agents  operating  at  the  border.  Furthermore,  it  established 
operational  inter-agency  cooperation  systems  between  the  border  police  and  the  customs 
authorities  at  the  border.  From  a  wider  perspective,  this  project  aims  at  contributing  to  the 
prevention  of  illegal  migration  and  the  eradication  of  cross  border  crime.  It  should  also 
facilitate  bona  fide  cross  border  movement  of  people  and  goods  by  upgrading  Albania’s 
border management system to EU standards. 

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2. 

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 

2.1. 

Summary 

As  in  previous  years,  in  2009  the  implementation  of  CARDS  programmes  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  was  managed  by  the  EU  Delegation  to  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  CARDS 
continued to support key reform areas such as public administration reform, the rule of law, 
socio-economic development and the introduction of European Standards in the country.  

2.2. 

Financial assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched 

As  of  2007  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance (IPA). Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

In 2009, the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina awarded contracts with a value EUR 
4.3 million under the CARDS instrument and managed 180 ongoing CARDS contracts which 
had been concluded between 2004 and 2009, with a total value of EUR 60 million. 

In the area of good governance and institution building, CARDS supported the reform of the 
judiciary and the police, and public administration reform including support to the Parliament 
and  to  the  decentralisation  of  EU  assistance.  A  considerable  share  of  the  assistance  in  the 
sector  was  spent  on  border  management,  asylum  and  migration.  Further  projects  supported 
civil society, the media, minorities and returnees. 

Examples of the assistance for the judicial sector are the rehabilitation of court buildings, the 
purchase  of  IT  equipment  and  legal  books  for  judges  and  prosecutors,  support  in  the  fight 
against corruption, money laundering and drugs as well as the assistance to the international 
Registry  of  the  State  Court.  Police  reform  was  supported  with  technical  assistance  and 
equipment.  

Examples  of  the  assistance  to  public  administration  reform  and  institution  building  are  the 
support  for  the  Directorate  for  Economic  Planning,  the  Public  Procurement  Agency,  the 
Agency for Healthcare, the Ministry of Security, the rehabilitation of the Parliament building 
and the delivery of IT equipment to a wide range of institutions. 

CARDS  provided  technical  assistance  to  the  implementation  of  the  Integrated  Border 
Management Strategy and to the professional qualification of the State Border Police. Works 
contracts were used to construct border crossing points, to block illegal border crossings, to 
construct the reception facility for irregular migrants and the headquarters of the service for 
foreigner  affairs.  IT  equipment,  vehicles  and  office  furniture  were  delivered  to  equip  the 
above services. 

The media were supported through technical and professional advice on radio and television 
news production. The economic and social re-integration of minorities and minority returnees 

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was supported as well as the cooperation between civil society organisations and authorities in 
the development of the social policy sector. 

Socio-economic  development  received  CARDS  assistance  for  the  reform  of  the  education 
system and the labour market and further support was provided to economic operators, small 
and medium enterprises and tourism development. 

Examples for  the  assistance to  the  education sector are the support to the general education 
reform through the establishment of the State Agency for Education, the support to the reform 
of  the  vocational  education  and  training  system  and  the  delivery  of  technical  equipment  to 
vocational education and training centres. A labour information system was implemented and 
equipped  with  IT  systems.  Entrepreneurial  development  centres,  including  the  Women's 
Entrepreneurship Academy, were supported, a business incubator in Prijedor was established 
and  assistance  to  increase  the  competitiveness  of  small  and  medium  size  enterprises  was 
provided. A variety of tourism development projects were implemented, e.g. eco-rural tourism 
in Sabici, the Bosnian Kingdom Trail, and the touristic development of the Vrbas valley. 

A  considerable  share  of  CARDS  assistance  in  2009  was  spent  on  approximation  to  the  EU 
acquis.  CARDS  projects  in  the  fields  of  agriculture  and  rural  development,  veterinary, 
statistics, transport and energy, trade, intellectual property rights and environment protection 
were implemented.  

Prominent  examples  of  acquis  related  projects  are  the  promotion  of  organic  farming, 
aquaculture, the establishment of an agro-incubator in Zepce, the institution building support 
to the State Veterinary Office, the supply of equipment to establish a common statistical IT 
system  in  the  country,  the  delivery  of  designs  for  major  railway  sections  and  roads  on  the 
corridor  Vc,  the  support  to  the  State  Regulatory  Agency  for  Electricity  and  Gas,  support  to 
trade policy development, capacity building for the protection of intellectual property rights, 
the rehabilitation and construction of landfills, as well as the supervision of the construction 
of sewage collectors in Zivinice. 

Further  CARDS  projects  promoted  EU  awareness  and  culture,  supported  regional 
cooperation,  science  and  research,  cross-border  cooperation  and  the  participation  of  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina  in  Community  Programmes,  in  particular  in  the  7th  Research  Framework 
Programme. 

iii) Cards management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual national programmes   

Allocated  Contracted RAC  % contracted  

Paid  

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
TOTAL 

105.2 
60.5 
50.6 
62.1 
44.0 
43.8 
366.2 

6.64
98.56
1.2
59.30
1.22
49.38
1.61
60.49
0.79
43.21
42.69
1.11
353.63 12.57

98.12 
94%
56.53 
98%
46.07 
98%
59.46 
97%
41.76 
98%
97%
37.57 
97% 339.51 

RAL  % paid 
93%
93%
91%
96%
95%
86%
93%

7.08 
3.97 
4.53 
2.64 
2.24 
6.23 
26.69 

The  performance  in  managing  CARDS  annual  programmes  as  at  the  end  of  the  reporting 
period was overall satisfactory. The CARDS programmes 2001 – 2006 could be considered 

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almost  fully  contracted  (97  %)  and  payments  for  the  six  years  period  reached  the  level  of 
93%. 

iv) Institution Building highlights  

The EU Delegation continued the coaching and training programme for the preparation of the 
decentralised  implementation  of  IPA  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  The  process  financed  by 
CARDS included coaching and training the Directorate of European Integration on strategic 
planning,  project  preparation  and  assessment  and  the  setting  up  of  a  structured  network  of 
counterparts for project planning, design and implementation in all line ministries and State 
agencies. 

through  strengthening 

CARDS assisted Public Administration Reform (PAR), one of the key European Partnership 
priorities, 
through 
administrative capacity building of selected key sectors. It supported the PAR Coordinator's 
Office  in  the  implementation  of  the  PAR  strategy  and  action  plan.  The  well  established 
coordination  mechanism  for  the  deployment  of  the  PAR  fund  continued  to  work,  involving 
government representatives from all administrative levels and different PAR donors.  

the  systems  of  public  administration  and 

The Personal Data Protection Agency received assistance through a twinning project with the 
objectives  to  harmonise  the  national  legislation  with  the  acquis  and  thus  ensure  full 
compliance  with  European  data  protection  standards,  to  strengthen  the  institutional  and 
administrative capacities of the Data Protection Agency to supervise the enforcement of the 
law  on  personal  data  protection,  and  to  strengthen  the  awareness  and  capacities  of  civil 
servants and police bodies who are controlling or processing personal data. 

The Directorate for the Citizen Identification Protection System received assistance through a 
twinning  light  project  with  the  objective  to  ensure  a  more  coordinated,  systematic  and 
methodological  approach  in  the  use  of  information  and  communication  technology  in  the 
public sector and the management of identification documents related databases in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina.  

Further good examples of institution building in 2009 were the support for the Directorate for 
Economic  Planning,  the  Public  Procurement  Agency,  the  Agency  for  Healthcare,  and  the 
Ministry of Security, which received institution building support through technical assistance. 

Donor coordination was ensured throughout the entire project management cycle from project 
design  to  implementation.  In  particular,  the  Commission  together  with  other  donors  was 
involved in setting up an Aid Coordination Committee together with the Ministry of Finance 
and  Treasury,  the  Directorate  for  European  Integration  and  the  Directorate  for  Economic 
Planning.  Monthly  coordination  meetings  on  programming  and  assistance  implementation 
were held with EU Member States.  

2.3. 

Results and impact 

i) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 – Lessons Learned 

No evaluation of EU assistance took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2009. However most 
of  the  lessons  learned  from  the  last  evaluation,  the  Ad-Hoc  Evaluation  of  the  CARDS 
Programme  in  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  December  2008,  as  shown  below,  were  still 
relevant in 2009: 

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–  Lessons learned in relation to project's relevance: European Union assistance supported the 
key policy priorities of both donors and the national administration. Project designs were 
revised in response to changes in local political priorities but this was not always sufficient 
to ensure the assistance met beneficiary needs. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  effectiveness:  The  multi-faceted  return  programme  was 
effective  with  high  levels  of  initial  return  of  refugees.  Multi-annual  sub-sectoral  funding 
improved  effectiveness  of  institution  building  despite  an  increasingly  difficult  project 
environment. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  efficiency:  Good  inter  institutional  collaboration  improved 
the efficiency of reconstruction programmes. Administrative control within the Delegation 
led to rapid procurement but reduced beneficiary ownership. The use of different methods 
of contracting met the needs of different types of beneficiary and improved efficiency. 

–  Lessons learned in relation to impact: The impact of EU assistance on the return process 
and  democratic  stabilisation  overall  had  more  mixed  success.  The  creation  of  durable 
State-level  institutions,  a  main  thrust  of  EU  institution  building  support,  was  challenging 
with success varying considerably between sectors. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  relation  to  sustainability:  Sustainable  institutional  structures  for  the 
return process were created and taken over by the State. Many State-level institutions lack 
local ownership which threatens sustainability. 

ii) Sectors with positive results 

CARDS  supported  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  in  achieving  key  benchmarks  of  the  visa 
liberalisation  process  in  the  area  of  justice,  freedom  and  security.  resulting  particular,  a 
revised strategy and action plan on the prevention of anti-money laundering and financing of 
terrorist activities, a revised anti-corruption strategy and action plan and the law on the agency 
for prevention of corruption and on cooperation in the fight against corruption were adopted. 
The establishment of the latter will allow Bosnia and Herzegovina to start tackling the issue of 
corruption in a comprehensive manner.  

With  the  support  of  CARDS,  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  harmonised  its  confidential  data 
protection legislation with EU standards and established EU- conform security infrastructure 
such as security areas, registries and communication and information systems in eight State-
level institutions for safeguarding and secure transmission of confidential data. Furthermore, 
CARDS  supported  the  Personal  Data  Protection  Agency  in  the  process  of  harmonising 
legislation  with  relevant  EU  regulations,  strengthening  the  structure  and  capacity  of  the 
agency, developing of a central  registry  for  hardware and software  containing personal  data 
throughout  the  country  and  training  public  servants  in  the  security,  telecommunication, 
finance  and  health  sector.  With  this  support  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  started  working  on 
achieving the data protection level required for future European and international cooperation 

Although  there  was  a  standstill  with  the  progress  of  introduction  of  the  decentralised 
implementation  system  due  to  the  absence  of  key  nominations,  the  assistance  provided 
through CARDS to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and to the Directorate for European 
Integration has greatly helped develop the capacity of the staff and the preparation of internal 
procedures and manuals that will be part of the accreditation package.  

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In  the  course  of  2009,  CARDS  assistance  supported  the  work  of  the  Public  Procurement 
Agency  and  the  agencies  for  civil  service.  Two  information  management  systems  were 
developed  -  for  the  electronic  publication  of  public  procurement  notices  that  will  increase 
their visibility and accessibility and provide reliable information on procurement procedures 
conducted, and the human resource management information system that will provide a tool 
for efficient management of data on civil servants at all the levels of the administration. 

iii) Success stories 

“Rehabilitation  of  the  Municipal  and  Cantonal  Courts  Building  in  Sarajevo”  (CARDS 
2006) 

The rehabilitation works of these courts was successfully completed in November 2009 and a 
big  inauguration  event  was  organised.  The  total  project  cost  was  EUR  3.2  million  out  of 
which the EU provided over EUR 2 million for rehabilitation works, works supervision and 
provision  of  furniture  for  the  rehabilitated  premises.  The  project  was  co-funded  by  the 
Ministry of Justice and the Sarajevo Canton, Norway and Sweden. The ability of the Sarajevo 
Municipal  Court  and  Sarajevo  Cantonal  Court  to  carry  out  their  administrative  and  judicial 
functions more effectively and efficiently through the efficient and coordinated use of space 
in  the  existing  building  by  upgrading  the  physical  status  of  the  premises  was  enhanced 
through this reconstruction. 

“Construction of Reception Centre for Irregular Migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina” 
(CARDS 2006) 

The  construction  of  the  first  closed  reception  centre  for  irregular  migrants  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina was successfully completed in October 2009 and a big inauguration event was 
organised.  The  EU  provided  EUR  1.2  million  for  the  construction,  supervision,  supply  of 
furniture, equipment and vehicles for transportation of the migrants to the countries of origin. 
The  centre  provides  for  lawful  detention  of  irregular  third  country  nationals  in  conformity 
with international and EU standards and best practices, including but not limited to first aid 
and assistance, respect for the traditions, culture and religion, guarantee for the safety of the 
foreign nationals, protection of personal data and preparation for the return to the country of 
origin or to another country. The centre is located in Lukavica, near Sarajevo, as an extension 
of the existing facility of a temporary reception centre. The centre allows accommodation for 
80 residents and includes also adequate space and facilities for staff working in the building. 

“Construction of Border Crossing Point in Klobuk” (CARDS 2004)  

The  construction  of  the  border  crossing  point  in  Klobuk  was  successfully  completed  and 
handed  over  to  the  project  beneficiary,  the  Indirect  Taxation  Authority  in  November  2009. 
The EU provided EUR 2.6 million for the design, construction  and supervision.  The border 
crossing facility for passengers and freight traffic is located on the international road Trebinje-
Niksic, connecting Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The construction enhanced the 
performance and the efficiency of the customs clearance and border control, enabled adequate 
control  of  freight  and  passengers  crossing  the  border,  as  well  as  facilitation  of  their  smooth 
legal flow across the border and strengthened cross-border cooperation.  

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3. 

BULGARIA  

3.1. 

Summary 

In  2009,  Bulgaria  implemented  both  pre-accession  and  post-accession  assistance  to  address 
the remaining needs related to Institutional Building for the implementation of the acquis, in 
line with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS). 

Since July 2007 implementation is carried out under the entire responsibility of the Bulgarian 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  Four  implementing  agencies  are  fully 
responsible for daily implementation of projects.  

In  February  2008  the  financing  for  the  PHARE  and  Transition  Facility  (TF)  programmes 
managed  by  two  of  the  accredited  Agencies  -  the  Central  Finance  and  Contracting  Unit  
(CFCU)  and  the  Implementing  Agency  at  Ministry  of  Regional  Development  and  Public 
Works (MRDPW) - was suspended and in July 2008 the Commission withdrew the right of 
those  agencies  to  manage  PHARE  and  Transition  Facility  programmes  on  a  decentralized 
basis.  The  Bulgarian  National  Authorising  Officer  (NAO)  was  requested  to  prepare  an 
assessment of the system weaknesses and an estimate of their impact. Such assessments and 
proposals  for  financial  corrections  were  sent  to  the  Commission  by  Bulgaria  at  the  end  of 
October 2009. This led to the lifting of the payment suspensions by DG Enlargement on 18 
November 2009. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the programming function for the 
Transition Facility programme and monitoring of both Pre-accession and Transition Facility 
Programmes. The NAO carried out the financial supervision. 

DG  Enlargement  continued  to  exercise  the  residual  functions  related  to  Commission 
responsibilities  (monitoring,  payments,  closure  of  projects)  in  line  with  the  Financial 
Regulation. 

3.2. 

Implementation of PHARE and the Transition Facility in 2009 

i)  PHARE 2005 – finalisation of payments 

By the end of 2009, the payments disbursed by the Bulgarian authorities under PHARE 2005 
reached  77.10%.  There  were  several  contracts  whose  period  of  execution  continued  until 
November 2009.  

ii)  PHARE 2006 – finalisation of payments 

At the end of the implementation period for the 2006 PHARE programme, on 30 November 
2009,  65.10%  of  the  contracted  amount  had  been  disbursed.  By  the  end  of  the  reporting 
period, all the projects were implemented but still some payments remained to be executed, 
upon verification of the achieved results. 

iii)  Transition Facility 2007 

The  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2007  package  comprised  28  twinning  and  twinning  light 
projects,  14  technical  assistance  projects  (TAs),  9  supplies  and  2  grant  schemes.  The 
programme was managed by the CFCU. The deadline for contracting the 2007 TF programme 

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expired on 15 December 2009. Tendering and contracting of twinning projects were finalized 
successfully.  However,  since  the  accreditation  of  the  CFCU  had  not  been  restored  and  only 
twinning  projects  could  be  contracted,  the  overall  contracting  rate  reached  by  the  deadline 
was only 68.8%. The disbursement rate was 50.34%. 

iv)  Institution Building highlights 

In 2009 the National Aid Coordinator was moved from the Ministry of Finance to the Council 
of  Ministers.  All  the  four  Implementing  Agencies  restructured  their  capacity,  focusing  it 
mainly on the monitoring and payments, since contracting was phasing out. 

Twinning continued to remain a successful instrument in many areas and helped the Bulgarian 
administration to further strengthen its capacities to implement and enforce EU legislation.  In 
particular, the twinning contracts under PHARE 2006 supported the capacity building of the 
National  Revenue  Agency,  the  institutional  and  administrative  structures  in  charge  of 
management,  monitoring  and  control  of  Structural  Funds  for  effective  participation  of 
Bulgaria  in  EU  Cohesion  Policy,  the  Agency  for  Economic  Analysis  and  Forecasting  and 
others.  

As  to  the  2007  Transition  Facility  Programme,  also  in  this  case  twinning  remained  an 
important  implementation  instrument.  Altogether  the  Programme  included  a  total  of  22 
standard  twinning  projects  and  6  twinning  light  projects  in  areas  such  as  agriculture, 
environment, justice and home affairs (with the majority of projects in the fields of reform of 
the  judiciary,  police,  organised  crime,  but  also  border  matters  and  migration  issues),  and 
social policy. 

3.3. 

Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees (SMSC)  

In 2009 the JMC continued to supervise progress of PHARE and TF assistance and to provide 
recommendations on the management of the programmes. Two JMC meetings took place, in 
February and July, discussing issues such as further improvement of project management and, 
mainly, monitoring and follow-up of the irregularities as well as reporting to the Commission 
and making proposals for remedial actions.  

In 2009 two rounds of SMSC meetings also took place. Due to the phasing out of the PHARE 
Programme, the projects to be monitored were substantially reduced. During the JMC of July 
2009  it  was  decided  to  close  the  Public  Administration  Reform  sector  and  reallocate  the 
remaining projects to the existing sectors, to merge the Energy and Telecommunications and 
Economic  Development  sectors  and  produce  a  dual  report  and  to  merge  the  Transport  and 
Regional Development sectors and produce a single report. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 (lessons learned) 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  the  PHARE  and  Transition  Facility  programmes  in 
Bulgaria lies with the NAC services within the Ministry of Finance. In 2009 the activities in 
this area were carried out on the basis of the Annual Interim Evaluation Plan 2009, which was 
endorsed by the Commission in July of that year.  

The Interim Evaluation of 8 SMSC monitored sectors was launched during 2009.  Moreover, 
three in-depth reports were prepared in the fields of economic development and justice. 

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In 2009, two Country Summary Reports were issued for the JMC meetings of July 2009 and 
March  2010.  The  reports  provided  useful  information,  based  on  the  findings  of  the  sectoral 
evaluation reports launched in 2009. Some issues in the sectoral parts gave rise to concerns, 
as for example the non-contracted commercial components related to twinning in justice and  
home  affairs,  which  might  negatively  impact  the  overall  achievement  of  projects 
results. Furthermore, the effectiveness of projects in the economic development sector is rated 
as ‘barely  satisfactory’  and  the  independent  evaluators  recommended that  detailed  ex  post 
evaluations  of  the  grant  schemes in  this  sector  should  be  conducted  by  the  Implementing 
Agency in order to identify key lessons learned in both administrative and operational aspects. 

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4. 

CROATIA 

4.1. 

Summary 

In  2009,  Croatia  continued  to  implement,  under  the  Decentralised  Implementation  System 
(DIS), pre-accession assistance addressing needs related to preparations for EU membership. 

The Central Finance and Contracting Agency (CFCA) was responsible for the implementation 
of  projects  and  is  therefore  in  charge  of  tendering,  contracting  and  payments,  the  latter  in 
collaboration  with  the  National  Fund.  The  technical  implementation  of  projects  was  the 
responsibility  of  beneficiary  institutions,  through  a  series  of  Project  Implementation  Units 
(PIU)  under  the  authority  of  Senior  Programme  Officers  (SPO).  The  National  Aid 
Coordinator  (NAC)  conducted  monitoring  of  both  PHARE  and  CARDS  programmes.  The 
National Authorising Officer (NAO) carried out the overall financial supervision.  

Commission services were also extensively involved, with the EU Delegation exerting ex ante 
controls as well as monitoring. 

PHARE  and  CARDS  programs  implemented  in  2009  were  generally  well  focused  on  the 
accession priorities established in the Enlargement Package and in some cases have addressed 
specific  negotiations  requirements  (opening  and  closing  benchmarks).  In  general,  and  as 
stressed  in  the  2009  Country  Programme  Interim  Evaluation,  completed  projects  have 
delivered the expected results. EU programs were partly used to draft or update the strategic 
framework  in  key  areas  of  the  accession  process,  while  at  the  same  time  assisting  Croatian 
institutions in their concrete implementation. 

A strong alignment with accession requirements - and specific negotiations issues – was for 
instance  evident  in  the  assistance  related  to  chapters  like  taxation,  customs  union,  statistics, 
the  internal  market,  agriculture  and  rural  development,  fisheries  as  well  as  food  safety, 
veterinary and phytosanitary policy. To give examples, PHARE projects related to agriculture 
and rural development have inter alia supported the setting up of a Paying Agency operating 
in line with the EU requirements. PHARE 2005 helped the updating of the Schengen Action 
Plan (SAP).  

With regard to the political criteria, EU assistance typically focused on comparatively longer-
term needs, going beyond the dynamics of negotiations. In the field of judicial system reform, 
pre-accession assistance contributed to significantly reforming the legislative framework and 
concrete effects are already visible as regards the reduction of the backlog of cases. However, 
by the end of the reporting period, tangible results in the rationalization of the courts network, 
the reform of the selection and training system of judges and prosecutors, and full deployment 
of the integrated case management system had to further materialize. As regards civil society 
development,  assistance  successfully  contributed  to  the  strengthening  of  the  administrations 
involved  and  to  bring  more  attention  and  focus  on  civil  society  development  and  minority 
protection.  

In  the  areas  related  to  economic  and  social  cohesion  policy  and  preparation  for  structural 
funds,  a  substantial  share  of  pre-accession  assistance  was  oriented  towards  post-accession 
priorities.  

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4.2. 

Pre-accession assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched 

As of 2007, PHARE was replaced by the new Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). 
Therefore,  no  new  PHARE  programmes  were  launched  after  2006.  EU  assistance  has  been 
decisive in the elaboration of strategies and plans for the EU funds that will be made available 
in perspective under the Structural Funds, including the finalization of the National Strategic 
Reference  Framework,  which  is  the  reference  document  for  the  programming  of  EU  funds 
available to Member States. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

Throughout 2009, particular emphasis was given to the implementation of PHARE 2005 and 
2006. The former ended on 30 November 2009, while the latter progressed well.  

The area of democracy and rule of law remained an important focus. Programmes supporting 
the judicial system contributed to modernizing the judiciary and improve its efficiency.  

Already under CARDS, projects focused on reducing the backlog of cases and a project for 
management  of  misdemeanour  cases  already  delivered  important  results  in  this  respect. 
Though still at its initial stages, the rationalization of courts network was supported. Another 
achievement  in  this  area  concerned  the  enhancement  of  personnel’s  professionalism.  A 
PHARE  2005  project  elaborated  a  training  strategy  for  the  Judicial  Academy.  Building  on 
previous  assistance  under  CARDS  and  from  the  World  Bank,  a  PHARE  2006  project 
contributed to establishing a more efficient court administration and case management system 
in Croatian courts. 

On the whole, EU-funded programmes contributed to the overall reform of the judicial system 
in  line  with  key  Accession  Partnership  requirements.  The  process  is  still  underway,  but  as 
acknowledged also in the 2009 Progress Report, significant progress has been achieved. 

As  regards  fundamental  rights  and  civil  society  support,  the  capacity  of  the  Government 
Office  for  NGOs  was  strengthened.  Furthermore,  support  was  provided  to  civil  society 
organizations  (CSOs)  selected  under  grant  schemes.  For  instance,  one  of  the  PHARE  2006 
projects  enabled  participation  and  active  contribution  of  CSOs  in  developing,  implementing 
and  monitoring  public  policies  in  the  areas  of  democratization,  environment,  human  rights 
and youth. The project provided immediate support to CSOs and reinforced and established 
key  bodies  that  can  become  driving  forces  behind  these  initiatives.  Minority  protection 
projects  mainly  dealt  with  improving  living  conditions  of  the  Roma  minority  in  Medimurje 
County. They also improved access for the Roma national minority to formal and non-formal 
education and training.  

In  the  area  of  economic  criteria,  one  project  focused  on  land  administration  by  improving 
harmonisation  of  data  between  the  land  registry  and  the  cadastre  and  by  establishing  a 
Croatian positioning service network. Another project assisted in establishing an effective and 
sustainable financial management system through the modernisation of budget processes and 
by  increasing  the  capacity  for  budget  management.  Budget  preparation  and  execution  were 
improved. 

As regards the internal market, good results were achieved particularly in the field of competition 
policy  and  market  surveillance.  A project implemented in the area of  free movement  of goods 

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(market surveillance system in the field of technical products under PHARE 2005) reinforced 
the capacity of the State Inspectorate to carry out market surveillance activities in accordance 
with EU good practices and in cooperation with other national market surveillance authorities. 
This has also been acknowledged by the Commission in the 2009 Progress Report. Another 
project in the area of competition policy has strengthened the Croatian Competition Agency, 
the administrative body operating in the  fields of anti-trust  and state aid. A smaller  project 
supported  the  upgrading  of  the  accreditation  system  (PHARE  2006).  One  project  was 
financed  in  the  area  of  intellectual  property  law  (PHARE  2006)  and  contributed  to  the 
alignment  of  Croatian  legislation  with  Directive  2004/48  on  the  enforcement  of  Intellectual 
Property Rights. 

