Brussels, 03/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 3 December, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, presented the results of the working group set up to implement the absorption of structural and investment funds and described them as being positive.
The group was set up in November 2014 at the beginning of the Commissioner's mandate. It seeks to help eight member states, mainly from central and eastern Europe, to absorb the funds for the 2007-13 period. Although the annual results have not yet been finalised, the Commissioner described them as being good.
Slovakia therefore had an absorption rate of 80.6% at the beginning of December 2015, whereas at the end of December 2014, this rate stood at 60.1%. Romania significantly increased its absorption rate from 56.3% last year, to 68.5% this year. Slovenia has the best results of the group, with a rate of 92.8%, as opposed to 81.7% last year and is now even ahead of Austria. Hungary has a rate of 87.5%, as opposed to 76.3% in 2014. The Czech Republic still has to confront many difficulties with regard to audit implementation and now has a rate of 83.5%, as opposed to 64% last year. Croatia has a rate of 53.7%, whereas this rate stood at 45.1% at the end of 2014 but the country only joined the EU in 2013. Bulgaria has had to tackle many corruption problems and has an absorption rate of 83.1%, as opposed to 66% 12 months earlier. Finally, Italy has a rate of 78%, contrary to 2014 when it stood at 63.3%.
The Commissioner explained: “Clearly, the most important lesson is to avoid delays at the start of the programming period, as it is extremely difficult to catch up later on”. On the same day, the Commissioner announced the adoption of the last of the 205 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes, which effectively gives the go-ahead to the programme implementation phase.
The Commissioner will present a communication, “Investing in Growth and Employment -Optimising the Contribution of the European Structural and Investment Funds” on 14 December, as part of Article 16 of the Regulation on funding (1303/2013), which calls on the Commission to draft a report on the results from the negotiations on the partnership agreements and programmes and for each member state to be submitted by 31 December 2015. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)