Jaspers annual report 2010, Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions

Abstract

JASPERS (Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions) is a partnership between the Euro-pean Commission (DG Regional Policy), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Re-construction and Development (EBRD) and Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). The combined efforts support the implementation of cohesion policy in the programming period 2007-2013 by providing the twelve countries that joined the EU between 2004 and 20071 with targeted specialist expertise for the preparation of projects to be submitted for grant financing from the Structural and Cohesion Funds. The objectives of JASPERS are to improve the quality of these projects and to facilitate timely preparation and approval, thereby improving the absorption of EU funds. JASPERS operates on the basis of Action Plans prepared annually for each Member State in cooperation with the national authorities and the European Commission. Assistance on specific assignments can be provided at any stage of the project cycle. The main focus of JASPERS is on the stages between project conception and preparation of the final applica-tion for EU funding. JASPERS may also support projects during the early phases of their implementation and give early stage sectoral “horizontal” advice.