In  the  area  of  cooperation  in  justice  and  home  affairs,  programs  focused  on  supporting  the 
adoption  and  implementation  of  the  Schengen  acquis,  and  especially  on  strengthening 
integrated border management capacities. Moreover, some horizontal projects were financed 
under  PHARE  2005  (e.g.  to  assist  the  Police  Academy).  In  general,  there  was  a  tight 
integration between projects in the area of integrated border management and very frequently 
PHARE projects were a follow up of previous initiatives funded under CARDS. This was for 
instance  the  case  of  projects  for  blue  border  surveillance  (2006),  border  management 
information system (2002, 2003, 2006) and for combating drugs trafficking and abuse (2004). 
Various national strategies supported the programming of interventions in this area, e.g. the 
Integrated  Border  management  Action  Plan,  the  Schengen  Action  Plan,  the  Border  Police 
Development  Strategy  of  the  Ministry  of  Interior,  the  National  Strategy  on  suppression  of 
abuse and narcotic drugs (2006-12). Most of the planned results were achieved and immediate 
impacts  were  obtained  in  the  field  of  border  management  and  adoption  of  the  Schengen 
acquis. The PHARE 2005 project Preparation for the Implementation of the Schengen Acquis 
was successful in updating the Schengen Action Plan (SAP) and elaborating a strategy for the 
reduction of the crossing border points; a Reform Strategy for human resource management 
(HRM)  elaborated  with  the  contribution  of  PHARE  2005  (the  project  ‘Strengthening  of 
HRM’) was adopted by the Ministry of Interior . 

With regard to sectoral policies, taxation projects (PHARE 2005 and 2006) contributed to the 
adoption  of  EU  standards  and  practices  in  line  with  acquis  requirements.  Statistics  projects 
(also  PHARE  2005  and  2006)  assisted  in  building  capacities  at  the  Central  Bureau  of 
Statistics  and  aligning  the  Croatian  statistical  system  to  the  European  Statistical  System.  A 
PHARE 2005 customs project focused on developing national customs IT systems capable of 
communicating with EU customs IT systems, therefore enabling the exchange of information. 
Public  procurement  projects  aligned  the  Croatian  public  procurement  system  to  the  acquis. 
Good  progress  was  made  in  the  area  of  public  procurement,  statistics,  customs  union  and 
taxation,  where  projects  covered  a  very  wide  range  of  issues  and  focused  on  a  substantial 
share  of  the  problems  identified.  As  outlined  also  in  the  2009  Country  Programme  Interim 
Evaluation, except for the area of public administration, pre-accession programs in those areas 
had a major impact on the development of the related sub-sectors. Projects related to public 
administration  reform  covered  specific  areas  that  may  contribute  to  the  enhancement  of  the 
public  administration,  but  much  effort  was  still  needed  beyond  pre-accession  assistance  to 
achieve significant results. 

Projects  in  the  area  of  agriculture  and  rural  development,  fisheries  as  well  as  food  safety, 
veterinary and phytosanitary policy benefited the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural 
Development. To a large extent, projects have delivered the expected results in this area. In 
terms of alignment with the acquis, along with the World Bank, EU assistance significantly 
contributed to leaps forward in Croatia's legislative and regulatory framework (e.g. the Law 

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on the establishment of the Paying Agency, the Act on the National Support to agriculture and 
rural development, the Act on the Establishment of the Croatian centre for agriculture, food 
and  rural  areas  or  the  amendment  to  the  ordinance  on  the  minimum  residue  levels  for 
pesticides).  PHARE  2005/2006  projects  related  to  agriculture  and  rural  development 
supported  capacity  building  for  the  implementation  of  pre-accession  rural  development 
instruments (SAPARD and IPARD) as well as post-accession rural development programmes. 
Furthermore these projects also contributed to the setting up of a Paying Agency operating in 
line  with  EU  requirements,  the  latter  being  also  related  to  one  accession  negotiations 
benchmark. A key focus of assistance in the field of food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary 
policy (FVP) was the improvement of the technical and administrative capacities within the 
veterinary and phytosanitary inspection system, in particular through the strengthening of the 
Border Inspection Posts (BIP). There were significant improvements in the alignment to the 
acquis, especially in the field of FVP (including CARDS projects); one project under PHARE 
2005  dealt  comprehensively  with  various  accession  priorities  in  the  fisheries  sector,  e.g. 
administrative  strengthening,  developing  a  sector  strategy  in  line  with  the  EU  acquis, 
supporting the establishment of a vessels monitoring  system.  The  fishery  sector  was  widely 
restructured in accordance with the Common Fisheries Policy.  

As  regards  the  environment,  projects  covered  nature  protection,  pollution  control  and 
prevention, waste management and the water framework directive. Projects have strengthened 
the  administrative  capacity  at  the  national  and  local  level.  A  project  on  air  quality  control 
under  PHARE  2006  contributed  to  the  preparation  of  a  monitoring  system  for  effective 
control of  air pollution and the definition  of  roles and functions within the system. Another 
important  area  of  assistance  concerned  nature  protection,  in  particular  by  establishing  and 
implementing  NATURA  2000  in  Croatia.  In  the  2009  Progress  Report,  the  Commission 
recognized  good  results  in  the  field  of  air  quality  and  industrial  waste  management  (both 
addressed by two PHARE 2006 initiatives). 

In the area of transport, the administrative capacity in the maritime sector was tackled with 
PHARE  2005  and  2006  projects,  while  some  smaller  interventions  provided  assistance  in 
setting the appropriate policy to enhance the capacity in the Maritime administration. Impacts 
from  the  assistance  on  the  implementation  of  the  Vessel  Traffic  Monitoring  Information 
System  (VTMIS)  were  yet  to  be  produced,  as  outlined  by  the  2009  Country  Programme 
Interim  Evaluation.  EU  assistance  in  the  area  of  rail  transport  (PHARE  2006)  delivered 
positive  impact  in  establishing  the  legal  and  institutional  framework  for  the  Croatian  rail 
sector in line with EU requirements. 

Finally, in the area of economic and social cohesion, progress of PHARE 2005 and 2006 was 
generally  satisfactory.  The  projects,  embedded  in  the  national  Strategic  Development 
Framework  (SDF),  strengthened  existing  and  new  management  structures,  introduced  or 
updated  management  instruments  and  provided  the  necessary  qualifications  to  institutions’ 
staff. Additionally, the projects address the structural problems and inadequacies of the labour 
market,  SME  competitiveness  and  regional  development.  A  key  project,  namely 
"Development  of  institutional  capacity  and  project  pipeline  for  the  management  of  EU 
structural  funds"  (PHARE  2006)  directly  supported  Croatia  in  making  progress  in  the 
accession  negotiations  with  relation  to  the  chapter  "Regional  Policy  and  Coordination  of 
Structural Instruments", including by the preparation of a project pipeline for institutions and 
stakeholders at the state and  regional levels. As regards "Cross-Border Cooperation" (CBC) 
with  Italy,  Hungary  and  Slovenia,  several  activities  referred  to  local  issues  of  the 
implementation  area  and  lacked  cross-border  relevance.  Expected  impacts,  related  in 

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particular  to  environmental  protection,  were  positive:  illegally  disposed  of  waste  and  “wild 
dumps” were being removed and several rivers and lakes were cleaned.  

iii) PHARE/CARDS management performance 

Overall, programmes continued to be well focused on the accession priorities established for 
each area of the acquis, and in some cases have addressed specific negotiations requirements 
(opening  and  closing  benchmarks).  In  general,  completed  projects  delivered  the  expected 
results and most of the expected outputs, and the prospects for ongoing projects were fairly 
positive.  

Initiatives  addressing  the  legislative  and  policy  framework  (e.g.  the  Schengen  acquis)  or 
adopting  EU  common  systems  and  standards  (e.g.  statistics)  were  comparatively  more 
successful  than  those  aimed  at  strengthening  the  administrative  capacity.  This  is  due  to  the 
fact that the assistance provided in areas related to the political criteria is comparatively more 
soft-acquis driven, and in many cases oriented to produce effects that will become apparent in 
a longer time perspective. 

Some projects were negatively affected by administrative shortcomings (such as issues related 
to pre-conditions and sequencing; problems in the procurement process due to price issues or 
the  impossibility  to  re-launch  tenders  prior  to  the  contracting  deadline:  lack  of  contractor's 
performance), sometimes leading to the cancellation of part of the foreseen activities. 

Difficulties  in  the  handling  of  pre-accession  assistance  have  led  to  a  major  overhaul  of  the 
institutional  framework.  The  situation  subsequently  improved,  although  some  problems 
remained at various stages of the process.  

Besides  the  trainings  organised  for  their  own  staff,  the  Central  Office  for  Development 
Strategy  and  Coordination  of  EU  Funds  (CODEF)  and  the  Central  Finance  and  Contracting 
Agency (CFCA) organised trainings for members of Project Implementation Units (PIUs) in 
line ministries. Trainings in the CFCA, so-called ‘Open doors’, have intensified during 2009, 
so  that  they  were  held  twice  a  month,  covering  topics  related  to  implementation  of  projects 
and financial aspects of project management. In addition, CODEF organised regular trainings 
on  Project  Cycle  Management,  Preparation  of  Operational  Programmes  for  Structural 
Instruments, Monitoring  and  Evaluation of EU funded projects,  Community Programmes in 
Croatia and Introduction to EU Cohesion Policy. Strategic meetings continued to take place 
on  a  monthly  basis  in  order  to  discuss  current  problems  and  actions  to  be  taken  at  high-
management levels.  

The  CFCA  was  able  to  boost  staffing  levels  to  about  100  staff.  As  regards  PHARE  and 
CARDS,  the  CFCA  has  shown  good  performance,  as  payments  in  2009  were  more  than 
forecasted (EUR 49 225 295 paid, versus EUR 44 701 655 forecasted).  

Table  1  -  Financial  execution  as  at  the  end  of  December  2009  (in  million  EUR)  – 
CARDS/PHARE annual programmes   

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
PHARE 2005* 

Allocated  Contracted RAC  % contracted
96.4%
96.1%
98.4%
96.7%
87.0%

54.00 
56.00 
59.00 
77.00 
69.52 

52.06
53.81
58.08
74.48
60.51

1.94
2.19
0.92
2.52
9.01

Paid 

48.69 
51.46 
53.60 
68,92 
53.15 

RAL  % paid
90.2%
91.9%
90.8%
89.5%
76.5%

5.31 
4.54 
5.40 
8,08 
16.37 

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PHARE 2006* 
TOTAL 

60.47 
375.99 

51.21
350.15

9.26
25.84

84.7%
29.17 
93.2% 304.99 

31.3 

48.2%
71  81.2%

*  National  (excluding  Tempus  and  Community  programmes),  Cross-Border,  and  Nuclear 
Safety programmes. 

After  a  number  of  years  of  parallel  centralised  and  decentralised  implementation  of  EU 
assistance  in  Croatia,  the  implementation  of  the  last  centralised  institution  building  contract 
managed by the EU Delegation came to an end in mid-2009.  

Contracting  for  projects  under  CARDS  and  PHARE  was  completed  and  execution  of  the 
majority  of  the  projects  financed  under  these  programmes  either  ended  or  was  nearing 
completion. 

Throughout  2009,  further  disbursement  of  PHARE  2005  and  PHARE  2006  took  place.  The 
PHARE  2005  national  programme  amounted  to  EUR  71.5  million  and  was  decentralised, 
except for the TEMPUS and Community Programmes funds. Out of EUR 62.882 million of 
decentralised funds, 88.3% were contracted and 77.7% were paid by the end of 2009. 

In  addition  to  the  national  programme,  the  PHARE  2005  Nuclear  Safety  programme 
amounted to EUR 641 000 and was fully decentralised. By the end of 2009, 66.5% of those 
funds were contracted and 66.5% disbursed. 

Also  under  PHARE  2005,  the  Cross-border  programmes  (CBC)  Croatia-Italy  and  Croatia-
Slovenia-Hungary  amounted  to  EUR  3  million  each  and  were  implemented  under 
decentralised management. By the end of 2009, 60.4% were contracted and 49.4% were paid 
for  CBC  Croatia-Italy,  and  90.7%  were  contracted  and  79.2%  were  paid  for  CBC  Croatia-
Slovenia-Hungary. 

Under PHARE 2006, the national programme amounted to EUR 61.062 million, the Nuclear 
Safety programme amounted to EUR 1.649 million, and the CBCs Croatia-Italy and Croatia-
Slovenia-Hungary  amounted  to  EUR  3  million  each.  They  were  implemented  under  the 
decentralised 
the  TEMPUS  and  Community 
Programmes. 

implementation  modality,  except  for 

By the end of 2009, 84.8% of the national programme had been contracted and 45.6% paid; 
74.9% of the Nuclear Safety programme was contracted and 48.4% was paid; 100 % of the 
CBC  Croatia-Italy  was  contracted  and  75.7%  was  paid  and  72.7%  of  the  CBC  Croatia-
Slovenia-Hungary was contracted and 67.8 % was paid. 

iv) National Development Plans – State of Play 

The  Croatian  Government  adopted  a  national  development  strategy  entitled  Strategic 
Development  Framework  2006-2013  in  August  2006,  which  identifies  a  series  of  priorities 
that should promote Croatia’s social and economic development. The Strategic Development 
Framework remained valid in 2009. 

Efforts continued in 2009 to prepare a National Strategic Reference Framework, which is the 
reference document for the programming of EU funds available to Member States. 

v) Institution Building highlights 

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The Commission considers twinning to be the most suitable instrument for the development 
of  administrative  capacities  and  promotion  of  legislative  changes  in  Croatia.  In  general,  the 
twinning  instrument  continues  to  be  the  preferred  implementation  modality  for  all 
transposition or legal approximation-related projects where the relevant expertise lies within 
the Member States. The relevance of twinning is set to further increase with the accession of 
Croatia to the EU. 

According  to  a  thematic  interim  evaluation  on  twinning  in  Croatia  finalised  at  the  end  of 
2008,  the  performance  assessment  of  running  and  finalised  twinning  implementation  was 
"satisfactory to good" in Croatia, notably in the sectors of home affairs, customs and taxation, 
internal market and competitiveness, free movement of goods and statistics. 

Examples  can  be  found  in  the  twinning  projects  "Human  Resource  Management  in  the 
Ministry of Interior and Police Academy" (PHARE 2005), "Preparation for Schengen acquis" 
(PHARE  2005),  "Strengthening  of  Croatian  Tax  Administration  in  the  Field  of  Audit 
operations" (PHARE 2005, Twinning Light) or a PHARE 2005 twinning on competition and 
state aid. 

The first twinning project abovementioned paved the way for the development a modern and 
integrated  human  resources  management  system  for  police  staff,  in  line  with  the  EU 
standards. The second one significantly contributed to the preparation of the Croatia Ministry 
of Interior in the implementation of the Schengen acquis, especially through staff recruitment 
for border police and a comprehensive training strategy. Continuous support in this field was 
maintained  through  further  on  going  assistance.  The  third  project  was  instrumental  in 
strengthening    the  capacity  of  the  Croatian  Tax  Administration  regarding  simplification  of 
procedures  as  well  as  collecting  evidence  in  order  to  effectively  prosecute  tax  evasion.  The 
project  also  significantly  contributed  to  improving  tax  officials’  knowledge  in  these  fields, 
which in turn shall help decrease tax evasion and tax avoidance.  

As  regards  competition  policy,  one  of  the  major  indicators  of  success  in  this  area  was  the 
adoption  by  the  Croatian  Parliament  of  the  new  Competition  Act,  largely  drafted  with  the 
assistance of a PHARE 2005 twinning project. The overall objective of this twinning was to 
improve  competition  and  state  aid  policy  in  the  Republic  of  Croatia  by  the  effective 
implementation of the relevant Croatian rules, in line with the EU rules and practice. In the 
area of state aid, project activities were focused on the establishment of a comprehensive state 
aid  list;  the  review  of  the  regional  aid  and  the  establishment  of  a  regional  aid  map; 
consultations on restructuring of enterprises in difficulty in the shipbuilding and steel sector 
and their privatisation; training of judges and local administration representatives. The project 
produced  the  desired  results  and  successfully  assisted  the  Croatian  experts  in  the  areas 
concerned. 

In the case of the Government Office for NGOs, their position was significantly reinforced by 
pre-accession  assistance  under  PHARE  2005  and  PHARE  2006.  As  the  future  role  of  this 
Office  as  the  intermediary  body  for  European  Social  Fund  projects  aimed  at  civil  society 
development  appeared  to  be  clearly  established,  the  results  of  PHARE  assistance  will  be 
carried  on  and  it  will  be  relatively  easy  to  retain  staff  to  pass  the  experience  on.  Hence, 
sustainability is ensured. 

In general, sustainability is well ensured in cases where results have been made “part of the 
system”,  as  was  the  case  e.g.  with  the  Ministry  of  Education’s  support  for  employing  the 
Roma education assistants that were selected and trained during a PHARE 2005 project.   

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4.3. 

Results and impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

Decentralised CARDS and PHARE projects were monitored on the basis of two series of six 
Sectoral  Monitoring  Sub-Committee  meetings,  in  April  and  October  2009.  The  monitoring 
system  was  functioning  well,  as  witnessed  for  instance  by  the  high  acceptance  rate  (above 
90%,  as  indicated  also  in  the  2009  Country  Programme  Interim  Evaluation)  of  monitoring 
reports by Sectoral Monitoring Sub-Committees.  

This process led to the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) which took place on 15 December 
2009. The JMC discussed the Synopsis Report that provided updated information on the latest 
developments  with  regard  to  84  CARDS  and  PHARE  projects  in  six  sectors,  the  financial 
status of programmes as of 1 December 2009, supervision and control activities, including a 
summary  of  irregularities  reported,  as  well  as  the  preliminary  findings  of  the  Country 
Programme Interim Evaluation.  

Conclusions and findings indicated that after difficulties experienced in the past (suspension 
of  the  endorsement  of  contracts  by  the  EU  Delegation  between  December  2007  and  July 
2008),  the  decentralised  implementation  system  for  PHARE  and  CARDS  was  further 
consolidated.  

Overall the intervention logic showed good alignment between national programmes and the 
planning  documents.  The  vast  majority  of  projects  showed  a  high  degree  of  relevance. 
Effectiveness  and  prospects  for  impact  were  positive  in  general,  but  results  were  uneven  in 
areas related to administrative capacity and public administration. Inadequate indicators often 
hampered  a  precise  measurement  of  projects’  effectiveness.  Still,  the  completed  projects 
delivered the expected results and the prospects for the almost completed ones were positive. 
Some  projects  experienced  difficulties  in  implementation  at  the  beginning  of  2009  (e.g. 
harmonisation and publication of case law; strengthening of the Croatian tax administration; 
integration  of  the  Croatian  customs  information  system  with  the  EU  customs  information 
system or establishment of an air quality monitoring and management system) but, following 
a closer monitoring of these projects, the situation improved significantly for most of them. 

Further  attention  needed  to  be  paid  by  Croatia  to  address  issues  related  to  the  lack  of 
appropriately qualified personnel and difficulties in retention of personnel. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

A  thematic  evaluation  on  Public  Administration  Reform  was  finalised  in  June  2009. 
Recommendations  focused  on  the  need  for  the Commission  to  continue  encouraging  efforts 
undertaken by the Croatian authorities in this area. 

An  ad  hoc  interim  evaluation  reviewed  PHARE  assistance  to  the  preparation  for  Structural 
Funds in Croatia. A key evaluation finding was that PHARE contributed to Structural Funds 
preparations  despite  a  difficult  implementation.  Overall,  good  progress  was  made  towards 
meeting  acquis  requirements  and  effectively  preparing  for  the  Instrument  for  Pre-accession 
Assistance  (IPA)  and  Structural  Funds.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  need  to  increase 
absorption capacity at national, regional and local levels.  

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The  main  evaluation  activity  carried  out  in  2009  was  the  Country  Programme  Interim 
Evaluation. This evaluation included a review of the ongoing programmes as well as capacity 
building of the CODEF Monitoring and Evaluation Department.  

The  evaluation  report  highlighted  a  number  of  lessons  that  could  be  drawn  as  regards  the 
deployment of CARDS and PHARE assistance in Croatia. In many cases, assistance focusing 
on  the  alignment  with  specific  acquis  requirements  produced  positive  results.  In  particular, 
some  projects  provided  an  essential  contribution  to  the  closing  of  negotiations  in  certain 
chapters.  The  impact  of  assistance  aiming  at  strengthening  public  administration,  especially 
with a view to forthcoming Structural Funds, was instead more difficult to assess. 

The sustainability of programmes was potentially jeopardised by serious problems concerning 
staffing and staff retention in the public administration. There was a need to devise practical 
solutions for mitigating the impact of human resources-related issues on the performance of 
EU assistance.  

iii) Sectors with positive results 

In many cases, the draft legislation and strategy plans elaborated within the framework of EU-
funded  twinning  and  technical  assistance  projects  were  either  fully  endorsed  by  the 
Commission  and  national  authorities,  or  significantly  contributed  to  the  policy-making 
process.  

Concrete examples in this respect can be drawn from the Home Affairs sector, in particular: 
the  PHARE  2005  project  "Preparation  for  the  Implementation  of  the  Schengen  Acquis" 
helped update the Schengen Action Plan and elaborate a strategy for the reduction of border 
crossing points; the PHARE 2005 project "Strengthening of Human Resource Management" 
contributed to the drafting of a Reform Strategy adopted by the Ministry of Interior. Similarly, 
the  establishment  of  the  Paying  Agency  for  Agriculture,  Fisheries  and  Rural  Development 
and  its  action  plan,  as  well  as  the  Strategy  to  Develop  the  Fisheries  Sector,  were  largely 
achieved  through  EU  assistance.  Projects  in  the  field  of  information  society  implemented 
under  the  Technical  Assistance  Facility  contributed  to  the  Strategy  for  the  switchover  to 
digital broadcasting.  

Furthermore, EU assistance was decisive for the elaboration of strategies and plans for the use 
of  funds  made  available  under  IPA  Components  III,  IV  and  V,  and  in  perspective  for 
Structural Funds. In particular, the assistance extended to CODEF - as the body responsible 
for  regional  policy  and  coordination  of  structural  instruments  -  was  particularly  important 
with a view to the finalisation of the National Strategic Reference Framework, which is the 
reference document for the programming of EU funds available to Member States. 

Chapters  where  assistance  has  been  conducive  to  the  fulfilment  of  accession  priorities 
included the provisionally-closed chapters of information society, Intellectual Property Rights 
(IPR)  policy,  customs  union,  statistics  and  consumers  and  health  protection  (as  far  as 
consumers protection was concerned). Chapters where assistance yielded encouraging results 
included agriculture, food safety and veterinary policy, public procurement and taxation.  

iv) Success stories 

“Further Capacity Building in the Area of Live Animals and Food Products” (CARDS 
2004) 

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The  twinning  project  supported  the  Croatian  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  Fisheries  and  Rural 
Development  as  well  as  other  target  institutions  (Croatian  Ministry  of  Health  and  Social 
Welfare,  Croatian  Veterinary  Institute,  Croatian  Food  Agency  and  Croatian  Accreditation 
Agency)  in  the  upgrading  of  control  activities  and  originated  a new  food  safety  system  and 
new  institutional  framework  capable  of  addressing  the  needs  and  challenges  of  the  new 
revised  system.  The  knowledge  and  experience  transposed  to  the  Croatian  administration  in 
various  fields  of  food  safety  will  continue  to  be  of  great  use  in  the  future  development  and 
maintenance of a high quality food safety system in Croatia. As a matter of fact, Chapter 12 
"Food Safety, Veterinary & Phytosanitary issues" was provisionally closed 9 months after the 
end of the project. 

“Support to Croatia in the Preparation and Implementation of the Strategy to Develop 
the  Fisheries  Sector  within  the  Context  of  Alignment  and  Enforcement  of  the  acquis 
comprising the Common Fisheries Policy” (PHARE 2005) 

The project, whose objective is laid down in the title, consisted of 7 components implemented 
through  13  contracts.  The  project  improved  the  institutional  structure,  administration 
(monitoring of the time at sea) and statistical system (Fishing Vessel Register) in the fisheries 
sector.  Fisheries  inspectors  were  trained  in  the  standard  inspection  procedures  used  in  EU 
Member  States.  A  Vessel  Monitoring  System  and  the  Fisheries  Monitoring  Centre  were 
established 

"Blue Border Surveillance" (PHARE 2006) 

This twinning project was a continuation of the efforts undertaken under previous initiatives: 
the  Stability  Pact  for  South  East  Europe,  the  CARDS  2001  project  “Integrated  Border 
Management  -  Border  Police”,  the  CARDS  2003  project  “Continued  Support  and  Capacity 
Building  for  the  Border  Police  Directorate”,  as  well  as  the  PHARE  2005  twinning  project 
"Preparation for the Implementation of the Schengen Acquis".  

The overall objective of the project was to prepare the ground for the Croatian Border Police 
to  be  able  to  perform  its  tasks  efficiently  in  accordance  with  Schengen  regulations.  The 
project (lasting 15 months, with a budget of EUR 1 million) was implemented in partnership 
with the Federal Police of Germany and in cooperation with the Italian Coast Guards.  

The following results were achieved: 

(1) 

(2) 

Providing support to the Croatian Border Police in the revision and further elaboration 
of the Action Plan for Integrated Border Management with a particular component on 
Blue Border protection. 

Identifying the necessary measures and activities for the implementation of the Action 
Plan, focusing on: 

–   setting  up  Blue  Border  surveillance  procedures  in  accordance  with  Schengen 

regulations; 

–   developing specific solutions for the Maritime Police in the field of interagency 

cooperation as well as IT strategy and communication; 

–   strengthening the capacity of the Maritime Police in the field of risk assessment; 

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–   training  the  Maritime  Police,  including  on  EU  approaches  on  Blue  Border 

management, and providing best practices. 

"Strengthening the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights" (PHARE 2006) 

The  Commission  committed  already  EUR  3.3  million  in  the  area  of  Intellectual  Property 
Rights  (IPR)  in  Croatia  in  recent  years.  The  additional  EUR  1.2  million  under  this  project 
aimed  at  improving  cooperation,  coordination  and  enforcement  mechanism  of  the  Croatian 
institutions  (Customs,  State  Intellectual  Property  Office,  Ministry  of  Interior,  Ministry  of 
Justice and State Inspectorate) and at raising public awareness about the issue of counterfeited 
goods.  

