The political advisor of the head of the EU Delegation to BiH and the Special Representative of the EU to BiH Orlando Fusco presented the new concept of the Pre-Accession Assistance of the IPA II for 2014-2020 in Sarajevo yesterday.
In the framework of the second component of the IPA-Cross-border cooperation, BiH is participating in six programs: in three bilateral cross-border cooperation programs with Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, in one program of cross-border cooperation with EU member states-IPA Adriatic program, and in two programs of trans-national cooperation of South East Europe (SEE) and Mediterranean (MED).
“Implementing the rules at this point is not yet in force and it is expected that during this year until the third quarter it will be adopted. The legal basis is not yet complete so we cannot talk about the exact amount of money that would be allocated to this instrument’’, said Fusco.
However, in terms of this proposal regulation, or decree, it states that they talked about 14,1 billion euros, which will increase expansion in a comprehensive package.
Talking about major changes in IPA II in comparison to IPA I, it states that it will have the same access as candidate countries and potential candidate countries.
Specifically, the five components of IPA are divided in two categories. The first consists of two components and part is only available to potential candidate countries, while candidate countries have access to all components of IPA.
“With regard to the structure of the instrument as a whole, it will no longer be tied to the components but rather it would be connected to the area of politics. This means the difference is that the structure would be defined and managed by the national strategy, which should run each of these five area’’, said Fusco.
The third change is defined in terms of increased interest on the results and impact of assistance in order to ensure that the aid is actually producing results and has the biggest possible impact.
In this sense, there is a new document in IPA II that comes from the structural funds of the EU called the common strategic framework, which is a comprehensive document that helps to define a number of different things, such as general political priorities. This document will be adopted soon.
“This requests an assessment of needs and capacities in countries, because it is necessary in order to conduct an effective program. Also, there has to be commitment to reforms in these countries’’, explained Fusco.
The second document is something more specific and relates to the strategic documents of individual countries. They are getting ready, and formal adoption, as he puts it, will follow in the first quarter of 2014.
From this it follows that we have an important program document for each country, which will be ready for adoption in the second half of 2013. This is being done in BiH, where institutions in detail are locating specific sums of money for various parts of assistance.
“The main motive in IPA II is a link that should be strengthened between aid and agenda on the level of politics. We want to help countries attain what they want, and the agenda, the policy plan is something that guides us in lending financial assistance in the future’’, said Fusco.
In the second component of IPA there is also a greater balance between aspects of aid regarding the strengthening of administrative capacity.
He said that in the next period in IPA II greater attention will be emphasized for socio-economic development and projects in this field, and one of the principles would be greater responsibility of local bodies.
He said that the main points of IPA II are financial assistance, which will be closely associated with the policy plan and strengthening of local responsibility in design strategies, fund management and implementation of projects.
He concluded that the application for planning assistance of IPA II will be an effective coordination mechanism of the EU.
