TI Estonia: Project Transparency Through Awareness Concluded

The aim of the project was to contribute to the effective and transparent use of EU funds for new member states through increasing public and civil society understanding of their purpose, distribution and use.

According to the head of the Jaan Tõnisson Institute Agu Laius the structural assistance is a great opportunity for Estonia but for more effective use of it, the public should be aware that the distribution and implementation of the structural funds must be transparent and that all beneficiaries should be publicized.

At the beginning of the project the implementation of strucutral assistance in Estonia was analyzed. It showed that the use of structural aid in Estonia is very centralized as in other new member states of the EU. Main problems concerning the implementation of structural aid in Estonia inlcude arbitrariness of state officials in determining social partners and that authorities are not keeping to deadlines and responsibilities. Politicized distribution of structural aid was also identified as a problem.

During the implementation of the project a coalition of stakeholders and NGOs was created, which participates more actively in preparing of the strategies for the new programming period (2007 – 2014) by using the experiences of the current period (2004 – 2006). The coalition includes more than 20 civil organisations, unions of municipalities, trade unions and the union of small enterprises.

The third direction of the project, involving Estonian media into the process of creating awareness of the implementation of structural assistance, suffered because of the indifference and ignorance of journalists in country. This is one of the reasons why the issues concerning structural assistance are dealt with superficially in the Estonian media, with most reports consisting of official announcements.

The TTA project concluded with the conference “EU structural aid – experiences and challenges” held on April 25th 2006 in Tallinn in the National Library and prepared together with the Estonian Green Movement, TI-Estonia and the other members of the coalition. All Intermediating Bodies and Implementing Agencies were represented at the conference.

The Transparency Through Awareness Project was financed by the European Commission through Transparency International - Secretariat and implemented by Jaan Tõnisson Institute, the partner of the Transparency International in Estonia.