Support programme for the implementation of the Association Agreement. Support for the elaboration of the project fiche for the Customs and Indirect Tax Administration in the field of simplifying customs practices

In the framework of the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean process the Association Agreement between the Kingdom of Morocco and the EC came into force on 1st March 2000. A Programme of Assistance for the Association Agreement (PAAA) was established in 2003. The objective of this programme is to maintain and assist the efforts of the Moroccan administrations in the preparation and implementation of the different elements of the Agreement. Several instruments for implementing the PAAA are available: the action of private technical assistance (framework contracts and tenders) or public involvement (long or short-term institutional twinning). Besides the specific objective of assistance for the implementation of the Association Agreement, the PAAA constitutes a primary tool for generating the « Neighbourhood Policy » of the EU while waiting for the creation, foreseen for 2007, of a financial instrument suitable for this policy. Nevertheless, for implementation the PAAA requires the precise identification of needs of the Ministries and the production of TORs, project fiches, as well as the definition of a timetable and precise budgetary requirements.

Therefore, the specific objectives of this assignment were to facilitate the implementation of the PAAA and to enable the approximation of Moroccan legislation in the field of simplification of the customs practices with those of the EU, and to reinforce the administrative capacity of the Moroccan public entities concerned in order to accelerate/reinforce the implementation of the Association Agreement.