Establishing the Instruments for Pre-Accession Assistance(IPA III): The Session of the ECON Committee
During the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) representatives discussed the financial and monetary aspects and the necessary measures that should be taken in order to reach an amendment in establishing the Instruments for pre-accession assistance (IPA) III.
The first thing proposed was an increase of the 14.5 billion euro financial envelope for the implementation of IPA III for the next seven years. The MEPs couldn’t reach a conclusion on the exact amount of the new budget, but were certain on the objectives for allocating the funds. The MEPs stated that the budget should be split based on particular indicators and, to some extent, on the countries’ population. Other factors such as media freedom and environmental sustainability were also suggested to be included.
Further, MEPs proposed that minority protection and integration should be added to the IPA III programming framework. The proposition was highly supported by the lobbyists. MEPs expanded an existing objective from Article 3 to include the strengthening of economic and social development as well as social and employment policies with a special focus on improving the labor market for minorities. Special attention was paid to the importance of supporting small businesses.
Additionally, MEPs explored Article 9 and cross-border cooperation. They proposed an amendment for increasing the funding allocated to cross-border cooperation programs from 3% to 5%. In addition, a change in the rate of the Union co-financing for technical assistance in point 2 of Article 9 was proposed. Originally, it is stated that the rate shall be 100%, but Party representatives proposed an alteration to “shall be up to 100%”.
