EU cross-border cooperation programmes: “valuable support, but implementation started very late and problems with coordination”. This is the starting point for the European Court of Auditors’ evaluation report on these programmes, published on Monday 12 December.
The auditors looked at three cross-border cooperation programmes (South-East Finland-Russia, Poland-Belarus-Ukraine and Mediterranean Sea Basin) from 2014-2020. Together, they represent 44% of the total funding (almost €1 billion) for the period, with the aim of making recommendations for the current period.
In its conclusions, the Court of Auditors welcomes the match between the objectives of the selected programmes and the needs of the regions. It also highlights the transparent project selection procedure and participatory project design to promote local ownership.
On a more negative note, the report highlights the lack of complementarity with other EU funding and “significant” delays in implementation, with projects only able to begin “in the fifth or sixth year of the financing period”.
In addition, as the European Commission has suspended programmes with Russia and Belarus (see EUROPE 12904/10), nine programmes planned for 2021-2027 are potentially sidelined. These represent almost one third of the value of the total allocation for the period.
Finally, the report supports the introduction of simplification measures for the management of the 2021-2027 programmes, while noting the risk that large infrastructure projects “that can be of strategic importance in relations with partner countries” will have less supervision from the Commission. It therefore recommends that the institution adapt its fraud-reporting tools, provide guidance on monitoring sustainability after project closure and consult all relevant services when developing projects.
To read the full report: https://aeur.eu/f/4mj (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)