Council Regulation (EC) No 2500/2001 of 17 December 2001 concerning pre-accession financial assistance for Turkey and amending Regulations (EEC) No 3906/89, (EC) No 1267/1999, (EC) No 1268/1999 and (EC) No 555/2000

Council Regulation (EC) No 2500/2001
of 17 December 2001
concerning pre-accession financial assistance for Turkey and amending Regulations (EEC) No 3906/89, (EC) No 1267/1999, (EC) No 1268/1999 and (EC) No 555/2000
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 308 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament(2),
Whereas:
(1) The conditions to be fulfilled by the candidate countries wishing to join the European Union were set out at the Copenhagen European Council of June 1993.
(2) The Helsinki European Council of December 1999 stated that Turkey is a candidate country destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria applied to the other candidate countries and that, building on the existing European Strategy, Turkey, like other candidate countries, will benefit from a pre-accession strategy to stimulate and support its reforms.
(3) The Nice European Council of December 2000 welcomed the progress made in the implementation of the pre-accession strategy for Turkey.
(4) As Turkey does not yet fulfil the political criteria of Copenhagen, the Community has called on it to improve and promote its democratic practices and respect for fundamental human rights and more closely to involve civil society in that process.
(5) The cornerstone of the pre-accession strategy is the Accession Partnership, drawn up on the basis of previous European Council conclusions while containing priorities on which accession preparation are to concentrate in the light of the political and economic criteria and the obligations of a Member State.
(6) For Turkey, the legal basis for the establishment of the Accession Partnership and the single framework for coordinating all sources of pre-accession financial assistance are provided in Council Regulation (EC) No 390/2001 of 26 February 2001 on assistance to Turkey in the framework of the pre-accession strategy, and in particular on the establishment of an Accession Partnership(3).
(7) The principles, priorities, intermediate objectives and conditions for the Accession Partnership with Turkey are contained in Decision 2001/235/EC(4). As is the case for the other candidate countries, assistance for Turkey from the European Union is to be focused on the priorities arising from the Accession Partnership.
(8) It is appropriate that Community assistance be applied mainly through institution-building and investments to promote compliance with the Community acquis.
(9) The Community should undertake specific actions to promote the development of civil society in Turkey.
(10) Cross-border cooperation, particularly in the context of the borders between Turkey and the European Union, between Turkey and other candidate countries and between Turkey and other countries in the region, is also to be the subject of specific actions.
(11) The Commission should ensure that the pre-accession assistance is coordinated with the Member States' bilateral assistance and with funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), other financial instruments for cross-border cooperation (PHARE, MEDA, TACIS, CARDS, Interreg) and other institutional financial institutions.
(12) The Community should co-finance Turkish participation in Community programmes and agencies.
(13) Community assistance should be subject to compliance with the undertakings contained in the EC-Turkey Agreements and the conditions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 390/2001, Decision 2001/235/EC and this Regulation.
(14) The Commission should implement the assistance in accordance with the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(5).
(15) The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(6).
(16) Participation in tenders should be open, as well as to natural and legal persons from the Member States and Turkey, to natural and legal persons from the other candidate countries and from countries benefiting from the financial and technical measures to accompany (MEDA) the reform of economic and social structures in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership(7) and from the assistance for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (CARDS)(8). Such participation should also be open, where specific types of expertise are required, to natural and legal persons from the countries of eastern Europe and central Asia under the provision of assistance to the partner States in eastern Europe and central Asia(9). For reasons of symmetry, similar provisions should be introduced in the assistance programmes for the other candidate countries.
(17) Management of pre-accession assistance should gradually be decentralised to Turkey, taking account of its management and financial control capacities, provided that ex post control of assistance is carried out and the Turkish authorities undertake to carry out the same controls and apply the same guarantees as those laid down in the relevant Community rules.
(18) Annual reports on the implementation of the assistance programme should be established and an evaluation report submitted.
(19) In the financial perspective 2000-2006, the pre-accession financial assistance was doubled for the candidate countries. In the light of the Helsinki European Council, subject to the normal budgetary procedures the aim should be that this principle be applied for Turkey and continue to apply during the remaining period of the current financial perspective.
(20) The Treaty does not provide for powers, other than those of Article 308, for the adoption of this Regulation,