Information note of the European Court of Auditors concerning Special Report No 12/2008 concerning the Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession (ISPA), 2000-2006

ISPA was one of the instruments to assist the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the preparation for accession in the period 2000-2006. Its objectives were to help candidate countries to apply EU environmental standards and to upgrade and expand transport networks, including links with the Trans-European network. It also provided experience in the management of EU funds for large infrastructure projects. The total financial allocation was 7 280 million euro.

The Court reviewed this instrument by asking whether there was a coherent strategy and adequate preparation to support ISPA actions, whether projects were implemented according to planning and whether projects were contributing to beneficiary countries’ compliance with the EU environmental directives and contributing to the improvement of TEN-T.

The Court concludes that there was a coherent strategy, but projects were not always adequately prepared. Three important methodological guidance documents were provided late in relation to the first wave of applications.

Projects were not implemented according to planning; there were significant delays and considerable changes in the financing plans.

The projects audited by the Court increase the compliance with the EU standards or improve the links to the Trans-European network.

The Court recommends that the Commission make a follow-up of ISPA’s implementation and examine how delays could be avoided or reduced in the future, when implementing a similar instrument. In this context, the Commission should make the guidance documents available before the Candidate Countries start preparing their projects and greater attention should be devoted to reduce time needed to complete procedures.