The European Commission was the host of the conference that was held in Brussels, where over 400 participants from beneficiary countries, as well as the EU spoke about the preparations for the new instrument for pre-accession for the period from 2014-2020, entitled IPA 2.
Igor Davidović, the Ambassador of our country in Brussels represented BiH at this conference.
Ways to lend efficient and constructive support to Western Balkan countries, Turkey and Iceland on their path towards the EU was the topic of conversation for many hours.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Fule said that the European Commission, in designing a new instrument for pre-accession assistance, placed an emphasis on greater efficiency that will be achieved by following the rules, and with a reduced number of administrative procedures and bigger possibility in finding the best ways of support.
Otherwise, representatives of the European Commission have already started consultations with BiH institutions and the civil sector, and planned soon are meetings with top officials in BiH.
Even if the precise figure of support to our country has not been determined yet, they believe that it is more than 300 million euros.
In contrast to the first phase of the pre-accession assistance, through which our country has passed, the second phase will involve a slightly different concept of financial help.
So, the European Commission, in the IPA 2 process for countries in the pre-accession phase, is planning two components instead of five, which contain in the areas of development transport, energy, justice and other sectors. As we have written about before, a key requirement for the use of funds from IPA 2 is the establishment of an effective mechanism of coordination in BiH.
