In this Occasional Paper the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs publishes its overview and assessments of the 2006 Pre-accession Economic Programmes of the candidate countries (Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey).

One of the economic priorities of the 1999 and 2000 Accession Partnerships was the establishment of an annual fiscal surveillance for the candidate countries. This gave birth to the so-called Pre-Accession Fiscal Surveillance Procedure, which aims at preparing countries for the participation in the multilateral surveillance and economic policy coordination procedures currently in place in the EU as part of the Economic and Monetary Union. The Pre-Accession Economic Programmes (PEPs) are part of this procedure.

The PEPs have two objectives. First, to outline the medium-term policy framework, including public finance objectives and structural reform priorities needed for EU accession. Second, they offer an opportunity to develop the institutional and analytical capacity necessary to participate in EMU with a derogation from the adoption of the euro upon accession, particularly in the areas of multilateral surveillance and co-ordination of economic policies. The development of the institutional capacity to co-ordinate between the various ministries, government agencies and the central bank is a particularly important aspect ensuring the success of the Pre-Accession Fiscal Surveillance Procedure.