Phare ACCESS 2000 Programme

To meet the so-called "Copenhagen political criterion" for becoming an EU member (established in the Copenhagen European Council in 1993), the European Commission initiated the Phare ACCESS Programme. It is one of the main EU instruments that supports the candidate countries not only to formally subscribe to the principles of the rule of law, human rights and the respect for and the protection of minorities but to put them into daily practice and establish the necessary institutional framework that supports their sustainability.

In Bulgaria the Programme will be implemented between July 2002 and November 2003