As a candidate country for EU membership, Macedonia receives access to various mechanisms/EU funds for pre-accession assistance.

CNVP Macedonia attended a workshop on 20 March 2018 that focused on bottlenecks to, and recommendations for the improved use of, the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance in Rural Development (IPARD) programme.

The overall objective of IPARD is to provide financial assistance for sustainable agriculture and rural development to prepare candidate countries to be able to implement the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and manage EU funds.

The first IPARD programme in Macedonia for 2007-13 (IPARD 1) was kick-started with a public call in 2009, and finished with payments to end users on 31 December 2017.

IPA 2014-20 is providing 104 million euros for Macedonia’s agriculture and rural development sector over seven years, of which 60 million euro has been programmed for IPARD 2 to support Macedonian farmers, the food processing sector, and rural small businesses. As the only instrument directed towards development of the private sector, it is extremely important for the national economy.

The workshop was organised by the National Convention for the European Union in Macedonia, and was held in the national Parliament in Skopje.

CNVP is actively involved in rural development issues in Macedonia and the other Balkan countries that are seeking to join the EU.