Faced with the growing spread of the phenomenon, reinforcing the administrative cooperation 
to  fight  illicit  goods,  both  among  different  agencies  within  Members  States  and  across  the 
board  on  a  European  level,  was  crucial.  This  project  recommended  the  setting  up  of  a 
National  IPR  Enforcement  Forum.  The  key  element  of  cooperation  was  enhancing  the 
exchange of intelligence, information and best practices.  

The capacity building component of the project aimed at better preparing the Police, Customs, 
State  Inspectorate  and  judges  and  prosecutors  on  issues  related  to  IPR  enforcement. 
Representatives  from  the  different  enforcement  institutions  were  meeting  and  getting 
acquainted with the tasks and duties of colleagues from other institutions – and were given an 
opportunity  to  establish  operational  contacts  in  the  other  institutions.  Experience  has  shown 
that personal contacts between the institutions facilitate substantially day-to day cooperation. 

With regard to awareness raising, the project supported the existing IPR Information Centre 
which provides access to customer services, search facilities, library services and a variety of 
training activities for an external audience.  

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5. 

CYPRUS 

5.1. 

Summary 

In  2009,  Cyprus  completed  the  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  instrument,  which 
addressed  the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the 
acquis, in line with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS). 

Since July 2004 implementation was carried out under the entire responsibility of the Cypriot 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  A  number  of  implementing  agencies  were 
fully responsible for daily implementation of projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision. 

5.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2005  programme  was  completed 
successfully by the end of 2008. 98.06% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
97.66% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 19 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Cyprus 
from the Transition Facility programmes 2004-2006 (national allocation, excluding horizontal 
and multi-country programmes). 

During the reporting period, there was substantial overall progress towards the achievement of 
objectives  and  results  of  EU  assistance.  The  projects  under  TF  2006  were  successfully 
completed and achieved their intended results, which further contributed to the enhancement 
of the Cypriot public administration.  

5.3. 

Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In  2009  no  physical  JMC  meeting  was  held.  Two  JMCs  were  concluded  via  written 
procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality,  including  sufficiently 
detailed information regarding projects implementation and the achievement of their intended 
results. 

No  particular  monitoring  actions  were  undertaken  by  the  Commission,  since  the  amount  of 
the assistance and number of the projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  and  evaluation  of  the  Pre-accession  and  Transition 
Facility  programmes  in  Cyprus  lies  with  the  Planning  Bureau,  as  the  executive  body  of  the 
NAC.  

During the reporting period, the national authorities delivered to the Commission the Interim 
Evaluation Report concluded by the external experts contracted under TF 2006 to carry out an 
Interim  Evaluation  of  EU  funded  projects.  The  overall  rating  of  TF  2005  and  TF  2006 
projects  was  satisfactory,  with  the  exception  of  project  2005/017-643.02.02  "Study  and 
implementation  of  intelligent  transport  systems  and  development  of  GIS  to  incorporate 
information  on  Trans-European  Networks  as  part  of  an  EU-wide  GIS",  which  was  rated  as 
‘barely  satisfactory’.  This  project  experienced  some  delay  but  finally  was  successfully 
completed. All implemented projects were found to be highly relevant. In addition, under the 
same contract, the Second Country Evaluation Summary and the Thematic Evaluation Report 
“Assessment  of  the  impact and  sustainability of  EU  funded  projects” were  completed.  Both 
the impact and the sustainability of the implemented projects were found to be satisfactory. 

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6. 

CZECH REPUBLIC 

6.1. 

Summary  

In 2009, the Czech Republic continued to implement successfully post-accession assistance, 
to  address  the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the 
acquis, in line with the EDIS. 

Since December 2004 implementation was carried out under the entire responsibility of Czech 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  Central  Finance  and  Contract  Unit 
(CFCU), the Civil Society Development Foundation (NROS), CzechInvest (CI), the National 
Training Fund (NTF) and the Centre for Regional Development (CRD) were fully responsible 
for the daily implementation of the projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision.  

6.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2005  programme  was  completed 
successfully by the end of 2008. 95.15% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
93.36% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 32 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to the Czech 
Republic  from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not 
including horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

Implementation of the Transition Facility in the Czech Republic was completed successfully 
in  the  areas  of  nuclear  safety,  justice  and  home  affairs,  social  protection  and  health, 
environment, agriculture and finance and banking and the internal market.  

6.3. 

Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In  2009  no  physical  JMC  meeting  was  held.  Two  JMCs  were  concluded  via  written 
procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality,  including  sufficiently 
detailed information regarding projects implementation and the achievement of their intended 
results. 

No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  and  evaluation  of  Pre-accession  and  the  Transition 
Facility  programmes  in  the  Czech  Republic  lies  with  the  Ministry  of  Finance  (MoF). 
Activities in this area were carried out on the basis of the Action Plan on decentralisation of 
monitoring and evaluation, which was endorsed by the Commission in May 2005.  

In  2009  two  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  prepared  by  the  NAC  services  and  two 
Country Summary Evaluation Reports were issued by an independent evaluator (with cut-off 
dates at 30/04/2009 and 16/10/2009) on Transition Facility programmes. The country review 
reports  provided  a  consolidated  review  of  the  findings  of  the  Interim  Evaluations  and 
examined  programmes  and  projects  progress  towards  the  objectives  stated  in  the  formal 
programming  documents.  The  reports  were  of  good  quality  and  concluded  that,  in 
general, projects implementation was smooth and no major problems were identified. 

The  Country  Summary  Evaluation  Reports  rated  the  relevance,  efficiency,  effectiveness, 
impact and sustainability of the overall TF Programmes as ‘good’. Issues concerning projects 
impact  and  sustainability  were  raised  by  the  independent  evaluator  with  regard  to  several 
projects, for which the EU requested the national authorities to continue reporting on. Overall, 
performance of the TF assistance in the Czech Republic was rated as good. 

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7. 

ESTONIA 

7.1. 

Summary  

In 2009, Estonia continued to implement successfully post-accession assistance to address the 
remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in  line 
with the EDIS. 

Since  November  2004  implementation  is  carried  out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of 
Estonian  authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  Ministry  of  Finance,  Central 
Financing  and  Contracting  Department  (CFCD) 
the  daily 
implementation of the projects. 

is  fully  responsible  for 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision.  

7.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

Implementation of the Transition Facility (TF) 2005 programme was completed successfully 
by the end of 2008. 96.68% was disbursed by the end of 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
94.81% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 18 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Estonia 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes). 

In 2009, Estonia completed successfully the implementation of projects under the Transition 
Facility 2006. It can be concluded that all projects contributed to meeting the remaining needs 
of the acquis and enhanced the Estonian administrative system.  

7.3. 

Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meetings were held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed  information  regarding  projects  implementation  and  the 
achievement of their results. 

No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

As  from  2008  the  Estonian  Monitoring  Unit  is  in  the  State  Budget  Coordination  and 
Monitoring Department, and no longer in the Foreign Financing Department. Activities in this 
area  were  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  the  Action  Plan  on  decentralisation  of  monitoring  and 
evaluation, which was endorsed by the EU in February 2005. 

All  evaluation  activities  of  external  experts  contracted  by  the  national  authorities  were 
finalized by the end of October 2008. The final evaluation report for the TF 2006 was sent to 
the  Commission  and  positive  feedback  was  given.  In  addition,  a  summary  report  was 
composed – “Transition Facility Interim Evaluation Country Summary Report VIII” - where 
all  the  TF  evaluations  made  in  the  evaluation  period  were  summarized.  Evaluators  rated  all 
the  TF  2006  projects  as  "satisfactory",  with  ‘relevance’  of  the  projects  being  rated  high. 
According  to  the  evaluators,  although  delays  in  implementation  timetables  affected  the 
effectiveness and efficiency of project implementation, the projects were expected to achieve 
their mandatory results.  

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8. 

THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA 

8.1. 

Summary 

In 2009, following the closure of the European Agency for Reconstruction, the EU Delegation 
in  Skopje  took  over  responsibility  for  the  remaining  CARDS  projects.  Implementation  of 
these projects was carried out under centralised management, applying EU procurement rules.  

The  EU  Delegation  continued  to  exercise  the  procurement,  contracting,  monitoring, 
evaluation  and  audit  of  these  funds,  being  fully  responsible  for  daily  implementation  of  the 
programmes.  

8.2. 

Pre-accession assistance in 2009 

i.  Programmes launched 

As  of  2007  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  new  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance. Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii.  Overview of programmes implemented 

The CARDS Programme was mainly managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction. 
At  the  end  of  2008,  the  EU  Delegation  took  over  159  assistance  contracts  worth  EUR  26 
million under CARDS.  

Most of the CARDS projects were in the final stage of implementation or they were closed in 
2009. 

All CARDS 2004 projects were practically completed (with one exception – see below) at the 
beginning of the year, when only a few final payments were pending. They were cleared in 
the course of 2009. 

In  the  justice  and  home  affairs  sector,  the  activities  related  to  the  reform  of  the  judiciary 
system (CARDS 2006 project) were finalised with the expiry of the maintenance period for 
the  construction/refurbishment  of  prison  facilities.  The  CARDS  2005  twinning  contract 
within the project ‘support to the public prosecutor’s office’ also ended successfully. 

In  the  field  of  police  and  the  fight  against  organised  crime,  contracts  were  completed 
(supplies in warranty period). For the remaining funds, a contract for renovation of a police 
launched.  A  small  contract  under  CARDS  2005  for  preparation  of 
station  was 
structural/architectural design for renovation of police stations was completed. 

A CARDS 2005 twinning project in the field of combating money laundering (phase II) was 
also completed. 

In  the  field  of  integrated  border  management,  a  relatively  big  (EUR  1.2  million)  CARDS 
2006  contract  was  launched  for  the  Construction  of  Veterinary  and  Phytosanitary  Border 
Inspection  Facilities  at  Tabanovce.  Regarding  the  equipment  for  the  Police  Service,  the 
CARDS  2004  contract  for  supply  of  police  digital  radio  communication  system  (TETRA 
Phase 1) had to be terminated due to the fact that the contractor could not deliver up to 100% 
the  supplies  and  the  provisional  acceptance  procedure  failed  twice.  It  is  expected  that  the 

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deficiencies will be amended and the TETRA system will further be spread over the country's 
territory during the TETRA Phase 2 project, financed through IPA 2008. 

In  the  area  of  management  of  public  finances,  the  CARDS  2006  twinning  contract  for 
Strengthening the Public Internal Financial Control ended successfully. 

The  CARDS  2006  programme  included  important  projects  in  the  fields  of  administrative 
capacity  and  decentralised  management  of  EU  assistance,  including  technical  assistance  to 
the  Secretariat  for  European  Affairs  for  drafting  the  2009  IPA  Component  I  National 
Programme, capacity building to the Audit Authority operating under the IPA implementing 
Regulation  and  support  to  the  IPARD  Agency  (only  the  last  contract  being  still  under 
implementation in 2009, the other two having been completed). 

In  the  field  of  decentralisation  and  local  self  government,  a  number  of  municipal  service 
centres  were  refurbished  under  CARDS  2006  and  2005  and  were  equipped  under  CARDS 
2006.  In  2009,  a  number  of  small  municipal  projects  (works)  were  implemented  under 
CARDS 2006 and 2005. The works were completed and the defects liability period expired 
for most of them by the end of 2009. The few cases for which the defects liability period was 
still under way after the reporting period were due to force majeure circumstances. 

In the filed of capacity building support to the decentralisation of management of assistance, 
the respective CARDS 2005 project had a limited success, due to the lack of cooperation and 
donor coordination by the beneficiary. 

With  regard  to  the  investment  climate,  the  CARDS  2006  project  ‘Improvement  of  the 
investment climate’ comprised three technical assistance (TA) contracts, one supply contract 
and  one  grant.  The  TA  contracts  were  practically  completed  by  the  beginning  of  2009  and 
provisional acceptance was granted for the supplies. Activities under the grant contracts were 
also successfully finalised by the end of 2009, with positive feedback from the beneficiaries. 

In the field of support to the trade sector, the main contracts related to agriculture and food 
safety. Two  TA  contracts (‘National vineyard monitoring and management system-Phase 2’ 
and  ‘National  animal  identification  programme  -  Phase  3”)  were  completed  in  the  second 
quarter of 2009, while the supplies for the animal identification and registration system and 
for food testing and control were delivered at the end of 2009. 

In the filed of social cohesion, the CARDS 2006 project ‘Employment policy reform (Phase 
III)  and  lifelong  learning’  was  implemented  (5  contracts).  The  TA  contract  to  support 
employment policy - Phase III was successfully completed and the supplies for ESA and its 
30 local offices were delivered. 

The remaining contracts in the areas of co-operation with international financing institutions 
(IFIs)  and  environment  were  at  the  stage  of  final  reporting  at  the  beginning  of  2009.  The 
projects in these sectors have been fully completed. 

The CARDS Neighbourhood Programme 2005 included two sectors: 

a)  Cross  Border  Cooperation  (CBC)  with  Greece  –  out  of  12  projects,  8  were  still  under 
implementation  at  the  beginning  of  2009.  At  the  end  of  2009  virtually  all  projects  were 
completed, but the approval of final reports/final payments was not completed for all of them, 
due  to  the  late  submission  and  inadequate  quality  of  the  documents  submitted  by  the 
beneficiaries. 

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b) CBC with Bulgaria – the 6 projects involved were completed in 2009, while approval of 
final reports/final payments was not completed for all of them, due to the late submission and 
inadequate quality of the documents submitted by the beneficiaries. 

iii.  PHARE/CARDS/Pre-accession assistance Management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual programmes 

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
TOTAL 

Paid  
Committed  Contracted RAC % Contracted
56.64 
100.00%
33.03 
100.00%
36.01 
100.00%
52.85 
100.00%
32.62 
98.40%
92.03%
28.15 
98.70% 239.30 

56.64 
33.03 
36.01 
53.18 
34.04 
33.40 
246.30 

56.64
33.03
36.01
53.18
33.50
30.74
243.10

0
0
0
0
0
0
0

RAL   %Paid
100.00%
100.00%
100.00%
99.39%
95.80%
84.29%
97.16%

0 
0 
0 
0.14 
1.63 
4.18 
5.95 

The  Agency  portfolio  in  the  former  Yugoslav  Republic  of  Macedonia  amounted  to 
approximately  EUR  326  million.  It  covered  projects  financed  under  CARDS  (2002-2006), 
projects  financed  under  PHARE  (1997-2000)  and  the  Emergency  Response  Programme 
(2001). 

The CARDS programmes were focused on three main sectors: i) strengthening of local and 
municipal  governments  (22%),  ii)  justice  and  home  affairs  (21%)  and  iii)  economic 
development (11%). Integrated Border Management was another major sector which received 
9% of the total allocation.  

Implementation of financial assistance during 2009 concerned the CARDS programmes 2002-
2006  and  focused  on  completion,  including  disbursements,  of  CARDS  2002-2005 
programmes and contracting of the remaining funds under the CARDS 2006 programme. 

Completed  projects  have  generated  the  expected  outputs  and  results  and  some  accession 
priorities  have  received  continued  support  under  IPA  (i.e.  integrated  border  management, 
local infrastructure and municipal awards, judicial and police reforms, etc.). 

Strategic meetings with the National Aid Coordinator Office (Secretariat for EU Affairs) took 
place  regularly  in  order  to  discuss  problems  with  the  ongoing  projects  and  allow  the 
Government  to  address  administrative  shortcomings  on  the  side  of  final  beneficiaries  (e.g. 
inappropriate  appointment  of  staff  dealing  with  project  implementation;  improper  allocation 
of  working  space  and  facilities;  untimely  issuance  of  construction  permits;  urban  plan 
amendments; necessity of appointing appropriate staff for trainings; etc.). 

iv.  National Development Plan – State of Play 

The  first  National  Development  Plan  (NDP)  was  created  in  2006  with  assistance  from  the 
UNDP,  covering  the  period  2007-2009.  The  NDP  2007-2009  is  de  jure  a  government 
document,  but  implementation  of  the  development/investment  priorities  identified  under  the 
NDP did not receive any government commitment. 

v.  Institution Building Highlights 

Although all projects contracted in 2009 were supply contracts, the ongoing CARDS projects 
completed in 2009 provided further institution building support to strengthen the capacitates 
relevant  for  decentralised  implementation  of  EU  funds  (DIS)  and  were  followed  by  the 

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appointment  of  key  actors  as  the  Competent  Accrediting  Officer  (CAO),  the  National 
Authorising  Officer  (NAO)  and  the  National  IPA  Co-ordinator  (NIPAC).  Under  CARDS 
cross-border  support  activities,  through  the  participation  in  these  programs  the  country 
enhanced its institutional capacities, contributing to the recovery of border regions, regional 
reconciliation and stability.   

8.3. 

Results and Impacts 

i.  Joint Monitoring Committees/Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees 

There is no information regarding JMC/SMC meetings on CARDS in 2009. 

ii.  Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 – Lessons Learned 

The CARDS 2002-2006 retrospective evaluation made the following recommendations: 

–  The EU Delegation would benefit from the Project Cycle Management training, to support 

a unified approach and common understanding on project cycle. 

–  The EU Delegation should conduct thorough needs assessments during the projects design 
phase, with close involvement of national stakeholders at all intervention levels, including 
during the preparation of Project Fiches and Terms of Reference, in order to ensure local 
ownership and commitment. 

–  Administrative  procedures  needed  to  be  upgraded  in  terms  of  efficiency,  within  both  the 
national  structures  (the  MoLSG,  MoF)  and  the  EU  Delegation,  to  enable  timely 
procurement procedures and prevent implementation delays. 

–  As  impact  was  very  often  linked  to  a  sustainability  and  partner  cooperation,  the  EU 
Delegation  could  consider  the  use  of  conditionality  or  pre-condition  instruments  in  the 
programming  documents  (i.e.  national  partners  appropriately  staffed,  adequate  premises 
provided, strategies or laws adopted, etc). 

–  Phasing-out strategies should routinely be integrated in programme planning and solutions 
for  maintaining  activities  after  EU-funded  interventions  ended  needed  to  be  thoroughly 
discussed with stakeholders. 

–  Commitment  at  the  national  level  needed  to  be  strengthened  to  ensure  full  scale 
sustainability  (MoLSG).  National  authorities  needed  to  promptly  address  the  lack  of 
resource capacities (MoF) in order to be able to continue activities after programmes were 
closed down. 

–  The  EU  Delegation  should  insist  that  cross-cutting  issues  be  more  strongly  integrated  in 
planning documents to reflect contributions to men and women or minority groups and to 
assess gender-specific impacts. 

–  Since IPA procedures were so far unfamiliar to most local stakeholders, the EU Delegation 
should provide training in IPA general rules and procedures as well as guidelines on how 
to apply for future funds. 

All the above recommendations were fully implemented during the reporting period or were 
under implementation after that. 

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iii.  Sectors with positive results 

Integrated border management and agriculture can be seen as areas where CARDS assistance 
contributed  to  positive  results.  In  addition,  infrastructure  support  for  the  municipalities,  as 
part of the overall EU support for decentralisation, has proven very effective in improving the 
daily life of the citizens and stimulating social and economic cohesion.  

iv.  Success stories 

"Fight  against  Organised  Crime  and  Corruption  Unit  –  Public  Prosecutors' 
Office" (CARDS 2005)  

The fight against organised crime and corruption is one of the key priorities of the Accession 
Partnership.  The  main  objective  of  this  twinning  project  was,  firstly,  to  ensure  an  effective 
policy  in  this  field  through  the  development  of  a  comprehensive  and  quality  legal  and 
institutional framework and, secondly, to implement and create a sustainable track record. 

The  EU  offered  support  to  make  the  Unit  for  the  fighting  against  organised  crime  and 
corruption (now Basic Prosecutor's Office) operational. Thirteen training seminars and three 
study visits were organised during the lifetime of the project.  

The  results  achieved  are:  i) the  Special  Unit  for  the  fight  against  organised  crime  and 
corruption is operational. The contract provided consistent support (i.e. delivery of assessment 
reports,  provision  of  training  sessions,  study  visits)  to  the  specialised Unit  which  is  now  an 
operational autonomous Basic Public Prosecutor's Office; ii) a comprehensive analysis of the 
legal  framework  in  the  field  of  organized  crime  and  corruption  was  delivered  under  the 
contract. 

"Technical  assistance  to  the  establishment  of  a  national  visa  management  system" 
(CARDS 2006)  

In  August  2007,  the  EU  (through  the  European  Agency  for  Reconstruction)  allocated  EUR 
750,000  for  software  design  of  the  National  Visa  Information  System  (N-VIS),  as  part  of  a 
technical  assistance  project  to  enhance  the  operational  capacity  of  the  Consular  Department 
within  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Alongside  the  advisory  support,  the  EU  has  also 
provided  the  necessary  EUR  450,000  worth  of  equipment  for  the  Centre.  The  N-VIS 
introduces significant changes in visa issuance processes in the country. It implements clearly 
defined, standardised visa procedures and rapid, consistent and accurate verification of each 
and every applicant through the existing database. The training of trainers workshop delivered 
for 16 staff members from the relevant ministries offered valuable insight into all aspects of 
the use of N-VIS.  

“National Vineyard Monitoring and Management System - Phase II” (CARDS 2006)  

A pilot project to develop a vineyard cadastre started in 2004 in the Tikves region, financed 
through  CARDS.  During  its  first  phase,  the  project  opened  a  local  office  in  Kavadarci, 
designed and put into function a software application, contributed to the passing of a new law 
on  wine  and  two  acts  of  secondary  legislation  and  carried  out  several  training  courses  for 
project staff. After the expiry of this pilot phase began the second phase of the project, again 
financed through CARDS, which aimed at extending the entire system and software and put 
them into function throughout the country.  

The  specific  objectives  of  the  second  phase  of  the  project  were  to  align  the  national  wine 
legislation  and  secondary  legal  acts  with  those  of  the  EU  and  support  the  Wine  and  Vine 
Department within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy (MAFWE).  

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43 

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In  addition  to  the  main  office  in  Skopje,  based  in  MAFWE,  the  project  established  six 
regional  offices  in  the  main  wine  regions,  namely  in  Kisela  Voda,  Sveti  Nikole,  Ohrid, 
Kavadarci, Negotino and Valandovo.  

The system is based on rules that require mandatory declaration, i.e. that every vine grower is 
obliged to register himself in the vineyard register if he wishes to sell his production on the 
market, following a EU regulation that has become mandatory also in this country.  An aerial 
photo-interpretation  has  been  made  to  define  the  vineyard  parcels  in  the  country,  which 
accounts for 95% of the wine-producers. All vineyards have been photo-interpreted and put 
into the system.  

The  system  will  provide  wine  traceability  and  will  be  used  for  programming  the  support 
policy in the wine sector, being an indispensable instrument which can give data on what and 
where  something  exists,  who  cultivates  it,  yields,  what  has  been  produced,  what  has  been 
placed on the market, what has been shown in the declarations, etc.  

This was a first attempt of a project based on GIS (Geographical Information System). It was 
a  pioneer  project  and  will  convey  the  experience  gained  directly  to  the  well-known  LPIS 
(Land  Parcel  Identification  System)  that  is  currently  under  development  for  the  whole 
agricultural sector, also with support from IPA Component I.  

“Regulation of Luda Mara River in Kavadarci” (CARDS 2006) 

The  project  was  proposed  from  the  Municipality  of  Kavadarci  as  a  priority  to  be  financed 
under the awarded first prize within the EU funded Municipal Award 2006 Programme. This 
Project  covered  works  for  regulating  part  of  the  Luda  Mara  River  bed  in  the  centre  of 
Kavadarci, with a total length of 800 m. The works included earthworks for forming the river 
bed, concrete works of the bank of the minor bed, 6,080 m2 of cobble-stone layer on the river 
bed, several cascades for regulation of the water flow and sets of steps to the river. 

Several  interruptions  occurred  during  the  construction  period,  mainly  resulting  from  the 
unexpected discovery of unexploded destructive mines on site. The strong commitment of all 
parties involved in this project resulted in the successful completion of the works. 

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9. 

HUNGARY 

9.1. 

Summary  

In  2009,  Hungary  continued  to  implement  successfully  the  post-accession  assistance  to 
address  the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the 
acquis, in line with the EDIS. 

Since  June  2004  implementation  is  carried  out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of  Hungarian 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  CFCU-Central  Finance  and  Contract 
Unit, the ESF-European Social Fund Agency and the VATI-Hungarian Public Company for 
Regional Town Planning are fully responsible for the daily implementation of the projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision.  

9.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2005  programme  was  completed 
successfully by the end of 2008. 96.89% was disbursed by the end of 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
87.32% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 36 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Hungary 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

Implementation of the Transition Facility in Hungary has been considered successful in all the 
areas, where most projects reached the foreseen objectives and assistance provided real value 
added. 

9.3. 

Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meetings were held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed  information  regarding  projects  implementation  and  the 
achievement of their results. 

No  particular  monitoring  actions  were  undertaken  by  the  Commission,  since  the  amount  of 
the assistance and the number of the projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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45 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  of  the  Pre-accession  and  the  Transition  Facility 
programmes  lies  with  the  National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC)  in  the  National  Development 
Agency.  Activities  in  this  area  were  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  the  Evaluation  Plan  on 
decentralisation  of  monitoring  and  evaluation, 
line  with  European  Commission 
requirements. 

in 

The  independent  evaluator  prepared two  consolidated Interim  Evaluation  reports  in  order  to 
evaluate 7  sectors monitored in  2009.  The  evaluator  prepared  also  the  Country  Summary 
Evaluation  Review  (CSER)  for  the  JMC meeting in July  2009, which was carried  out  by 
written procedure, and for the JMC meeting scheduled in January 2010. 

The  conclusions  available  from  the  Interim  Evaluation  reports and  the  Country  Summary 
Evaluation Review are that, on the whole, projects implementation was running smoothly in 
its  final  phase  and  no  major  problems  were identified.  Many  of  the  recommendations 
regarding  the  2004  and  2005 Transition  Facility programmes  referred  to  visibility  or 
dissemination  of  information  issues,  but  also  staffing  issues,  notably  in  the  area  of  civil 
society (political criteria) and transport.   

Depending on the sector, the effectiveness was considered from adequate to satisfactory.  

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46 

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10. 

KOSOVO

6 

10.1. 

Summary 

The  European  Commission  Liaison  Office  (ECLO)  in  Kosovo7  took  over  the  responsibility 
for  projects  financed  under  the  CARDS  programme  from  the  European  Agency  for 
Reconstruction (EAR) in July 2008. The EAR completed its operations in Kosovo at the end 
of  that  year.  Initially,  CARDS  projects  transferred  to  the  ECLO  represented  some  EUR  57 
million  and  involved  134  contracts.  The  ECLO  implements  remaining  CARDS  and  IPA 
programmes in Kosovo under deconcentrated centralised management. 

