The Use of EU Funds in Macedonia

Given the short time period in which IPA exists, the literature on pre-accession assistance is scarce. Consequently, the analyses is a result of desk research of the legal framework for establishing and implementation of IPA such as Council regulations, Commission regulations, multiannual indicative planning documents (MIPDs), national programs for IPA Component I TAIB, Commission annual IPA reports, evaluation reports, project fiches, Commission annual progress reports, well as national strategic documents such as National program for adoption of EU acquis. Important insight into the implementation of the funds was obtained through field research and interviews with the relevant representatives of the EU Delegation in Skopje, ministries, project beneficiaries and project implementation teams. The scope of the analyses is limited to the projects from the National TAIB annual programs 2007 and 2008 which were recently finalized or which are in final stage of implementation and as such could be observed. Most of the projects from the National TAIB annual program 2009 have not been contracted yet and they were taken in consideration only to the extent relevant to the topic.

Composed of four parts, the analyses will proceed as follows: overview on the key priorities of the EU Enlargement policy and the pre-accession assistance instruments, the Copenhagen criteria, including the political criteria will be given in the first part; in the second part, the focus will shift on pre-accession assistance in Republic of Macedonia, IPA and Component I Transition Assistance and Institution Building and how it support the political criteria and the national institutions for guaranteeing democracy, rule of law, human rights, protection of minorities; in the third part, the initial experiences from the implementation are explored, the prospects for efficiency, absorption and impact; finally the fourth part provides for the conclusions.

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