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Financial cooperation with Russia began in the early 1990s, under the then TACIS programme. The idea was to help smooth Russia’s transition to democracy and the market economy, and was targeted at a whole range of sectors. Since 1991, some €2.7 billion of assistance was provided through the European Commission. Given the significant recent improvements in the Russian Federation’s fiscal position, the need for such broad ranging assistance has considerably diminished. Financial cooperation will now be carefully targeted to meet the objectives defined in the road maps to the Common Spaces. Cooperation is now carried out on the basis of co-financing by the EU and Russia. The amounts made available by the Commission have been reduced accordingly.
The numbers – and the terminology
Up to €60m per annumwill be available to bolster the EU-Russia relationship in the three or four years from 2007, concentrated mostly on the four Common Spaces, academic and educational exchange, and support for Russian regions. The total figure could rise to €100mdepending on the level of Russian involvement in regional, cross-border and other programmes.
Funding is sourced in the main from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument  (ENPI). Priorities for cooperation, as described above, are set out in the national, regional and cross-border indicative programmes for 2007-2010, approved by EU Member States and agreed with the Russian Government. They set out respectively allocations for cooperation with the Russian federal authorities, with a number of countries in the region and for cooperation between local authorities on either side of the Russia-EU border.
The regional programme encompassing Eastern Europe and Russia, the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia, is designed to encourage regional cooperation in transport, energy, trade and investment; on the environment; and for border and migration management, and the fight against organised crime and drugs. Funding may also be made available for the Northern Dimension. Russian republics and oblasts are eligible for a number of the cross-border , or neighbourhood programmes set up by the European Commission (the Barents, and Baltic Seas Programmes, Karelia, and South-East Finland/Russia; Estonia/Latvia/Russia; and Lithuania/Poland/Russia). The idea is to promote economic and social development in border areas; to tackle common environmental, health and security problems; and to encourage cross-border exchange and contacts.
Funding for financial cooperation with Russia is also sourced from the Nuclear Safety Instrument, the Democracy and Human Rights Instrument, a number of thematic programmes, and – if a crisis were to occur – from several instruments designed to respond to humanitarian or other crises.
Nuclear safety
The TACIS programme has contributed since its beginnings in 1991 to improve nuclear safety in the Russian Federation with some € 500 million.
Funding was dedicated to on-site assistance to nuclear sites in all parts of the Russian Federation, for example in Smolensk (West Russia), Sosnovy Bor (Leningrad Olast) and Kola (Arctic Russia), and to provide the necessary support by EU operators for nuclear safety improvements at nuclear power plants in Russia on a continuous basis. Such assistance focuses on the areas of design safety, operating and surveillance conditions and the overall organization of operational safety.
The programme has also supported the National Regulatory Authority of Russia. Through EU technical and financial assistance, the programme assists in establishing the necessary legal framework. It also improves the overall safety culture through more formal and regular dialogue between plant operators and regulatory authorities, on the one hand, and their western counterparts, on the other.
TACIS has also assisted in the improvement of nuclear safeguards and in contributing to the nuclear window of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) - to which the Commission is one of the main contributors. The NDEP aims at tackling the situation in Northwest Russia, where the legacy of the Soviet Arctic fleet presents a major problem.
Our collaboration with our Russian partners has been very highly valued by the different Russian stakeholders, a fact that has been clearly reflected through their positive statements during recent meetings to launch our cooperation for the period 2007-2013 that is foreseen under a new Nuclear Safety Instrument.
For more information on funding opportunities see: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/country-cooperation/russia/russia_en.htm.
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