10.2. 

Financial assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched  

As  of  2007  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  new  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance. Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

In  continuation  of  programmes  implemented  during  2008,  the  main  developments  of  the 
CARDS programme in 2009 included the following: 

Enhancing economic and social sustainability of minority communities 

CARDS  funds  supported  employment  generation  and  community  development 
in 
disadvantaged  minority  communities.  Examples  include  cheese  and  milk  production,  textile 
production, carpentry, sweets and pastry production, auto-mechanic workshops, dry herbs and 
mushroom  production,  furniture  production,  dairy  farming,  horticulture,  blacksmiths,  barber 
and  hairdresser  shops.  Furthermore,  the  Roma,  Ashkali  and  Egyptian  communities  were 
specifically targeted so as to improve children’s education and reduce school drop-out levels, 
as well as health and family planning by providing health sessions on hygiene, reproductive 
health, waste management, infectious and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, CARDS funds 
supported direct assistance to the returns process as well as building the institutional capacity 
of the Ministry of Communities and Returns to effectively coordinate this process. A special 
emphasis  was  put  on  assisting  the  reconstruction  of  Kosovo’s  religious  sites  damaged  in 
March 2004. 

Guiding Kosovo on the path towards Europe 

The CARDS programme continued to build the institutional capacity of the newly established 
ministries  and  municipalities  to  more  effectively  perform  their  governance  roles  and  to 
strengthen the rule of law, in line with European Partnership priorities and EU best practices. 
Support was provided to the construction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ headquarters and 
to its institutional capacity to strengthen internal security, public order, border and boundary 
management. The Agency for Coordination of Development and European Integration, since 
April  2010  part  of  the  newly  created  Ministry  of  European  Integration,  was  supported  to 

6  
7  

Under UNSCR 1244/99 
Under UNSCR 1244/99 

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47 

   EN 

 
                                                 
enhance  the  professionalism  of  the  civil  service.  Other  support  included  improving  public 
finance  management  and  national  statistics.  During  2009  CARDS  also  funded  capacity 
building  for  Kosovo's  institutions  for  the  preparation  and  implementation  of  cross-border 
cooperation programmes. 

Fighting poverty through sustainable industrial and rural development 

CARDS supported economic and social development by assisting municipalities and socially 
owned  entreprises.  Assistance  was  provided  to  increase  domestic  and  foreign  direct 
investment,  develop  quality  standard  infrastructure,  improve  industrial  competitiveness  and 
exports,  support  enterprise  development  in  disadvantaged  areas  and  among  marginalised 
groups,  strengthen  corporate  finance,  continue  the  privatisation  process  and  incorporate 
publicly  owned  utilities.  The  development  of  the  rural  economy  and  natural  resource 
management was targeted through support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural 
Development.  Further  support  was  provided  to  rural  communities  in  the  establishment  of 
Local Action Groups and local development strategies, addressing specific local problems.  

Shaping Kosovo’s participation in the Energy Community of South East Europe 

The CARDS programme provided support to the upgrading of heavy coal mining machinery 
for the removal of waste, including a bucket wheel excavator, conveyor belt and spreader. The 
refurbished  system  should  be  used  to  open  the  new  mine  in  the  Sibovc  SW  field.  The 
programme  should  lead  to  reduced  damage  to  machinery,  unplanned  forced  outages  and 
increase the reliability of the excavating system. 

Strengthening local government to support democratic governance 

CARDS  support  to  local  governance  followed  a  cross-sector  approach.  Projects  provided 
assistance  to  local  government  institutions  targeting  different  sectors,  reflecting  the  multi-
faceted responsibilities increasingly assumed by local authorities. Reconstruction of physical 
infrastructures  was  the  main  objective  of  several  municipal  development  projects.  At  the 
central level, the CARDS programme built the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Local 
Government to effectively perform its mandate and provided hands-on advice directly to the 
municipalities  to  improve  service  delivery  to  citizens  including  an  integrated  Public 
Investment Programme. 

iii) Cards management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual programmes 

Allocated  Contracted RAC  % contracted

Paid 

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
TOTAL 

143.21 
162.54 
62.28 
72.60 
76.50 
46.50 
563.63 

142.53
162.08
58.24
72.60
75.53
46.48
557.46

100% 142.53 
100% 161.80 
94%
57.53 
100%
67.85 
99%
71.33 
40.85 
100%
99% 541.89 

0.68
0.45
4.04
0.00
0.97
0.02
6.16

48 

RAL  % paid
100%
100%
92%
93%
93%
88%
96%

0.68 
0.74 
4.75 
4.75 
5.18 
5.66 
21.76 

   EN 

EN 

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
iv) Institution Building highlights 

The  CARDS  programme  continued  to  support  the  institutions  of  Kosovo  by  building  their 
capacity to effectively implement their mandates. 

In close coordination with EULEX, the CARDS programme provided support to the justice 
institutions  in  Kosovo  to  develop  and  strengthen  the  justice  structure  so  as  to  guarantee  an 
area of freedom, security and justice for all Kosovo citizens, in accordance with EU standards 
and best practices. 

Support to local government institutions targeted different sectors, reflecting the multi-faceted 
responsibilities increasingly assumed by local authorities. Complementary to this, a EUR 15 
million  CARDS  programme  sought  to  upgrade  the  social  and  economic  infrastructure  of  a 
number of municipalities throughout Kosovo. 

CARDS supported Kosovo on the path towards Europe by strengthening the capacity of the 
government  to  carry  out  its  duties  in  line  with  the  European  Partnership.  This  included  the 
continuation  of  the  Young  Cell  Scheme,  which  provides  scholarships  for  Kosovo  graduate 
students to gain Master’s degrees in European Studies  at  some  of  Europe’s  most  prominent 
universities. 

10.3.  Results and impact 

i) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Kosovo  is  included  in  the  target  area  of  the  Results  Oriented  Monitoring  (ROM)  project 
managed  by  the  Commission.  All  contracts  with  a  value  of  more  than  EUR  1  million  are 
subject  to  ROM,  providing  an  independent  opinion  on  the  efficiency,  impact  and 
sustainability of project implementation. 

In  2009  a  total  of  50  projects  were  monitored,  of  which  36  Kosovo  projects  and  14 
components of regional projects. These included 23 CARDS projects8. 

–  Lessons  learned  as  concerns  project  relevance:  i)  results  and  indicators  are  set  at  a  very 
general level, stating only overall development and reconstruction goals; ii) indicators are 
often  a  mix  of  activities  and  results;  iii)  inaccurate  needs  assessments  reflect  a  lack  of 
capacity, notably within ministries, related to project design and development; iv) neither 
the  European  Agency  for  Reconstruction  (EAR)  nor  the  beneficiary  set  aside  sufficient 
resources for projects preparation; v) CARDS assistance had positive effects in supporting 
the development of new institutions and the legal or strategic framework in a majority of 
the sectors, and in building the capacity of staff in some sectors. 

–  Lessons  learned  regarding  effectiveness:  i)  overall,  CARDS  has  performed  better  in 
concrete and specific technical projects than in strategic and planning type of projects; ii) 
in some sectors, project design has not taken the administrative situation into account; iii) 
donor coordination was generally a weak point, not functioning effectively in a majority of 
the  areas  subject  to  the  evaluation;  iv)  too  few  resources  have  been  set  aside  by  the 
government to ensure donor coordination and generally donors have only led the process 
on a case by case basis. 

8  

In the areas of justice, energy, economic development and rural development 

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–  Lessons  learned  regarding  efficiency:  i)  delays  in  implementation  have  been  registered 
because  institutions  were  being  set  up  when  projects  started  and  lacked  administrative 
capacity and staff; ii) it has been difficult to assess CARDS in relation to national sector 
strategies, as these did not exist in most sectors; iii) lack of developed sector strategies and 
prior  needs  assessments  may  have  contributed  to  inadequate  project  design,  which  has 
impacted CARDS performance; iv) some projects, which were still under implementation 
in  the  justice  sector  (Further  Support  to  Justice),  economic  development  (Kosovo 
Development  Plan)  and  rural  development  (IMPARD  II  and  Local  Development 
Strategies), would benefit from an extension. 

–  Lessons  learned  as  concerns  impact:  i)  impact  can  be  noticed  in  particular  at  the 
institutional level in many projects in all four sectors subject to the evaluation, but lack of 
institutional capacity will limit wider impact; ii) CARDS assistance has focused on direct 
training more than on training-of-trainers and developing training capacity, and is therefore 
vulnerable to staff turnover and movement; iii) many projects have been implemented in a 
continuously  changing  environment,  with  new  staff  at  all  levels;  iv)  frequent  project 
extensions  were  required  because  project  design  did  not  set  sufficient  time  for 
implementation. 

–  Lessons  learned  in  the  area  of  sustainability:  i)  project  design  has  not  taken  the 
administrative situation into account; ii) further development of the administration in terms 
of  staff  numbers  and  competences,  as  well  as  top  level  management  in  the  ministries 
engaging in the reform processes, will be prerequisites for sustainability, i.e. factors which 
cannot be influenced by CARDS assistance as such; iii) sustaining the results of many of 
the projects will demand significant investment from both the state budget and donors. 

ii) Sectors with positive results 

CARDS  supported  Kosovo  in  achieving  positive  results  in  the  justice  sector,  notably  as 
concerns youth. A CARDS project implemented by UNICEF aiming to support the reform of 
the  juvenile  justice  system,  based  on  the  rights  of  children  and  adolescents  and  evidence-
based  research,  offered  alternatives  to  detention  and  promoted  a  juvenile  crime  prevention 
programme  and  social  rehabilitation  of  juveniles.  A  main  result  was  the  mobilisation  of  a 
network  of  child  protection  service  providers  and  community  stakeholders,  which  laid  the 
foundation  for  future  work  in  establishing  a  coordinated  response  in  preventing  juvenile 
delinquency,  despite  the  challenging  political  context.  Please  refer  to  section  iii)  Success 
stories for more details on this project. 

With  the  support  of  CARDS,  Kosovo  promoted  economic  development  and  employment 
creation. CARDS supported the establishment and expansion of growth oriented enteprises in 
the agro-processing, industry manufacturing and service sectors through employment creation 
and  export  potential  in  the  northern  region  of  Kosovo.  One  of  the  projects  in  this  sector 
assessed  current  market  needs  and  priorities,  identified  points  of  synergy  and  prevented 
duplication,  evaluated  business  profiles  and  awarded  grants  to  the  best  ones,  conducted 
monitoring  and  inspection  visits,  promoted  dialogue  between  governement  and  the  business 
community,  conducted  final  evaluation  and  audit  of  supported  enterprises,  analysed 
monitoring  and  inspection  visits'  results,  and  conducted  SME  development  workshops.  The 
new business ventures are expected to create a total of 295 new jobs. A further project in this 
sector  created  employment  opportunities  in  two  targeted  municipalities,  Mitrovice/a  and 
Zvechan, and stimulated their economic development by increasing the capacities to establish 
new  or  to  expand  existing  businesses.  Working  conditions  were  improved  through  the 

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50 

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refurbishment  of  existing  facilities  and  equipment  and  new  infrastructure  facilities  for  the 
development of mostly small and medium sized business schemes were provided 

CARDS  furthermore  helped  to  alleviate  poverty  in  marginalised  municipalities  by  creating 
income  generating  and  employment  opportunities  among  vulnerable  groups  in  the  targeted 
municipalities.  It  thus  contributed  to  stabilising  socio-economic  conditions  and  stimulating 
the  economic  development  of  marginalised  groups  in  Kosovo's  economy  and  supported  the 
growth  of  entrepreneurial  spirit.  CARDS  projects  contributed  to  the  growth  of  positive 
community  development,  to  increased  local  entrepreneurs'  capacities  to  establish  or  expand 
businesses, and to the improvement of the marketability of locally produced goods. 

through  a  municipal  and  social 

CARDS assistance supported a balanced economic and social development at the municipal 
infrastructure  development  programme.  The 
level 
municipalities’  capacity  to  design  and  implement  municipal  development  strategies  was 
strengthened  and  the  quality  of  public  services  infrastructure  was  enhanced.  Technical 
assistance  was  provided  to  the  municipalities  to  prepare  their  bids.  Finally,  43  municipal 
infrastructure  project  schemes  were  selected  and  eleven  works  contracts  awarded  to  local 
construction  companies.  The  main  results  of  these  schemes  included:  12  new  municipal 
buildings of which 10 schools were constructed, 1 archive building was refurbished and one 
sports centre was constructed; 12 new local roads were built in different villages increasing 
mobility and access of citizens, and 19 water and sewage projects were carried out improving 
the drinking water and wellbeing of citizens. 

iii) Success stories 

“Support to Kosovo Juvenile Justice System” (CARDS 20069) 

The  overall  aim  of  this  action,  worth  EUR  1  million,  was  to  establish  a  Juvenile  Justice 
System  based  on  children’s  rights  and  evidence  based  research,  offering  alternatives  to 
detention and promoting a juvenile crime prevention programme and social rehabilitation of 
boys and girls in conflict with the law. The main activities focused on building the capacity of 
juvenile justice professionals, research development, and prevention of juvenile delinquency 
through a targeted prevention and rehabilitation programme. A key strategy was also to reach 
the minority population and notably children at risk in the northern part of Kosovo covering 
Mitrovicë/a North and Zvečan/Zveçan. 

The  main  project  result  was  the  mobilisation  of  a  network  of  child  protection  service 
providers  and  community  stakeholders,  which  laid  the  foundation  for  future  work  in 
establishing  a  coordinated  response  in  preventing  juvenile  delinquency,  despite  the 
challenging  political  context.  Through  regular  meetings,  this  action  successfully  mobilised 
and  sensitised  professionals  from  various  sectors  including  education,  health,  police,  NGOs 
and  young  people  themselves  with  a  view  to  the  importance  of  a  cross-sectoral  and 
coordinated approach in dealing with children at risk and/or in conflict with the law. 

Some of the concrete outcomes were as follows: 

–  Research  on  violence  in  schools  conducted  in  all  primary  and  secondary  schools  in 
Mitrovicë/a North and Zvečan/Zveçan: in total, 557 students and 83 adults working with 
children participated in the quantitative and qualitative research. The main finding showed 

9  

Also further supported by IPA 2009 

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51 

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that  45%  of  the  students  experienced  some  forms  of  violence  against  them  at  least  once 
during the previous three months. 

–  Training  activities  for  different  sectors  on  working  with  children  and  youth:  AMITY 
trained  171  professionals  and  community  members  (teachers,  social  workers,  police  - 
including  also  parents  and  young  people)  from  27  institutions  in  the  following  areas: 
working  with  children  at  risk  or  in  conflict  with  the  law,  child  abuse/neglect,  domestic 
violence, drug abuse in children, prevention of peer violence in schools, role of the Centres 
for  Social  Work  (CSW)  in  working  with  children  at  risk,  and  international  standards  on 
juvenile justice. 

–  Establishment of a Youth Club: a local school took the ownership of the Youth Club with 
the technical support of AMITY and established the club in its premises. The objective of 
the Club is to empower young people to become active partners in their own protection and 
development  and  for  young  people  to  serve  as  role  models  to  their  peers  while  also 
providing peer support and mediation to those engaged in risky behaviour. Established in 
early  2009,  the  Youth  Club  gathers  60  children  aged  15-18  from  all  high  schools  in  the 
north  of  Kosovo,  of  which  19  are  trained  peer  mediators  and  41  are  young  people  with 
behavioural problems at risk of entering into conflict with the law. The Youth Club hosts 
vocational  trainings  and  different  workshops  in  line  with  interest  expressed  by  children 
(e.g. non-violent communication, consequences of drug abuse, peer violence, etc.). 

“Promoting  Local  Enterprise  Development  and  Employment  Creation 
in  the 
Mitrovicë/Mitrovica  and  Zvečan/Zveçan  Areas  (FAIR  Grant  Programme)”  (CARDS 
2004) 

This  overall  objective  of  this  EUR  3.2  million  project  was  to  stimulate  economic  growth, 
encourage  greater  local  and  foreign  investment  and  promote  greater  adherence  to  European 
standards  of  environmental  protection  and  financial  accountability.  More  specifically,  the 
project  aimed  to  encourage  the  establishment  of  modern,  sustainable  SMEs  that  are 
competitive,  environmentally  friendly  and  financially  sound  in  the  municipalities  of 
Vushtrri/Vucitrn,  Mitrovicë/a  Zvečan/Zveçan,  Leposavic/Leposaviq  and  Zubin  Potok, 
particularly  in  the  agro-processing,  industry  and  service  sectors.  Furthermore,  the  project 
sought  to  increase  employment  opportunities  in  these  municipalities,  promote  greater 
transparency  and  accountability  in  business  and  in  environmental  protection,  financial 
planning and accounting. 

The  Fund  for  Agro-Processing  &  Industrial  Revitalization  (FAIR),  implemented  under  the 
PLEDEC  project,  supported  the  establishment  and/or  expansion  of  growth-oriented 
enterprises  in  the  agro-processing,  industry/manufacturing  and  service  sectors,  aiming  to 
increase employment and raise the export potential in Kosovo’s five northern municipalities. 
FAIR  offered  financial  and  technical  support  to  entrepreneurs  who  were  selected  through  a 
competitive application process. New and expanding businesses could receive grants ranging 
from  EUR  50,000  to  EUR  200,000  for  new  investments.  FAIR  provided  75%  of  the 
investment value and recipients had to secure the remaining 25%. 

A total of 17 beneficiaries through three rounds of calls for proposals (nine in the first round, 
five in the second, and three in the third round) were selected and subsequently approved for 
funding  by  the  FAIR  Grant  Approval  Committee.  In  total,  FAIR  had  received  395 
applications in response to the three calls. The majority of applications submitted were from 
Vushtrri/Vučitrn municipality, followed by Mitrovicë/Mitrovica municipality. 

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“Ministry of Internal Affairs headquarters” (CARDS 2006) 

The  overall  objective  of  this  EUR  3.2  million  project  was  the  construction  of  a  functioning 
headquarters for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including sufficient resources to carry out its 
responsibilities.  Furthermore,  the  project  assisted  the  development  and  strengthening  of 
effective performance of the Ministry, in accordance with EU standards and best practices.  

“Support the supply of coal to existing power plants” (CARDS 2005) 

This  programme  involved  the  rehabilitation  of  heavy  coal  mining  machinery  for  waste 
removal,  including  bucket  wheel  excavator,  conveyor  belt  and  spreader.  The  refurbished 
system will be used for opening the new mine in the Sibovc SW field. The programme will 
lead  to  reduced  damages  of  the  machinery,  unplanned  forced  outages  and  increase  the 
reliability of the excavating system. The total amount of the programme is EUR 20.3 million: 
EUR 17.3 million from CARDS plus EUR 3 million from the KCB. The programme is being 
implemented in close cooperation with the beneficiary (KEK) and relevant stakeholders such 
as the World Bank and particularly KfW, who are considering complementary assistance for 
the coalmines in particular and the energy sector in general. 

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11. 

LATVIA 

11.1. 

Summary  

In  2009,  Latvia  continued  to  successfully  implement  post-accession  assistance  to  address 
remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in  line 
with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS).   

Since  May  2004  procurement  is  carried  out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of  the  Latvian 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  Central  Financing  and  Contracting 
Agency (CFCA) in the Ministry of Finance and the Society Integration Foundation are fully 
responsible for the daily implementation of the projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision.  

11.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

Implementation of the Transition Facility (TF) 2005 programme was completed successfully 
by the end of 2008. 90.62% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
93.26% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A  total  of  around  EUR  19  million  of  post-accession  assistance  has  been  allocated  to  Latvia 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

During  the  period,  there  was  substantial  overall  progress  towards  the  achievement  of 
objectives  and  results  of  EU  assistance.  The  projects  under  TF  2006  were  successfully 
completed and achieved their results. 

In  2009,  Twinning  continued  to  be  the  main  implementing  instrument  in  many  areas  of  the 
acquis in Latvia and has helped the Latvian administration to further strengthen its capacities 
to implement and enforce EU legislation. Although extensive reorganisation of public sector 
institutions  was  necessary  in  Latvia  in  the  light  of  the  financial  crisis,  the  sustainability  of 
project  results  was  not  hampered,  as  the  issue  continued  to  be  carefully  monitored  by  the 
national authorities and the main observations were regularly reported to the Commission. 

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11.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meeting was held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed 
implementation  and 
achievement of their results. 

regarding  projects 

information 

No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and number of the projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of the Pre-accession and the Transition 
Facility programmes in Latvia lies with the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The contract with the 
independent  evaluator  was  completed  in  August  2008  and  no  Evaluation  Reports  were 
submitted  in  2009.  Since  most  of  the  TF  2006  projects  were  not  evaluated  by  the  external 
evaluators due to the contracting dates, almost all of these projects were included to the on-
the-spot monitoring plan developed by the NAC office.  

The issues raised during these on-the-spot monitoring visits were the following: the status of 
the  guidelines  /  strategy  papers  /  concepts  developed  within  the  Twinning/Twinning  Light 
contracts, quality of training materials, efficiency and sustainability of training activities and 
their assessment practices and visibility issues. The conclusions mainly concentrated on risks 
of  project  implementation,  measurement  of  effectiveness  of  training  results,  ownership  of 
project results and more efficient management of visibility guidelines.  

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12. 

LITHUANIA 

12.1. 

Summary  

In 2009, Lithuania completed the implementation of the Transition Facility instrument, which 
addressed  the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the 
acquis, in line with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS). 

Since July 2004 implementation is carried out under the entire responsibility of the Lithuanian 
authorities applying national procurement rules. The Ministry of Finance, Central Programme 
Management Authority (CPMA) is responsible for ex ante control and twinning. The CPMA 
is fully responsible for daily implementation of projects. 

The  National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC)  continues to  exercise  the  monitoring  of  both  PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carries out the 
financial supervision. 

12.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

Implementation of the Transition Facility (TF) 2005 programme was completed successfully 
by the end of 2008. 91.28% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
93.26% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 36 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Lithuania 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

During  the  period,  there  was  substantial  overall  progress  towards  the  achievement  of 
objectives  and  results  of  EU  assistance.  The  projects  under  TF  2006  were  successfully 
completed  and  achieved  their  results,  which  further  contributed  to  the  enhancement  of 
Lithuanian public administration.  

12.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meeting was held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed 
implementation  and 
achievement of their results. 

regarding  projects 

information 

No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of the Pre-accession and the Transition 
Facility  programmes  in  Lithuania  lies  with  the  NAC  Office  which  is  in  the  Ministry  of 
Finance.  

The evaluators concluded that the overall performance rating in 2009 for all sectors of the EU 
Transition Facility 2005 and 2006 programmes (environment, justice and home affairs, public 
administration,  public  finance  and  customs,  nuclear  safety,  energy  and  transport,  internal 
market and statistics, agriculture) is good. The thematic evaluation report also showed that the 
relevance of all PHARE and Transition Facility projects in the area of IT was good. In total 
there  were  9  recommendations  provided  after  these  evaluations  (5  recommendations  were 
provided  by  the  Interim  Evaluation  Report  and  4  recommendations  were  provided  by  the 
thematic IT evaluation report).  

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13. 

MALTA 

13.1. 

Summary  

In  2009,  Malta  completed  the  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  instrument,  which 
addressed  the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the 
acquis, in line with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS). 

Since June 2004 implementation is carried out under the entire responsibility of the Maltese 
authorities applying national procurement rules. The role of Accredited Implementing Agency 
is  performed  by  the  Department  of  Contracts  in  the  Ministry  of  Finance.  The  Planning  and 
Priorities Coordination Division in the Office of the Prime Minister is acting as NAC service. 
The  National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC)  continued  to  exercise  the  monitoring  of  both  Pre-
Accession  and  Transition  Facility  Programmes.  The  National  Authorizing  Officer  (NAO) 
carried out the financial supervision. 

13.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2005  programme  was  completed 
successfully by the end of 2008. 84.35% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
57.96% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A  total  of  around  EUR  21  million  of  post-accession  assistance  has  been  allocated  to  Malta 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

During the reporting period, there was substantial overall progress towards the achievement of 
objectives  and  results  of  EU  assistance.  The  projects  under  TF  2006  were  successfully 
completed  and  achieved  their  results,  which  further  contributed  to  the  enhancement  of  the 
Maltese public administration.  

Regarding  the  Unallocated  Institution  Building  Facility,  Malta  has  fully  absorbed  the  funds 
available  under  TF  2006.  The  small-scale  projects,  implemented  under  this  facility  have 
proved to be very efficient and have generated good and sustainable results.  

13.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meetings were held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed 
implementation  and 
achievement of their results. 

regarding  projects 

information 

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No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  and  interim  evaluation  of  the  Pre-accession  and  the 
Transition Facility programmes in Malta lies with the NAC services located at the Office of 
the Prime Minister (OPM). Activities in this area were carried out on the basis of the Action 
Plan on decentralisation of monitoring and evaluation, which was endorsed by the European 
Commission in February 2005.  

In  2009,  the  following  evaluation  reports  were  prepared  by  external  evaluators:  First  and 
Second Interim Evaluation Report 2009 and Country Summary Evaluation Report on TF 2005 
and TF 2006 programmes. 

The average rating stated in the Interim Evaluation Reports per cluster in terms of relevance, 
effectiveness,  efficiency,  impact  and  sustainability  was  "satisfactory",  whereas  the  main 
recommendations  were  related  to  the  need  for  timely  implementation  of  projects  and  for 
additional funds as well as human resources to guarantee the sustainability of project results. 
The  only  recommendation  presented  in  the  final  Country  Summary  Evaluation  Report  also 
addressed the sustainability issues of four projects under TF 2005 and TF 2006.  

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14. 

MONTENEGRO  

14.1. 

Summary 

As  in  previous  years,  the  implementation  of  CARDS  programmes  in  Montenegro  was 
centrally managed by the EU Delegation to Montenegro.  

Altogether,  CARDS  2001  –  2006  can  be  considered  almost  fully  contracted  and  paid  in 
Montenegro.  Throughout  2009,  the  implementation  of  remaining  CARDS  programmes  has 
been  of  valuable  assistance  to  the  country.  Programmes  were  realised  in  the  area  of 
wastewater  infrastructure,  public  administration  reform,  trade  and  single  market  policies, 
environmental  sector,  preparation for decentralised  management  and  fostering  the  economic 
and business environment.  

14.2. 

