27 PHARE pre-accession assistance programme
| (24336)
7056/03
COM(03) 97
| Commission Report: The PHARE Programme Annual Report 2001.
|
| Legal base | — |
| Department | International Development
|
| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 20 September 2003
|
| Previous Committee Report | HC 63-xviii (2002-03), paragraph 9 (9 April 2003)
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| To be discussed in Council | None planned
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared (decision reported on 9 April 2003)
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Background
27.1 PHARE is one of the three EC pre-accession instruments, the
other two being ISPA[55]
and SAPARD.[56] The
guidelines for the programme were revised in 1999, to take account
of these other two programmes, so that it is now designed to assist
the ten candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe in incorporating
the acquis, and the funds now focus on the pre-accession
priorities identified in each applicants Accession Partnership.
27.2 When we considered the annual report on PHARE
in April,[57] we cleared
it but asked to be kept informed of the Government's view of the
effectiveness of the administration of the pre-accession programmes,
to which the UK contributes 19.5%.
27.3 The former Secretary of State for International
Development (Baroness Amos) has replied as follows:
"DFID is pleased to see that over the period
that accession countries have been receiving assistance, there
has been a steady improvement in their absorption capacity. The
most recent figures available demonstrate that by the end of 2002,
the 2000 PHARE programme had contracted upwards of 90% of the
allocation (spend figures are not yet available).
"However, DFID recognises that there is
room for further improvement. The effectiveness of these programmes
and the absorption capacity of the countries continue to be of
major concern. The effectiveness of PHARE national programmes
from 2000 onward is difficult to measure at this stage. Under
the PHARE programme, allocations must be contracted within two
years and disbursed within three. Additionally, extensions of
a year can be granted to the contracting or disbursement period.
None of the programmes operating under the new guidelines introduced
in 2000 have been completed as yet.
"The Commission has recently placed greater
emphasis on ex-post evaluation[58]
of the PHARE programme. In May 2003, the Commission published
an independent evaluation of the programme allocation for 1997-98
and implementation up to end 2001. This was presented to the
PHARE management committee in June and July. Lessons from this
evaluation will be used to influence future programming for PHARE
and other EC instruments. The UK proposed, at the July management
committee, that a seminar be held later this year to discuss this
evaluation in more detail and to compare it with other EC monitoring
and audit evaluations, such as the Court of Auditors report on
Twinning.[59] Such a
seminar would give a clearer sense of how effective the PHARE
programme has been in preparing the candidate countries for accession
and provide valuable insights into how future EC assistance, both
in the remaining PHARE countries and other programmes, can be
improved."
Conclusion
27.4 We thank the Minister for providing us with
these comments. We may ask her successor to give evidence to
us on this and related issues after the seminar on evaluation
to which she refers.
27.5 In recent months we have considered a number
of documents in which deficiencies in the EC's performance in
drawing up programmes, monitoring and evaluation have featured
all too frequently. The Commission has argued that it is too
early for its reforms to have worked through and the Government
has, in some cases, supported this argument. Also, the Government
has drawn attention to a number of improvements, such as (in this
letter) a steady improvement in the capacity of the recipients
to absorb the funds available. This lack of capacity is a fundamental
reason for unsatisfactory results to date and the Secretary of
State says that it continues to be a major concern.
27.6 The document was cleared on 9 April this
year.
55 The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession.
(ISPA) supports infrastructure policies for the environment and
transport in the candidate countries. Back
56
SAPARD is the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and
Rural Development. Back
57
See headnote. Back
58
As opposed to ex-ante, ex-post evaluation is carried out at the
end of the action in question. Back
59
(24660) -; see paragraph 31 of this Report. Back
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