TIRANA, Jan. 20 – A recent Supreme State Audit (KLSH) audit report revealed that North Macedonia has received about 20 times the amount of indirect funds from the European Union’s Instrument for Proliferation (IPA) II program that Albania has. Most of the IPA II assistance funds during the 2014-2018 period continued to be managed directly by the European Commission, despite plans to shift to a decentralized system after IPA I. On the other hand, although both countries are under similar conditions in efforts to become members of the European Union, the structures set up in North Macedonia managed the incoming funds in a decentralized manner during the period.
In 2018 alone, North Macedonia received a total of 53.7 million euros in indirect IPA funds while Albania received only 3 million euros. The KLSH audit team conducted a similar report on Serbia, which showed that the country received 65.4 million euros which were managed by the relevant state structures instead of the European Commission.
Moreover, KLSH also identified issues of fund mismanagement as well as clashes between the Project Management Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the European Commission delegation in Albania which have led to the scrapping of several projects.This can be linked to the evident decline of entrusted indirect funds to the Albanian government during the 2016-2018 period; in 2014 the amount of indirect funds totaled 17.3 million euros but two years later the numbers fell to 1 million euros.
Indirect management of EU funds is essential for the candidate countries, as it encourages and accelerates the EU accession process. Successful decentralized management of funds makes way for the European Commission to believe that the relevant government institutions are capable of self-managing EU funds once Albania becomes a Member State. However, considering the government’s issues with centralized management from 2014 to 2019, there has been a lack of trust, reflected in the significant decline of EU funds. Nevertheless, IPA II is yet to be finalized in 2020.
