European Commission: Strategy Paper and Report 2003

Pre-accession assistance

The Commission will propose to revise next year the Accession Partnerships for Bulgaria and Romania in the light of the findings of the Regular Reports and the roadmaps. The Accession Partnerships will continue to be the basis for programming pre-accession assistance, but priorities for assistance will also be drawn from roadmaps, Regular Reports and revised National Development Plans. Phare assistance will continue to focus on strengthening public administration and the judiciary, institution building, investment related to the adoption of the acquis as well as economic and social cohesion and cross-border co-operation. Work on extending decentralised implementation systems should be accelerated. With regard to SAPARD, although it is already fully decentralised, the instrument will continue to prepare the candidate countries in terms of agricultural structures and rural development as well as strengthening the related institutional capacity. ISPA will continue to provide financial support to infrastructure investments in the field of environment and transport.

The Commission considers that financial assistance to Bulgaria and Romania should be increased considerably from the date of the first round of accessions, linked to progress in implementing the roadmaps and their absorption capacity..