Costa Rica: EC Country Strategy Paper 2002-2006

This Country Strategy Paper formed part of a continuous process of management of European Commission cooperation with Costa Rica. It was a key element in the improved programming process introduced in the reform of the management of external assistance, which was expected to lead to greater coherence between the EU’s strategic priorities and to the appropriate policy mix for each partner country.

The strategy was based on Costa Rica’s own development agenda as well as on the Commission’s cooperation principles and the Memorandum of Understanding signed with Costa Rica in March 2001. In addition, it built on the prior country strategy covering the period from 1998 – 2000.

For the period 2002 – 2006, the Commission’s cooperation programme with Costa Rica would focus primarily on the three priorities of modernisation and decentralisation of government, economic cooperation and scientific and technological cooperation. An indicative amount of € 31.5 million has been allocated to these priority sectors under the Memorandum of Understanding. The final selection of projects and corresponding amounts would be based on the outcome of detailed identification and preparation studies carried out by the Commission. The funding of the indicative work programme was conditional upon the availability of funds in the annual Commission budget. The indicative programme resources would be complemented by projects funded from otherthematic budget lines as well as programmes financed under the Central American and Latin American regional programmes. A country fact sheet is included as Annex 1

ESO: Background information: Relations between the European Union and Costa Rica http://www.europeansources.info/record/relations-between-the-european-union-and-costa-rica/

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