The European Court of Auditors has issued a highly critical report on the performance instruments introduced under the 2014-2020 cohesion policy, in a report released on Thursday 21 October.
Under the umbrella regulation laying down common provisions between the structural and investment funds 2014-2020, several instruments had been introduced or improved. These included ex-ante conditions to ensure efficient use of funds, and the creation of a performance reserve of 6% of cohesion expenditure for the last 2 years of the multiannual financial framework. In addition, two performance-based funding models have been introduced.
For the Court, “there is not enough to go around”. Rapporteur Ladislav Balko found that there was no “clear link” between funding and programme performance. He added that these new instruments “have not substantially changed the way EU funds have been allocated and disbursed”.
For example, in its report, the Court considers that the ex-ante criteria were very broad and left too much room for interpretation without being accompanied by quantifiable targets. On the performance reserve, the Court notes that Member States made numerous changes to the performance framework before the performance review.
As a result, the Commission has released 82% of the performance reserve in 2019 and 2020. Without these changes, 56% of the performance reserve would have been released in 2019 and around 62% in 2020, the Court calculated. It also calls into question the quality and reliability of the data and monitoring carried out by the managing authorities.
As for the new performance-based funding models, they have not been very successful among Member States, partly due to a lack of legal certainty, it analyses.
Therefore, the Court suggests: - to take more advantage of the enabling conditions (the conditions that have taken over from the ex-ante conditions for the period 2021 - 2027) with more systematic monitoring and reporting to the European Parliament and the Council on the enabling practices in place; - improve the preparation of the mid-term performance review for the period 2021-2027; - finally, clarify the rules on non-cost related funding.
To read the report: https://bit.ly/30IqJdr (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)