The implementation of projects financed by the EU IPA funds contributes to the achievement of European standards in key areas of society and the progress of the Western Balkan countries towards EU membership. This was concluded at the regional conference "Results of the use of EU Pre-Accession assistance- IPA 2007-2013" held yesterday in Budva, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Montenegro.

At this meeting, the Western Balkans countries had the results achieved in the programming period 2007-2013 presented and the plans about the financial perspective 2014-2020 were also discussed.
In her speech, Blazheska pointed out the lessons learnt from the use of IPA 2007-2013, in particular the use of the decentralised system of aid use, preparations for IPA 2014-2020 in the area of administrative capacity, organisation and programming process.

In terms of lessons learnt, special attention was paid to the division of roles and responsibilities, implementation of trainings to strengthen the institutional capacity, quality of tender documents and self-assessment of the IPA structures, which was organised by NIPAC for the third time this year, and is expected to define all the needs of this part of the administration and guidance for further operations.

Experiences were exchanged within the four panel discussions in the use of IPA I and IPA II, and the present results in components that relate to support for transition and institution building were presented, regional development and human resources development and cross-border cooperation.
At the conference it was also emphasised that the European Commission for 2007-2013 provided funding in the amount of 11.5 billion euros for the candidate countries and potential candidates for EU membership from IPA I. These funds are used to implement reforms in line with EU standards and to improve the quality of life of citizens through further strengthening of democratic institutions, rule of law, public administration reform, economic reform, respecting human and minority rights, promoting gender equality, strengthening civil society, promoting regional cooperation, sustainable development and poverty reduction. Beneficiaries of funds were the ministries and the state administration, local government, public institutions, civil society organisations, and end users are the citizens of the Western Balkans and Turkey. The implemented projects have contributed to building and strengthening the institutional capacities, strengthened neighbourly relations and enabled regional and economic development of the IPA beneficiary countries.