Agenda 2000: pre-accession, coordinating aid to the applicant countries

Under consultation procedure, the European Parliament adopted the second report by Enrique Barón Crespo (PSE,ES), which approves the Commission's amended proposal for a Council regulation on coordinating aid to the applicant countries in the framework of the pre-accession strategy, subject to amendments, notably in the following areas: - specifically requiring that an effort will be made to coordinate aid to the applicant states as regards EU-internal, cross-border and intergovernmental cooperation (Tacis, Interreg) so that this aid constitutes a coordinated whole; - adding to the list of eligible measures under the programme measures in the sector of training and professional retraining for those areas and sectors in which recipient states must adopt conversion and restructuring measures in some industrial sectors in order to comply with the objectives of the partnerships for accession; - giving a more exacting and indepth definition of the priorities which need to be fulfilled by those countries benefitting from the Phare programme for the adoption of the acquis communautaire (consolidating the rule of law and democracy, strict respect for individual rights, swift, impartial justice and judicial and police cooperation paricularly in combatting organised crime and on external border controls); - providing that, in building up the administrative and institutional capacities of the applicant states, adequate consideration should be given to local and regional administrations; - providing that aid for the improvement of nuclear safety shall be implemented in accordance with the Phare regulation; - in order to optimise the economic impact of Community operations implemented under the three instruments referred to in the regulation, systematically requiring beneficiary states to contribute to the financing of investments; - assigning primary responsibility for coordination of the actions or measures covered by the regulation to the Coordination Committee set up by regulation 3906/89/EEC; - providing for greater consultation of the budgetary authority in determining rules governing inspection and evaluation; - providing that the Council and European Parliament shall receive annual reports and special monitoring and evaluation reports and shall be informed, as the need arises, of the work of the Coordination Committee (comitology); - requiring the Commission's report on the overall pre-accession aid for each country to be presented to the Council and the Parliament every year (rather than every two years).