DG Enlargement – Effective Support for Enlargement Conference, Brussels 19 October 2009

1. Concluding Remarks of the Co-chairs DG Enlargement – Effective Support for Enlargement Conference, Brussels 19 October 2009

2. Concluding Remarks Effective Financial Assistance for Reforms, IPA Priorities, Planning and Programming • Need to ensure strong link between enlargement policy priorities and the use of financial assistance, particularly IPA • Strengthened by: • Designing programming to achieve concrete and measurable results • Focusing on European Partnership priorities, in line with country strategies • Priority on achievement of results over financial considerations • Ensured through evaluations

3. Effective Financial Assistance for Reforms, IPA Priorities, Planning and Programming Supported by: Strengthening local dialogue Donor coordination Appropriate conditionality Use of priorities as defined in the annual progress reports Concluding Remarks

4. Adequate Capacity for Absorbing Financial Assistance Political will for reform vital Beneficiary countries encouraged to show increased ownership in particular by concrete political and financial commitments Donor community to support the efforts of the beneficiary countries to establish decentralised management structures Beneficiary countries need to ensure stability in staffing and budgets of key public departments and institutions More effective use of financial assistance fundamental to mitigate effects of the economic crisis and improve regional cooperation. IFIs will contribute with their available instruments in this process. Concluding Remarks

5. Linking EU Objectives and Country Sector Strategies in Programming of Assistance and Coordination with Donors Still work to be done to fulfil the conclusions of the Tirana conference Development of sector strategies Enhanced donor coordination at sector level Securing high level political will in the beneficiary countries Important to secure high level endorsement for the commitment to coordinate on the ground in agreed sectors Responsibility of all donors to ensure that their programme is in line with national priorities, common policies and the combined donor efforts. Concluding Remarks

6. Linking EU Objectives and Country Sector Strategies in Programming of Assistance and Coordination with Donors What next? Interest has been expressed to organise workshops in March/April 2010 with all stakeholders with the aim of: sharing best practices on sector wide approaches developing working methods for sector coordination and donor lead defining benchmarks for reviewing progress on aid effectiveness. Progress will be reported at the next conference in autumn 2010. Concluding Remarks

7. Adapting Financial Instruments to Current Challenges Countries severely hit by economic consequences of financial crisis Continuous support of IFIs particularly important in current financial climate Important that all actors have the same policy foundation for their interventions and strive towards the same goal Western Balkans Investment Framework to promote policy coherence among the IFIs, the Commission and bilateral donors, and help make larger amounts of funds available for the countries. Concluding Remarks