The
Phare programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the
European Union to assist the applicant countries of
Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. Originally created in 1989 as the
Poland and Hungary: Assistance for Restructuring their Economies (
PHARE) programme, Phare has expanded from
Poland and
Hungary to currently cover ten countries. It assists the eight of the ten 2004 accession
Member States: the
Czech Republic,
Estonia,
Hungary,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Poland,
Slovakia, and
Slovenia, as well as those countries that acceded in 2007 (
Bulgaria and
Romania), in a period of massive
economic restructuring and political change.
Phare means
lighthouse in
French.