EU hopefuls to iron out administration

CENTRAL and east European countries have been urged to iron out their administrative difficulties, to ensure they receive up to 520m euro (325m) in structural aid from Brussels by the end of the year.

The money has been set aside under the so-called Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (Sapard) programme, which will pay the same amount each year until 2006.

“We are making the money available to modernise the agriculture sector, improve health and hygiene, provide alternative employment and foster economic development,” EU farm commissioner Franz Fischler told a meeting of farm ministers from all 10 candidate countries in Brussels this week.

“Preparing the processing sector must be the number one priority,” he said.

“Unless products are suitable and competitive, they will stand no chance on the internal market.”

Part of the thinking behind the Sapard programme is that each country should manage the funds itself, with the EU playing a monitoring role.

This will give them experience of running rural development programmes, which will form a major part of the funding package after they have joined the EU.

It is up to the candidates to set up their own Sapard agencies to assess projects and distribute the funds.

“The sooner these can be approved by the commission, the sooner the projects can get under way,” Dr Fischler told the ministers.

Different amounts of money are ear-marked for each country, with the lions share going to Poland (169m euro) and Romania (151m euro).