ISPA IN LITHUANIA OVER THE PERIOD 2000-2003

The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) provided financial assistance for investments in both the environment and transport sector in order to assist countries during the pre-accession period in enhancing the harmonisation of their legislation with Acquis Communautaire in force for respective sectors over the seven-year period (2000-2006). For the period 2000-2006, a projected budget amounted almost to EUR 7 billion.

Over the period 2000-2006, Lithuania was granted approximately EUR 50 million a year.

The following criteria are of relevance for Lithuania:
- Interconnections between national networks and the trans-European networks;
- Ensuring the sustainable mobility in parts of the national networks which are of international relevance;
- Ensuring the technical compatibility in a multimodal transport network of international relevance;
- Efficient use of existing capacities of infrastructure;
- Establishment and development of multimodal transport centres;
- Improvement of the security of traffic and reliability of the network;
- Establishment or development of systems for management and control of traffic;
- Implementation of measures for the reduction of impact on the environment.

Over the period 1997-1999, TINA corridors were defined for ten countries of Central and East Europe (including Lithuania). In Lithuania, TINA network (road and rail) overlap with main multimodal transport corridors approved by the Third Pan-European Transport Conference (Helsinki, 1997), crossing the territory of Lithuania on the axis north-south (Via Baltica) and east-west (Vilnius-Klaipėda) which may be connected with additional co-ordinated branch lines to neighbouring countries (Poland, Latvia, Belarus, and Russia).

Over the period 2000-2003, 10 financing memorandums for funding of the transport sector of Lithuania were signed of the total value amounting to EUR 275,474 million, including:

- 5 financing memorandums for road sector totalling EUR 103.02 million;

- 2 financing memorandums for the rail sector totalling EUR 167.5 million;

- 3 financing memorandums for technical assistance (railway sector) totalling 7.35 million.

Average percentage of ISPA co-financing made 52 per cent.

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