Partnership for the accession of the Czech Republic

The aim of the Accession Partnership is to assist the authorities in the candidate country in their efforts to comply with the accession criteria. It covers in detail the priorities for accession preparations, in particular implementing the acquis, and forms the basis for programming pre-accession assistance from Community funds such as the Phare programme. Following the signing of the Accession Treaty on 16 April 2003 and the official integration of the country into the European Union on 1 May 2004, the accession partnership has come to an end.

In its communication " Agenda 2000 ", the European Commission has set out a range of proposals for strengthening the pre-accession strategy for all the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The general objective of this strategy is to offer a coherent programme for preparing these countries for membership of the European Union, and more particularly:

to bring together the various forms of aid offered by the European Union within a single framework, the accession partnerships,
to familiarise applicants with the European Union's procedures and policies by offering them the opportunity to participate in Community programmes.

1) OBJECTIVE

The objective of the accession partnership (adopted in March 1998 and amended in December 1999 and in January 2002) is to register by law the working priorities defined in the Commission's Opinion on the Czech Republic's application for membership, the financial resources available to help the Czech Republic implement these priorities and the conditions which apply to this aid. The accession partnership defines a framework for a range of policy instruments to support candidate countries as they prepare for membership.

These include a national programme for the adoption of the Community acquis (NPAA), joint evaluation of medium term economic policy priorities, the pact against organised crime, the national development plan and other sectoral programmes for participation in structural funds after accession and implementation of the ISPA and SAPARD before accession. In 2002, the partnership for accession served as the starting point for preparing an action plan to reinforce the administrative and judicial capacity of the Czech Republic.

These instruments do not form an integral part of the partnership but their priorities are compatible.

The implementation of the partnership for accession will be monitored under the Europe Agreement between the European Union and the Czech Republic.

2) PRIORITIES

These are divided into two groups: short and medium term. Priorities in the first group are those that the Czech Republic was likely to settle or make progress on during the year 2000. The priorities in the second group should be settled by the end of 2003.

The Czech Republic has partly achieved the economic and political criteria priorities. It has totally or largely achieved the priorities linked to the free movement of persons, the free movement of capital, economic and monetary union, statistics, social affairs and employment, energy, culture and audiovisual policy, the environment, consumer protection and health, cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs and financial control. Most of the other priorities have been partly achieved.

In December 1999 the accession partnership priorities were revised (see page 3 of Annex to Decision 1999/858/EC). In November 2000, these priorities were revised for the second time. A final revision was published in 2002 (Decision 2002/85/EC). This forms the basis of the Commission's evaluation in its 2002 report.

Priority areas are now:

(for up-to-date information on this subject, please refer to the Adoption of the Community acquis section)

3) FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK

Phare

A national allocation of EUR 59 million was provided under the Phare 2000 programme for the Czech Republic. An additional EUR 10 million were allocated to a cross-border cooperation programme with Germany. A further EUR 5 million were earmarked for cooperation with Austria and EUR 5 million for cooperation with Poland. The Phare programme provided EUR 722.5 million to the Czech Republic during the course of the period 1999-2000. Phare 2001 provided EUR 65.4 million. A further EUR 19 million were to be used for cross-border cooperation with Germany (EUR 10 million), Poland (EUR 5 million) and Austria (EUR 4 million). Phare 2002 allocated EUR 60 million plus an envelope of EUR 24.8 million under the additional facility to reinforce the country's institutions. Further aid was agreed for cross-border cooperation with Germany (EUR 10 million), Austria (EUR 4 million) and Poland (EUR 5 million).

The Czech authorities are responsible for contracts and payments linked to the aid. Nonetheless, the financial regulation of the European Communities requires the Commission to oversee the award of contracts and approve any contract financed by Phare and signed by the partner country before it comes into effect.

Pre-accession aid

From this year financial aid will include aid for agriculture and rural development (SAPARD) and a structural instrument (ISPA) giving priority to measures in the transport and environment sectors. The regulation coordinating Phare aid, SAPARD and ISPA adopted in June 1999 enables the Commission to carry out a posteriori monitoring of contracts if it considers financial control by the partner country to be inadequate.

During the period 2000-2002 the total amount of financial aid made available each year was EUR 79 million for Phare, EUR 22.1 million for SAPARD and between EUR 55 and 80 million for ISPA. SAPARD 2002 allocated EUR 23.1 million to the Czech Republic. The ISPA envelope for 2002 was between EUR 59.9 and 87.1 million.

4) REFERENCES

Decision 98/267/EC of 30.3.1998Official Journal L 121 of 23.4.1998

Decision 1999/858/EC of 06.12.1999Official Journal L 335 of 28.12.1999

Commission Opinion COM(97) 2009 finalNot published in the Official Journal

Commission Report COM(98)708 finalNot published in the Official Journal

Commission Report COM(1999)503 finalNot published in the Official Journal

Commission Report COM(2000)703 finalNot published in the Official Journal

Commission Report COM(2001)700 final - SEC(2001)1746Not published in the Official Journal

Decision 2002/85/EC of 28.01.2002Official Journal L 44 of 14.02.2002

Commission Report COM(2002) 700 final - SEC(2002) 1402Not published in the Official Journal

Treaty of Accession to the European Union [Official Journal L 236, 23.09.2003]

Last updated: 19.11.2004