Technical Assistance Operational Programme was prepared to provide additional support for efficient implementation of the structural funds on the Community Support Framework level.

The objective of the Technical Assistance Operational Programme (TAOP) at the national level is to ensure support for management, monitoring, evaluation and control of the Community Support Framework (CSF) as a whole. The programme is of horizontal nature; hence its priorities and measures pertain to issues of relevance for the entire implementation system and focus on improving its operation and ensuring consistency.

TAOP is designed to provide the means and tools to satisfy the needs of the CSF Managing and Paying Authorities as coordinators of the tasks vested with the other services involved in structural funds implementation and to support the Treasury Control Offices and ERDF monitoring and control unit in the implementation of their tasks, given the Fund’s involvement in the implementation of more than one sectoral operational programme.

The Programme makes assistance available in the form of financing consulting services, experts’ work, evaluation, equipment purchases, training and research to support effective structural funds management. Moreover, the Programme also provides for dissemination and exchange of information and promotion of Community Support Framework and structural funds operations.

TAOP was developed pursuant to the guidelines of Art. 18 of the Council Regulation 1260/1999/EC. The Programme sets out the situation for technical support instruments in Poland, formulates the goals, describes the strategy aiming to achieve them in the context of efficient use of structural funds, determines the anticipated effects of interventions to be undertaken, the trends and size of planned structural funds’ commitment and finally designates the manner of co-ordination and implementation for technical assistance while the Programme is executed.

Approximately €37.7 mn will be spent on implementing measures within the Technical Assistance Operational Programme. They will be entirely co-financed from the European Regional Development Fund. An indicative contribution from that Fund to the Programme over the period 2004 – 2006 will be ca. €28.3 mn, which accounts for 75% of the Community share in the financing of the ‘Technical Assistance’ Operational Programme. The national funds co-financing the Programme over the period 2004 – 2006 will be 25%, i.e. approximately €9.4 mn.