TITLE ISUBJECT MATTER AND GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF IPA ASSISTANCE
CHAPTER II General Framework for Implementation of IPA II Assistance
Article 4Principle of ownership
1.
The ownership of the programming and implementation of IPA II assistance lays primarily with the IPA II beneficiary.
2.
The IPA II beneficiary shall appoint a National IPA Coordinator (NIPAC), who shall be the main counterpart of the Commission for the overall process of: strategic planning, coordination of programming, monitoring of implementation, evaluation and reporting of IPA II assistance.
The NIPAC shall:
(a)
ensure coordination within the IPA II beneficiary's administration and with other donors and a close link between the use of IPA II assistance and the general accession process;
(b)
coordinate the participation of IPA II beneficiaries in the relevant territorial cooperation programmes, in particular cross-border cooperation programmes referred to in points (a) to (c) of Article 27 and, if appropriate, transnational or interregional cooperation programmes established and implemented under Regulation (EU) No 1299/2013. The NIPAC may delegate this coordination task to a territorial cooperation coordinator or operating structure as appropriate;
(c)
ensure that the objectives set out in the actions or programmes proposed by the IPA II beneficiaries are coherent with the objectives in the Country Strategy Papers and take due account of the relevant macro-regional and sea basin strategies;
(d)
endeavour that the IPA II beneficiary's administration takes all necessary steps to facilitate the implementation of the related programmes.
The NIPAC shall be a high-ranking representative of the government or the national administration of the IPA II beneficiary with the appropriate authority.
3.
To provide a strengthened basis for the management of pre-accession assistance and national funds, the Commission and the IPA II beneficiary shall engage in a dialogue on public financial management. In this respect, the Commission shall assess the level of compliance of the administration of the IPA II beneficiary with the principles of an open and orderly public financial management system. Where the administration complies with those requirements only in part, the IPA II beneficiary and the authorising officer responsible shall agree on the necessary measures to address the identified deficiencies.