Brussels, 24/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The ISPA Management Committee (Instrument for Structural; Policies for Pre-Accession) has just issued a favourable opinion to 14 new projects that the EU will co-finance in view of help candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe to prepare their accession through undertakings in the environment and transports fields. Last June, the Committee gave its approval to four projects. In the next few days Michel Barnier, Commissioner responsible for Regional Policy, will formally approve the projects on behalf of the Commission and the beneficiary countries will then be able to begin their implementation. Thus, until now, a total of 18 ISPA projects have received the go-ahead. The total amount of investments necessary for the 18 projects approved represents EUR 1,250 million with a ISPA contribution of 825 million (of which around 470 million come from the ISPA budget for the year 2000). All these projects are co-financed by the beneficiary countries. The EIB (Luxembourg) and the EBRD (London) are associated with the development of most of these projects.
Commissioner Barnier announced: "More than 40% of the budget available this year for the new Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession is now ready for approval. The projects will help the candidate countries in their preparation to join the Union and to promote the economic and social cohesion before the enlargement."
The 14 new projects approved concern seven of the ten candidate countries in central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria (two projects in the field of transports), Hungary (two environmental projects), Lithuania (one transport project), Poland (a project relating to rail transport), Romania (a total of five projects: two in the environmental field and three in the transport sector), Slovenia (two projects in the transport and technical assistance sector) and Slovakia (one railways projects). Most of the projects in the environmental sector concern the improvement of the treatment of waste waters (Bydgoszcz, Constanta Györ, etc.), other projects target waste management (Peatri Neamt, Hadju Bihar). In the transports field, a balance was struck between road rehabilitation projects (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.) and rail improvements (Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia). Moreover, an airport reconstruction project has received a favourable opinion (Sofia).
The ISPA is, with PHARE and SAPARD, one of the three Community financial assistance instruments to the benefit of ten Central and Eastern European Countries (Bulgaria, Czech republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia). It supports infrastructure projects in the fields of environment and transports with a total annual budget of EUR 1,040 million for the 2000-2006 period (1999 prices). The allocation of ISPA resources for the beneficiary countries is decided by the Commission which uses criteria based on population, GDP per inhabitant and surface area. The rate of aid can be as high as 75% of eligible public spending, and in exceptional cases up to 85%. The real rate depends on available and potential receipts for co-financing and the application of the "polluter pays" principal.