European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Integrated territorial approach and
enhanced effectiveness and efficiency
Commission’s proposals for 2014-2020
Meeting of Director-Generals for cohesion policy,
territorial and urban development
Warsaw, 3-4 November 2011
Nicholas Martyn
Deputy Director-General
Directorate-General for Regional Policy
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Legislative package
• The General Regulation
• Common provisions for cohesion policy, the rural
development policy and the maritime and fisheries policy
• Common provisions for cohesion policy only (ERDF, CF,
ESF)
• Fund specific regulations
• ERDF regulation
• CF regulation
• ESF regulation
• ETC regulation
• EGTC regulation
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Instruments to promote the
integrated territorial approach
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Reinforcing Integrated Programming
• Integrated programme approach
– The Common Strategic Framework at EU level and
the Partnership Contract at national level covering the
CSF Funds: ERDF, ESF, CF, EAFRD and EMFF
– Possibility for Member States to prepare and
implement multifund programmes combining ERDF,
ESF and the Cohesion Fund
– Operations can be supported by more than one fund
or programme (Art. 55 (8))
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Reinforcing community-led local
development
• Integrated approach to community-led local
development
– Facilitates integrated investment by small communities
including local authorities, NGOs, and economic and
social partners
– Integrated local development strategies
– Local action groups to design and implement these
strategies
– Integrated approach and common rules = can be
financed jointly from ERDF, ESF, EAFRD and EMFF
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Reinforcing Territorial Cohesion
•
Focus on sustainable urban development
– At least 5% of the ERDF resources to be allocated to integrated actions for
sustainable urban development
– ESF to complement integrated urban development actions
•
Creation of an urban development platform
– To promote capacity-building and networking between cities and exchange of
experience on urban policy at EU level
– Adoption of a list of cities to participate in the platform
•
Support for innovative actions in the field of sustainable urban
development
– Subject to a ceiling of 0,2% of the annual funding
•
Integrated territorial investments
– Investments under one or more Operational Programmes can take the form of
integrated territorial investments
•
Adressing the specific needs of geographical areas most affected by
poverty or target groups at highest risk of discrimination or exclusion
with special regard to marginalised communities
– contribution highlighted in the content of each OP
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Strengthening territorial cooperation
• Three strands remain: cross-border, transnational and
interrregional cooperation
• Integral part of the CSF and the Partnership Contract
• Alignment with Europe 2020 and performance orientation
• Link to macro-regional strategies and sea-basin programmes
• Separate regulation to facilitate implementation in a multicountry context
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Effectiveness and efficiency
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Key elements to enhance effectiveness
and efficiency
• A simplified policy architecture with two goals
• Thematic concentration
• Mechanisms to increase performance
 Focus on results: indicators
 Performance framework
 Ex-ante conditionality
 Macroeconomic conditionality
• Further simplification of policy delivery
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Thematic concentration
• Member States shall concentrate support on actions
bringing the greatest added value in relation to the
Europe 2020 strategy
– Regulation establishes a menu of thematic objectives
directly linked to the Europe 2020 strategy
– Fund-specific regulations define investment priorities
– Differentiation between the different category of regions
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Thematic Concentration for Less
Developed Regions
• At least 50% of ERDF resources at national level to be allocated to:
– Energy efficiency and renewables (at least 6% of total)
– Innovation
– SME support
• Focus and flexibility – focus on Europe 2020 while flexibility to
reflect broader development needs
•60% of the ESF allocation to each OP to be concentrated on up to 4
investment priorities
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Thematic Concentration for Transition and
More Developed Regions
•At least 80% of ERDF resources at national level to
be allocated to:
– Energy efficiency and renewables (at least 20% of total)
– Innovation
– SME support
•70% for transition regions and 80% for more
developed regions of the ESF allocation to each OP
to be concentrated on up to 4 investment priorities
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
A Focus on Results: Indicators
• Fund Specific Common Indicators
– Common output and, where appropriate, result
indicators
– Fund specific rules on baselines, targets and reporting
• Programme Specific Indicators
– Output indicators, where appropriate
– Result indicators related to the priority axis
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Performance framework
• Focuses on the achievement of programme objectives
• Sets out milestones and targets for performance of
programme priorities for 2016, 2018 and 2022
• Milestones established for 2016 shall include financial
indicators and output indicators
• Milestones established for 2018 shall include financial
indicators, output indicators and where appropriate, result
indicators
• Milestones may also be established for key implementation
steps
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Performance review
• The performance framework shall constitute the basis for the
performance review in 2017 and 2019 and the disbursement of the
performance reserve
• Information for the performance review is drawn from the progress
reports
• Member States are expected to react to significant shortfalls in the
achievement of milestones (measures to improve performance,
reprogramming)
• In the absence of sufficient action, Commission can suspend payments
• Significant failure to achieve the targets set for 2022 in the performance
framework can lead to a financial correction at the end of the
programming period
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Performance reserve
• A performance reserve of 5% is set aside at the beginning of
the programming period (exception for ETC)
• The performance reserve is established per CSF Fund, per
Member State and per category of region
• The 5% reserve is allocated to each Member State following
the performance review in 2019
• Allocation can only be used for priority axes where
performance has been satisfactory (milestones have been
achieved) – based on Member State proposal
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Ex-ante conditionality
• Conditions to be fulfilled prior to submission of Partnership
Contracts and operational programmes
• Directly related to the thematic objectives or horizontal
conditions of effectiveness
• Specified criteria for fulfilment defined in annex IV of CPR
• Conditionalities must be fulfilled within two years of the
approval of the Partnership Contract or by end of 2016
• Non-fulfilment of conditionalities at the time of the adoption of
the programmes or by the deadline outlined above constitutes
a basis for suspension of payments
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Regulation: Thematic and general ex-ante conditionalities set out in the Regulation
Preparation of programming documents: Member States undertake a self-assessment verifying
whether the ex-ante conditionality criteria have been met.
Conditionality respected:
Draft programmes explain
that no further action needs to
be taken
Partially respect:
Draft programmes lay down
commitments for fulfilment
Not respected:
Draft programmes lay down
commitments for fulfilment,
payments could be made only
upon fulfilment
Submission of programming documents: The results of the self-assessment and commitments
are included in the draft programmes.
Negotiation and agreement on commitments: The agreed commitments are set out
in the programmes and synthesised in the Partnership Contract.
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European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Macroeconomic conditionality
• Closer link between cohesion policy and the economic governance of
the Union in two areas:
– Council recommendations
• The broad economic guidelines, the employment guidelines as well as the
Eurozone-specific measures
• The excessive deficit procedure
• The macroeconomic imbalances procedure
– Union financial assistance to a Member State
• under the European financial stabilisation mechanism
• under the facility providing medium-term financial assistance for Member States'
balances of payments
• in the form of an ESM loan
• Commission may request Member States to propose amendments to
Partnership Contract and programmes
• Commission shall suspend payments and commitments when Member
State fails to take corrective measures in line with recommendations 19
European Union
Regional Policy – Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Simplification of policy delivery
Aims:
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Reducing the administrative burden of beneficiaries
Ensuring an efficient distribution of administrative effort required at
national, regional and EU level
Reinforcing legal certainty at all levels
Strengthening assurance
Means:
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Harmonisation of rules for the CSF Funds (and beyond)
Introducing more flexibility in the set-up of management and control
systems
Increased proportionality - taking into account the volume of funding
and the risks involved
Addressing challenges faced in 2007-2013 - clarification of rules and
modification of rules, where necessary
A wider application of simplified costs (flat rates, lump sums and unit
costs)
E- cohesion policy
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