Brussels, 27/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - In order to facilitate absorption of European funding for the period from 2007 to 2013, the European Commission is in the process of finalising a decision amending the guidelines on the closure of operational programmes.
Amendment will come by means of a Commission decision and, thus, will not have to go through the normal co-decision legislative procedure. In taking this action, the Commission is seeking to abide by the conclusions of the European Council of December 2014 which stated that “the Commission will work closely with the Member States concerned to find solutions to maximise the use of commitments under the 2007-2013 multiannual financial framework period” and made reference to “the flexibility of the existing rules”.
In the new guidelines, the Commission intends to slightly extend the eligibility period for the use of financial instruments: funding should be transferred to beneficiaries by 31 December 2015 but proof of transfer to final recipients will only have to be sent to the Commission by 31 March 2017. Thus, in an initial version of the amended decision, available on the internet, DG Regio proposes replacing the expressions “31 December 2015” and “at the end of the eligibility period” with “31 March 2017”, in particular in chapters 3.6.2 and 3.6.3. In this document, it argues its case by reference to Regulation 1083/2006, Article 89 of which states that “the Member State sen(ds) an application for payment (…) by 31 March 2017”.
According to a Council source, however, some states have said that this is too major a change to be done through a decision of the Commission alone and have called for the co-decision procedure to be used. When contacted by EUROPE, DG Regio did not wish to comment either on current guidelines or on the soon to be introduced amendments. As has been previously said, it considers this to be a politically sensitive issue and prefers to work as discreetly as possible (see EUROPE 11293). (Jean Comte)