22 January 2010
Fresh support for states hit hardest by crisis
The European Commission could soon release new funds for Structural Fund projects in 2010.
New advances of around €3.2 billion would be paid this year to the member states that have endured the severest consequences of the crisis. The advances serve to prefinance programmes to allow for faster start-up. The principle of additional advances in 2010 is expected to be validated in the context of adoption of the proposal for Structural Fund simplification, presented by the Commission last July and likely to be approved by the European Parliament and Council soon.
The proposal will be debated by the EP’s Regional Development Committee, on 25 January in Brussels. The report could be adopted on 22 February and be put before the plenary in March. The rapporteur, Evgeni Kirilov (S&D, Bulgaria), does not plan to challenge the Council’s compromise of November 2009 - a “chance” for the regions. According to one expert, a challenge to this compromise – adopted unanimously by the states – could undermine the chances of an agreement.
If Kirilov’s views are endorsed by his peers, the final version of the new regulation will provide for the payment of additional advances in 2010 in an amount equivalent to 2% of the Cohesion Fund contribution (€1.4 billion) and 4% of the European Social Fund budget (€1.8 billion). These amounts would be reserved to the states that have been hit hardest by the crisis, ie those whose GDP dropped by more than 10% in 2009 from 2008 or those that benefited in 2009 from EU balance of payments support for non-eurozone states (Regulation 332/2002). In 2009, also as a result of the economic crisis, the Commission paid additional advances to the states in the amount of €6.25 billion (on top of the €5 billion initially planned under Structural Fund rules).
The Council and EP rapporteurs also see eye to eye on the idea of relaxing the N+2 and N+3 rules. These provide that EU funds are lost if not used by a programme within two (or three) years following the year of approval. The economic crisis and the pressure it has put on national and regional budgets has delayed the start-up of certain projects, which could fall through if the calendar is not made more flexible. The idea here would be not to take account of these rules for the funds approved in 2007, for which payment applications should have been submitted by end 2009 (N+2) or end 2010 (N+3).
The Council and EP rapporteurs also see eye to eye on the idea of relaxing the N+2 and N+3 rules(Source: Europolitics)