Brussels, 21/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 20 October, the European Commission adopted its annual report on implementation of the Structural Funds. 2007 was the eighth year of implementation on the former programming period from 2000 to 2006. Altogether 659 programmes were managed in 2007 and “significant efforts continued to be made” to raise the quality of programmes and projects co-financed by the Structural Funds, the report states. The reinforcement of financial management, control and evaluation also “contributed to the promotion of good governance” of the co-funded programmes and projects. The partnership model set up between the Commission and the national and regional authorities in the member states for the implementation of the programmes has become an “outstanding success”, the Commission reports.
In addition to the implementation of the 2000-2006 Structural Funds programmes, Commission staff were heavily involved in the planning and programming of the 2007-2013 period during 2007. During the year, negotiations were concluded on a total of 27 national strategic reference frameworks and 428 programmes, made up of 311 European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 117 European Social Fund (ESF) programmes. The Commission notes that the ex post evaluation of Objectives 1 and 2 2000-2006 programmes was launched during 2007 in order to be able to demonstrate the added value of European Cohesion policy. Preparatory work was also undertaken on designing the ex post evaluations of INTERREG and URBAN.
ERDF. The overall execution rate of ERDF payment appropriations was 99.9%, while the level of payment appropriations was the highest ever achieved, at €17.4 billion for 2000-2006 programmes. For Objectives 1 and 2 and the Community Initiatives, there was full implementation of payment appropriations. Moreover, Objective 1 programmes have shown a higher demand for reimbursements than initially forecast thus offsetting advance payments to the new programmes whose adoption took place late in December 2007 or was postponed to 2008. At the end of 2007, commitments from previous years on which payments were still to be made (RAL) totalled €27.7 billion compared with €45.8 billion in 2006. In 2007 again, the automatic decommitment (“n+2”) rule proved to be an efficient tool to encourage member states to devote resources and efforts to the timely execution of European programmes. The latest forecasts demonstrate that the risk of possible decommitments should not exceed 0.7% of 2005 commitments (around €140 million).
In 2007, the ERDF absorption rate for all member states was 79% of the overall 2000-2006 financial allocation. New member states achieved record absorption figures, receiving €3 billion in 2007, nearly as much as they were reimbursed altogether in 2004, 2005 and 2006 (€3.5 billion). By the end of 2007, they had reached an average consumption of 71% of their financial allocations for the period 2004-2006, while the average ERDF absorption rate for the EU15 (period 2000-2006) was 85%.
ESF. The overall execution rate of ESF payment appropriations was 99.9%, while the level of payment appropriations was the highest ever achieved. ESF total commitments related to 2007-13 operational programmes amounted to €10.486 million (99.88%). The remaining credits (€13.16 million) not committed in 2007 correspond to the French Operational Programme (OP) for the Martinique Region (the adoption of which was not planned for 2007). The cumulative payment credits consumption was €1.513 billion, which corresponds to 99.87% of the annual payment credits (€1.515 billion). The difference (€1.957 million) corresponds to the advance payment for the French OP “Martinique Region” and will be paid in 2008. At the end of 2007, twelve programmes and €92.2 million were involved with the application of the “n+2” rule. The risk of possible decommitments should not exceed 0.8% of 2005 commitments. The total outstanding payments on pre-2007 commitments at the end of 2007 stood at €12 billion. The RAL from the pre-2000 period is now €179 million (compared with €204.6 million at the end of 2006).
EAGGF. The total amount paid in 2007 was €3.4 billion. Full financial execution rate of EAGGF (European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund) payment appropriations for rural development programmes for the period 2000-2006 was achieved. At the end of 2007, commitments from previous years on which payments were still to be made (RAL) totalled €3.9 billion, compared with €7.3 billion in 2006.
FIFG. The budgetary implementation (aid to fishing) in 2007 was highly satisfactory. 97.5% of payment appropriations were executed. The payment rate reached 96.44% in Objective 1 regions and 99.96% in regions outside Objective 1. At the end of the year 2007, the total outstanding commitment for the FIFG was €811 million (compared with €1,336 million in 2006). As regards the implementation of the “n+2” rule, the estimates of decommitments are around €54 million for 2007. (L.C./transl.rt)