L 210/82 Official Journal of the European Union 31.7.2006 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1085/2006 of 17 July 2006 establishing an Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com- munity, and in particular Article 181a thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (%), Whereas: (1) In order to improve the efficiency of the Community’s External Aid, a new framework for programming and delivery of assistance has been envisaged. The present instrument constitutes one of the general instruments directly supporting European External Aid policies. Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union states that any European State which respects the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and funda- mental freedoms, and the rule of law may apply to become a member of the Union. The Republic of Turkey’s application for membership to the European Union was accepted by the European Council in Helsinki in 1999. Pre-accession assistance has been made available to the Republic of Turkey since 2002. The Brussels European Council on 16 and 17 December 2004 recommended that accession nego- tiations should be opened with Turkey. At its meeting at Santa Maria da Feira on 20 June 2000, the European Council stressed that the countries of the Western Balkans were potential candidates for member- ship of the European Union. At its meeting in Thessaloniki, on 19 and 20 June 2003, the European Council recalled the conclusions of its meetings in Copenhagen in December 2002 and Brussels in March 2003 and reiterated its determination to fully and effectively support the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries, indicating that they would become an integral part of the European Union, once they met the established criteria. The Thessaloniki European Council 2003 also indicated that the Stabilisation and Association Process would constitute the overall framework for the European course of the Western Balkan countries all the way to their future accession. () Opinion delivered on 6 July 2006 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () OJ C 231, 20.9.2005, p. 67. ) (10) (12) (13) () OJ L 306, 7.12.2000, In its resolution on the Thessaloniki European Council Conclusions, the European Parliament recognised that each of the Western Balkan countries was moving towards accession, but at the same time insisted that each country should be judged on its own merits. All the Western Balkan countries can therefore be considered as potential candidate countries; however, a clear distinction should be made between candidate countries and potential candidate countries. On 17 and 18 June 2004 the Brussels European Council recommended that accession negotiations should be opened with Croatia. On 15 and 16 December 2005 the Brussels European Council decided to grant candidate country status to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Further, on 16 and 17 December 2004, the Brussels European Council recommended that parallel to acces- sion negotiations, the European Union should engage an intensive political and cultural dialogue with every candi- date country. In the interests of coherence and consistency of Com- munity assistance, assistance for candidate countries as well as for potential candidate countries should be granted in the context of a coherent framework, taking advantage of the lessons learned from earlier pre-acces- sion instruments as well as Council Regulation (EC) No 2666/2000 of 5 December 2000 on assistance for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (}). The assistance should also be consistent with the development policy of the Com- munity in accordance with Article 181a of the EC Treaty. Assistance for candidate countries as well as for potential candidate countries should continue to support them in their efforts to strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law, reform public administration, carry out economic reforms, respect human as well as minority rights, promote gender equality, support the develop- ment of civil society and advance regional cooperation as well as reconciliation and reconstruction, and contri- bute to sustainable development and poverty reduction in these countries, and it should therefore be targeted at supporting a wide range of institution-building measures. p- 1. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 2112/2005 (O] L 344, 27.12.2005, p. 23).