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 geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...

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 ...

concerning the

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

(CAP) and related legislation. Along with the Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (IPSA) and Phare, 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 Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. 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 primary executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of members of the Commission ( directorial system, informally known as "commissioners") corresponding t ...

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, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. After

and

's entry into the EU,

benefited from a specially designed Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), which built on the programme support from Phare, 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