The Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council and the European Parliament negotiators reached, on Wednesday 2 June, an agreement on the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III). This instrument will be equipped with €14.162 billion in current prices for the period 2021-2027, which will be retroactive from 1 January 2021.
The countries concerned by IPA III are the six Balkan countries that are candidates or potential candidates for EU membership: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, plus Turkey.
The programming of this new instrument will be based on thematic priorities rather than on country envelopes. “This allows to reward performance and progress towards key priorities and increased flexibility to respond to the evolving needs of the partners in their path towards accession”, the Commission said in its statement.
The priorities are: the Rule of law and respect of fundamental values, strengthening democratic institutions and public administration reform, promoting economic governance and reforms towards competitiveness.
The instrument should also strengthen strategic communication and the fight against disinformation, and contribute to climate and environmental protection, human rights and gender equality, says the Parliament in a statement.
For the Parliament, IPA III strengthens conditionality related to democracy, human rights and the Rule of law, and provides for the suspension of aid if governments backtrack on these issues.
The political agreement must now be translated into legal text. The text of the agreement was not yet available on Thursday 3 June, as technical meetings were still ongoing.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the EU Council - by qualified majority - and by the European Parliament. The Member States’ ambassadors could give their approval on 30 June. IPA III is expected to come into force in the autumn. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)