SAPARD REVIEW in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania IMPACT ANALYSIS OF THE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT APRIL 2005 SAPARD REVIEW 2 COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE SAPARD PROGRAMME - SEVEN POINTS OF VIEW SAPARD REVIEW IN BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, ESTONIA, HUNGARY, LATVIA, POLAND AND ROMANIA Impact analysis of the agriculture and rural development REPORT ON THE EFFECTIVENESS AND RELEVANCY OF INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES UNDER SAPARD IN BULGARIA IN ITS ROLE AS A PRE-ACCESSION FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE INSTRUMENT Miroslava Georgieva, Director of "Rural Development and Investments" Directorate Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Bulgaria NATIONAL REVIEW ON THE SAPARD PROGRAMME IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Petra Cerna, IUCN - The International Union for Nature Conservation Regional Office for Europe, European Union Liaison Unit, Belgium SAPARD IN ESTONIA Doris Matteus, chief specialist, Ministry of Agriculture of Estonia, market development bureau, Estonia, www.praxis.ee PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING THE SAPARD PROGRAMME IN HUNGARY Katalin Kovacs, Researcher Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary, www.ceu.hu SAPARD IN LATVIA Juris Hazners, Project Manager Agricultural Marketing Promotion Center Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economics, Latvia NATIONAL REVIEW OF SAPARD PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE IMPACT ON NATIONAL AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND Tomasz Grosse, Head of the project Institute of Public Affairs, Poland, www.isp.org.pl NATIONAL REVIEW ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SAPARD PROGRAMME IN ROMANIA Marian Stoian , researcher Centre for rural assistance, Romania, http://www.rural-center.org; http://www.ruralnet.ro EUROPEAN INSTITUTE FOUNDATION This publication is prepared with 96, Rakovski str. the financial support of the Sofia 1000, Bulgaria OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE http://www.europeaninstitute.net Design and Layout: STRATEGMA Agency http://www.strategma.bg April 2005 ISBN: 954-9506-17-7 ÊÐÀÒÚÊIMPACT ANALYSIS ÀÍÀËÈÇ ÍÀOF ÂÚÇÄÅÉÑÒÂÈÅÒÎTHE AGRICULTURE ÂÚÐÕÓ ÇÅÌÅÄÅËÈÅÒÎAND RURAL DEVELOPMENT È ÑÅËÑÊÈÒÅ ÐÀÉÎÍÈ 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ INTRODUCTION○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 4 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ BULGARIA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 7 CZECH REPUBLIC○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 37 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ESTONIA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 81 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ HUNGARY○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 105 ○○○○○○○○○○ LATVIA○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 141 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ POLAND○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ 175 ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ ROMANIA○○○○○○○ 199 SAPARD REVIEW 4 ABOUT PROJECT INTRODUCTION Common Agriculture Policy of the European Union. The purpose of the project "Comparative Review of SAPARD Pre-Accession Assis- The experts engaged in the implementation tance Impact on National Agriculture and of this project prepared reports assessing Rural Development in 5 New EU Member the following aspects: States (Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary) and 2 future EU member Coherence of the aims of the SAPARD states (Bulgaria, Romania)", financed by Programme with the aims of the National the Open Society Institute - Budapest, is to Strategies; review the implementation of the Programme in seven Central and East Eu- The effective implementation (distri- ropean countries - the Czech Republic, Po- bution of responsibilities, management land, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Romania and control), along with the effective and Bulgaria. functioning of the monitoring systems; SAPARD Programme is a special pre-ac- The achievements of the Programme cession programme of the European Union with a view of the results; in the field of agriculture and development of rural areas aiming at assisting the coun- tries with a status of accession candidates The implementation of the common to manage their problems related to the and specific assessment criteria and in- structural adjustment of their agricultural dices. sectors and rural areas as well as the intro- duction of acquis communautaire in relation The structure of the national reports is iden- to the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). tical and it is aiming to present: An overall comparative assessment of Since the accession countries, except Ro- the institutional impact of the implemen- mania and Bulgaria, became in 2004 EU tation of the SAPARD Programme and in Member States, the