Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) is part of the package for External Relations. IPA like other instruments of that package is a great opportunity for rationalisation and simplification of the Commission procedures and promotion of the coherence and coordination of the Commission activities.
Main objective in the course of IPA designing was to modernise the entire Pre-Accession Assistance under a single framework, and to bring together under same regulation both the candidate countries for membership (Croatia, Turkey and Republic of Macedonia) and the potential candidate countries for membership (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro).
Therefore, IPA replaced the following instruments: PHARE (originally created as the) Poland and Hungary: Assistance for Restructuring their Economies Programme, the Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession (ISPA), the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD) and the Instrument for Pre-accession of Turkey, as well as Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stability (CARDS).
The IPA legal basis is defined by COUNCIL Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 of 17 July 2006 establishing the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) in order to improve the efficiency of the Community"s External Aid,
To the end of more detailed regulation of the IPA implementation process, a single enforcement regulative has been drafted, covering all five components of the IPA Regulation, taking into consideration special characteristics of each IPA component, such as: Commission Regulation (EC) No.718/2007 of 12 June 2007 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No. 1085/2006 establishing an Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).
Implementation of IPA implies that the Commission and beneficiaries sign Framework Agreements (FA) to determine the principles of their cooperation under this Regulation. The Republic of Macedonia and European Commission signed PC/FA, also ratified by the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia on October 30th 2008 entering into force on March 04th 2008 - relating to the first 4 components.
IPA includes the following 5 components:
Component I – Transition Assistance and Institution Building
Component II – Cross-border Cooperation
Component III – Regional Development
Component IV – Human Resources Development
Component V – Rural Development
Key documents for the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)
1. Regulative (EC) No 1085/2006 of the COUNCIL of 17 July 2006
2. Regulative (EC) No 718/2007 of 12 June 2007 implementing Regulative (ЕC) No 1085/2006 of the Council establishing Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA)
3. Framework Agreements (FА) between RM and EC
4. MIPD 2007-2009
5. MIPD 2009-2011
6. MIPD 2011-2013
7. MIFF 2007-2009
8. MIFF 2009-2011
9. IPA Programming Guide Volume I: for Components I (Transition Assistance and Institution Building) and II (Cross Border Co–operation)
10. IPA Programming Guide Volume II: for Components I (Transition Assistance and Institution Building) and II (Cross Border Co–operation)
11. TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument)
Contact persons in the Sector for Coordination of the European funds and other foreign assistance (NIPAC Secretariat):
Orhideja Kaljosevska
State Councellor for Coordination of EU Funds and other foreign assistance/ NIPAC office
02/3200 139
Orhideja.Kaljosevska@sep.gov.mk
Arlinda Beqiri
Deputy head of Sector
02/3200 262
Arlinda.Beqiri@sер.gov.mk
Head of the unit for programming with European funds
Evgenija Serafimovska
Head of unit for monitoring and evaluation of European programs
02/3200 112
Evgenija.Serafimovska@sep.gov.mk
