Brussels, 01/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - An audit by the European Court of Auditors of the new European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) has concluded that both the launch of ENPI in the Southern Caucasus and its first achievements were varied across the region, suffering from insufficient preparation and the limited use by the European Commission of the financial tools available to it.
In its report published on Monday 31 January, the Court concludes that the lengthy programming and design process did not suit the fast changing and conflict-affected environment of the Southern Caucasus, endangering the relevance of the assistance. Moreover, programming and design of assistance were not sufficiently guided by a structured dialogue with the beneficiary countries, as the process was largely driven by the internal procedures of the Commission.
The achievements varied across the three countries. In Armenia, the assistance provided by ENPI had positively contributed to strengthening the reform process in the vocational and educational training sector, whereas in Azerbaijan, progress in promoting energy reform was very limited. In Georgia the assistance had only a limited effect on reforming public financial management; ENPI did not yet prove to be an appropriate instrument for building confidence and economic rehabilitation in the conflict region of Abkhazia.
In the three countries, the twinning cooperation mechanism between the governments of the beneficiary countries and their counterparts in EU countries remains in a preparatory phase. The introduction of sector budget support and twinning provided the Commission with alternatives to the technical assistance projects that characterised earlier aid assistance. However, the predominant use of budget support was insufficiently prepared, and this compromised performance. The Court believes that greater streamlining of the programming and design process and more selective use of the sector budget support tool will yield more effective assistance results.
The main ENPI components are the annual action programmes, which granted €311 million to the three southern Caucasus countries for the 2007-2010 period. (L.C./transl.fl)