On Tuesday 31 January, the European Commission published its annual report on the implementation of cohesion policy. It looks at the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) for the programming period 2014-2020 until the end of 2021, as well as the flexibilities introduced following the Covid-19 pandemic.
In total, between 2014 and 2020, the ESI Funds have mobilised €731 billion in investment, of which the EU has financed €535 billion.
The report says that by the end of 2021, €4 million had been allocated to support SMEs and 55.2 million people had benefited from support relating to their employment or education, or through social inclusion measures.
The Commission also considers that the ESI Funds have contributed to enhancing the Union’s energy security. As a result, the energy production capacity has increased by more than 3,600 megawatt-hours per day thanks to the use of renewable energies. At the same time, the annual energy consumption of buildings has decreased by 2.6 terawatt hours - equivalent to the electricity consumed in one year by 720,000 households.
Finally, the ESI Funds have supported 2.3 million projects which aimed to support the agricultural sector, job creation in rural areas, and the competitiveness of rural SMEs. In the fisheries sector, they have worked to maintain 44,000 jobs and create 6,000 new ones.
While the mobilisation of cohesion funds for crisis management has been heavily criticised - in particular because of its impact on the long-term objectives of cohesion policy - the report highlights that the introduction of flexibilities has allowed Member States to reallocate unspent funds to priority areas such as health care, short-time working and support for SMEs.
Each year, the report reviews the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI). To read the 2022 edition: https://aeur.eu/f/55e (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)