Financial assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched  

As  of  2007  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  new  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance. Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

In  the  area  of  wastewater  infrastructure,  existing  wastewater  pumping  stations  were 
rehabilitated  in  four  municipalities  (Bar,  Herceg  Novi,  Budva,  Ulcinj).  Existing  equipment 
from pumping stations was removed, cleaned and repaired. In addition, new pumps and other 
equipment were installed in altogether 13 pumping stations. 

The  2006  CARDS  project  "Implementation  of  budgeting  and  salary  system  reform"  was 
divided  into  two  components,  focusing  on  Montenegro's  Budgeting  System  and  Salary 
System. The Project had a positive impact on the ability of the Ministry of Finance to prepare 
a realistic budget and medium term financial framework. 

The  project  development  of  the  environment  sector  supported  the  establishment  and 
functioning of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Project Implementation Unit 
(PIU),  as  well  as  supported  the  drafting  of  necessary  legislation.  Implementation  of  both 
established organisations had started by the end of the project.  

In the energy sector, a project supported the government of Montenegro in investigating new 
power  production  capacities  in  the  north  of  the country. Assessments and feasibility studies 
were  carried  out  to  establish  a  financial  and  economic  model  including  price  scenarios  and 
risk  analyses  for  the  existing  and  possibly  a  second  thermal  power  plant  in  Pljevlja.  The 
project also provided recommendations for further transactions required in the energy sector 
of Montenegro. 

A  technical  assistance  project  carried  out  in  2009  aimed  at  enhancing  the  existing  legal 
framework  and  developing  institutional  capacity  within  the  Government  for  establishing 
Private  Public  Partnerships  (PPP).  The  project  provided  support  on  how  to  attract 
investments  in  the  strategically  important  sectors  of  the  Montenegrin  economy,  including 

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support  for  implementation  of  at  least  two  concrete  high  priority  PPP  projects  promoting 
sustainable tourism development in Montenegro. 

iii) Cards management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual programmes   

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
Total 

Allocated  Contracted 
16.07 
11.95 
11.89 
16.71 
22.98 
20.09 
99.69 

16.10 
12.00 
12.00 
16.76 
23.12 
20.71 
100.69 

RAC  % contracted 
99.6% 
99.6% 
99.1% 
99.7% 
99.4% 
97.0% 
98.9% 

0.06 
0.05 
0.11 
0.05 
0.14 
0.62 
1.03 

Paid 
16.04 
11.95 
11.89 
16.62 
22.69 
19.88 
99.07 

RAL  % paid 
99.6% 
99.6% 
99.1% 
99.2% 
98.2% 
96.0% 
99.0% 

0.06 
0.05 
0.11 
0.13 
0.43 
0.83 
1.61 

iv) Institution Building highlights  

Main  achievements  of  the  technical  assistance  project  “Support  to  the  Labour  Market 
Reform” in terms of policy making were the preparation of a number of significant strategic 
the  National  Strategy  for  Employment  and  Human  Resource 
documents,  such  as 
Development 2007-2011 and related 2007-2008 National Action Plan, the National Life-Long 
Entrepreneurship Learning Strategy 2008-2010 and related 2008-2009 National Action Plan. 
In  terms  of  capacity  building  in  the  Ministry  of  Labour  (Employment  Agency)  relevant 
institutions,  trainers  and  teachers  were  supported.  The  project  provided  training  on  labour 
market  information  and  statistics,  on  Life-Long  Entrepreneurship  Learning  and  on  policy 
development and implementation issues related to the above mentioned. The positive results 
of this project served as a basis for the implementation of IPA programmes in the sector of 
vocational education and training and labour market development. 

In the area of EU Approximation in trade and single market policies, a project covered three 
components: trade, competition as well as state aid and consumer protection. The main results 
involved  the  improvement  of  the  regulatory  framework  in  the  above  mentioned  sectors, 
strengthening  of  the  relevant  institutions  and  civil  society  organisations,  establishment  of 
complaints mechanisms and raising of the public awareness in the target sectors. 

14.3.  Results and impact 

i) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

A  thematic  evaluation  of  CARDS  assistance  in  three  sectors  (justice,  public  administration 
reform  and  civil  society  development)  was  completed  in  2009.  It  has  been  concluded  that 
CARDS was focused on the objectives of the relevant planning and strategic documents, but 
the documents were not adequately detailed and developed. Due to limited  institutional and 
absorption capacity only some projects show results and short-term impacts. Some results and 
impacts may be sustainable if supported by sufficient staff and resources. In general, results 
and  impacts  have  not  been  achieved  in  an  efficient  and  effective  manner  due  to  the  lack  of 
experienced institutions. CARDS has addressed gender equality and inclusion of minorities, 
primarily in civil society development projects, but there has been less focus on sustainable 
development. Donor coordination, especially at sectoral level has to be further developed. 

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–  Lessons learnt in relation to projects relevance: i) projects are in compliance with strategic 
documents, but project design has been made without in-depth institutional assessment and 
national strategies;  

–  Lessons  learnt  regarding  effectiveness:  i)  irrespective  of  implementation  problems,  most 
projects have met most of their objectives. However, the projects were designed with focus 
on the delivery of specific outputs rather than on capacity building; ii) lack of staff and staff 
capacity  have  in  many  projects  been  identified  as  key  obstacles  to  achieving  full 
effectiveness and thereby using and implementing projects results. 

–  Lessons  learnt  regarding  efficiency:  i)  contractors  have  in  general  been  efficient  and 
flexible in their implementation, but in some instances they met a lack of ownership which 
delayed  implementation;  ii)  Montenegro  has  become  an  independent  state  in  the  period 
covered  by  the  CARDS  programme,  which  may  also  have  impacted  efficiency  as  there 
have been many competing tasks. 

–  Lessons learnt related to impact: i) some project results in public administration reform and 
justice will have impacts beyond the immediate  institutional and project environment; ii) 
monitoring of overall and medium to long-term impacts only takes place in a very limited 
number of ministries. 

–  Lessons learnt in the domain of sustainability: i) lack of staff and budget allocations is a 
key impediment to sustainability of capacity building projects. Adding to this is the budget 
uncertainty  and  lack  of  institutional  stability  which  make  sustainability  of  project  results 
uncertain; ii) ownership of project results is mixed in CARDS projects. Ownership has in 
some projects been present at the time of the planning and programming phases,  but has 
been  missing  with  regard  to  implementing  the  operational  commitment  or  resources;  iii) 
despite  sustainability  being  a  key  issue  for  most  projects,  it  has  only  been  directly 
addressed in a few projects as part of the reporting.  

ii) Sectors with positive results 

In  2009,  one  of  the  sectors  profiting  most  from  CARDS  was  the  labour  market.  The  labour 
market  reform  project  has  been  carried  out  with  tangible  success  and  sustainable  long-term 
impact  on  the  Montenegrin  social  and  economic  development.  The  monitoring  reports  were 
positive on all aspects of the action, although they also identified some remaining challenges 
and  emphasised  the  lack  of  personnel  at  the  Ministry  of  Labour  and  the  weakness  of  the 
department for social statistics at MONSTAT. 

iii) Success stories 

"Rehabilitation of Wastewater Pumping Stations, Bar, Herceg Novi, Budva and Ulcinj" 
(CARDS 2006) 

During the 1990's the wastewater infrastructure in Montenegro became increasingly degraded 
and many of the existing wastewater pumping stations caused environmental pollution due to 
improper  functioning.  The  CARDS  programme  financed  the  rehabilitation  of  a  number  of 
these wastewater pumping stations (removal, cleaning of old pumps  and installation of new 
ones)  in  four  municipalities,  improving  the  situation  of  wastewater  management  in  these 
coastal towns and having hereby a positive impact on the environmental sector as such. 

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15. 

POLAND 

15.1. 

Summary 

In 2009, Poland continued to implement successfully the post-accession assistance to address 
the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in 
line with the EDIS. 

Since  February  2005  implementation  is  carried  out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of  Polish 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  Central  Finance  and  Contracts  Unit 
(CFCU),  the  Polish  Agency  for  Enterprise  Development  (PAED)  and  the  Implementing 
Authority  for  European  Programmes  (formerly  Implementing  Authority  for  PHARE  Cross-
Border Cooperation Programmes, IA-CBC) are fully responsible for the daily implementation 
of the projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision.  

15.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

Implementation of the Transition Facility (TF) 2005 programme was completed successfully 
by the end of 2008. 86.60% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
83.79% of the programme had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 115 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Poland 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

Implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  in  Poland  is  considered  generally  successful  and 
projects  provided  notable  value  added.  During  the  period,  there  was  substantial  overall 
progress towards the achievement of objectives and results of the EU assistance.  

15.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In  2009  no  physical  Joint  Monitoring  Committee  (JMC)  meeting  was  held.  One  JMC  was 
concluded via written procedure.  

The Implementation Status Report has not been approved by the EU since it did not provided 
comprehensive  and  updated  information  on  the  achievement  of  the  projects'  objectives, 
purpose, results and sustainability for TF projects.   

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No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  of  the  Pre-accession  and  the  Transition  Facility 
programmes in Poland lies with the NAC department within the Office of the Committee for 
European  Integration  (UKIE).  The  NAC  department  assures  the  proper  monitoring  of  the 
projects  and  information  about  the  monitoring  results  are  delivered  to  the  European 
Commission on a regular basis. 

During  2009,  NAC  services  prepared  the  Implementation  Status  Report  and  an  independent 
evaluator  issued  nine  Interim  Evaluations  Reports,  covering  agriculture,  the  environment, 
transport, the internal market, justice and home affairs and public administration.  

The  Implementation  Status  Report,  submitted  in  June  2009,  did  not  provide  updated 
information  on  projects  implementation,  did  not  cover  all  projects  for  which  activities  were 
implemented in the reporting period and did not inform on achievement of projects objectives, 
purpose  and  results.  As  the  report  was  not  updated  following  an  initial  request  by  the 
Commission, it was exceptionally approved with a reservation that missing information on TF 
2005  should  be  provided  in  the  progress  report  for  the  Final  Declaration  and  that 
comprehensive  information  for  TF  2006  projects  should  be  provided  in  the  next 
Implementation Status Report.  

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16. 

ROMANIA  

16.1. 

Summary 

In  2009,  Romania  implemented  both  pre-accession  and  post-accession  assistance  to  address 
the  remaining  needs  related  to  Institution  Building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in 
line with the Extended Decentralised Implementation System (EDIS). 

Since  January  2007  implementation  is  carried  out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of  the 
Romanian authorities applying national procurement rules. Three implementing agencies are 
fully  responsible  for  daily  implementation  of  projects  (two  of  them  accredited in December 
2006 and one in April 2007). 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the programming function for the 
Transition Facility programmes and monitoring of both Pre-accession and Transition Facility 
Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the financial supervision. 

DG  Enlargement  continued  to  exercise  the  functions  related  to  Commission  responsibilities 
regarding the monitoring, payments, closure, etc., in line with the Financial Regulation. 

16.2. 

Implementation of PHARE and the Transition Facility in 2009 

i)  PHARE 2005 – finalisation of payments 

At  the  end  of  2009,  79.62%  were  disbursed.  The  Romanian  authorities  requested  the 
extension  of  the  execution  period  for 3  components  under  the  2005  Economic  and  Social 
Cohesion PHARE programme. The Commission approved the request. 

ii)  PHARE 2006 – finalisation of payments 

At the end of the implementation period for the majority of the 2006 PHARE programmes, 
69%  of  the  funds  were  disbursed.  The  Romanian authorities  requested  the  extension of  the 
execution period for 33 projects under PHARE 2006, that the Commission approved.   

iii)  Transition Facility 2007 

At the end of the contracting period for the 2007 Transition Facility, on 15 December 2009, 
68.63% of the programme was contracted. The disbursement rate was 39.45%. 

iv)  Institution Building highlights 

The tasks and responsibilities related to twinning are dealt with by CFCU as Administrative 
Office, whereas DG Enlargement is responsible for issuing the Steering Committee Opinion 
on  twinning  contracts.  Sixteen such  opinions  were  issued  during 2009,  to  which  added 
another 29 twinning light projects contracted under Transition Facility which continued to be 
useful in many priority areas and helped Romania prepare for implementation of EU policies 
and laws.     

In order to address unforeseen needs, additional assistance from the unallocated Institutional 
Building  2007  envelope  referring  mainly  to  the  Cooperation  and  Verification  Mechanism 
continued to be provided for projects mainly in the justice and public administration sectors.    

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16.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009, two Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meeting took place, in January and June, in 
line with the revised JMC Mandate introduced in the new Member States in May 2004, which 
establishes  an  integrated  monitoring  and  evaluation  system  over  the  programmes  under 
implementation. 

Two rounds of Sector Monitoring Sub-Committee (SMSC) meetings took place in spring and 
autumn 2009. The number of sub-committees was reduced to seven by unifying ‘justice’ and 
‘home affairs’ in a single SMSC, split in 2 sessions. Also ‘transport’ and ‘agriculture’ were 
merged in a single SMSC, with 2 sessions.  

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 (lessons learned) 

The overall responsibility for monitoring of the PHARE and Transition Facility programmes 
in Romania lies with the Central Evaluation Unit within the Authority for the Coordination of 
Structural Instruments in the Ministry of Public Finance. Activities in this area were carried 
out  in  2008  with  the  support  of  a  PHARE  Interim  Evaluation  external  contractor.  In 
November  2009,  although  with  significant  delay,  the  Romanian  authorities  concluded  a 
contract for Interim Evaluation to ensure the evaluation of the last PHARE/Transition Facility 
projects under implementation. 

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17. 

SERBIA 

17.1. 

Summary 

As from September 2008, the implementation of CARDS programmes in Serbia is centrally 
managed by the EU Delegation in Serbia.  

By the end of 2009, CARDS 2001 and 2002 were fully contracted and disbursed. Regarding 
CARDS 2003, the final date of disbursement expired in June 2008 with 97.18% of the overall 
allocation contracted and 97.07% disbursed. 

The contracting deadline of CARDS 2004 and CARDS 2005 fell in December 2008, with a 
final  date  for  payments  scheduled  for  December  2012.  By  the  end  of  the  reporting  period, 
99.71% of the overall allocation was contracted and 94.41% disbursed. Concerning CARDS 
2005,  contracting  reached  98.35%  of  the  overall  allocation  and  disbursements  totalled 
91.93%. Furthermore,  98.48% of  the CARDS 2006 allocation  was  contracted by the end of 
the reporting period, with disbursements at 65.96%, due to a large number of CARDS 2006 
projects being still on-going. 

Throughout  2009,  the  implementation  of  CARDS  continued  with  a  specific  emphasis  on 
launching the remaining CARDS 2006 projects, notably covering civil society and health. In 
parallel, projects in the infrastructure sector worth almost EUR 13.5 million were brought to a 
successful  completion.  In  addition,  CARDS  2006  programmes  in  the  fields  of  municipal 
support  (completed  in  2009)  and  enterprise  development  (on-going)  were  of  an  extremely 
valuable assistance to Serbia, providing immediate impact and added value. 

17.2. 

Financial assistance in 2009 

i) Programmes launched 

As  of  2007  the  CARDS  instrument  was  replaced  by  the  new  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession 
Assistance. Therefore, no new CARDS programmes were launched in 2009. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented 

Democratic stabilisation 

Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons 

The 2005 CARDS funded institution-building support to the Commissariat for refugees (EUR 
1.2  million)  was  completed  in  March  2009.  The  CARDS  2005  “Legal  aid  programmes  for 
internally  displaced  persons”  was  successfully  implemented  from  May  2008  to  December 
2009. The value of the contract was EUR 1.5 million. 

Civil society 

Within  the  CARDS  2006  programme  supporting  civil  society,  the  following  projects  were 
contracted and were being implemented during the reporting period: 

–  "Strengthening the role of civil society in shaping poverty-related policies and practices" 
(EUR  4.5  million  grant  agreement  with  UNDP):  this  project  is  contributing  to  the 

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decentralisation  of  social  protection  services  by  supporting  the  'Social  innovation  fund'. 
Through  a  second  pillar,  the  project  is  supporting  civil  society  organisations  in  drafting 
regulation, advocate for a better enabling environment and monitor government policies in 
the area of poverty reduction and social exclusion.  

–  "Support to the introduction of the legislative framework for anti-discrimination and set up 
for  institutional  and  technical  structures  for  its  implementation"  (EUR  2  million).  The 
project is aiming to introduce mediation and alternative dispute resolution for prevention of 
discrimination in Serbia. 

–  “Roma assistance programme” (EUR 1 million grant agreement with OSCE). This project 
is  supporting  State  institutions  in  the  implementation  of  the  action  plans  adopted  by  the 
Serbian  government  within  the  framework  of  the  Roma  decade.  The  priorities  of  the 
project  have  been  formulated  on  the  basis  of  the  action  plans,  which  cover  education, 
healthcare and legalisation of the Roma settlements. 

Good governance and institution building 

Public Administration Reform 

The  CARDS  2004  project  ‘Support  to  Parliamentary  Institutions’  (EUR  1.5  million), 
implemented  by  the  Council  and  aimed  at  reinforcing  the  efficiency  of  the  Serbian 
Parliament, including the introduction of new procedures, ended in October 2009.  

Police 

The  CARDS  2006  twinning  “Implementation  of  the  Serbian  integrated  border  strategy” 
(EUR  1.5  million)  was  still  on-going  by  the  end  of  the  reporting  period.  Achievements 
included the following: 

–  The  Law  on  border  control  and  State  border  protection  has  been  reviewed  and  updated 

according to EU-best practises and the Schengen acquis. 

–  The  new  Law  on  international  police  co-operation  has  been  elaborated  and  subsequently 

the Law on police has been amended. 

–  The  Serbian  veterinary  Law  has  been  revised  and  proposals  have  been  made  for  further 
amendments.  Additionally  a  separate  Law  for  veterinary  border  inspection  has  been 
drafted. 

–  The  Serbian  customs  Law  has  been  revised  and  proposals  have  been  made  for  further 

amendments.  

–  The Law on plant health has been reviewed and updated. 

–  The guidelines for risk analysis in border police have been reviewed and updated. 

–  The guidelines for customs inspection of phytosanitary goods have been elaborated. 

–  The guidelines for customs inspection of veterinary goods have been elaborated. 

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In  addition,  a  strategy  paper  regarding  human  resources  in  the  border  police  directorate  has 
been drafted. This strategy paper, which has to be approved by the border police directorate 
and other relevant departments within the Minister of Interior, will serve as the strategic basis 
for the elaboration of the related action plan. It will then also be necessary to involve relevant 
people  from  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  in  order  to  guarantee  results.  Working  groups  to 
implement the integrated border management action plan have been established at the central 
level. 

Border crossings 

Implementation of the CARDS 2006 EUR 1.6 million supply project for the “Procurement of 
equipment  for  the  border  police  and  customs  administration”  was  completed  in  December 
2009.  Assistance  included  also  project  preparation  and  acceptance  of  supplies  to  nine 
secondary border crossing locations. 

Public administration  

Through the CARDS 2006 project “Support to the Serbian tax administration”, a supply of IT 
equipment  (EUR  0.8  million)  and    technical  assistance  (EUR  1.7  million)  were  provided  in 
order  to  establish  a  "Tax  administration  contact  centre"  with  a  client-oriented  approach,  to 
ensure  that  citizens  are  provided  with  systemized  information  so  that  they  fulfil  their  rights 
and obligations regarding the tax system requirements. The project was finalised in November 
2009. 

The  on-going  CARDS  2006  technical  assistance  project  “Support  to  national  investment 
planning and implementation”, started during the summer 2009, has already delivered several 
useful outputs for the beneficiary. The most important ones are the following: 

i)  A mechanism for intra- and inter-sectoral prioritisation of public investment projects; 
ii)  A model for forecasting monthly revenues of the budget, by main items;  
iii) Guidelines for improving the cash management function of the treasury; 
iv) Recommendations for elaborating a fiscal responsibility law ; 
v)  Medium-term macroeconomic projections of main economic indicators; 
vi) A methodology for assessing the index of macroeconomic stabilisation in the Serbian 

economy. 

Through a contribution agreement from the CARDS 2006 programme, the European System 
of  Central  Banks  (ESCB)  has  delivered  a  “Needs  analysis  report  for  the  National  Bank  of 
Serbia (NBS)”. The project was completed in June 2009. The report assessed the regulatory 
and  operational  framework  of  the  NBS,  as  well  as  its  policies  and  practices,  against  EU 
standards. The analysis covered six areas: 1) Supervision of banks; 2) Harmonisation with the 
acquis  of  legislation  under  the  competence  of  the  NBS;  3)  Liberalisation  of  capital 
movements;  4)  Conduct  of  monetary  policy  and  the  exchange  rate  regime;  5)  Monetary, 
financial and balance-of-payments statistics; 6) Financial services consumer protection. 

The  report  and  its  annexes  provide  very  valuable  input  to  the  follow-up  project  on 
“Strengthening the institutional capacities of the NBS”, to be financed under IPA. 

Health 

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Within  the  CARDS  2006  programme  for  the  support  of  the  health  sector  the  following 
projects were contracted and are currently implemented: 

–  A direct grant agreement of EUR 1 million was signed with the European Investment Bank 
(EIB)  for  the  provision  of  technical  assistance  to  the  Ministry  of  Health's  Project 
Implementation Unit, to support the implementation of a EUR 200 million loan provided 
by the EIB. A first contract was signed for the amount of EUR 8 million, for the design and 
supervision of the four university clinical centres in Serbia.  

–  The  EUR  2.5  million  technical  assistance  project  “Support  to  the  implementation  of 
capitation payment in primary health care in Serbia” aims to facilitate the completion on a 
single fiscal year using the new payment model.  

–  The  EUR  4  million  service  contract  for  “Training  in  health  service  management” 
completed the education of two generations of Master’s course students, the accreditation 
of which is pending through appropriate national bodies. The designs for the construction 
works to set up the School of Health Management were delivered. A works contract worth 
EUR  0.4  million  for  the  building  of  the  health  management  school  was  contracted.  The 
works are on-going. 

Local government 

The  CARDS  2006  technical  assistance  project  for  the  “Municipal  infrastructure  support 
programme” (EUR 4 million) started in January 2008. Up to December 2009, the programme 
covered implementation of three environmental infrastructure projects worth EUR 12 million,  
delivered  fully  fledged  feasibility  studies  for  infrastructure  projects,  prepared  tender 
documents  for  five  works  projects  totalling  close  to  EUR  90  million  and  prepared  a  green 
paper  and  chapters  of  the  draft  National  strategy  for  the  transformation  of  public  utility 
companies.  

The  CARDS  2006  "EXCHANGE  2"  programme  of  EUR  5  million,  consisting  of  technical 
assistance  and  an  operating  grant  to  the  Standing  Conference  of  Towns  and  Municipalities 
(SCTM),  started  at  the  beginning  of  2008.  Among  five  other  components,  the  project 
developed  and  piloted  until  December  2009  a  methodology,  to  be  the  future  SCTM 
recommended  methodology  of  all  local  self-governments  in  Serbia,  for  the  development, 
management and monitoring of Local Sustainable Development Strategies (LSDS). 

Four  municipal  infrastructure  contracts  worth  EUR  13.5  million,  under  the  CARDS  2006 
“Municipal  support  programme  to  North-East  Serbia”,  and  four  municipal  infrastructure 
contracts close to EUR 14 million, under the “Municipal infrastructure support programme” 
which covers the whole Serbian territory, were contracted and are under implementation. 

Economic and social development 

Enterprise development 

An  on-going  EUR  1.5  million  project  for  the  development  of  “Enterprise  policy  and 
innovation” (CARDS 2006) is providing technical support to the following components:  

1.  Small  and  Medium  Size  Enterprise  (SME)  policy  development  and  implementation  - 
technical assistance to the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and the National 
Agency for Regional Development in the implementation of the strategy for competitive and 

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innovative  SMEs  2008-2013.  Also,  a  European  Enterprise  Network  Office  was  established 
and managed with assistance from the project since June 2009.  

2. Assistance to SMEs in developing competitiveness through innovation – direct assistance is 
delivered  to  150  SMEs  from  Belgrade  and  six  other  regions,  with  emphasis  on  the 
implementation of innovative practices and innovation management 'best practice' (IMP3rove 
Innovation Assessment Tool - EU INNOVA award winning Innovation Assessment Tool in 
October  2008).  Innovation  management  best  practices  are  benchmarked  against  similar 
enterprises across the EU and in other accession countries. The "Top Twenty" from the 150 
SMEs  covered  will  receive  intensive  technical  assistance  in  a  range  of  technical  and 
management disciplines.  

Education  

The  CARDS  2004  project  "Strengthening  higher  education  system  in  Serbia"  (EUR  0.7 
million), enhancing the harmonisation with the Bologna process, ended in December 2009. 

Vocational education and training 

The  CARDS  2006  project  “Additional  support  to  the  Vocational  Education  and  Training 
(VET) reform” of EUR 0.8 million was successfully completed by the end of August 2009 - 
some 1.050 school staff was trained.  

Social inclusion 

The  CARDS  2006  ongoing  project  “Transforming  residential  institutions  and  sustainable 
alternatives” (EUR 1.4 million) has been implemented throughout 2009 with good results: a 
master plan for transformation of residential institutions was prepared for adoption in 2010, 
foreseeing  a  high  number  of  trainings  (institutions  staff:  200  persons;  foster  families:  300 
persons; health staff: 400 persons). Furthermore, the project aims at the deinstitutionalisation 
of children (disabled and without parental care) through the transformation of the institutions, 
development  of  fostering  and  special  fostering  and  social  services  given  at  local  level,  and 
tailored for the special needs of the children. 

Agriculture 

The new agricultural Law has been prepared with the assistance of two EU funded twinning 
projects - “Capacity building within the veterinary directorate” and “Capacity building of the 
food chain laboratories administration” -, both part of the CARDS 2005 annual programme. 
The renovation of the Batajnica complex was funded from counterpart funds generated within 
previous  EU-funded  food  commodities  and  agricultural  inputs  supply  programmes.  The 
Batajnica complex hosts the national reference laboratories directorate established by the food 
safety Law adopted in May 2009. The projects were completed in July 2009. 

Furthermore,  preparations  for  the  “Legislation  on  wine,  ethanol,  spirits,  animal  welfare, 
agriculture and rural development” were supported through a twinning under CARDS 2005. 
The  legislation  was  part  of  a  package  of  15  agricultural/food  safety  laws  adopted  by  the 
National Parliament. The project was completed in November 2009. 

