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.
Until 2000 the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) were also beneficiaries of Phare. However, as of 2001 the CARDS programme (Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stability in the Balkans) has provided financial assistance to these countries.
The Phare Tower (Tour Phare), in English, "Lighthouse Tower", was a planned approx. 300-metre (984 ft) tall skyscraper with 71 floors designed as a green building to be built in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), France, in the La Défense district of suburban Paris. The building was being designed by Los Angeles-based Morphosis, headed by architect Thom Mayne, and would have been to be completed in 2018. Have it been built, it would've been the tallest skyscraper in Paris and one of the tallest in the European Union. Tour phare was cancelled and could be replaced by Sister towers.
While the French word phare means lighthouse (from Pharos) when employed alone, it also applies to any source of light used as a beacon. In this context, phare is used to describe the tower as something that will bring attention. Tour Phare was meant to bring an architectural beacon to the periphery of Paris and more specifically La Défense.
So we started in the cornfield
And I know we did not slack
We got everything in order
But we forgot to bring the bucket back
The foreman he went crazy
And ran around the field
Said we must be lazy
Had to be seen to be believed
Seen to be believed.
But it was a long way
From this highroad
It was a far away from here.
The farmer had a daughter
And she worked at the wishing well
Put one leg in the water
'til she found the mission bell
The old man went crazy
And ran to get his gun
We had a bad time explaining
We were just having drunken fun
Just having drunken fun.
But it was a long way
From this high road, Oh!
It was a long way from here
So we walked along this road
Just tellin' stories as we go
We just walk along.
Well the farmer had a daughter
And she did not speak a word
We used to kiss her in the orchard
Till one morning we were overheard
The old man he went crazy
Running around the field
Said we must be crazy
Had to be seen to be believed