Brussels, 03/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - After Bulgaria (28 May) and Estonia recently, it is probable that five other countries from Central and Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Latvia, Poland then Slovenia and the Czech Republic) could benefit, this year, from the European Commission payment order, necessary for the allocation of the first pre-accession agricultural aids in the framework of the SAPARD programme (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development). What was revealed on Tuesday by a European civil servant, during the adoption, by the Commission, of an annual report on the economic efforts undertaken in 2000 by the CEECs with regards to the establishment of systems guaranteeing the proper management of the SAPARD instruments.
According to this civil servant who kept himself from stigmatising the delays of the candidate countries, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia are "slower" in their efforts aiming to fulfil the required criteria. This slowness is attributed to the fact that they do not have a policy on State aids permitting to grant subsidies in the private sector. As none of the CEEC was ready to receive the first aids in 2000, though included in the 2000 budget, the payment credits will be paid until the end of 2002 (this rule applies to structural funds in case of delays in the programming), or even until the end of 2003 if there are reasons justifying this delay.
In the report adopted on Tuesday, the Commission feels that the candidate countries have accomplished significant progress in 2000, which is translated by the approval of their programmes in the autumn of the same year. The report insists on the considerable challenge represented by the establishment of the appropriate institutions, notably the SAPARD body, which have often been created from scratch. Despite the progress achieved, these efforts are not sufficient in certain cases to allow for the granting of SAPARD funds before the end of 2001. The report returns to the significant number of steps to be crossed when taking into account the "unorthodox" nature of the process: definition of the legal framework, approval of the programmes, conclusion of bilateral financing conventions, creation and accreditation of SAPARD bodies. He notes the predominance of three forms of measures in practically all the programmes: - structural improvements in the sector of processing and marketing (EUR 954 million, or 26% of the total Community contribution); - investment in rural farms (EUR 797 million, or 22% of the total funds foreseen); - development of rural infrastructures (EUR 795 million, or 21% of the total amount of aid foreseen). SAPARD differs from other pre-accession programmes such as Phare or ISPA, to the extent that the Commission does not intervene in the main aspects of the implementation process. This is more a case of a "centralised management" process, the candidate countries assuming full responsibility for the projects, as is underlined by the report adopted on Tuesday.