Commission Report 2002 (Slovakia)

Community Assistance

Three pre-accession instruments have been financed by the European Community to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their pre-accession preparations: the Phare programme; SAPARD, which provides aid for agricultural and rural development; and ISPA, which finances infrastructure projects in the fields of environment and transport. The support provided by these programmes is focused on the Accession Partnership priorities which are intended to help the candidate countries to meet the criteria for membership.

For the years 2000-2002 total financial assistance to Slovakia amounts to around EUR 80.5 million annually from Phare, EUR 18.6 million from SAPARD, and between 3.5% and 5.5 % of the overall ISPA budget.

The Phare programme has been providing support to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe since 1989, helping them through a period of fundamental economic and social transition and political change. Its current ``pre-accession'' focus was established in 1997, in response to the Luxembourg European Council's launching of the present enlargement process.

Phare provides the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe with support for institution building, investment to strengthen the regulatory infrastructure needed to ensure compliance with the acquis, and investment in economic and social cohesion. This support comprises co-financing for technical assistance, ``twinning'' and investment-support projects, to help these countries with their efforts to adopt the acquis and strengthen the institutions necessary for implementing and enforcing the acquis. Phare also helps the candidate countries develop the mechanisms and institutions that will be needed to implement Structural Funds after accession and is supported by a limited number of measures (investment and grant schemes) with a regional or thematic focus. In the context of the Action Plans for strengthening administrative and judicial capacity, particular emphasis is placed on the issue of institution building and associated investment intended to ensure compliance with the acquis. For 2002, the Commission has mobilised special financial assistance of up to EUR 250 million to accompany negotiating countries' efforts, over and above the indicative annual allocations for each of the Phare countries, bringing total Community assistance for strengthening the administrative and judicial capacity of the negotiating countries in 2002 to around EUR 1 billion.

The Phare programme allocated commitments of EUR 356 million to Slovakia during the 1992-1999 period, EUR 78.8 million in 2000, and EUR 80.5 million in 2001. The 2002 Phare Programme for Slovakia consists of an allocation of EUR 37 million for the National Programme, complemented by EUR 20.1 million under the Phare 2002 supplementary institution building facility. The 2002 Phare programme focuses on the following priorities: Strengthening of the institutional and administrative capacity; Protection of minorities; Internal market; Agriculture; Statistics; Economic and Social Cohesion; Environment; Justice and Home Affairs; Participation in Community Programmes and agencies. The Phare 2002 national allocation for Slovakia includes EUR 12 million for cross-border co-operation programmes.

Slovakia also participates in and benefits from Phare funded multi-country and horizontal programmes, such as TAIEX, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Facility, SIGMA and the nuclear safety programme.

Furthermore, Slovakia participates in several Community programmes such as Leonardo da Vinci II, Socrates II, Youth, Culture 2000, Media Plus, the multi-annual Programme for Enterprises and Entrepreneurship, SAVE, Altener, Gender Equality, Combating Social Exclusion, Combating Discrimination, LIFE III, Fiscalis, and Customs 2002. Following the ratification and entry into force of the agreement, Slovakia's formal participation in the European Environment Agency started in January 2002. In order to streamline Community legal procedures and thereby facilitate Slovakia's future participation in Community programmes, a Decision has been adopted by the Association Council establishing the general principles for such participation.

Overall, the impact of Phare has been positive. Effective transfer of know-how, equipment and financial resources has taken place in a number of important fields such as SME development, trade and investment promotion, the environment, energy, and land registration. Phare support for agriculture and SME development has contributed to the successful development sector strategies and essential institutional and financial mechanisms servicing enterprises in these sectors. For example, in Slovakia, Phare has played a particularly important role in the following:

• To support to civil society, an allocation of EUR 2.5 million was made available to local NGOs, which received small grants for projects in various areas including transparency in public procurement, the fight against corruption, EU integration, regional dialogue, the environment, etc.
• A grant scheme supporting ethnic minorities, notably the Roma population, has been successfully implemented, with a total of 186 grants (worth EUR 1.86 million) approved for a wide range of areas including education, culture, community activities, media, institutional development of minority NGOs, human rights advocacy, Roma voter representation in parliamentary elections, etc.
• A pilot project (EUR 450 000) aimed at improving the situation of the Roma population in the Spis region was launched targeting community development in five Roma settlements and pre-school education for Roma children (ten kindergartens with Roma assistants).
• In the justice and home affairs field, Phare continued to support the reinforcement of effective border control management, co-operation between justice and police aimed at combating organised crime, and the strengthening of the judiciary and the General Prosecution Office
• Support to the SME sector (EUR 11 million) continued to focus on three major priorities in 2001: a) revolving financial support schemes - support loan programme, micro-loan scheme and seed capital, b) counselling and training measures, and (c) SME support policy measures.

