Agenda 2000: CEEC applicant countries, pre-accession aid for agriculture and rural development SAPARD

COMMUNITY MEASURE : Commission Regulation 188/2003/EC amending Regulation 2222/2000/EC laying down financial rules for the application of Council Regulation 1268/1999/EC on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in the pre-accession period. CONTENT : Council Regulation 1268/1999/EC aims, inter alia, to solve priority and specific problems for the sustainable adaptation of the agricultural sector and rural areas in the applicant countries. Damage caused to agriculture and rural areas by exceptional natural disasters can constitute such problems as demonstrated by the flooding which in August 2002 caused considerable damage in various applicant countries. In this context, the Community needs to be able to respond appropriately to such exceptional natural disasters using various instruments including the pre-accession instrument set up under Regulation 1268/1999/EC (the pre-accession instrument). Commission Regulation 2222/2000/EC does not contain any particular provisions concerning the management of aid where the granting of such aid is related to, or affected by, an exceptional natural disaster. Such provisions should be laid down to permit appropriate and rapid action by the Community in the wake of such disasters. It is the aim of the present amending Regulation which intends to provide the cases of natural disasters as well as a number of specific rules for the payment of assistance (it is appropriate to extend for two years the time limit for use of appropriations for the annual allocations 2000 to 2002 to take account of the slowness of the decisions being taken on projects in the implementation of SAPARD programmes. ENTRY INTO FORCE : 04.02.2003.