The MEDA System

The legal basis of the MEDA Programme is the 1996 MEDA Regulation (Council Regulation no EC/1488/96). This Regulation was amended in November 2000 and is usually call MEDA II. The main areas of intervention and objectives are directly derived from those of the 1995 Barcelona Declaration. It established the MED Committee to allow EU Member States to advise the European Commission in implementing the MEDA Programme. The Committee gives its opinion on the programming documents.

MEDA resources are subject to programming: Strategy papers covering the period 2000-2006 are established at national and regional level. Based on these papers, three-year national indicative programmes (NIPs) are drawn up jointly for the bilateral channel, and a regional indicative programme (RIP) covers the multilateral activities. The indicative programmes follow the 1996 Council guidelines. Annually adopted financing plans are derived from the NIPs and the RIP. The strategy papers, NIPs and the RIP are established in liaison with the European Investment Bank.

The Commission’s External Relations Directorate-General is responsible for drawing up the strategy papers and the three-year indicative programmes. Based on this input, theCommission's EuropeAid Co-operation Office establishes the annual financing plans and manages the projects and programmes from the identification to the evaluation phase.

For Turkey, the Enlargement Directorate-General both plans and implements the cooperation activities. MEDA-funded interest-rate subsidies on loans for environmental projects as well as risk capital actions are managed by the European Investment Bank.

The annual appropriations for financial commitments and payments of the MEDA line in the EU budget are authorised by the budgetary authority (EU Council and European Parliament) on a proposal from the Commission within the limits of the financial perspective.