The Czech Republic -- Regional Policy

Short-term priorities:

Assessment (November 2003)

Please refer to the fact sheets on the adoption of the Community acquis.

Medium-term priorities:

• creation of a legal, administrative and budgetary framework for the drawing-up of an integrated regional policy;
• participation in the structural programmes of the European Union after accession.

Assessment (October 1999)

Progress achieved in the preparations for joining the structural policy of the European Union is satisfactory. Financial control and audit procedures, however, need improving. It is also necessary to speed up the completion of the legislative framework.

Assessment (November 2000)

The legal framework for regional development has been adopted. The national development plan 2000-2006 and the SAPARD and ISPA programming documents have also been adopted. The Ministry for Regional Development has taken on new staff and cooperation with other ministries has been strengthened.

Assessment (November 2001)

There has been a noticeable improvement in regional policy, insofar as it is now based on a national regional development strategy, which specifies the objectives and instruments of this policy, in accordance with Community regulations. However, more emphasis needs to be placed on creating the structures needed to implement the Structural Funds.

Assessment (October 2002)

Significant progress has been made in the preparation for implementing the structural policies. The area eligible under Objective 2 in the region of Prague has been defined. Concerning legislation, the Act on Environmental Impact Assessment and the Act on Financial Control, in force since January 2002, are in line with the Community acquis. The Czech Government's Resolution of January 2002 defined the institutional framework for implementing the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. All the Regional Councils have been set up and the new local governments at NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Statistical Units) level III have become operational. The ministries have designated the managing and paying authorities and the implementing bodies for the Cohesion Fund. The managing authority for the Community Support Framework (CSF) will be the Ministry for Regional Development. The revised national development plan still has to be adopted. It consists of one joint regional operational programme (OP) and six sectoral OPs. Charged with implementing the national plan, the Managing and Co-ordination Committee will become the CSF Monitoring Committee and will ensure compliance with the partnership principle. In the field of financial management and control, the pilot version of the monitoring system for the Structural Funds will be extended to all other government agencies and regional authorities. The ex ante evaluation of the programming documents has already started. As far as management and control are concerned, significant progress has been achieved with the Act on Financial Control, which paves the way for a system of financial control inside the public authorities.

Accession negotiations on regional policy have been provisionally closed and the Czech Republic has not requested any transitional periods. The National Development Plan is still to be approved. Although there is already a timetable for drafting the programming documents, considerable efforts are still needed from now until the end of December 2002. As regards territorial organisation, the Czech Republic has completed the establishment of territorial units corresponding to the NUTS classification with eight cohesion regions at NUTS level II and 14 regions (kraj) at NUTS level III. Most of the units appointed as managing or paying authorities have experience with implementing and managing the Phare, ISPA and Sapard programmes. Increased efforts are needed to develop the appropriate channels of communication to enable local authorities and the economic and social partners to play a direct and visible role in formal consultation processes. In the field of financial management and control, the Czech Republic has made good progress in bringing its legislation into line with the Community acquis. The introduction of multiannual planning of budgetary expenditure is a positive development. However, financial control structures and procedures need still to be strengthened by creating internal audit units within the ministries responsible for implementing the Funds. In order to complete preparations for membership, the Czech Republic must now encourage closer cooperation and partnership between its ministries, strengthen its administrative capacity by giving priority to the training of human resources, and develop systems and procedures for effective monitoring, financial management and control.

Assessment (November 2003)

Please refer to the fact sheets on the adoption of the Community acquis.

Following the signing of the Accession Treaty on 16 April 2003, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia acceded to the European Union on 1 May 2004.

REFERENCES

Decision 98/267/EC of 30.03.1998Official Journal L 121, 23.04.1998

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

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

Commission Report COM(2003) 675 final - SEC(2003) 1200Not published in the Official Journal

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

Last updated: 19.11.2004