European Institute con- particular - to present its contribution to cluded that the implementation of this the preparation of the corresponding project will provide the interested in this country for the enforcement of the subject parties with the opportunity to view acquis communautaire; the chronological events - successful and problematic ones - at implementing the Analysis of the positive impact of the Programme in the separate countries as implementation of the SAPARD well as to benefit from the experience of the Programme with a view to the introduc- implementation of the pre-accession aid tion of the acquis communautaire in the provided for the purpose of the active par- field of the Common Agriculture Policy ticipation of the above countries into the of the European Union.; ÊÐÀÒÚÊIMPACT ANALYSIS ÀÍÀËÈÇ ÍÀOF ÂÚÇÄÅÉÑÒÂÈÅÒÎTHE AGRICULTURE ÂÚÐÕÓ ÇÅÌÅÄÅËÈÅÒÎAND RURAL DEVELOPMENT È ÑÅËÑÊÈÒÅ ÐÀÉÎÍÈ 5 Analysis of the role that the SAPARD the preparation of projects be estab- Programme played in the implementa- lished in order to benefit most from the tion of the partnership schemes and the EU aid streamed for the agriculture; consultative process, which includes the social and economic partners; The published reports present the authors' opinion, regardless of the fact that they are A profile of the beneficiaries of the drawing on official sources of information, projects under of the SAPARD and thus they do not tend to be exhaustive Programme, along with the measures or seek the commitment of the European that are to be taken in order to improve Commission. and diversify this profile; Analysis of how did the decentralized model for the management of the SAPARD Programme assisted the ab- sorption of the EU resources for the de- velopment of the rural areas after first period of EU membership; Analysis of the good practices and the experience gained from the operations under the SAPARD Programme within the range of the priorities for the corre- sponding areas of the state; Analysis of how do the projects fi- nanced under the SAPARD Programme implemented EU sustainability and ecol- ogy requirements; Analysis of the transparency and the public participation in the decision mak- ing process of the cofinancing institu- tions such as the European Investment Bank; How could the skills developed and the experience gained be most effi- ciently implemented and how could spe- cial funds assisting the improvement of SAPARD REVIEW 6 PARTNERS EUROPEAN INSTITUTE, Bulgaria 96, Rakovski str., Sofia 1000, Bulgaria Phone: +359 2 988 64 10, fax: 359 2 988 64 11 e-mail: [email protected] www.europeaninstitute.net INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN POLICY - EUROPEUM, Czech Republic Rytirska 31, Praha 1, 110 00 Phone: +420 221 610 206 (207); fax: +420 221 610 204 e-mail: [email protected]; www.europeum.org CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES - PRAXIS, Estonia Estonia pst. 5a, Tallinn 10143 Phone. 64 09 000; Fax 64 09 001 e-mail: [email protected]; www.praxis.ee CENTRE FOR POLICY STUDIES, Hungary Central European University H-1051 Budapest, Nador Street 9-11 Phone: (36 1) 327 31 18; Fax: (36 1) 235 61 70 e-mail: [email protected]; www.ceu.hu CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY - PROVIDUS, Latvia Alberta 13, Riga LV-1010 Phone.: + 371 703 92 51; Fax: + 371 703 92 44 e-mail: [email protected]; www.politika.lv INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Poland ul. Szpitalna 5 lok. 22, 00-031 Warszawa Phone: (48-22) 55 64 260; fax: (48-22) 55 64 262 e-mail: [email protected]; www.isp.org.pl CENTER FOR RURAL ASSISTANCE, Romania 300543 Timisoara, P-ta Istria nr. 6, Phone: +40 256 49 24 93, 22 47 58; Fax: +40-256 22 14 69 e-mail: [email protected]; www.rural-center.org ÊÐÀÒÚÊIMPACT ANALYSIS ÀÍÀËÈÇ ÍÀOF ÂÚÇÄÅÉÑÒÂÈÅÒÎTHE AGRICULTURE ÂÚÐÕÓ ÇÅÌÅÄÅËÈÅÒÎAND RURAL DEVELOPMENT È ÑÅËÑÊÈÒÅ ÐÀÉÎÍÈ 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................................... 11 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS AND RELEVANCY OF SAPARD IN BULGARIA .................................. 17 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................................ 33 RECOMMENDATIONS TO DEVELOP AND STRENGTHEN PARTNERSHIP ......................................................................... 35 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................................. 36 SAPARD REVIEW 10 BULGARIA LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AFA Annual Financing Agreement BTIC Bulgarian Trade and Industry Chamber CAP Common Agricultural Policy EAGGF European Agriculture Guarantee and Guidance Fund EC European Commission EIA Environment Impact Assessment EU European Union MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry MAFA Multi-Annual Financing Agreement MC Monitoring Committee ME Ministry of Economy MEW Ministry of Environment and Waters MF Ministry of Finance MLSP Ministry of Labor and Social Policy MRDPW Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works NAAS National Agricultural Advisory Service