SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development) was a financial assistance program established in June 1999 by the Council of the European Union to help countries of

Central and Eastern Europe Central and Eastern Europe is a term encompassing the countries in the Baltics, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe (mostly the Balkans), usually meaning former communist states from the Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact in Europ ...

deal with the problems of the structural adjustment in their agricultural sectors and rural areas, as well as in the implementation of the

acquis communautaire The Community acquis or ''acquis communautaire'' (; ), sometimes called the EU acquis and often shortened to acquis, is the accumulated legislation, legal acts and court decisions that constitute the body of European Union law that came into b ...

concerning the

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce the ...

(CAP) and related legislation. Along with the

Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) is one of the three financial instruments of the European Union (along with Phare and SAPARD) to assist the candidate countries in the preparation for accession. It provides assistance for ...

(IPSA) and

Phare The Phare programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. Originally created in 1989 as ...

, it was one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

. In 2007 the program was completely replaced by the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). The programme which came under the remit of the

EU Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development The Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The DG AGRI is responsible for the European Union policy area of agriculture and rural development. The work of the DG AGRI ...

was part of the Agenda 2000 programme for increased pre-accession assistance in 2000–2006. Until the fifth enlargement of the EU in 2004, its overall budget was 560 million euros (2003). Later, SAPARD funding was available only to

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, and

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

. After

and

's entry into the EU,

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

benefited from a specially designed

Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, or simply IPA, is a funding mechanism of the European Union. As of 2007, it replaced previous programmes such as the PHARE, ISPA, SAPARD SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural ...

(IPA), which built on the programme support from

, ISPA and SAPARD, it received in 2005–2006.

External links

SAPARD website
Instruments and programmes related to European Union enlargement European Union and agriculture {{EU-stub

See also

External links