PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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the particulars of Eastern enlargement, which is also a process of flexible date setting.
ISPA is neither a true pre-accession version of the Cohesion fund (although that is clearly
its closest pendant within the internal EU family of funds) nor is it comparable to nonaccession
related external aid which the EU provides to non-accession third countries via
EuropAid.
Remember also that of the three pre-accession instruments which – upon
accession - are to be transitioned into regular EU funding instruments, Phare, and not
ISPA, is the program which is devised as the precursor to regional development funding.
Consequently, (economic and social) cohesion does not feature as a prominent storyline
justifying ISPA transport interventions. This also means, however, that transport
infrastructure investments in Poland and Hungary which largely serve regional or local
development objectives, e.g. rural access roads outside the TINA network, while not
eligible for ISPA funds, might still be still be eligible for EU funding under the Phare
program. Given this “division of labor” between the different EU funding instruments, it
interesting to note that the term “cohesion” nevertheless appears in the very first article of
the Council Regulation establishing ISPA. Article 1 sets out the “Definition and
Objective” of the instrument as follows (Council of the European Communities 1999):
ISPA shall provide assistance to contribute to the preparation for accession to the
European Union of the [hereby defined] “beneficiary countries'” in the area of
economic and social cohesion, concerning environment and transport policies in
accordance with the provisions of this Regulation. (my emphasis)
Of course, the relationship between economic and social cohesion and
environmental and transport policies is purely implied. Article 2 of the regulation then
sets out the particular eligibility measures for the ISPA program, also specifying which
function they must fulfill within the international or national transport network: