Strasbourg 27 March,
The Members of the European Parliament adopted the report on the new Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) during today’s plenary session. MEP Željana Zovko, who worked actively on this report, defended a close cooperation between the EU and the candidate countries to optimize the impact of the funding mechanism.
During the debate in the plenary meeting on Tuesday 26 March, Ms. Zovko mentioned in her speech that by taking note of the challenging times that the candidate countries are going through, the European Union should improve its efforts in prioritising key areas for its funding.Enhancing the support to candidate countries in implementing measures that focus on institutional resilience and security building are of key importance.
In addition, Ms Zovko stressed that the most feasible way to success for this funding mechanism is to embrace a strategic plan for promotion and communication. Only by increasing the visibility of the instrument, both within the EU as well as in the candidate countries, we can optimize the EU’s main instrument for peace and stability in the enlargement area.