Trade 

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An  on-going  EUR  1.2  million  CARDS  2006  project  “Technical  assistance  to  quality 
infrastructure  sector  in  Serbia”  is  assisting  the  Ministry  of  Economy  and  Regional 
Development  (MoERD)  and  other  relevant  institutions  in  the  field  of  standardisation, 
accreditation  and  metrology  in  the  adoption  of  the  policies  and  legislation  harmonised  with 
the EU acquis. EU and WTO/TBT enquiry points for standards and technical regulations have 
been  established.    The  capacities  of  the  MoERD,  Sector  for  quality  infrastructure,  the 
accreditation body of Serbia, the Institute of Standardization of Serbia and the Directorate of 
Measures  and  Precious  Metals  are  being  strengthened  and  the  technical  knowledge  of  the 
relevant staff is being increased through a number of hands-on trainings abroad, workshops in 
country, inter-laboratory comparisons and peer reviews, as part of the process of preparation 
for application for membership of the relevant EU bodies. The process of removal of technical 
barriers  to  trade  and  thus  free  movement  of  goods  is  seen  as  one  of  the  priorities  that  are 
tackled by this project.  

Infrastructure and energy 

The CARDS 2006 construction of the new road border crossing Presevo (at the border with 
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) was successfully finalised in September 2009. 
The assistance covered works and supervision, for an amount of EUR 5.5 million. 

The CARDS 2006 reconstruction of the rail border crossing Dimitrovgrad (at the border with 
Bulgaria)  was  successfully  finalised  in  October  2009.  The  assistance  covered  works  and 
supervision,  for  an  amount  of  EUR  3  million.  The  border  crossing  facilities  include  the 
railway  station  and  offices  for  border  police  and  customs  which  are  to  be  shared  by  the 
authorities of both countries. 

The  CARDS  2005  preparation  of  “General  transport  master  plan  for  Serbia”  has  been 
finalised in December 2009. The plan consists of an updatable transport model and a priority 
list of infrastructure transport projects for Serbia until 2027, covering all modes of transport. 
It is intended to be used by the Serbian authorities as a tool for more detailed planning and 
guidance for attraction of investments from IFIs. 

To enhance the security of transport and the freedom of movement around the most important 
bridges  across  the  Danube  and  the  Sava  rivers,  CARDS  2005  funds  were  used  for  “Survey 
and  recovery  services  for  unexploded  ordnance  (UXO)  removal  in  the  Inland  waterway 
transport  System”  in  Serbia.  The  project  was  executed  in  March  2009  to  help  the  Serbian 
Government in locating UXO.  

The  CARDS  2004  works  for  the  environmental  project  –  “Ash  disposal  in  Nikola  Tesla  B 
power  plant”,  with  a  budget  of  EUR  30  million,  were  on-going  by  the  end  of  the  reporting 
period. The first power plant unit was connected to the new system and the trail run was in 
progress. Activities for the connection of the second unit started after the reporting period.  

The  CARDS  2005  contract  "Renewable  energy  feasibility  studies  for  the  preparation  of 
secondary  legislation  and  preparation  of  15  pre-feasibility  studies  for  small  scale  hydro 
projects in Serbia" was completed in April 2009. The whole package of secondary legislation 
was  adopted by the Serbian Government.  

Two  CARDS  2006  works  contracts  for  construction  of  400kV  line  Nis-Leskovac  (EUR  7 
million, 40 km) and Leskovac-the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border (EUR 20 
million, 100 km) were signed in 2008. The first phase, from Nis to Leskovac, started in 2008 

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and was due to be finalised after the reporting period. The second phase, from Leskovac to the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border, started in 2009. The purpose of the project is 
to assist in developing the investments needed in cross-border electricity interconnections in 
order  to  help  creating  a  functioning  regional  energy  market.  Section  Nis-Leskovac  was 
completed (September 2009) and put into operation under lower voltage than constructed for 
(110 kV instead of 400 kV) because the substation Leskovac 2 was not yet completed for a 
400  kV  level.  The  electricity  transmission  system  and  market  operator  is  finalising  the 
installation of high voltage (HV) equipment and a HV transformer is expected under an IPA 
2010  project.  Works  on  the  section  Leskovac-the  former  Yugoslav  Republic  of  Macedonia 
border are ongoing with some delay and completion is expected by May 2011. 

Regional cooperation 

Serbia's  territorial  cooperation  programme  under  CARDS  (2004-2006)  is  gradually  drawing 
to a close. By the end of 2009, the following summary can be drawn:  

The  three  bilateral  cross-border  cooperation  programmes  with  Hungary,  Romania  and 
Bulgaria, as well as the two transnational cooperation programmes Adriatic and CADSES had 
a  total  budget  of  around  EUR  17.5  million.  There  is  considerable  enthusiasm  for  regional 
cooperation on the ground. A total of 856 project applications were received, and 174 projects 
were selected for funding, in response to a total of 13 calls for proposals that were launched in 
the period 2006–2008.  

While  the  implementation  of  a  number  of  beneficiary  grant  contracts  is  ongoing,  the 
programme has achieved an overall contracting rate of about 97%, and is expected to achieve 
a disbursement rate of about 92%. 

Project  beneficiaries  included  municipalities,  non-governmental  institutions,  chambers, 
agencies,  academic,  educational  and  cultural  institutions.  The  funded  projects  targeted  a 
variety of sectors such as economy, culture, tourism, environmental and social issues.  

Many  of  the  organisations/citizens  involved  in  implementation  of  these  projects  have 
experienced cross border cooperation and working according to EU standards and procedures 
for the first time.  

The CBC unit at the Ministry of Finance performs essential management functions to support 
EU  authorities  with  programme  implementation. The  Serbian  authorities  are  committed  to 
CBC programme management on an operational level. CBC unit staff continues to build their 
experience. This is a good basis for management of IPA and preparation for a Decentralised 
Implementation System (DIS). 

Efforts need to continue to build the capacity of beneficiaries to generate more strategically 
oriented projects that achieve a higher level of socio-economic impact.  

iii) CARDS management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – CARDS 
annual programmes   

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Committed  Contracted  RAC  %Contracted 

Paid 

RAL  %Paid 

CARDS 2001 
CARDS 2002 
CARDS 2003 
CARDS 2004 
CARDS 2005 
CARDS 2006 
TOTAL 

143.50 
161.00 
220.00 
207.13 
147.17 
157.46 
1036.26 

143.50
161.00
213.78
206.52
144.74
150.97
1020.51

0.00
0.00
6.21
0.60
2.43
6.49
15.73

100.00% 143.50 
100.00% 155.28* 
97.18% 213.54 
99.71% 195.55 
98.35% 135.29 
95.88% 103.85 
98.48% 947.01 

0.00  100.00%
0.00  100.00%
97.07%
6.45 
94.41%
11.58 
91.93%
11.87 
65.96%
53.60 
91.39%
83.5 

* All contracts closed and paid, balance on the decision has been de-committed and decision is closed 

iv) Institution building highlights 

Through a Preparation Facility project financed under CARDS 2006, national authorities were 
supported in programming of IPA 2009 and 2010, with assistance in drafting related project 
fiches  (10  fiches  for  IPA  2009  and  27  fiches  for  IPA  2010)  and  in  preparing  the  IPA  2009 
budget  support  (EUR  100  million).  Beneficiary  institutions  were  assisted  in  improving 
programming  mechanisms  and  in  having  an  integrated  and  coordinated  system  for  project 
identification  that  should  be  applied  as  of  IPA  2011.  Training  events/workshops  for  the 
Serbian administration involved in programming and project preparation were also completed. 
The  total  number  of  training  courses  held  in  2009  was  23,  out  of  which  2  specific  training 
courses, 10 general training courses and 11 tailored training courses. The trainings included 
the following topics: programming of EU funds, project preparation, procurement rules, cost-
benefit analysis and IPA Components III and IV.  

The  total  number  of  participants  attending  the  trainings  was  550  (the  number  of  public 
servants trained being closer to 250, out of which some attended more than one training). The 
project developed an open source web-based platform called MOODLE (Modular Objective-
Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) that is accessible at different levels of data queries. 

The project was due to be completed after the reporting period. 

17.3.  Results and impact 

i) Monitoring & evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons learned 

During  2009  monitoring  progressed  according 
developments occurred during the year: 

to  plan.  Specifically, 

the  following 

Over the year some fifty contracts under the national CARDS were monitored by the Results 
Oriented  Monitoring  (ROM)  team,  providing  findings  and  conclusions  on  relevance  and 
quality  of  design,  efficiency  of  implementation  to  date,  effectiveness,  impact  prospects  and 
potential sustainability. Projects were generally graded as “good”. 

Apart  from  the  above-described  external  monitoring,  the  EU  Delegation  also  ensures 
regular/internal  monitoring,  e.g.  through  attendance  to  project  steering  committee  meetings 

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and  project  visits.  In  December  2009  the  EU  Delegation  prepared  its  monitoring  plan  for 
2010. 

A retrospective evaluation of 2000-2006 CARDS programs in Serbia with a special focus on 
local  and  municipal  development,  economic  development,  justice  and  integrated  border 
management  was  conducted  by  an  independent  evaluator  and  the  debriefing  meeting  was 
organized  in  Belgrade  on  October  2009.  The  evaluation  report  assessed  the  relevance, 
efficiency,  effectiveness,  impact  and  sustainability  of  the  CARDS  assistance  in  the  above 
sectors. Recommendations could be summarized as follows:  

–  Relevance: i) active coordination with all stakeholders during the  design phase and close 
involvement of local stakeholders in the preparation of project planning documents should 
be ensured; ii) systematic use of logical frameworks needs to be stressed; iii) contractors 
should be instructed to carefully reassess the project context during the inception phase, in 
order  to  control  compliance  between  planned  versus  actual  targets  and  costs,  as  well  as 
securing a realistic timeframe.  

–  Efficiency: i) administrative procedures need to be upgraded in terms of efficiency within 
national  structures,  to  enable  timely  delivery  of  outputs,  timely  procurement  procedures 
and  prevent  implementation  delays;  ii)  interventions  should  utilise  and  strengthen 
economic tools to assess unit costs and benefits in order to create benchmarks and allow 
the assessment of cost efficiency. 

–  Effectiveness: i) relevant expertise of consultants must be ensured i.e. experts with practical 

experience and good knowledge on the beneficiary country.  

–  Impact:  i)  as  impact  is  often  linked  to  sustainability  and  partner  cooperation,  the  use  of 
conditionality  or  pre-condition  instruments  should  be  considered  (e.g.  national  partners 
appropriately staffed; adequate premises provided; strategies or laws adopted). 

–  Sustainability: i) phase-out strategies should be integrated in the programme planning; ii) 
line ministries need to adequately and timely address lack of human resources in order to 
be able to continue activities after the closure of interventions.  

–  Cross-cutting  issues:  i)  integration  of  gender  aspects  during  design  and  implementation 
(e.g. gender aggregation of log frame indicators, encouraging gender-balanced TA teams, 
gender-specific impact analysis in project documents) needs to be continued. 

Based  on  the  above  recommendations,  the  addressee  institutions  have  commented  and  a 
debriefing table was prepared and circulated. 

ii) Sectors with positive results – Success stories 

Among  other  sectors,  EU  support  for  local  government,  enterprise  development  and 
vocational training was successful. As examples: 

“EXCHANGE 2, Joint support to local government” (CARDS 2006)  

Throughout two years of implementation, this EUR 4.5 million worth project produced local 
government  legal  review  and  sector  analysis  providing  key  recommendations  to  the  central 
Government  on  how  to  make  the  functioning  of  the  local  administrations  more  transparent, 
effective and predictable. Furthermore, the Local Sustainable Development Strategies (LSDS) 

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methodology  for  strategic  planning  of  sustainable  development  of  local  governments  in 
Serbia  has  been  created  and  piloted  in  25  Serbian  municipalities.  The  methodology  was 
developed  and  adopted  through  a  wide  consultative  process  with  more  then  14  national 
ministries and agencies, with the general aim to serve as a standard methodology for Serbian 
local  governments.  The  project  also  designed  and  applied  an  innovative  approach  in  the 
delivery  of  technical  assistance/capacity  building  in  10  Serbian  municipalities.  In  this  way, 
selected  municipalities  received  demand  driven  Municipal  service  packages  (MSP)  that  are 
transferable  to  all  municipalities  within  the  country  through  6  toolkits  in  areas  such  as 
municipal budgeting, property management, human resource management. 

“Enterprise development” (CARDS 2006) 

The third phase of the Turn-around management (TAM) project from CARDS 2006 (EUR 4 
million),  implemented  by  the  EBRD  –  TAM  team,  was  completed  in  December  2009.  The 
project  provided  support  to  restructuring  and  development  of  72  SMEs  in  priority  sectors, 
enterprises  with  environmental  and  energy  efficiency  concerns,  enterprises  owned/run  by 
women  entrepreneurs  and  young  high-tech  enterprises.  Also,  high-quality  training  was 
provided  to  more  than  100  SMEs.  The  impact  of  this  project  on  the  Serbian  SME  sector  is 
considered very high. 

“Additional support to the Vocational Education and Training (VET)” (CARDS 2005) 

This  project,  for  a  value  of  EUR  0.8  million,  trained  a  large  number  of  teachers,  school 
managers, change agents (i.e. the focal points in VET schools in charge of the reform) as well 
as  the  staff  of  the  regional  school  departments  in  modernised  teaching  methods, 
implementation  of  pilot  curricula,  outcome  based  assessment  of  students  and  preparation  of 
teaching  materials.  The  project  resulted  in  increased  motivation  on  the  side  of  students  and 
teachers, more  regular  presence  of  pupils,  better  performance  and  achievements  as  well  as 
increased interest of future pupils for the pilot profiles. The result of this project brought the 
reform  to  the  attention  of  trained  staff  and  further  dissemination  is  ensured  through  peer-
learning. 

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18. 

SLOVAKIA 

18.1. 

Summary  

In 2009, Slovakia continued to implement successfully post-accession assistance, to address 
the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in 
line with EDIS. 

Since  October  2004,  implementation  is  carried out  under  the  entire  responsibility  of  Slovak 
authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  Central  Finance  and  Contracting  Unit 
(CFCU),  the  Regional  Development  Support  Agency  (RDSA)  and  the  National  Agency  for 
Development  of  Small  and  Medium  Enterprises  (NADSME)  are  fully  responsible  for  the 
daily implementation of the projects. 

The  National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC)  continued  the  monitoring  of  both  PHARE  and 
Transition  Facility  Programmes.  The  National  Authorizing  Officer  (NAO)  carried  out  the 
financial supervision.  

18.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  (TF)  2005  programme  was  completed 
successfully by the end of 2008. 92.87% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On 15 December 2009, at the end of the implementation period for the 2006 TF programme, 
97.57% of it had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 29 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Slovakia 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

During  the  period,  there  was  overall  progress  towards  the  achievement  of  objectives  and 
results of EU assistance. TF 2006 projects were successfully completed and mostly achieved 
their results.  

18.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In 2009 no physical Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meeting was held. Two JMCs were 
concluded  via  written  procedure.  The  Implementation  Status  Reports  were  of  good  quality, 
including  sufficiently  detailed  information  regarding  projects  implementation  and  the 
achievement of their results. 

No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

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ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of the Pre-accession and the Transition 
Facility programmes in Slovakia lies with the Aid Co-ordination Unit, as the executive body 
of  the  NAC,  at  the  Office  of  the  Government.  An  updated  set  of  rules  concerning  the 
implementation of PHARE TF Assistance (approved end 2009) focuses more on the ex-post 
monitoring  exercise  and  documentation  archiving.  As  such,  ex-post  monitoring  reports  are 
expected to be sent by ACU to the European Commission for information on a yearly basis (at 
least  until  2012),  whilst  archiving  of  documents  will  be  ensured  for  5  years  following  the 
official closure of programmes. 

One  final  Interim  Evaluation  Report  was  prepared  in  2009  which  covered  the  following 
justice  and  home  affairs,  social  affairs  and  human  resources 
components/sectors: 
development, agriculture and statistics, environment and energy, internal market. The report, 
issued on 15 June 2009, rated all projects as satisfactory. Projects were considered generally 
relevant and, in particular, those related to agriculture and environment were rated as highly 
relevant.  In  terms  of  efficiency,  the  reviewed  projects  showed  mostly  positive  results.  The 
effectiveness was considered as well adequate. Also, sustainability appeared to be secured for 
most projects and it was expected that the majority of operations will have positive impact.   

With  regard  to  the  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility,  some  conclusions  could  be 
drawn.  

•  Twining  Light  remained  a  popular  instrument  for  transferring  know-how  of  EU  partner 
countries  to  national  authorities.  In  order  to  allow  for  a  smooth  implementation, 
beneficiaries  should  always  allocate  adequate  capacities  and  be  familiar  with  twinning 
procedures. On the other hand, flexibility on the side of the Resident Technical Assistant 
and  well  defined  individual  responsibilities  for  consortia  partners  are  essential  for  the 
achievement of projects results. 

•  As regards Technical Assistance, the quality of requirements concerning experts, directly 
influences the performance and results expected from those selected. In this respect, vague 
requirements with a view to increase the number of potential offers should be avoided. 

•  Concerning  Grants,  the  technical  assistance  support  provided  for  the  management  of  the 
schemes, combined with on-the-spot monitoring by the relevant institutions, proved useful. 

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19. 

SLOVENIA 

19.1. 

Summary  

In  2009,  Slovenia  continued  to  implement  successfully  post-accession  assistance  to  address 
the  remaining  needs  related  to  institution  building  for  the  implementation  of  the  acquis,  in 
line with EDIS. 

Since 17 September 2004 implementation is carried out under the entire responsibility of the 
Slovenian  authorities  applying  national  procurement  rules.  The  ATMinistry  of  Finance, 
Central  Financing  and  Contracting  Department  is  responsible  for  ex-ante  control  and 
twinning. The Ministry of Finance, Central Financing and Contracting Department (CFCD) is 
fully responsible for the daily implementation of the projects. 

The National Aid Coordinator (NAC) continued to exercise the monitoring of both PHARE 
and Transition Facility Programmes. The National Authorizing Officer (NAO) carried out the 
financial supervision. 

19.2. 

Implementation of the Transition Facility in 2009 

i) - Transition Facility 2005 – finalisation of payments 

The  implementation  of  the  TF  2005  programme  was  completed  successfully  by  the  end  of 
2008. 93.48% was disbursed by the end of the 2009.  

ii) - Transition Facility 2006 – finalisation of payments 

On  15  December  2009,  at  the  end  of  the  implementation  period  for  the  2006  Transition 
Facility programme, 86.39% of the programme had been disbursed.  

iii) -  Institution Building highlights 

A total of around EUR 17 million of post-accession assistance has been allocated to Slovenia 
from  the  Transition  Facility  programmes  2004-2006  (national  allocation,  not  including 
horizontal and multi-country programmes).  

In  2009  the  implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  projects  in  Slovenia  was  completed. 
There  were  no  major  problems  with  the  implementation  of  the  programme.  The 
implementation  of  the  Transition  Facility  is  considered  successful  in  the  following  areas: 
agriculture, justice and home affairs and internal market. 

19.3.  Results and Impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees / Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees  

In  2009  no  physical  Joint  Monitoring  Committee  (JMC)  meeting  was  held.  One  JMC  was 
concluded  via  written  procedure  in  June.  The  Implementation  Status  Report  was  of  good 
quality, including sufficiently detailed information regarding projects implementation and the 
achievement of results. 

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No particular monitoring actions were undertaken by the Commission since the amount of the 
assistance and the number of the projects implemented in 2009 were rather small. 

ii) Monitoring and Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

Overall  responsibility  for  monitoring  of  the  Pre-accession  and  the  Transition  Facility 
programmes  in  Slovenia  lies  with  the  National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC)  within  the 
Government Office for European Affairs (GOEA).  

Only the project “Advanced Chemical Safety – Third stage” was subject to interim evaluation 
in  2009.  Although  rated  by  the  evaluator  in  May  as  unsatisfactory,  in  July  the  updated 
information proved that the results should be met.  

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20. 

TURKEY  

20.1. 

Summary 

The new law on the organisation and duties of the Secretariat General for the European Union 
(EUSG)  adopted  in  July  2009  provided  the  basis  for  strengthening  this  institution.  As  the 
National  Aid  Coordinator  (NAC),  it  has  a  crucial  role  for  programming,  monitoring  and 
management  of  pre-accession  funds.  The  Turkey  pre-accession  instrument  being  in  its  final 
phase (all contracting deadlines expired, implementation near finalisation), implementation of 
the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) is now coming to full speed.   

On  13  January  2010  the  European  Court  of  Auditors  (ECA)  presented  its  special  report  on 
'The European Commission's management of pre-accession assistance to Turkey' covering the 
performance effectiveness of aid under the Turkey Pre-Accession (TPA) instrument between 
2002 and 2006.10 The report concluded that there has been an insufficient direction and lack 
of specific criteria to determine the priorities of EU assistance, an insufficient compliance of 
pre-accession  assistance  with  accession  criteria  and 
insufficient  measurability  of 
achievements  under  TPA.  At  the  same  time  the  Court  found  that  projects  audited  had 
achieved  their  intended  outputs  and  that  results  are  likely  to  be  sustained  in  the  future. 
Furthermore,  measures  aimed  at  addressing  many  of  the  weaknesses  in  the  Decentralised 
Implementation System have been introduced with IPA. The selection process is accordingly 
already improved as pointed out by the ECA, but the full impact of these changes can only be 
assessed as the IPA projects are implemented in the coming years. Following the release of 
the  report,  the  Commission  has  taken  additional  concrete  measures  to  further  strengthen 
programming,  implementation  and  monitoring.  However,  as  TPA  projects  are  coming  to  an 
end, these measures are mainly aiming at IPA. 

20.2. 

Pre-accession in 2009 

i) Programmes launched 

As of 2007 the Turkey pre-accession instrument was replaced by the new Instrument for Pre-
Accession  Assistance.  Therefore,  no  new  programmes  were  launched  in  2009  under  the 
Turkey pre-accession instrument. 

ii) Overview of programmes implemented  

Two  programmes  under  the  Turkey  pre-accession  instrument  were  under  implementation  in 
2009, the National Programmes 2005 and 2006.  

The  following  12  projects  were  still  ongoing  and  to  be  finalised  under  the  National 
Programme 2005: 

–  Training  Programme  on  the  Istanbul  Protocol:  Enhancing  the  Knowledge  Level  of  Non-

Forensic Expert Physicians, Judges and Prosecutors 

10  

Special  Report  No  16/2009  The  European  Commission’s  management  of  pre-accession  assistance  to 
Turkey, published on 13 January 2010. Available at  
http://eca.europa.eu/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/3632589.PDF 

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–  An  Independent  Police  Complaints  Commission  &  Complaints  system  for  the  Turkish 

National Police and Gendarmerie  

–  Small Enterprises Loan Programme, 2nd Phase (SELP II) 

–  Upgrading the Statistical System of Turkey – Phase II   

–  Çanakkale Regional Solid Waste Management Project  

–  Kuşadası Regional Solid Waste Management Project 

–  Regional Development in TR90 NUTS II (DOKAP) Region (Artvin, Giresun, Gümüşhane, 

Ordu, Rize and Trabzon) 

–  Support  to  the  Solution  of  Economic  and  Social  Integration  Problems  in  Diyarbakir, 

Sanliurfa, Gaziantep and Erzurum as Major In-Migrant Destinations  

–  Strengthening  of  the  Epidemiological  Surveillance  and  Control  of  Communicable    

Diseases System (ESCCDS) in Turkey – Phase II. 

–  Control of rabies disease in Turkey 

–  Establishing New Border Inspection Posts (BIPs)  

–  Establishment of National Food Reference Laboratory 

The  following  41  projects  were  still  ongoing  and  to  be  finalised  under  the  National 
Programme 2006: 

–  Support to the set up an Asylum and Country of Origin Information (COI) System  

–  Civilian Oversight of Internal Security Sector  

–  Training of Gendarmerie Officers on European Human Rights  Standards 

–  Support to Court Management System  

–  Shelters for Women Subject to Violence  

–  Strengthening of capacity for the interdiction of drugs in rural areas 

–  Supporting Turkey’s efforts to combat human trafficking and promote access to justice for 

all trafficked persons 

–  Ethics for the Prevention of Corruption in Turkey 

–  “Children First” – “Modelling Child Protection Mechanisms at Provincial Level” 

–  Nevşehir Wastewater Treatment Plant Project  

–  Tokat Wastewater Treatment Plant Project 

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–  Active Employment Measures and Support to Turkish Employment Organization at Local 

Level 

–  Support to Human Resources Development through Vocational Education and Training 

–  Support  to  the  Solution  of  Economic  and  Social  Integration  Problems  in  Istanbul,  Izmir, 

Ankara and Bursa as Major In-Migrant Destinations 

–  Expansion of the European Turkish Business Centres Network 

–  Industrial Restructuring of Sanliurfa 

–  Improvement of Road Safety in Turkey 

–  Amasya Regional Solid Waste Management Project  

–  Kütahya Regional Solid Waste Management Project 

–  Bitlis Regional Solid Waste Management Project  

–  Technical Assistance for the Management of the Ekmekçizade Caravanserai in Edirne  

–  Upgrading of Kırklareli-Dereköy –Aziziye –Turkish Bulgarian Border State Road Project  

–  Capacity  Improvement  for  Flood  Forecasting  and  Flood  Control  in  the  TR-  BG  cross-

border cooperation Region 

–  Protection  and  Sustainable  Development  of  Natural  Resources  and  Biodiversity  in  the 

Yıldız Mountains 

–  2004-2006 Cross-Border Co-operation (CBC) Programme between Turkey and Bulgaria  

–  Mitigating Flood Risk in Flooded Areas in the GAP Region 

–  Establishment of a pilot Turkish Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) 

–  Control of Foot and mouth disease in Turkey  

–  Improvement of the Conditions for Cross Border Electricity  Trade 

in 

Turkey 

in 

Compliance with the Best Practice in EU 

–  Capacity Building Support to Turkey for the water sector 

–  Modernisation of the Turkish Customs Administration III 

–  Development of the seed sector in Turkey and alignment to the EU  

–  Improving the Labour Inspection System  

–  Capacity Building Support for the Ministry of National Education 

–  Establishment of an Environmental Information Exchange Network (TEIEN) in Turkey 

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–  Support Activities to Strengthen the European Integration Process 

–  Promotion of the Civil Society Dialogue between EU and TK 

–  Continuation of the Jean Monnet Scholarship Programme for post-graduates in Turkey 

–  Civil Society Dialogue - EU-Turkish Chambers Forum  

–  Bringing together workers from Turkey and European Union countries through a “shared 

culture of work”. 

