§ Lord Thomson of Monifiethasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total amount that the United Kingdom has contributed in each year since 1989 to the European Union's Phare and TACIS programmes and to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyThe Phare programme began in 1990. The TACIS programme and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were established the following year. The table below sets out UK contributions to the EC Phare and TACIS programmes in each calendar year since 1990 and also100WA shows the UK's capital expenditure on the EBRD in each financial year since 1990–91:
UK contributions to EC budget expenditure 1UK Capital Expenditure on EBRD Year Phare(£m) TACIS(£m) Year (£m) 1990 25.38 — 1990–91 0.01 1991 31.41 0.04 1991–92 35.30 1992 52.98 3.90 1992–93 53.68 1993 68.03 23.54 1993–94 45.52 1994 76.06 31.57 1994–95 39.55 1995 101.77 49.40 1995–96 42.10 1Excludes (a) UK share of capital subscriptions made by the European Commission and (b) contributions from the Know How Fund to the EBRD's Technical Co-operation Trust Funds.
§ Lord Thomson of Monifiethasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking with the European Commission following the comments in the latest report of the Court of Auditors that the implementation of the Phare and TACIS programmes is too slow and that the Commission has still not devised an autonomous system for evaluating these programmes.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseySince the Court of Auditors reported, the share of Phare and TACIS funds committed for which contracts have been signed has risen by around 10 per cent. Phare has also launched a number of further efficiency improvements. We will monitor these changes and encourage TACIS to make similar improvements where appropriate.
Following pressure from the UK and other member states, monitoring and evaluation units have been set up in both Phare and TACIS. We also expect to secure improved monitoring provisions in the new TACIS regulation.