Commission proposes to finance PHARE facility
The European Commission (EC) has agreed a financing proposal for the PHARE large-scale infrastructure facility for 1998. The Commission has therefore published prior information on an invitation to tender for project preparation as well as projects for Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The projects must be implemented by 31 December 2003. The EC will agree to a maximum contribution of: - Project preparation - 700,000 euro; - Projects in Slovenia - 6,500,000 euro; - Projects in Lithuania - 10,200,000 euro; - Projects in Latvia - 6,600,000; - Projects in Estonia - 6,000,000. Within the context of the new orientations of PHARE, the creation of a large-scale infrastructure facility (LSIF) was proposed in order to offer additional support from 1998 onwards to projects not sufficiently covered under the national PHARE programmes and which have a clear transboundary impact. This need for additional support for infrastructure in the accession countries has also been recognized in the proposal for the creation of an instrument for structural policies for pre-accession (ISPA) with an annual budget of 1 billion euro from the year 2000. The LSIF will thus serve as a precursor to ISPA and it is for this reason that LSIF focuses on environmental projects and transport infrastructure projects (compared with Article 3 of the proposed ISPA facility). In order to gain a maximum of leverage from the limited PHARE funds available, all projects will be co-financed with a relevant international financing institution (IFI). The selection of projects for support under the LSIF was made on the basis of a screening exercise by the EC which identified those projects being proposed by the IFIs and countries which best fit the specific selection criteria of this fund and in particular the criterion of relevance to the adoption of the acquis in conformity with the new PHARE orientations. Further information about this programme can be obtained from PHARE Internet service at: URL: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg1a/phare For further information, please contact: European Commission, DG IA Information Unit - Phare Fax +32-2-2991777 E-mail: phare.tacis@dg1a.cec.be