–  Supporting Civil Society Development and Dialogue in Turkey 

iii)Pre-accession assistance management performance 

Table 1 - Financial execution as at the end of December 2009 (in million EUR) – Turkey 
pre-accession instrument annual programmes   

TPA 2002 
TPA 2003 
TPA 2004 
TPA 2005 
TPA 2006 
TOTAL 

Allocated 

126 
144 
236 
277 
450 
1233 

Contracted RAC  % contracted
89% 
14* 
85% 
22* 
82% 
42** 
84% 
43*** 
86% 
61*** 
85% 
182 

112 
122 
194 
234 
389 
1051 

Paid 

105 
117 
186 
218 
272 
898 

RAL  % paid
83% 
81% 
79% 
79% 
60% 
73% 

7  
5  
8  
16 
117 
153  

* De-committed in 2007; ** De-committed in 2008; *** Partially de-committed during 2009  

The  last  contracting  deadlines  under  the  Turkey  pre-accession  programmes  expired  in  2009 
and  contracting  rates  for  all  programmes  ‘landed’  above  80  %.  Intermediate  procurement 
deadlines  established  by  the  Joint  Monitoring  Committee  for  the  submission  of  tender 
documents  for  ex  ante  control  by  the  EU  Delegation  originally  established  for  the  National 
Programme  2005  –  and  further  strengthened  for  the  2006  contracting  phase  –  led  to  an 
acceleration of the procurement process compared with previous years.  

After a decline in the performance of the EUSG in handling programming, monitoring as well 
as  project  management  functions  (EUSG  acting  as  Senior  Programming  Officer)  during  the 
first  half  of  2009,  a  new  law  adopted  in  July  provided  the  basis  for  strengthening  this 
institution  and  increasing  its  staffing  levels  at  least  over  the  medium  term.  It  also  led  to  a 
restructuring, with most key positions changed at management level and with new recruitment 
starting towards the end of 2009. A more cooperative spirit was also evident, for example at 
the  Joint  Monitoring  Committee  (JMC)  meeting  held  on  16  October.  Monitoring  activities 
that were discontinued were slowly resumed with the organisation of Sector Monitoring Sub-
Committee  (SMSC)  meetings  in  September.  Despite  these  improvements,  the  monitoring 
activity  was  still  insufficient  and  the  anticipated  new  recruitment  in  the  monitoring 
department  was  delayed  due  to  a  court  case. EUSG  has  committed  to  improve  the  situation 
but  at  the  end  of  2009  it  was  still  not  clear  when  the  full  recruitment  procedure  could  be 
completed.  

The National Authorising Officer (NAO) Office/National Fund and the Central Finance and 
Contracts Unit (CFCU) made progress in establishing adequate procedures and organisational 
structures  as  part  of  an  improved  decentralised  implementation  system  (DIS)  supervision 
under  the  Instrument  for  Pre-Accession  (IPA)  which  also  benefited  the  management  of 

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Turkish  pre-accession  funds.  Identified  weaknesses  by  Commission  auditors  have  been 
addressed  and  the  Central  Financing  and  Contracts  Unit  (CFCU)  displayed  increasing 
confidence  and  ownership  in  its  role  as  Programme  Authorising  Officer  (PAO)  and  in 
exercising its functions. Upon advice given by the Commission, the CFCU undertook "mini-
accreditations" to ensure that beneficiary ministries have the necessary capacity to implement 
their projects.  

Some  weaknesses  remain  nevertheless.  For  example,  rejection  rates  still  remained  at  a  high 
level  and  problems  with  late  contracting  prevailed.  An  internal  analysis  was  launched  to 
improve the system with involvement of the EU Delegation in Ankara. Relations between the 
different institutions involved in management of pre-accession assistance need to improve, for 
instance through a better communication flow and overall smoother collaboration. 

iv) Institution Building highlights 

The  project  Strengthening  of  capacity  for  the  interdiction  of  drugs  in  rural  areas  funded 
under  the  National  Programme  for  Turkey  2006  was  successfully  completed  by  the  end  of 
2009. The project was implemented between 2007 and 2009 through a direct agreement (EUR 
2.4  million)  to  the  United  Nations  Office  on  Drugs  and  Crime  (UNODC)  together  with  the 
Anti-smuggling  and  Organised  Crime  Department  under  Turkish  Gendarmerie  General 
Command. It also contained a supply component (EUR 0.65 million) providing an electronic 
database to improve the flow of information between rural regions and the central drugs unit 
of  the  Gendarmerie,  as  well  as  mobile  training  units  (vehicles)  and  detection  dogs  for 
recognition of concealed drugs. The UNODC provided training to strengthen the capacity for 
drugs law enforcement in 5 pilot provinces (one of them being Van, which is one of the most 
risky cities in terms of drugs trafficking in Turkey). 

Project  implementation  faced  some  delays,  however  was  followed  with  a  high  commitment 
by the Gendarmerie. Due to delay in assigning a dog trainer, one of the dogs procured under 
the project could not be trained and mobilized anymore. Following the training given on the 
use  of  the  equipment  and  the  dogs,  operations  resulted  with  considerable  amounts  of  drug 
seizures  since  the  completion  of  the  project.  A  significant  increase  is  for  example  noted  in 
Van. Mobile training units allow the Gendarmerie to reach each officer in the rural area where 
physical  conditions  are  difficult.  Apart  from  that,  the  Gendarmerie  officers  are  now  able  to 
receive training without leaving their work locations.  

Other positive results achieved were the development of an Action Plan on fight against drugs 
in rural areas, the development of a training curriculum to be used at law enforcement schools 
and  the  establishment  of  drugs  intelligence  units  and  enhanced  international  cooperation 
through  networks  established  with  Europol  and  EU  member  states  organisations  (customs 
offices etc.). While this action plan will give the Gendarmerie a specific role as concerns the 
rural areas, it will also complement the implementation of the National Strategy against Drugs 
which is coordinated by the Turkish Focal Point to the EMCDDA-(TUBIM under the Turkish 
National Police). The preparation of this rural action plan increased the cooperation between 
the  Police  and  the  Gendarmerie.  Overall,  the  impact  can  be  summarized  as  the  use  of  new 
technology  by  the  Gendarmerie  officers  and  the  synergy  created  between  the  Police  and 
Gendarmerie in terms of implementing the Strategy at national level.  

Under  the  National  Programme  for  Turkey  2005,  EUR  1  million  was  given  to  support  the 
project  Increasing  Public  Awareness  on  Energy  Efficiency  in  Buildings  which  was 
successfully  finalised  in  2009.  The  Directorate  General  of  the  Electrical  Power  Resources 

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Survey and Development Administration (EIE) was given technical assistance to improve its 
institutional capacity, resulting in enhanced competence to execute public awareness raising 
activities in the field of energy efficiency and learn best practises in EU Member States.  

A  wide  range  of  groups,  particularly  the  staff  (experts)  of  the  EIE  has  been  trained  and 
informed  about  the  Energy  Efficiency  in  Buildings.  The  current  capacity,  deficiencies  and 
needs of staff have been analysed and defined. The know-how and implementation experience 
of  the  EU  countries,  mainly  Denmark  and  Finland,  have  been  observed  through  the  on-site 
visits and programmes.  

Subsequently  as  part  of  the  project,  seminars  and  conferences  were  organised  to  inform  the 
public of pilot programmes implemented in Ankara and Istanbul designed for specific target 
groups:  pupils  of  elementary,  secondary  and  high  schools,  university  students,  teachers  and 
housewives.  Subjects  covered  were,  for  instance,  energy  efficiency  in  lighting,  heating  and 
waste  management  at  home.   Public  attention  was  attracted  by  publishing  well  prepared 
materials (Enver) and campaigns through media and billboards .The project culminated in the 
National Energy Efficiency Forum, which was held in Istanbul in January 2009 with a high 
number of participants. Besides, all the related parties have been informed through seminars 
and conferences about the current Energy Efficiency Law and its implementations in Turkey 
within  the  framework  of  the  EU  implementations.  Information  materials  about  energy 
efficiency  have  been  prepared  to  be  disseminated  to  the  different  target  groups  and  through 
various media channels. It has been estimated that improved energy efficiency could result in 
a 25% reduction in energy consumption and save up to EUR 4 billion euros per year from the 
national budget.       

20.3.  Results and impact 

i) Joint Monitoring Committees/Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees 

During  the  year  two  Joint  Monitoring  Committee  (JMC)  meetings  were  organised  in 
combination with IPA Transition Assistance and Institution Building Monitoring Committees, 
on  28  January  and  16  October  2009.  The  January  2009  JMC  analysed  results  from  a  sub-
system audit on monitoring, recommendations from an external expert as well as results from 
the performance audit of the European Court of Auditors and concluded that an overhaul of 
the monitoring system, including streamlining of monitoring reports and the reorganisation of 
Sector Monitoring Sub-Committees, would be launched. Given the prevailing weaknesses in 
monitoring  by  the  Turkish  institutions,  it  was  agreed  that  technical  assistance  to  carry  out 
Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) would be recruited to assist in particular the EUSG, but 
also the CFCU in carrying out monitoring of the intensity needed.  

The  October  2009  JMC  meeting  took  stock  of  ongoing  work  to  reduce  rejection  rates  and 
delays  in  contracting  as  well  as  efforts  to  improve  implementation  of  grant  schemes  and 
procurement planning.  

The  Sector  Monitoring  Sub-Committees  (SMSCs)  were  initially  halted  but  took  place  in 
September 2009 for the following sectors: civil society dialogue, public finance, statistics & 
accession process support, cross-border cooperation, human resources development, internal 
market,  customs  union,  energy,  rural  development,  regional  development  &  transport, 
environment, justice, liberty and security and political criteria. Monitoring reports were also 
submitted,  but  the  focus  still  needed  improvement  in  terms  of  strategic  sector  policy 
overviews  –  which  have  been  requested  to  ensure  the  necessary  link  between  the  policy 

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dialogue  and  the  project  discussion  that  takes  place  within  the  management  committees. 
Furthermore, more active involvement of beneficiaries both in the drafting of agendas and in 
the discussions was deemed beneficial for efficient monitoring.  

ii) Monitoring & Evaluation Reports in 2009 - Lessons Learned 

The  Interim  Evaluation  (IE)  scheme  on  European  Union  pre-accession  assistance  to  Turkey 
mainly  implemented  during  2008  was  completed  in  the  beginning  of  2009.  The  interim 
evaluation covered ten sectors (civil society dialogue, cross-border cooperation, environment, 
human  resources  development,  internal  market,  political  criteria,  public  finance,  regional 
competitiveness, rural development, and transport) and three thematic/horizontal evaluations 
(gender equality, municipal environmental infrastructure and donor coordination in Turkey).  

Regarding thematic/horizontal evaluations, the evaluation on Gender Equality concluded that 
the pre-accession strategy has ensured that gender equality is firmly on the political agenda in 
Turkey, but that pre-accession assistance has had uneven impact in the field. Gender-specific 
projects have had notable outcomes for women, but mainstreaming of gender issues is needed 
to  ensure  that  also  projects  that  are  not  gender-specific  deliver  outcomes  for  women.  Key 
institutions  in  Turkey  have  insufficient  capacity  to  promote  gender  equality  and  the  overall 
partnership  between  the  Turkish  authorities,  the  EU,  other  bilateral  donors  and  the 
international community needs to be strengthened. 

The  evaluation  on  Municipal  Environmental  Infrastructure  concluded  that  smaller  and 
medium-sized  municipalities  are  highly  dependant  on  central  authorities  for  project 
preparation. Risks identified related to the difficulties faced by smaller municipalities to cover 
maintenance costs of infrastructure. Late tendering and contracting difficulties have hampered 
efficient delivery of assistance, but once started, implementation has been relatively good. 

The  evaluation  on  Donor  Coordination  in  Turkey  concluded  that  the  requirements  for 
effective  donor  coordination  are  partly  in  place  (National  Development  Plan  and  sector 
strategies exist), but the administrative capacity needs to be strengthened in terms of overall 
framework  for  donor  coordination.  Harmonisation  of  donor  arrangements  is  generally  still 
weak, but information sharing takes place. 

A Country Program Interim Evaluation (CPiE) covering both IPA and Turkish Pre-accession 
Assistance  between  the  years  2005-2008  was  launched  in  2009.  It  replaces  the  previous 
Interim  Evaluation  scheme  and  is  more  focused  on  programme  level  as  compared  to  the 
previous  sector  level  approach.  The  CPiE  will  continue  to  serve  as  a  management  tool  for 
programme managers by providing inputs for decision-making.  

iii) Sectors with positive results 

The  interim  evaluation  scheme  from  2008-2009  concluded  that  moderately  positive  results 
were  achieved  in  the  areas  of  the  internal  market,  Transport  and  Public  Finance  where 
interventions in general were relevant, effective, overall adequate and that wider impacts can 
be measured in a number of sub-sectors. 

iv) Success stories 

“Promoting Gender Equality” (Turkey Pre-Accession Instrument 2005)  

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This  project  funded  through  a  total  EU  contribution  of  EUR  7.2  million  under  the  National 
Programme 2005 included a twinning component (EUR 1.7 million), a direct agreement with 
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, EUR 3 million) and a service contract (EUR 
2.5 million). The twinning was implemented together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and 
Employment  of  the  Netherlands  and  was  completed  in  the  last  months  of  2008.  The  final 
report  submitted  in  July  2009  concluded  that  the  project  had  been  successful,  with  the 
National Action Plan on Gender Equality 2008 – 2013 being a particularly important result in 
the  Turkish  context.  The  Turkish  institutions  participated  enthusiastically  in  trainings, 
seminars and awareness raising activities on gender equality and expressed high appreciation 
for  the  networks  established  through  the  project  (almost  800  decision  makers  in  relevant 
institutions  convened).  A  Discussion  Paper  on  a  Draft  Model  for  a  Gender  Equality  Body 
(GEB) was also produced which will support the responsible body (the Directorate General on 
the  Status  of  Women)  in  achieving  its  institutional  goals  in  promoting  gender  equality  in 
Turkey.  

The Directorate General on the Status of Women implemented the second component of the 
project aiming to combat domestic violence against women through policy development and 
awareness  raising.  The  project  strengthened  the  capacities  of  public  agencies  that  provide 
services  to  women  victimized  by  or  under  the  risk  of  domestic  violence.  The  project  also 
encouraged  the  relevant  institutions  to  draw  up  medium  term  plans,  consolidated  under  a 
National  Action  Plan  on  Combating  Domestic  Violence  2007-2010.  The  responsible  bodies 
and  service  providers  had  the  opportunity  to  assess  the  efficiency  of,  and  the  challenges 
encountered,  in  their  efforts  to  end  violence  against  women. Data  collection  forms  were 
developed as the first step in setting up an information system on violence against women. A 
communication  strategy  was  formulated  and  awareness  raising  activities  targeting  different 
groups were conducted.  

The  research  on  causes  and  consequences  of  violence  against  women,  helped  –for  the  first 
time-  to  provide  comprehensive  data  at  national,  regional  levels  as  well  as  urban  and  rural 
settings,  describing  the  scale  and  the  nature  of  the  problem. The  information  gathered  is 
expected  to  prompt  policy  makers  to  review  the  priorities  set  earlier  in  the  fight  against 
violence and trigger a revision of existing policy documents in the social and economic sector. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Turkey  has  allocated  national  resources  for  the  implementation  of  the 
Action Plan. The Status of Women has taken the lead to coordinate the process of updating 
the  National  Action  Plan  on  Combating  Domestic  Violence  for  the  year  2011-14  together 
with  the  relevant  institutions.  As  a  further  step  in  setting  up  a  national  database  and 
information system, the forms developed are being tested by the police.  

The support that the EU has channelled in the field of combating domestic violence against 
women produced the tools to help the Government of Turkey in its efforts towards advancing 
women’s rights in the country  

"Çanakkale  Regional  Solid  Waste  Management  Project"  (Turkey  Pre-Accession 
Instrument 2005)  

The  EU  helped  reduce  the  pollution  of  groundwater  and  the  environment  in  Çanakkale  and 
nearby  municipalities  and  increase  recycling  by  establishing  a  solid  waste  management 
system in the region. In order to do so, the EU helped construct a new landfill with a leachate 
treatment plant, a gas collection and flaring system and a pilot compost plant. A civic amenity 
centre  was  constructed  and  five  old  dumpsites  were  rehabilitated.  Furthermore,  the  EU 
supplied  landfill,  collection  and  composting  equipment,  as  well  as  waste  containers.  As  a 

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result, water -, soil – and air pollution caused by the current dumpsites and related health risks 
will be reduced.  

“Active  Employment  Measures  and  Support  to  Turkish  Employment  Organization  at 
Local Level" (Turkey Pre-Accession Instrument 2006)  

A total of 101 projects have been funded in 26 provinces of Turkey in order to assist Turkey's 
public  employment  services  in  implementing  more  efficient  employment  measures  in  line 
with  labour  market  needs  at  the  local  level.  Moreover,  these  projects  aim  to  increase  the 
employability of  young  people  and  women. These projects  ranged  from  vocational  training, 
on-the-job  training,  job  matching  services,  short-term  placements  with  companies,  the 
development  of  apprenticeship  programmes  and  the  development  of  career  guidance  and 
advisory  services  including  job  clubs,  to  name  only  a  few.  The  projects  not  only  made  a 
difference in the lives of those directly concerned, but also led to an institutional reformation 
of  the  Turkish  public  employment  service.  It  now  has  the  necessary  tools,  mechanisms, 
experience and much improved capacity to design and implement labour market measures for 
specific target groups, which are also reflected in their actions funded by the national budget. 
Furthermore, the project has helped them get acquainted with the European Social Fund. 

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PART II:  MULTIBENEFICIARY PROGRAMMES  

21. 

TWINNING AND OTHER INSTITUTION BUILDING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 

21.1.  Twinning  

In  the  course  of  2009,  many  projects  launched  in  previous  years  and  financed  under  the 
budget  lines  considered  continued  to  be  implemented.  One  new  project  still  financed  with 
CARDS funds was launched in Serbia. No new twinnings were registered under PHARE or 
Turkish Pre-accession assistance. 

The  number  of  projects  funded  by  the  Transition  Facility  was  on  the  contrary  significant. 
Bulgaria  and  Romania  signed  17  and,  10  twinning  contracts  respectively  for  full-fledged 
twinning  projects.  Both  countries  were  also  rather  active  in  circulating  fiches  for  twinning 
light projects (Bulgaria 26 and Romania 23).  

Projects in the area of Justice and Home affaires have outrun all other subject in Bulgaria as 
well as in Romania. 

The average cost of the full-fledged projects launched in 2009 in Bulgaria was EUR 700,000 
and Romania EUR 650,000. 

Full details of the projects concerned are included in the country sections of this report. 

An ad-hoc interim evaluation report on Twinning in Croatia was released in December 2008. 
Overall, Twinning in Croatia has performed well. The acceptance of twinning has increased 
significantly  and  the  instrument  is  well  received  by  the  beneficiaries.  Weaknesses  of 
Twinning in Croatia include inadequate needs assessment, insufficient political support, and 
lack  of  coordination  between  institutions.  The  report  suggested  developing  a  mechanism  of 
ex-post monitoring which is now foreseen in the new Common Twinning Manual (issued on 
September 2009). 

21.2.  TAIEX 

TAIEX11 started operations in 1996 as a follow-up to the Commission’s White Paper on the 
preparation of the associated countries for integration into the internal market.  

Since then, TAIEX has evolved into an instrument providing short-term technical assistance 
to facilitate the approximation, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation. 

The TAIEX instrument remained available for the 10 Member States which acceded in 2004 
(until May 2008), to Bulgaria and Romania, to candidate countries and potential candidates, 
to  the  Turkish  Cypriot  community,  as  well  as  to  the  countries  covered  by  the  European 
Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). 

11 

Technical Assistance Information Exchange Instrument 

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Almost  7%  of  TAIEX  activities  (118)  have  been  funded  under  residual  CARDS  funds. 
TAIEX events organised under the Transition Facility accounted for 15% of the total number 
of events in all budget lines. 

Table 1- TAIEX Events by CARDS & TF budget line and type 2009 

Budget Line 
CARDS 2006 

CARDS 2006 Total 
Transition Facility - 2007 I&II 

Transition Facility - 2007 I&II Total 
Grand Total (CARDS + TF) 

21.3. 

SIGMA  

Event Type 
Agriculture 
Infrastructures  
Internal Market 
Justice, liberty and security  

Agriculture 
Infrastructures 
Internal Market 
Justice, liberty and security 
Regional 
Programme 

Training 

Total 
36 
14 
31 
37 
118 
56 
36 
29 
81 

59 
261 
379 

Since  1992  this  institution-building  instrument  has  been  providing  assistance  in  horizontal 
areas of public management including public service, legal administrative framework, public 
integrity system, policy-making and co-ordination, regulatory framework, public expenditure 
management,  public  internal  financial  control,  external  audit  and  public  procurement.  It  is 
principally  financed  by  the  EU  and  implemented  by  the  Organisation  for  Economic  Co-
operation and Development (OECD) through contribution agreements between the European 
Commission and the OECD. 

In the framework of the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), SIGMA work with all 
EU  candidate  countries  and  potential  candidates  was  launched  in  January  2009  and  will 
continue until December 2010 under a new contribution agreement between the Commission 
and the OECD, which provides for a global budget of EUR 10.7 million.  

No SIGMA activities funded under the budget lines considered by this report were conducted 
in 2009. 

22. 

MULTI-COUNTRY, REGIONAL AND HORIZONTAL PROGRAMMES  

22.1. 

Political Criteria 

22.1.1.  Participation in Community Agencies 

The purpose of this assistance is to ensure that beneficiaries can participate effectively in the 
Community Agencies either if permitted prior to accession or following accession to the EU.  

The Beneficiaries can participate in EU Programmes, Agencies and Committees on a case-by-
case basis and the ticket to participate in those is financed through the National Programmes. 

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As  was  the  case  with  previous  Enlargements  however,  the  EU  supports  the  Community 
Agencies to prepare their counterparts in the Beneficiaries for participation in the activities of 
the EU Agencies. 

The purpose of this assistance is to ensure that beneficiaries can participate effectively in the 
Community Agencies either if permitted prior to accession or following accession to the EU.  

The programme provide support to the Community Agencies by allowing them to carry out 
preparatory measures in the Beneficiaries with the Beneficiary counterparts and stakeholders 
so  as  to  facilitate  future  participation  in  these  Community  Agencies,  and  to  stimulate 
cooperation between the Beneficiaries and their stakeholders. 

The activities under this programme allow the Beneficiaries to increase their understanding of 
the function and operations of the Community Agencies and more importantly the role they 
should play within these bodies. Secondly, the support allows Beneficiaries to involve other 
relevant stakeholders in ways similar to those of the EU Member States. Agencies will be able 
to  support  Beneficiaries  by  providing  advice  on  organisational  matters  and  by  training  the 
appropriate staff of the Beneficiaries. Furthermore, participation in specific events (if possible 
with EU Member States) provide Beneficiaries with invaluable opportunities for networking 
and exchange of experience. 

In  those  cases  where  Community  Agencies  supported  by  the  Commission  line  DGs  are  not 
sufficiently informed about the state of progress and hence the specific gaps that need to be 
plugged  prior  to  joining  their  Agency,  awareness-raising  actions  and  fact-finding  missions 
allow Agencies on the one hand and Beneficiaries on the other to clearly assess their needs. 
These needs are addressed either under this programme or under follow-up actions. 

Under the CARDS Regional Action Programme (RAP) 2005, Contribution Agreements were 
concluded  with  the  European  Environment  Agency  (EEA),  the  European  Aviation  Safety 
Agency  (EASA),  the  European  Maritime  Safety  Agency  (EMSA),  and  the  European 
Monitoring  Centre  for  Drugs  and  Drug  Addiction  (EMCDDA).  Activities  foreseen  under 
those agreements  (CARDs),  as well as its continuation under IPA  2007  ended during  2009. 
The Agencies presented their  final  reports under the CARDS and  IPA  2007  programmes  to 
the  Commission  for  assessment.  The  assistance  continues  under  the  IPA  2008  programme. 
Therefore  it  is  too  early  to  present  final  results,  but  it  can  be  concluded  that  some 
Beneficiaries are already knocking on the door of some Agencies, notably the EEA and the 
EMCDDA. Croatia plans to join the EMCDDA in the coming months. 

A  conference  organised  by  the  EMCDDA  in  Sintra  (Lisbon,  Portugal)  in  November  2009 
allowed  Beneficiaries  to  exchange  views  with  the  Agencies.  At  this  event  both  parties 
increased their mutual understanding on the needs, requirements and the way forward.  

22.1.2.  Social inclusion 

During 2009, the project "Social inclusion of and access to human rights for Roma, Ashkali 
and  Egyptian  communities  in  the  Western  Balkans"  under  the  CARDS  Regional  Action 
Programme  2006  continued  its  implementation.  The  overall  purpose  is  to  contribute  to 
increased  legal  and  social  inclusion  of  marginalised  communities  and  facilitate  their  full 
enjoyment of citizenship rights in the Western Balkans. Activities were implemented in all the 
areas  targeted.  Overall,  solid  progress  can  be  reported  particularly  in  matters  of  legal  aid 
provision, the centrepiece of the project. Networks were also set up; information material was 

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produced and disseminated; information meetings were held and in general direct assistance 
was  provided  to  an  increasing  number  of  Roma,  Ashkali  and  Egyptian  population,  in 
particular in the area of civil registration. This contract was completed on 31 July 2009.  

22.1.3.  Justice, freedom and security 

The actions aim to strengthen the efficiency and autonomy of law enforcement agencies and 
judicial bodies in their capacity to deal with corruption, illicit trafficking and organised crime. 

The  main  general  activities  under  these  projects  were:  Capacity  building  activities:  regional 
and national thematic meetings, seminars and conferences, round tables, study visits, training 
activities, including exchange programmes; gaps and needs-analysis sessions, specific studies, 
assessment  missions;  actions  to  pool  information,  enhance  co-operation  and  facilitate  co-
ordinated  activities;  advice  on  legislation,  regulations,  operational  procedures,  exchange  of 
experience, lessons learned, best practices and other relevant information. 

The following projects were under implementation:  

Under  the  CARDS  Regional  Action  Programme  2005  the  project  "International  Law 
Enforcement Co-ordination Units ILECUS" was under implementation in 2009. The objective 
of this project is to further strengthen national platforms for international police co-operation, 
through the establishment of International Law Enforcement Co-ordination Units, with a view 
to support the exchange of information in international investigations, and facilitate contacts 
on an operational level. Several meetings, information  exchange visits and study visits took 
place with the goal to intensify cooperation. Know-how transfer started according to schedule. 

