Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Since it unveiled proposals last year for the EU's multiannual financial framework (budget) for 2014-2020, the European Commission has published more than 120 changes to cut red tape for EU funding for small and medium-sized enterprises, countries, regions, students and scientists, set out in a report published on 8 February on simplification for 2014-2020.
Simplification includes reducing the time that documents relating to Cohesion Fund money received from the EU have to be kept for (from 10 years to five, which will help charities, NGOs and small businesses); using a single procedure for applying for funding from the Cohesion Fund and Structural Funds (this will mainly be helpful for small businesses); and better coordination with national auditors. Programmes worth less than €100,000 will now only be audited once, and bigger programmes once or twice a year. On average, it takes 350 days to get a subsidy for research, which the Commission wants to cut by a third. (LC/transl.fl)