The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) is a European Union funding to support candidate countries and potential candidate countries.
The IPA (“IPA I”) is made up of five different components:
- Assistance for transition and institution building;
- Cross-border cooperation (with EU Member States and other countries eligible for IPA);
- Regional development (transport, environment, regional and economic development);
- Human resources (strengthening human capital and combating exclusion);
- Rural development.
The IPA beneficiary countries are divided into two categories:
EU candidate countries (Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia) are eligible for all five components of IPA;
- Potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244/99) are eligible only for the first two components.