The PHARE Programme

Initiated originally to assist Poland and Hungary, and later other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, PHARE (Poland and Hungary: Aid for Restructuring of the Economies) has undergone considerable change over the years and became the most important pre-accession instrument financed by the Union to support the applicant countries of that region in their preparation to join the European Union. The PHARE programme became operational in January 1990. Before that, in December 1989, the Council of Ministers had adopted – on the basis of Article 235 EC – the PHARE regulation which forms the legal foundation of the programme. The origins of the PHARE programme, however, go back even further. It originated in the Community's responsibility for the co-ordination of G24 aid to Poland and Hungary. This mandate, which the European Commission obtained at the G7 summit in Paris in July 1989, was until then ‘the highest foreign policy accolade the Commission has ever had bestowed on it’. Never before had the Commission been responsible for the aid co-ordination of its Member States and third countries.

From 1989 to 1997 the programme's aim was mainly to provide support for the process of transition towards a market economy and towards democratic institutions in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). It focused on technical assistance at government and ministry level in the areas of public finance, agriculture, the environment and privatisation.