ISPA

ISPA is the European Commission's preaccession financial instrument intended as a support to candidate countries in their preparation for accession, namely for the infratructural projects in the field of transport and environmental protection.

The ISPA Regulation (Council Regulation (EC)) No. 1267/1999 of 21 June 1999 establishing an Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-accession) provides the basis for Community support to the applicant countries in the area of economic and social cohesion, concerning environment and transport policies. The ISPA programme deals with large-scale environment and transport investment support, and comes under the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Regional Policy.

ISPA main priorities in preparing the applicant countries for accession are:

• To familiarize the candidate countries with the policies and procedures of the EU,
• To help the candidate countries to comply with EU environmental standards,
• To expand and link with the trans-European transport networks.

ISPA is guided by the Accession Partnerships and the National Programmes for the adoption of the Acquis. However, in case of the Republic of Croatia, the European Partnership has been signed and the National Programme for the Integration of the Republic of Croatia into the European Union - 2005.

Environment

Candidate Countries need to undertake very significant investments, in order to fully implement the EU environmental legislation and meet the environmental standards of the EC. For the time being, ISPA is concentrated on the most "investment-heavy" environmental directives, which are very costly to implement: Water Supply/Wastewater Treatment, Waste Management, Air Pollution Control and Industrial Pollution Control.

Transport

There is an urgent need to build and rehabilitate transport infrastructure in the Candidate Countries and to link it to the European Union's transport networks. This is a key element of the economic development strategies in the Candidate Countries, and will be a crucial element in the successful integration of the Candidate Countries into the internal market and the promotion of the effectiveness and efficiency of that market.

ISPA seeks to promote projects that encourage sustainable forms of transportation infrastructure.

In particular, projects selected are of Community interest (the ten Pan-European Transport Corridors) and which enable the countries concerned to meet the objectives of the Accession Partnerships. The TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Networks) will be based on a TINA (Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment) network in the Candidate Countries.

In the period 2005-2006 under the ISPA programme, 60 million euros was allocated to the Republic of Croatia (25 million euros for 2005 and 35 million euros for 2006).

By this period, six Financial Agreemnt has been signed between Govrenment of the Republic of Croatia and European Commmission for the following measures:

• Vinkovci to Tovarnik to State Border Railway Rehabilitation in Vukovarsko-Srijemska County
• Karlovac Water and Waste Water Programme located in Town of Karlovac
• Bikarac Regional Waste Management Centre
• Support to the Central Finance and Contracting Unit (CFCU) and National ISPA Coordinator
• IPA Project Pipeline Preparation (Transport)
• IPA Project Pipeline Preparation (Environment)