Under the CARDS Regional Action Programme 2006 the project "Support to the Prosecutors' 
Network"  was  under  implementation  in  2009.  The  project  should  strengthen  the  established 
prosecutors'  network  and  provide  support  for  the  identified  gap  areas.  The  activities  carried 
out were in line with the work plan. Several meetings and visits took place; Expert opinions 
on  the  field  were  provided;  Agreement  on  the  amendment  to  the  Memorandum  of 
Understanding (MoU) for Regional Co-operation against Organised crime was reached. The 
project "Development of monitoring instruments for judicial and law enforcement institutions 
in  the  Western  Balkans"  was  launched  in  February  2009  for  a  duration  of  24  months.  The 
objective  is  to  develop  a  corpus  of  regionally  harmonised  and  coherent  indicators,  in 
compliance with EU best practices, and standards established by Europol, that would enable 
the  judicial  and  policing  institutions  in  the  Western  Balkan  countries  to  monitor  and  assess 
their  activities,  results  and  performances.  All  focal  points  were  identified,  selected  and 
recruited.  Several  on-site  research  visits  were  carried  out.  A  contribution  agreement  was 
signed  with  UNODC  in  October  2009  for  the  project  “Assessment  of  Corruption  in  the 
Western Balkans”. The project will start its implementation in 2010. The overall objective is 
to provide an evidence-based assessment of corruption nature and patterns in the region and in 
each  Western  Balkan  country/territory,  as  well  as  to  strengthen  capacity  to  conduct 
sustainable and regionally comparable assessments.  

22.1.4.  Cross-Border Institution Building (CBIB)  

In  November  2008,  a  service  contract  (approximate  budget:  EUR  1.5  million)  for  the 
implementation  of  the  second  phase  of  Cross-Border  Institution  Building  (CBIB  II)  was 
initiated  with  a  view  to  providing  coherent  and  harmonised  assistance  and  guidance  at 

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regional  level  for  the  programming  and  implementation  of  current  and  future  IPA  CBC 
programmes among Western Balkan Beneficiaries.  

CBIB  II  already  boasts  numerous  achievements,  including:  support  provided  for  the 
preparation  of  the  first  round  of  Calls  for  Proposals  (CfPs)  for  eight  CBC  programmes; 
support to the organisation of 38 information sessions/kick-off events/partner search forums; 
six three-day trainings on the evaluation of grant applications received during the 1st round of 
CfPs held for members of the Joint Monitoring Committees, staff of the Operating Structures 
and Joint Technical Secretariats/Antennae and assessors in six countries; revision of the MIS 
system according to the CBC requirements to be used for efficient and effective programme 
management,  implementation  and  monitoring  of  eight  programmes  among  Western  Balkan 
countries;  fifteen  training  events  on  how  to  prepare  good  quality  project  proposals  held  in 
three  countries  (Montenegro,  Albania  and  the  former  Yugoslav  Republic  of  Macedonia)  for 
313 potential applicants; CBIB website redesigned and upgraded, averaging 2000 visitors per 
month; etc. 

22.1.5.  Civil Society Dialogue and Development 

The actions aim to increase capacity and actions of Civil Society Organisations and improve 
the democratic role of Civil Society Organisations. 

The main general activities under these projects were: Awareness raising campaigns; Training 
of  NGOs;  Training  of  staff,  trainers,  beneficiaries,  representatives  of  the  target  group,  etc.; 
Advisory  services;  Internships;  Management  courses  (including  on  fundraising,  PR  and 
lobbying);  Transfer  of  specific  technical  know-how;  Study  visits  and  work  placements; 
Thematic seminars, workshops, conferences (to present project results to a wider audience of 
interest  specialists)  and  other  dissemination  actions;  Meetings/campaigns  to  raise  the 
awareness of the local population and/or the authorities; Publications of manuals, leaflets, on 
best  practices;  Establishment  or  development  of  new  services;  Network  building; 
Establishment  of  best  practice  and  procedures;  Other  human  and  institutional  capacity 
building measures; Activities assuring institutional support (e.g. steering committees); TV co-
productions documentaries. 

The following programmes were under implementation in 2009:  

-  Multi-beneficiary  PHARE  Business  Support  Programme  (BSP)  for  Bulgaria,  Romania, 
Croatia  and  Turkey.  The  programme  addressed  the  needs  of  Business  Representative 
Organisations  (BROs)  in  the  industrial  sector  by  strengthening  their  corporate  functioning 
and  by  providing  training  in  the  relevant  acquis.  It  also  enabled  these  BROs  to  assist 
businesses  in  assessing  whether  they  comply  with  the  acquis  allowing  them  to  implement 
remedial measures. Important progress has been achieved in setting up legal and motivated 
BROs.  Following  two  calls  for  proposals,  18  projects  were  selected  for  funding.  The 
implementation of the projects ended in June 2009. The vast majority of the final reports of 
the  projects  were  received  and  analysed.  Overall,  one  may  conclude  that  business 
representative  organisations  within  the  Beneficiaries  have  increased  their  understanding  on 
the  essential  acquis  in  their  sector.  However,  a  follow-up  involving  other  segments  of  the 
civil  society  is  called  for.  Furthermore,  the  advocacy  capacity  and  management  of  the 
business representative organisations should be further improved. 

-  Civil  Society  Dialogue  and  People  to  People  Project  under  the  CARDS  Regional  Action 
Programme 2006:  The contracts that were signed during the second quarter of 2009 with 8 

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organisations for a maximum project duration of 24 months are progressing well according to 
schedule. 

22.2.  Economic Criteria 

IFI Cooperation and Competitiveness 

The  general  purpose  of  the  actions  aim  to:  1)  help  Beneficiaries  to  improve  the  access  to 
finance for private investments, in particular for SMEs; 2) financially assist the promotion of 
investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy; and 3) support the development and 
upgrading  of  transport,  environment,  and  energy  infrastructure  and  in  the  social  field, 
contributing to sustainable development in the region.  

(i) Support to private investments 

- SME Finance Facility (SMEFF): The aim is to assist the Beneficiaries in strengthening their 
financial sectors in order to cope with the competitive pressure and market forces within the 
EU and to strengthen the capacity of financial intermediaries to expand and maintain in the 
long  term  their  financing  operations  with  SMEs.  During  2009,  there  were  15  programmes 
under  implementation.  Some  new  projects  and  several  amendments  to  projects  were 
approved.  Several  loan  agreement  compliance  checks  were  executed.  KfW  transferred  the 
related IFI business from Frankfurt to its branch in Berlin.  

-European  Fund  for  Southeast  Europe  (EFSE):  The  aim  is  to  foster  economic  development 
and prosperity in Southeast Europe through sustainable provision of additional development 
finance, notably to the small and micro enterprise sector, and to private households via local 
financial institutions. The programme under implementation was funded out of CARDS 2006.  

-  Investment  Promotion/Business  Climate:  The  aim  is  to  promote  sustainable  economic 
development,  to  improve  competitiveness  of  enterprises  and  to  establish  a  business 
environment in the Western Balkans that will attract FDI. The main activities developed have 
been supporting the attraction of direct investments from the demand side (i.e. marketing the 
region  among  potential  foreign  direct  investors)  and  the  supply  side  (i.e.  raising  awareness 
among the region's policy makers on action to take to promote foreign direct investments.) 

There were two projects under implementation:  

-“Defining  and  Strengthening  Sector  Specific  Sources  of  Competitiveness  in  the 
Western  Balkans  region”  –  EUR  1  million  -  funded  under  the  Regional  Action  Programme 
CARDS 2005. From the supply side: The OECD Investment Compact for South East Europe's 
project  is  dealing  with  the  identification  and  prioritisation  of  key  sectors  with  high  growth 
potential followed by the definition of an investment promotion strategy for the region and the 
elaboration  of  action  plans  concerning  policy  reforms  implementing  this  strategy  in  each 
country.    The  financial  situation  had  direct  consequences  on  the  implementation  of  the 
project, making necessary an extension of the duration of the project. 

-“European  Investor  Outreach  Programme  -Phase  2”  –  renamed  into  Invest  in  the 
Western Balkans Programme funded under the CARDS Regional Action Programme 2005 -  
EUR  1  million.  From  the  demand  side:  FIAS/IFC12 (World  Bank  Group)' Investment in  the 

12 

FIAS: Multi-Donor Investment Climate Advisory Service; IFC: International Finance Corporation 

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Western Balkans Programme is a marketing and investment facilitation programme focusing 
on automotive components, food and beverages, information and communications technology 
(ICT), business services, textiles and pharmaceuticals; it consists of targeted dissemination of 
business  and  factor  cost 
investors; 
information  of  most  relevance 
implementation  of  regional  image  building  activities;  establishment  of  country  desk  officer 
functions and traineeships at the Invest in the Western Balkans Programme office in Vienna 
for staff members of the beneficiary organisations, capacity building and institutional support 
for the beneficiary Investment Promotion Agencies.  

to  prospective 

The findings of both projects showed that one of the main challenges for the region in terms 
of  competitiveness  in  the  medium  term  is  to  deal  with  human  capital  development  and  the 
generation of innovation. These findings have been taken into consideration for the regional 
programming 2009. 

(ii) Promotion of energy efficiency investments 

- Energy Efficiency Finance Facility (EEFF): The aim is to financially assist the Beneficiaries 
to  promote  investments  in  energy  efficiency  and  renewable  energy  generation  in  order  to 
improve  the  energy  performance  of  the  building  and  industry  sectors.  There  were  three 
PHARE  programmes  under  implementation.  The  international  financial  institutions  (IFIs) 
expressed  their  wish  to  amend  the  Contribution  Agreements  in  order  to  include  renewable 
energy  projects.  Given  the  current  market  conditions  following  the  financial  crisis,  the  IFIs 
consider  that  the  inclusion  of  such  projects  would  facilitate  the  further  development  of  the 
facility. Only a few projects were approved during 2009. Further contributions continue under 
IPA. 

(iii) Support to infrastructure investments, including Municipalities.  

- Municipal Finance Facility (MFF): The aim is to assist the Beneficiaries in contributing to 
the  reform  and  the  strengthening  of  the  financial  sector.  There  were  eleven  PHARE 
programmes  under  implementation.  Some  new  projects  were  approved.  The  EIB  and  KfW 
committed all the funds for MFF 2002 and 2003, but the implementation of MFF 2005 and 
MFF 2006 was challenging due to the present market restrictions associated with the on-going 
financial crisis. 

For the EBRD commitment, the pace of disbursement of grants under committed projects was 
still slow but improving. 

-Municipal  Infrastructure  Facility  (MIF):  The  aim  is  to  contribute  to  the  environmentally 
sustainable  social  and  economic  development  of  border  regions  in  the  Beneficiaries  and  to 
their integration with their neighbouring regions in the current EU Member States. There were 
two  PHARE  programmes  under  implementation.  The  MIF  programmes  are  already  fully 
allocated.  Only  disbursement  continued  since  the  contracting  period  with  local  financial 
intermediaries expired.   

-Infrastructure  Projects  Facility  (IPF)  -  EUR  15.122  million  allocated  under  the  Regional 
Action Programme CARDS 2005 and 2006. Additional resources continue under IPA 2008. 
The  aim  is  to  support  the  development  and  upgrading  of  infrastructures  in  transport, 
environment, and energy and the social field, so as to contribute to creating the conditions for 
sustainable development in the region. During 2009, discussions took place on the transition 
of the IPF management structures – an operational Secretariat and a Steering Committee - into 
the  Western  Balkans  Investment  Framework  (WBIF)  structures.  Efforts  concentrated  on  the 

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implementation of as many projects as possible out of the 27 first and second round projects 
and  considerable  progress  was  made.  Terms  of  reference  were  written  for  25  of  the  27 
projects. The number of projects under implementation increased from 15 to 20. Out of these 
20  projects  7  have  completed  their  first  stage.  Project  financing  –  the  provisional  financing 
identified on the first 11 project exceeded EUR 350 million. A project web site was initiated. 

The support to the IPF in the social sectors is a parallel framework contract EUR 0.2 million 
aimed  at  facilitating  the  mapping  and  identification  of  social  policies  and  strategies  in  the 
region. At the end of December 2009 the contract was at a standstill since since performance 
of expert was not considered satisfactory. 

22.3.  European Standards 

Transport 

The aim is to support the development of the South East Europe Transport Core Network with 
focus  on  road  safety  and  railways  and  the  implementation  of  the  European  Common  Civil 
Aviation Area Agreement in each Beneficiary. 

There were two projects under implementation in 2009:  

- “Support to the SEETO Secretariat” – EUR 944 070: The purpose of the project is to assist 
the  participants  in  the  SEE  Core  Regional  Transport  Network  for  implementing  the  2007-
2011 Multi Annual Plan (MAP) soft measures in the 1) Railways sub-sector with focus on: 
(i)  Infrastructure  Access  &  Pricing  Regime  and  Network  Statements;  and  (ii)  Railways 
border  crossing;  and  in  the  2)  Roads  sub-sector,  with  focus  on  Road  Safety  Auditing.  The 
project  has  been  completed  and  the  results  have  been  presented  at  the  Annual  Ministerial 
Meeting of SEETO held in Zagreb on 3 December 2009. The most important results related 
to  the  Railways  Component  were:  a  draft  regulatory  manual  (RM)  for  a  harmonised 
infrastructure changing regime; a draft harmonised Network Statement (NS); Actions Plans 
for the completion of RM and endorsment of NS; A draft Regional Plan to improve regional 
railways  operations  at  border  crossing;  and  action  plan  for  greater  integration  of  railway 
border  crossing  policies.  The  most  important  results  related  to  the  Road  Safety  Auditing 
Component were: a draft short term Road Safety Strategy; a proposal for law and regulations 
to  implement  mandatory  RSA;  a  draft  Road  Safety  Audit  Manual;  a  standardised  set  of 
common road safety auditing procedures; a draft RSA agreement and an Action Plan for its 
implementation; and testing RSA procedures through pilot projects with reference to design 
documents and existing roads on the core road network. 

- “Technical Assistance to the implementation of the ECAA Agreement”– EUR 985 000 under 
the  CARDS  Regional  Action  Programme  2006:  It  aims  at  providing  support  in  the  form  of 
long term / short term expert assignments, translation services, training, workshops, seminars 
and study visits to similar size national administration in EU Member States, in the fields of: 
aviation  legislation,  economic  regulation,  aviation  safety,  air  traffic  management,  aviation 
security and airports regulation. The contract is currently providing legal, translation and on-
the-job  training  assistance  to  the  beneficiaries.  The  annual  ECAA  meeting  saw  the 
participation of the lead expert presenting the state of advancement of the contract and of the 
legislation acquisition. Good working cooperation was established between the contractor and 
the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) as well as the Integrated Standby Instrument 
System (ISIS). 

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Customs and Taxation 

The aim is to ensure that systems and documentation in the area of taxation and customs are 
planned and developed in accordance with EU requirements.  

There were two projects under implementation during 2009:  

- TACTA 2 under CARDS 2006 Annual Action Programme for Community Assistance to the 
Customs and Taxation authorities (CAFAO) of the Western Balkans (excluding Croatia) was 
a prolongation of the main TACTA project (EUR 7.10 million), which had ended in February 
2009, in order to complete the project satisfactorily for the further alignment of customs and 
indirect tax legislation and procedures with the acquis and the delivery of technical assistance 
on  direct  taxation.  The  final  conference  took  place  in  Florence  on  16  October  2009  for  the 
presentation of the overall TACTA results and to set out the direction for future cooperation. 
Most of the beneficiary Customs and/or Taxation Directors were present at the meeting. They 
stated their great appreciation of the TACTA project and expressed their hopes that it would 
be possible to continue with regioanl activities as initiated by TACTA in the near future. 

-  SEMS13  -  EUR  429  914  under  CARDS  Serbia  and  Montenegro  State  Union  Action 
Programme - Customs and Taxes 2005: The project, which ended on 1 July 2009, supported 
current  applications  in  the  region  and  to  adopt  “SEMS”  as  the  regional  standard  for 
information exchange. The objectives of SEMS were to sustain administrative capacity in the 
exchange  of  information  and  to  familiarise  beneficiaries  with  the  concept  of  the  electronic 
exchange of data as well as to establish a bridge in administrative cooperation. It is intended 
to continue with a similar project under IPA 2010. 

Statistics 

The  aim  is  to  upgrade  and  strengthen  the  statistical  systems  in  the  Western  Balkans  in 
particular in macro-economic, price, external trade, agricultural, demographic and social and 
business  statistics.  The  main  activities  developed  included:  expert  missions,  workshops  and 
seminars,  financing  of  data  collection  as  well  as  general  statistical  assistance,  including  the 
participation  of  experts  from  Beneficiaries  in  technical  meetings  organised  by  Eurostat  and 
other  Commission  services,  study  visits  to  official  statistics  providers  in  Europe,  training, 
consultation visits and traineeships. 

The  project  “Multi-beneficiary  Programme  -  Statistical  cooperation  for  Bulgaria,  Croatia, 
Romania  and  Turkey  2006  –  EUR  12  million,  January  2008  –  December  2010”  was  under 
implementation. Activities in one service contract ended as scheduled and Eurostat received 
the  final  report.  Implementation  of  activities  covered  by  the  other  service  contract  and  four 
grant  contracts  continued  and  interim  reports  were  received.  An  extensive  amendment  for 
Turkey was signed in November 2009. Further support is provided under IPA. 

Environment 

To  support  candidate  countries  and  potential  candidates  to  develop  the  capacities,  tools, 
mechansims,  frameworks  and  cooperation  needed  to  cope  with  the  challenges  faced  in  the 
field of environment (including climate change) on their way to the EU accession. 

13 

South-East European Messaging System 

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There were three projects under implementation:  

-  "Support  for  Implementation  of  the  Regional  Environmental  Reconstruction  Programme 
(REReP)  for  SEE”  –  EUR  1  million  under  the  CARDS  Regional  Action  Programme  2005. 
REReP is promoted as an effective assistance mechanism with transferred lessons learnt. All 
REReP activities (meetings, workshops, study tours) took place till the end of June 2009. In 
July and August 2009 the work focused on the remaining publications: 

-  A Decade’s Difference, Highlights of REReP from 2005-2008; 
-  Environmental Infrastructure Investments in SEE, Priority Environmental Investment 

Programme for SEE 

-  Manual I “Strategies for Reform – a manual for water utilities in SEE”; 
-  Manual II “Speeding up investments in the waste sector”  

In parallel to that the last updates of the web sites took place. 

The  project  ended  on  3  September  2009.  Computers  have  been  handed  over  to  the  project 
beneficiaries/SEE ministries of environment. A few issues were observed, such as: difference 
of appropriation levels within the beneficiaries, lack of continuity in some beneficiaries; and 
need for beneficiaries to now move towards more practical activities addressing their specific 
needs. However, it can be concluded that the project was useful, there has been a good project 
management and results are achieved.   

-  “Support  to  the  'Environmental  Compliance  and  Enforcement  Network  for  Accession' 
(ECENA)” – EUR 1 million under the CARDS Regional Action Programme 2005. ECENA 
is a network of environmental inspectors and experts of the Western Balkans and Turkey to 
exchange 'best practice' in the field of following up compliance with the transposed acquis  in 
the field of environment. The fourth annual ECENA meeting was held in Brussels in October 
2009.  On-going  support  to  the  activities  of  the  ECENA  Secretariat  has  been  provided  in 
2009;  train-the-trainer  activities  have  been  carried  out,  training  manuals  produced  and 
training modules have been designed, including with the collaboration of Interpol.  

-  “PHARE  Environment  and  Enlargement  2006”  –  EUR  4.5  million  –  sub-delegated  to  
DG  Environment:  Several  components  were  under  implementation:  complementing  the 
capacity building provided through the individual twinning grants by setting up an “E-mail-
network” and conducting a workshop for the grant beneficiaries; improving the transparency 
and  relations  between  the  NGOs  and  DG  Environment  (NGO  Forum);  provision  of  NGO 
twinning  grants;  IMPEL/ECENA;  progress  monitoring  Turkey  and  Croatia;  DABLAS  Task 
Force: preparation of investment projects on water and waste water, as well as methodological 
guidance. All activities were implemented according to schedule. 

Nuclear safety and radiation protection 

The  aim  is  to  enhance  the  technical  competence  and  administrative  capacity  of  the  national 
radiation  safety  authorities  and  other  relevant  public  organisations,  to  contribute  to  align 
national  legislation  and  regulations  in  the  nuclear  field  with  the  acquis  and  to  support 
construction, fitting out and/or upgrading of facilities involving the handling and management 
of radionuclides according to best EU practices.  

PHARE/Transition Facility Nuclear Safety Programmes aiming to improve nuclear safety in 
the Central and Eastern European Countries. Both programmes are terminated and only a very 
few number of projects were still running.  

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- Enhancement of Romanian Nuclear Regulatory Authority staff capabilities with the view to 
evaluating the Periodic Safety Review for Cernavoda NPP Unit 1 (PHARE 2006 - Romania) 
was successfully completed in November 2009.  

- Border Control of Nuclear and other Radioactive Materials with Stationary Portal Monitors 
(PHARE 2006- Croatia) has been extended by 12 months. Problems occurred in the delivery 
of one basic component for detecting neutrons, i.e. Helium-3.   

-  Radiological  Safety  in  Uranium  Mining  and  Milling  Facilities  (Transition  Facility  2007  - 
Romania) has started its implementation at the end of 2009. 

- Support to VATESI in Safety Assessment of Ignalina NPP (PHARE 2006 - Lithuania) was 
successfully completed in December 2009. 

- Technical back-up to PHARE/IPA nuclear activities, Joint Research Centre-Petten (PHARE 
2007)  was  extended  until  31st  March  2010  due  to  delays  experienced  by  the  beneficiary 
organisations in the preparation of Terms of Reference for projects.  

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Part III: Financial data at 31st December 2009 

23. 

PHARE, TURKEY  PRE-ACCESSION  AND  TRANSITION  FACILITY  FUNDS  COMMITTED 
BY YEAR 1990 – 200714 

Financial Overview and Performance 

Year 
1990 
1991 
1992 
1993 
1994 
1995 
1996 
1997 
1998 
1999 
2000 
2001 
2002 
2003 
2004 
2005 
2006 
2007 

Funds Committed 

475.3
769.7
979.6
966.1
946.1
1.114.0
1.207.8
1.135.1
1.153.9
1.481.7
1.651.5
1.635.4
1.695.1
1.698.1
1.240.5
1.353.9
1.772.2
78.2

24. 

PHARE,  TURKEY 
IMPLEMENTATION BY COUNTRY AT THE END OF 2009 

PRE-ACCESSION  AND  TRANSITION 

FACILITY 

FUNDS 

Total commitments, contracts and payments, in million EUR15 

Partner Country 
Bulgaria 
Czech republic 
Croatia 
Cyprus(*) 
Czechoslovakia 
East Germany 
Estonia 
Hungary 
Latvia 
Lithuania 

Commitments   Contracts  

Payments  

2,359.63
917.24
144.60
338.01
230.49
34.49
346.84
1,480.06
423.61
810.27

1,873.47
835.68
108.09
209.64
231.82
28.86
312.66
1,364.75
385.05
752.68

1,800.39 
834.06 
79.40 
114.74 
228.88 
28.86 
312.43 
1,362.63 
383.83 
751.55 

14  

15  

The  last  commitment  year  for  PHARE  and  the  Turkey  Pre-Accession  instrument  was  2006.  2007 
commitments relate to the Transition Facility only  
Instances of contracted amounts being slightly above allocations are due to interest accruing assigned to 
the programmes. Instances of decreasing contracted and paid amounts when compared to last year are 
explained by closures and de-commitments by the local authorities and by the Commission. Payments 
can also decrease due to some local contracts being excluded from the final declarations 

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Malta 
Multi-country programmes 
Poland 
Romania 
Slovakia 
Slovenia 
Turkey 
Total 

57.11
3,357.05
3,995.99
3,670.00
717.59
360.33
1,861.95
21,105.26

48.76
2,779.82
3,635.22
3,223.14
653.93
333.70
1,379.14
18,156.41

46.88 
2,640.97 
3,618.11  
2,956.94 
633.14 
332.66 
1,234.95 
17,360.42 

(*)  

Including assistance to the Turkish Cypriot Community 

25. 

CARDS FUNDS COMMITTED BY YEAR 2000 – 200616 

Year 
2000 
2001 
2002 
2003 
2004 
200517 
2006 

Funds Committed 

834.2
688.9
645.4
602.8
641.4
505.0
482.8

26. 

CARDS FUNDS IMPLEMENTATION BY COUNTRY AT THE END OF 2009 

Total commitments, contracts and payments, in million EUR18 

Partner Country 
Albania 
Bosnia & Herzegovina 
Croatia 
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 
Kosovo 
Montenegro 
Serbia20 
Regional Programme21 
Total 

Commitments   Contracts19   Payments  
234.20
420.54
250.32
287.77
705.38
124.87
1 295.22
537.13
3 855.43

274.23 
438.67 
251.93 
293.30 
715.81 
125.70 
1 362.11 
561.23 
4 022.99 

310.03
467.14
276.84
307.87
727.18
127.40
1 396.63
583.36
4 196.45

16  

17 

18  

19  

20 

21 

As of 2007 the CARDS instrument was replaced by the new Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance 
(IPA). The last commitment year for CARDS was 2006 
Figures for 2005 and 2006 include re-use of recoveries from previous years (i.e. are above the original 
budgetary allocations) 
The difference with the figures available in Part I (Country Section) is explained by the fact that those 
figures  include  only  Annual  Action  Programmes  from  2001,  while  not  including  other  programmes 
managed centrally, such as Customs and Taxation. Amounts allocated to support the running costs of 
the  European Agency  for  Reconstruction  and of  the  Office  of  the High  Representative  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  may  also  be  excluded  from  tables  in  Part  I,  as  well  as  amounts  allocated  to  support  the 
operating costs of the EU pillar of UNMIK in Kosovo  
Increased contracting for CARDS in 2009 is explained by the use of N+3 as contracting deadline (“N” 
being the commitment year)  
Includes  Montenegro  in  2000-2001;  includes  assistance  from  the  Regional  Programme  for  Integrated 
Border  Management  destined  for  the  whole  of  FRY/Serbia  and  Montenegro  for  2002-2003  (in  2004, 
this is included in the regional programme); includes EUR 8 million commitments for the Serbia and 
Montenegro State Union (2005) 
Includes EUR 215.8 million commitments for interim civilian administrations 

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EN 

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