Brussels, 24/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Adopting the own initiative report last week in Brussels by Helmuth Markov (GUE, Germany) on the Commission's 2001 Annual Report on the Structural Funds, the European Parliament regretted the “unacceptable delays” in implementing the 2000-2006 programme. The EP acknowledges that the delays are due firstly to the fact that the documents concerning the programmes for Objectives 1, 2 and 3 and Community initiatives were only passed in 2001 and consequently spending did not reach a stable level until 2004, with payment credits being underutilised. For 2000-2001, the intervention rate averaged at 70% for Objectives 1 and 2 and 40% for Objective 3. These delays are due to the fact that Member States decided to finish projects foreseen in the 1994-1999 programme. The rapporteur believes new planning options should be presented during the mid-term review to avoid a repeat of such delays in the future.
To improve coordination between the relevant European, national and regional authorities and enhance the implementation of the programmes, the rapporteur suggests creating a single Directorate General in each Member State along with one minister with full responsibility for the Structural Funds. The Funds should be simplified too. Helmuth Markov points out that the EU makes the programmes unnecessarily complicated, which restricts national bodies' room for manoeuvre and makes the programme less effective. Member States should simplify their management procedures, in line with the Commission's recommendations. The report comments that the Member States have not yet assumed their new responsibilities and the audits and inspections carried out in 2001 reveal serious quality gaps in Member States' monitoring.
Some progress has been made, however. Coordination between the EIB and EIF have saved the EU some EUR 31.2 billion, EUR 14.5 bn of which in individual loans and EUR 5 bn in overall loans. The rapporteur congratulated the European Social Fund on the outcome of the EQUAL programme for combatting inequality and discrimination in the labour market (Hungary and the Czech Republic are also involved in this initiative).