The JASPERS Regional Office for Central Europe in Vienna serves the 4 new Member States in the Central European region : Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia plus Malta.

The office opened in May 2007 and is headed by Dr. Axel Hörhager from the European Investment Bank. It is located in Central Vienna near the Karlsplatz.Currently, there are 12 JASPERS staff, consisting of engineers, economists and management staff, based at the Regional Office in Vienna.

The Vienna Regional Office offers technical assistance to the 4 countries to help them in the context of European regional aid by supporting the project preparation process and assisting in the submission of project funding applications.

With EUR 68 billion of Structural Funds to be absorbed during the programming period 2007-2013 this represents a major challenge. There are significant infrastructure needs in all sectors such as Transport, Environment, Energy and Urban Development.

This Programming Period's grants will only partially meet all investment needs but the implementation of a highest possible number of projects should help to further the economic and social cohesion and promote the objective of "Convergence" which is the main objective of EU Grants in these countries. In the context of current developments on financial markets, the stabilizing function of maintaining a steady stream of infrastructure investments based on reliable financial resources is vital to achieve progress in the new member states.

The Regional Office in Vienna aims to provide key inputs to improve infrastructure project preparation on behalf of the managing authorities in the new member states and thus speed up the grant application approval process, as well as being able to identify potential issues which may have an effect during the project implementation. JASPERS thus hopes to fulfil its role in ensuring the success of European regional assistance programmes.

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