ESN welcomes new EU budget framework

The EU has approved the EU’s Cohesion Policy package for 2014-2020 which sets out rules and regulations for the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The European Social Network (ESN) welcomes the adoption of the package and the EU’s new emphasis on partnership principle in Member States which gives renewed importance to the role of local and regional authorities in the implementation of EU Structural Funds framework in the new funding period. However, we regret that the share of the European Social Fund allocated to the fight poverty and social exclusion have been reduced from 25 to 20%, which will likely have an impact on the number of projects focusing on this objective.

The European Social Fund (ESF)

With a budget of 70 billion Euros, the EU will fund priority projects in the field of education, employment, social inclusion and capacity building through the ESF. At least 20% of this budget will have to be used for social inclusion and anti-poverty measures in Member States.

Unfortunately this is a reduction in the percentage share allocated for fighting poverty and social inclusion compared to 2007-2013 period. This is especially true considering that the current scope of the ESF will also be extended to include two new instruments, namely the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived with a budget of 3.5 billion Euros and the Youth Employment initiative to support Member States' efforts to put their Youth Guarantee schemes, which will receive half of its 6 billion Euros budget from the ESF.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

The ERDF is foreseen a budget of nearly 100 billion Euros focused on promoting regional development and infrastructure across Europe. Some of the key priorities relevant for local and regional authorities, which will be funded in the new period include:

• Development and modernisation of infrastructure, with actions in areas such as health, research and innovation, ICT, education, transport


• Inter-regional cooperation, including networking and exchange of experiences between regional and local authorities

What changes for 2014-2020?

The reforms for the new EU budget have aimed to simplify the rules surrounding funding process, but they have also introduced conditionality in the spending of EU funds. There is a common set of rules across all EU Structural Funds (known as the Common Provisions Framework) which sets out a range of conditions that countries must meet if they wish to use Structural Funds in the 2014-2020 period.

1. Member States have been asked to focus on a limited number of policy objectives therefore building up a critical mass of investment in the selected areas, rather than spreading their allocations too thinly, which may weaken the impact of their investments. The chosen objectives should be linked to national and regional programmes which compliment National Reform Programmes and Country Specific Recommendations for Member States and link allocations to meeting targets under the Europe 2020 strategy.


2. The EU will be making payments dependant on certain conditions, such as implementing improvements in public administration or addressing macro-economic imbalances and excessive deficit levels. Final funding approval will not be made until these conditions are met.


3. There will be a stronger focus on monitoring and evaluation. Countries and regions will have to announce upfront what objectives they intend to achieve with the available resources and identify precisely how they will measure progress towards those goals. This will allow regular monitoring and debate on how financial resources are used.

The partnership principle: what role for regional and local government?

Through the introduction of the partnership principle, the role of local and regional authorities has increased in the implementation and monitoring of Member State Operational Programmes, which will set the national priorities for investment using EU funds.

Many Member States are in the process of drafting their Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes, which will set out the strategic framework and justification for the investment priorities for the Structural Funds in each country. The partnership principle that will be embedded in these contracts will be applied to encourage close cooperation between public authorities at national, regional and local levels in the negotiation surrounding the potential national and local priorities for the EU funds, from their participation in monitoring committees, to their involvement in the selection of actual projects and the evaluation of programmes.

Resources

• EU Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn explains about new EU cohesion policy


• See Cohesion Policy eligibility for 2014-2020 in your country and region here


• If you are an ESN member, read about how the new conditions for the use of EU funds for the transition to community care in the Members’ Area