30/04/2020 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday, 30 April, the European Commission published guidelines on implementing the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance in Rural Development (IPARD) during the Covid-19 crisis. Intended for candidate countries benefitting from this instrument (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey), these guidelines list short-term actions that allow flexibility in the implementation of IPARD funds so as to support and relieve beneficiaries in the current context. The guidelines cover three types of possible actions: actions that can be directly implemented by national authorities, actions that must be approved by the Commission before they can be implemented on a national scale, and actions taken on the Commission’s initiative. Link : https://bit.ly/2zCKt4D (LC)