Article 1

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3906/89 is hereby amended as follows:

1. 1..

   Article 3 shall be amended as follows:

   1. (a)

      paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the following:

      ‘3.

      For applicant countries with accession partnerships with the European Union, funding under the PHARE programme shall focus on the main priorities for the adoption of the acquis communautaire, i.e. building up the administrative and institutional capacities of the applicant States and investment, except for the type of investments financed in accordance with Council Regulations (EC) No 1267/1999 of 21 June 1999 establishing an instrument for structural policies for pre-accession^f1 and (EC) No 1268/1999 of 21 June 1999 on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in pre-accession period^f2, provided the conditions for funding measures under those two Regulations are met. PHARE funding may also be used to finance the measures in the fields of environment, transport and agriculture and rural development which form an incidental but indispensable part of integrated industrial reconstruction or regional development programmes.’;

   2. (b)

      the following paragraphs shall be added:

      ‘4.

      Assistance may be used to cover the participation of recipient countries under this Regulation in regional, cross-border, and, where appropriate, transnational and interregional cooperation among themselves and between them and EU Member States.

      5.

      Where appropriate, aid may also be used to cover a recipient country's participation in regional programmes under other legal instruments.’;

2. 2..

   in Article 8, the following subparagraph shall be added:

   ‘The Commission may, within the limits established in Article 54 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities^f3, decide to entrust tasks of public authority, and in particular budget implementation tasks to the bodies listed in Article 54(2) of that Regulation. The bodies defined in Article 54(2)(c) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 may be entrusted with tasks of public authority if they are of recognised international standing, comply with internationally recognised systems of management and control, and are supervised by a public authority.’;

3. 3..

   the list in the Annex shall be replaced by the following list:

   • ‘Bulgaria

   • Croatia

   • Romania’.