The overall objective of this ex post evaluation is to provide accountability with respect to the use of European Commission funds, and lessons learned for decision making on improvements to the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance Facility (the Facility) for remaining and future candidate...

This report’s key objective is to deduce from the experiences of recent and present Phare-supported candidates, with particular reference to Bulgaria and Romania, recommendations for the way in which a candidate country should best be supported (i) to enable its public administration to adopt,...

This report’s key objectives are to evaluate the contribution which the Phare programme has made to the legal alignment, implementation and enforcement of the Justice & Home Affairs acquis in the New Member States and in the two remaining Phare beneficiary candidate countries, Bulgaria and...

This report’s key objectives are to evaluate the contribution which the Phare programme has made to the transposition, implementation and enforcement of ‘horizontal’ Public Administrative and Judicial Capacity (PAJC) development in Bulgaria and Romania, and to identify lessons learned,...

The aim of the review is to summarise the achievements of Phare Roma programmes in the five countries where integration of Roma minorities was specified as an Accession Partnership priority (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) and to consider to what extent they have...

Phare support to SME development has mainly consisted of technical assistance and advisory services to national institutions, support to SME policy and legislative development and financial support for SME development. Progress has been made in tackling problems inherited from the past, as well...

This ex post evaluation addresses the EU/EC’s pre-accession assistance provided to the twelve countries that acceded to the European Union as part of the ‘fifth wave’ of EU enlargement, i.e. Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia...

This paper aims to explore the factors influencing the ability of firms to compete in globalised markets. The Austrian and evolutionary economics and the endogeneous growth literature highlight the role of innovation activities in enabling firms to compete more effectively - and expand their...

Following up on a previous paper by the same author on the contribution of ICT capital to growth and labor productivity in Poland 1995-2000, this paper extends the study to eight transition economies: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The paper shows that...