European Commission: Strategy Paper and Report 2003

Reinforcing administrative and judicial capacity

The Commission attaches the greatest importance to ensuring that the candidates further reinforce their administrative and judicial capacity. It is an essential requirement for creating mutual trust among Member States, indispensable for membership. In its 1997 Opinions and subsequent Regular Reports, the Commission has carefully monitored the progress made by each country in this area. Large parts of the Community pre-accession assistance have been programmed since the early 1990s to help candidates in their efforts to build and reinforce their administrative and judicial structures.

As announced in its 2001 Enlargement Strategy Paper, Making a success of enlargement, the Commission has prepared in the first quarter of 2002 jointly with each negotiating country an Action Plan to reinforce their administrative and judicial capacity. Based on the 2002 Accession Partnership priorities, the Action Plans identify the concrete measures that remain to be taken for each country to achieve an adequate level of administrative capacity by the time of accession.

The Action Plans identify targeted assistance required to support the countries in their efforts. For that purpose, the Commission has mobilised additional financial assistance of up to EUR 250 million in 2002 to accompany these efforts, bringing the Community's total support to strengthen the administrative and judicial capacity of the negotiating countries in 2002 to around EUR 1 billion.

Furthermore, the Action Plans note the relevant commitments made in the negotiations and any additional monitoring actions, in particular peer reviews, that may be required in certain areas to assess each country's preparations. All 12 negotiating countries have been subject to peer reviews to different degrees. In total, 205 peer reviews have been conducted through the Technical Assistance Information Office (TAIEX) in 17 sectors and involving the mobilisation of over 800 experts (details provided in Annex 5). Some peer reviews, in the financial control sector, have been organised through Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA), while the Commission services have themselves undertaken a number of monitoring actions in other areas. A special peer review on nuclear safety was carried out during the first half of 2002 under the auspices of the Council that resulted in a status report in June 2002.

The exchange of information between experts from equivalent bodies in the candidate countries and Member States is a key component of the peer review exercise. The reports of the peer reviews, which have been made available to the candidate countries and to the Member States, have contributed to the Commission's analysis contained in the Regular Reports. The results of the peer reviews will be used by the candidates to identify further necessary actions. They should also contribute to developing peer assistance activities for the candidates, in order to exchange best practice, in the period up to their accession and beyond.

The Action Plans have given a new impetus to the candidates' efforts in reinforcing their administrative and judicial capacity. On the whole, they are being implemented according to schedule. It is important that candidate countries continue to make sustained efforts in implementing the Action Plans.

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