Based on the draft proposed by the Commission, the new IPA will come after the negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council for the period 2014-2020, and will condition the EU funds not with the status of a country, but with its performance in the reforms for which the EU is investing. 

 

“What is clear, what is different form the previous IPA, is that the instrument will become much easier to use. It will be much easier to switch funds from one policy area to another policy area. It will be much more adapted to the needs of the respected countries, and it will be - at least this is the will of the European Parliament – it will add some additional requirements, not as criteria for the membership, but additional requirements related to the social issues”, declared Kristian Vigenin, rapporteur for IPA at the EU Parliament.

 

Asked by Top Channel if the new IPA will bring any change regarding the EU candidate status, Vigen declared:

 

“Thank you for this question, because this is one of the big changes in current IPA. Any country will be able to use funds at the old policy areas, now called “policy areas”, irrespective of the status. This means that Albania, which hopefully will receive very soon the candidate status, but even if not, Albania and other countries will be able to use all funds in all policy areas.”

 

With the new formula, the “components” will be replaced with “policy areas” focused on: reinforcing democracy, rule of law, judiciary, public administration, media, basic rights, the rights of workers, minorities, gender equality, etc.

 

The EU manoeuvre for urgent decisions for “extraordinary cases such as crises, or when the democracy is threatened, and also a reward for the profiting country that has the best performance for the implementation of the EU assistance. 

 

“We propose that in the annual progress reports for the countries, there should be a specific part in every report about what is the achievement or the result of the funds used in the IPA. For us, we feel that it has a double importance. On one hand within the country, so that the country should show the money I spend wisely and there are results, and on the other hand, for the European citizens to see that their money are used in a good way and that these instrument is achieving results”, Vigenin declared. 

 

EU has given 530 million EUR for the period 2007-2013, but Albania has profited only the two first components: the construction of institutions and boundary cooperation. The access to the three other IPA components would be possible if there would be a positive results in December for the candidate status.