Inter-regional Co-operation

Technical Assistance to the Project Co-ordination and Management Unit (PCMU) in the Ministry of Finance. Preparation of grant scheme programme documentation; provision of advice for PRAG-compliant implementation of grant projects. Co-ordination of start-up and implementation of Neighbourhood Programmes with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Adriatic NP, CADSES. Capacity building, SWOT surveys – training in structured, questionnaire-based field survey techniques, logframe and grant scheme management training, implementation arrangements, PCMU manual, monitoring indicators/system, observer in grant scheme evaluation committees (Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania). Structured field surveys serving as an analytical basis for new IPA CBC programmes with BiH, Croatia and Montenegro; help with drafting of programme documents. Support with transfer of Neighbourhood Programmes with Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to IPA CBC programmes. Project extended by 18 months due to good results.

New programme documents were drafted for cross-border co-operation with Croatia, Montenegro and BiH. Existing programmes were updated and brought in line with new procedural requirements as per IPA regulations. Advice was provided to the Serbian administration regarding the details of implementing structures and procedures (such as first level control and auditing), eligibility criteria and content of memoranda with partner countries. A field survey carried out on the basis of structures questionnaires and with PCMU staff provided the basis for regional SWOT-analyses; these were presented to regional actors during workshops in view of jointly designing a strategy for the programmes. This led to the drafting of soundly argued and agreed programme documentation for Serbia’s cross-border co-operation.

In 2004 the then Ministry for International Economic Relations (MIER) had two staff members dealing with EU-funded cross-border co-operation programmes. By the end of the project in 2008, this had increased to 24, including the Serbian staff in the Joint Technical Secretariats and local offices – all of these were comprehensively trained and supported in the fields of project design and implementation, EU grant procedures and regional development strategies. The European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) considered this as one of the best projects in the Western Balkans, and Commissioner Danuta Hübner was full of praise for Serbian CBC implementation at a conference in Budapest.
Available funds for the CARDS 2004 funded Calls for Proposals amounted to approximately €6.5m; of these more than 90% were contracted. ÖIR/Metis, Vienna (Austria)