EU funding, provided as pre-accession support, to help the Republic of Macedonia strengthen its administrative capacity has had an insufficient impact partly due to a lack of active backing from the national authorities, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
While EU funded projects have generally been delivered as planned, they still need to be better targeted and prioritised, say the auditors.
The report also concludes that in key areas, such as the fight against corruption and public procurement, the national authorities should make better use of the benefits created with EU funds.
Between 2007 and 2013, the EU allocated EUR 615 million under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) to help the Republic of Macedonia prepare for accession to the EU. The country received additional financial support under regional programmes also provided to other enlargement countries. EU support for reform in the country is continuing under IPA II, with an allocation of EUR 664 million from 2014 to 2020.
The auditors examined projects aimed at strengthening national administration across three major sectors: public administration reform (11 % of total assistance), transport (18 %) and environment (16 %). Although building up the country’s administrative capacity was made a priority, the auditors found that relatively limited progress had been made in the audited areas.
In the transport and environment sectors, few of the audited projects addressed key capacity-building needs required to align national legislation with EU law.
Investment in infrastructure was not accompanied by enough activities to successfully promote “learning by doing”.
Many of the projects audited did not sufficiently fit into a coherent, cohesive and coordinated approach or were not adequately followed up. Another challenge facing the Commission is determining how to bring down the minimum of four years it currently takes to deliver results once assistance needs have been identified.
The Commission decentralised the management of 76 % of IPA funds to the national administration and supported the structures to manage them. To an extent, this has improved national capacity to manage EU funds. However, the Commission could do more in terms of promoting the good practices established in other parts of the national administration.
The mechanisms for political dialogue were well-suited to supporting reform. However, the Commission’s leverage to encourage reform in sensitive areas was greatly reduced in the absence of the framework provided by accession negotiations.
“EU support for strengthening the administrative capacity in the Republic of Macedonia must be correctly prioritised and based on a solid national commitment for it to have the intended impact”, said Hans Gustaf Wessberg, the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report.