Projects from the Phare Programme
Projects from Transition Facility Programme
European Communities’ Initiative Programme INTERREG IIIA

Projects from the Phare Programme

The Phare Programme (Pologne-Hongrie Actions pour la Reconversion Economique) has been introduced by EC as a special instrument to help the transforming countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

The process of programming the pre-accession support in the CR was based on following main programme documents:
• Accession Partnership, prepared by the European Commission for the period of 1998-1999 in accordance with Agenda 2000.
• National Programme for the Adoption of the Acquis – NPAA, where the CR describes its strategy of accession to EU, including how the priorities in Accession Partnership could be achieved.
• Progress Reports, where the European Commission evaluates the progress of the Czech Republic in fulfilling the criteria for accession to EU.

The realization itself followed the rules set in the implementation manuals. The above mentioned documents were background materials for the National Phare Programmes which were prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic - Centre for Foreign Assistance – in close cooperation with relevant ministries, other bodies of public administration and European Commission.

Based on the signed Financing Memorandum and in accordance with the relevant programme documents the amount and form of drawing the financial support from EC were specified.

Pre-accession support from the Phare Programme was focused on following areas:
• Strengthening public administrations and institutions to function effectively inside the European Union;
• Promoting structures of civil society;
• Promoting convergence with the European Union’s extensive legislation (the acquis communitaire) and reduce the need for transition periods;
• Promoting Economic and Social Cohesion, investment support in economically and socially affected regions and preparation for In the Cohesion Fund; intense preparation for drawing financial support from structural funds;
• Strengthening the pre-accession support form Twinning by institution building (IB);
• Decentralization of pre-accession support in form of delegating the responsibility for financial management to public administration bodies in candidate countries.


Feedingstuff Safety in the Whole Food Chain – Animal Feed
This project (total amount of 1 800 000 EUR) had two parts – purchase of laboratory equipment (laboratory equipment and hardware and software) and twinning light (partner NAGREF, Greece) and was focused on training and study visits for UKZUZ experts in laboratory and inspection area.
Realisation period: 08/2004 – 04/2005

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Improvement of RASFF (1) CZ02.09.03.12
This project - twinning light of total amount of 150 000 EUR helped UKZUZ in preparation for system integration of all information systems in UKZUZ. Our employees were trained by experts from NAGREF, who also proposed a solution, that was eventually used for realisation of system integration.
Realisation period: 02/2005 – 09/2005



Projects from Transition Facility Programme

Since 1st May 2004 the Czech Republic as an EU member state has been gaining support from new programme of EC called Transition Facility, which is based on Article No 34 of the Treaty of Accession.

The aim of the European Commission was to provide temporary assistance to the new member states on development and strengthening of the institutions of public administration which are responsible for implementation of EU legislation into the national legal systems and to stimulate exchange of experience between the old and new member states.

Priorities of the Programme:

The support from this programme was particularly focused on strengthening the institutional capacity in the following areas:

• justice and home affairs (strengthening of the judicial system / external border control / strengthening of the capacity for law enforcement)
• financial control
• protection of financial interests of the EC and fight against fraud
• internal market, incl. customs union
• environment
• veterinary service and administrative capacity to ensure food safety
• administration and control systems for agriculture and rural development incl. the IACS system
• nuclear safety (strengthening the effectiveness and competence of nuclear safety offices and of the supporting organisations as well as of the agencies dealing with radioactive waste)
• statistics
• strengthening of the public administration

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Improvement of RASFF (2) CZ 04.06.01 TF
This project of the total amount of 1 200 000 EUR had two parts – supply of equipment (purchase of IT hardware and software) and subsequent technical assistance. The realization of the project was based on a previous twinning light project of the same name Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Improvement of RASFF.
Realisation period: 9/2005 - 12/2006

Improvement of Soil Protection by Strengthening Laboratory Control of Sewage Sludge Application on Soil CZ 2005/017/518
This project of the total amount of 260 000 EUR consisted of two parts – supply of equipment (purchase of laboratory equipment) and twinning light (partner NAGREF, Greece, experts from Austria and Germany) and was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ’s experts in ecotoxicology.
Realisation period: 08/2006 – 05/2007

Preparatory Steps for Improvement of Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) in CISTA CZ 04.09.01.02
This project (Twinning) of the total amount of 250 000 EUR helped UKZUZ with preparation on certification of all of its activities according to ISO 9001/2009 and in the same time accredited the remaining non-accredited laboratories incl. special accreditation on Proficiency Testing. Experts from NAGREF, besides training our staff, proposed a solution that was used by UKZUZ within the certification and accreditation.
Realisation period: 01/2007 – 09/2007

Strengthening of the CISTA Authority in the Field of Official Control and Certification CZ 04.09.01.04
This project - Twinning Light of the total amount of 120 000 EUR was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ’s experts in perennial plants. Workshops were held by experts from Greece and Holland.
Realisation period: 01/2007 – 07/2007

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Testing Procedures for Testing Management Application (TMA) in CISTA CZ 05.06.01.08
This project of the total amount of 105 000 EUR followed the recommendations of foreign experts mentioned in the Final report of one of the previous projects. It was focused on creation of TMA (Testing Management Application), which enables a connection between LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) and the information systems of the technical departments of the Institute and which ensures an effective internal communication which is necessary for a fully operational RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed)
Realisation period: 9/2007-9/2008

Strengthening of the Official Control in the Field of Soil Protection - TwL+Supply Transition Facility
This project (Twinning) of the total amount of 105 000 EUR followed a succesful project of the same name and was focused on training and study visits of UKZUZ‘s experts in ecotoxicology by experts from Finland and Germany.
Realisation period: 12/2008 – 09/2009

Filling Gaps in Food Safety – Quality Control and Quality Assurance in CISTA CZ 06.02.01
This project of the total amount of 1 020 000 EUR consisted of three parts. The first one was a Twinning light, which was focused on training staff of UKZUZ in laboratory methods by Danish experts (Danish Plant Directorate). The second part was purchase of equipment (IT) and the last and the most important part was Technical assistance, in the frame of this part UKZUZ certified all of its activities according to a ISO 9001/2009 and in the same time accredited the remaining non-acredited laboratories incl. special accreditation on Proficiency Testing.
Realisation period: 10/2007 – 04/2008



European Communities’ Initiative Programme INTERREG IIIA

Hazardous substances in soil in relation to the environment - fundamentals of cross-border soil protection (Bavaria – Czech Republic)
International project from European Communities’ Initiative Programme INTERREG IIIA; reg. number of project CZ.04.4.82/3.1.00.1/0060