The Review also provided for the possibility of further decentralisation of Phare, by waiving the requirement for ex ante approval by the Commission Delegations for tendering and contracting. For this to be possible, strict pre-conditions covering programme management, financial control and structures regarding public finance must be met. An extended decentralised implementation system (EDIS) should be put in place for each negotiating country at the latest by the time of accession. High Level Working Groups are being established for each country to oversee this process, along with other key procedural steps in the run up to accession.

The Commission adopted the Slovak SAPARD Programme in November 2000. The indicative allocation for SAPARD in the Slovak Republic for 2002 is 19.2 million EUR, at 2002 prices (allocation 2001: 19 million EUR, at 2001 prices).

The programme focuses on three major priorities: improvement of agricultural production, including the food industry, by supporting investments in farm holdings, upgrading agri-food enterprises to EC standards and increasing competitiveness; support to sustainable rural development with a view to increasing job opportunities and developing ecologically sound management of natural resources; development of human resources.

The multi-annual Financing Agreement (MAFA), which sets out the rules for implementing SAPARD, and the Annual Financing Agreement (AFA), which sets out the Community financial commitment to the Slovak Republic for the year 2000, were signed in March 2001.

The Annual Financing Agreement (AFA) between the Commission and Slovakia for the 2001 allocation was signed in September 2002 and will enter into force when Slovakia notifies the Commission of the completion of all requisite national formalities.

The following structures are responsible for the implementation of SAPARD: the National Fund, located within the Ministry of Finance, administers SAPARD funds under the responsibility of the National Authorising Officer (NAO) and is responsible for the national accreditation of the SAPARD Agency; the Director-General of the section for structural policy and rural development of the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture (department of regional policy and rural development) is the Management Authority for the SAPARD programme. The SAPARD Agency is responsible for the implementation of the measures as defined in the programme.

In April 2002, the Commission provisionally conferred management authority for the SAPARD programme, on a fully decentralised basis, to the SAPARD Agency under the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture. This decision includes approval of five measures (investments in agricultural enterprises; improvement of processing and marketing of agricultural and fish products; Diversification activities in rural areas (for investments not involving infrastructure); forestry and land consolidation) covering 83% of the amount available for Slovakia.

A Monitoring Committee has been established by the Managing Authority and has met twice.

A national strategy for programming ISPA environment projects was drawn up by the Slovak authorities in 2000. The overall aim of this strategy is to preserve the present quality of the environment and restore damaged and contaminated areas, in order to comply with the Community acquis. Legislative reform, institutional restructuring and environmental investment programmes are planned. As regards the transport sector, the original ISPA strategy drawn up in 2000 was updated in January 2002. The general principles behind this strategy remain unchanged. Priorities include: modernisation and establishment of transport infrastructure in the multi-modal corridors, in line with European norms; development of international road links and their interconnection with the European Road network; integration of passenger transportation systems; and promotion of combined road/rail transport.

For the years 2000 and 2001, the full (mid-range) allocation for Slovakia has been committed, i.e. EUR 90.5 million (EUR 42.5 million in 2000 and EUR 48.5 million in 2001). The allocation for 2002 will be between EUR 38.1 million and EUR 59.9 million.

Four environmental projects were approved in 2001: one technical assistance measure for the preparation of ISPA environment projects (total ISPA funding of EUR 1 million), and three investment projects covering sewage networks and the upgrading of waste water treatment plants in Komarno (EUR 4. million), Zvolen (EUR 5.5 million) and the Dolny Turiec region (EUR 6 million). Two transport projects were approved in 2001: the modernisation of the Bratislava-Cífer railway between Bratislava and Trnava (EUR 58.4 million) and the construction of a motorway section on the D61 in Bratislava (EUR 27.2 million). The viability of some of the environment projects currently being prepared will depend on the ability of the Slovak authorities to bring the implementation structures for these projects into line with the reform of the national water management system.

Delays have occurred in the implementation of ISPA projects due to the poor quality of tender documents prepared by the Implementing Agency for Environment Projects. In the transport sector the first substantial works contract was signed and implementation has begun. Most outstanding tenders for environment projects are currently in preparation. As regards decentralisation of ISPA management (EDIS), the Slovak Government has adopted the requisite legislation. A technical assistance project targeting the National Fund, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Transport and the Office of Government was launched in July, with the aim of preparing the Slovak authorities for EDIS approval by the beginning of 2003.

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