A multidisciplinary team of experts will give support to the Serbian Government to enhance its administrative and technical capacities in relation to the management of the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) under a Decentralized Implementation System (DIS).
The Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) is the means by which the EU supports reforms in the ‘enlargement countries’ with financial and technical help. It focuses in the following priority sectors: justice and home affairs, public administration reform, social development, private sector development, transport, environment, climate change and energy, agriculture and rural development, and cross-border cooperation.
One of the main objectives of the IPA Programme is to achieve a decentralised management towards its beneficiary countries, which also applies to Serbia where, presently, IPA is being centrally managed by the Delegation of European Union. Serbia initiated the preparations for a decentralised management system of the funds back in 2007, leading to the establishment of the system in 2009, upon the introduction of the National Fund and the Central Financing and Contracting Unit within the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Apart from the conferral of management, it is also important to start preparations for the new EU financial perspective, in accordance with the forthcoming requirements of the pre-accession assistance mechanism in the context of the programing period 2014 – 2020, known as IPA II.
In relation to this process, a consortium composed by EPTISA, ECORYS and EPCCO, has recently been awarded a new contract aiming at the provision of technical assistance to the Serbian administration to effectively manage pre-accession assistance in order to speed up preparations for EU membership. For this purpose, the contract is foreseen to provide:
- Organisation of training, intensive coaching, specialised counselling, ad-hoc advice and consolidation/strengthening of capacities via suitable on the job training, study visits and formal training in the first phases of Decentralised Management System after conferral.
- Assisting the improvement of the organisational set-up and the institutional capacity of the relevant national IPA authorities to carry out financial management, control, procurement and monitoring responsibilities in line with the EC requirements.
- Reviewing of current operational procedures and inter-institutional protocols and agreements for EU funds management for all IPA components and their updating and upgrading in line with the new financial regulations.
- Assistance to relevant authorities for preparation for IPA Component V.
The project a budget of 1,425,000 EUR and will last for 24 months.
It is worth noting that EPTISA also gave support to the preparation and implementation of the decentralised implementation system roadmaps for IPA components III and IV, as well as during the related stages of accreditation, within the assignment “Further Support for the Implementation of Decentralised Implementation System”.
For more information about this project please contact EPTISA Regional Office for Southeast Europe at eptisasee@eptisa.com