Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession


Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession is one of the three financial instruments of the European Union to assist the candidate countries in the preparation for accession. It provides assistance for infrastructure projects in the EU priority fields of environment and transport.
For the period 2000–2006, EUR 1,040 million a year has been made available for this instrument. During its first four years of implementation, ISPA grant-aided over 300 large-scale infrastructure investments in the 10 candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Assistance amounted to EUR 7 billion for an investment value of over EUR 11.6 billion. After the EU enlargement in 2004, the remaining ISPA beneficiary countries were Bulgaria and Romania, the other beneficiary countries having become eligible to the Cohesion Fund. Since 1 January 2005 Croatia benefits from ISPA as well.