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is also an explicit goal. The general eligibility criteria further specify that individual
measures should have a cost of at least 5 million Euros in order to be of a significant
scale to have an impact on network development. The Commission will grant up to 75%
of total project cost, and while ISPA is not to be combined with other pre-accession
funding (i.e. Phare), loans by IFIs, including the EIB, are encouraged as co-funding.
Combined assistance under ISPA and other Community aid is not to exceed 90% of total
expenditure of a project. Exceptionally, up to 2 % of a country’s total ISPA allocation
may be used to fund preliminary studies, environmental assessments and additional
technical assistance related to ISPA priority projects, and in these cases ISPA may
finance up to 100 % of the total project cost.
Table 8.1: Per Country Allocation for ISPA Transport Grants
Country
Surface
Area
(km²)
Population
in 1997
(Million)
Index of GDP
per inhabitant
(average = 100)
Indicative
Allocation
(percent)
Indicative
Allocation
(Million €)
Poland 312685 38.66 91 30 - 37% 156 - 192.4
Hungary 93030 10.15 124 7 - 10% 36.4 - 52.0
Bulgaria 111062 8.31 67 8 - 12% 41.6 - 62.4
Czech Republic 78864 10.3 166 5.5 - 8% 28.6 - 41.6
Estonia 43431 1.46 90 2 - 3.5% 10.4 - 18.2
Lithuania 65300 3.7 76 4 - 6% 20.8 - 31.2
Latvia 64589 2.47 67 3.5 - 5.5% 18.2 - 28.6
Romania 238391 22.55 84 20 - 26% 104 -135.2
Slovenia 20256 1.97 175 1 – 2% 5.2 - 10.4
Slovakia 49035 5.38 116 3.5 - 5.5% 18.2 - 28.6
Source: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/funds/ispa/provisions_en.htm
(Last accessed on 6-20-2002) and Commission of the European Communities (1999g:5)
All in all, ISPA remains a somewhat curious, hybrid funding instrument. One
Commission expert called it “an elastic category of accession.” Much of it has to do with