Slovenia benefited significantly from pre-accession assistance, through the Poland and Hungary Assistance for Restructuring the Economies (PHARE) programs, through the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD), and the Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) from 2000 onward, and through cross-border and twinning projects. Three distinctive phases can be identified. The early assistance from 1992 to 1996 primarily focused on institution-building in a young independent country and its transition to a market economy. During the second period, 1997–2000, most emphasis was placed on the adoption of the acquis communautaire in the broadest sense: from reforms, strategies, and institutions to the legal, financial, and socioeconomic system. Finally, during the last years (2001–2004) prior to European Union (EU) membership, assistance in developing an appropriate system for a smooth transition to structural and cohesion funds was very important along with remaining open issues related to the acquis. The evaluations show that Slovenia applied its pre-accession assistance well, with a significant impact on preparing for EU membership. Improvements in many areas have been identified. A limitation preventing even more successful implementation was often an insufficient number of qualified staff at various beneficiaries.