On Tuesday 20 December, the European Commission presented its first progress report on the European structural and investment funds (ESI funds). The report notes €130 billion invested, double the figure from the previous year, and an acceleration in the implementation of programmes over the last months.
The Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, said that the figures speak for themselves, showing that we are on the right path for implementation. This is good news, the Commissioner added, who had expressed concerns a short time ago at the delay in the implementation of the operational programmes (see EUROPE 11626). "Implementation will hit cruising speed in 2017", the European Commission predicts in a press release.
In its report, on the basis of the results from autumn 2016, the Commission noted strong acceleration over the last nine months: the total financial volume of the projects selected more than doubled over this period, rising from €58.8 billion to €128.8 billion, or 20.2% of all of the investment scheduled for the period 2014-2020.
The authors of the report also note delays in the implementation of the ESI funds, which are reported to be due largely to the late adoption of the multi-annual financial framework 2014-2020, as the national and regional authorities have to carry out negotiations on new programmes upfront, as well as the adoption of these and the launch of new programmes, and complete the implementation of the programmes for the previous period.
The report is the first in a series of reports that will provide an overall view of the 533 programmes in place in the framework of the ESI funds. In particular, they will focus on new elements brought in by the new cohesion policy 2014-2020, in particular the principle of thematic concentration, ex-ante conditions and the largely results-based approach as well as performance-measuring mechanisms.
Readers may recall that the envelope of the ESI Funds for the period 2014-2020 stands at €351.8 billion. National co-financing brings the total to €638 billion, making it the biggest investment policy of the EU. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)