MEMO/10/115

Brussels, 31st March 2010

Strategic reports submitted by the Member States on

cohesion policy 2007-2013: Questions and Answers
IP/10/396

What is cohesion policy?

Cohesion policy is the European Union's strategy to promote and support the overall
social and economic development of its Member States and regions. The policy aims
to reduce differences in the level of development of Europe's regions, focusing on
key areas that will help the EU tackle the challenges facing it and remain globally
competitive.
Approximately 35.7% of the EU budget 2007-13 (equivalent to ca. €347.41 billion
over seven years at 2008 prices) is allocated to financial instruments which support
Cohesion Policy (i.e. the European Regional Development Fund, the European
Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund). These are managed and delivered in
partnership between the European Commission, the Member States and
stakeholders at the local and regional level.

What is the purpose of the national and EU strategic reports on

cohesion policy?
The main purpose of the strategic reporting is to increase the transparency and
accountability of cohesion policy, as well as to encourage the ownership of the policy
at the national and regional level. It also aims to promote a high level debate on
cohesion policy implementation among the stakeholders at both a European and
national level.
Following the analysis of the 27 national strategic reports, the EU strategic report
provides, for the first time, an overview of the implementation of the cohesion policy
programmes 2007-2013 at the mid-term juncture. It gives an overview of the
progress of Member States towards achieving the European Union's goal of social
and economic cohesion as well as overarching EU priorities of growth and jobs. It is
also a useful basis for Member States to improve performances and will act as an
impetus for results-oriented policies. It offers real-time data on projects in the
pipeline.
The 27 national reports are available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/reporting/

What is the relevance of "selected projects"?

Reporting on project selection gives an insight into the 'project pipeline' of the
programme, meaning it gives an idea of the type of projects being funded and how
much of the funds made available by the EU has been committed to projects. The
reports submitted by the Member States indicate that, EU-wide, projects selected so
far amount to more than €93 billion or 27% of the total allocation under cohesion
policy 2007-2013.
The term "selected projects" means that they have been selected by the 'managing
authorities' (i.e. a national, regional or local public authority or public/private body)
responsible for implementing cohesion policy at a regional or national level. This
does not necessarily imply that implementation is actually underway, nor that
payments have been made to the project holders on the ground. The selection
process can differ from one Member State to another as this is not defined at an EU
level.

Why does this check on the use of investment take place after 18
months?
This 2006 Regulation on the Structural Funds set out a requirement for national
governments to submit strategic reports by the end of 2009 (and again in 2012). The
Commission requested the Member States to provide data as per the situation on 30
September 2009.
Cohesion policy is aligned to the financial framework of the EU budget which is
agreed for the seven year period 2007-2013. The steps needs to prepare the
programmes involved reaching agreement between the European Parliament,
Council (Member States) and the Commission on the Community Strategic
Guidelines (the EU-level guidelines on the policy), setting the national priorities of
each country (2006-2007), and the adoption of the 455 cohesion policy programmes
(mid-2007 to early 2008). De facto, in the light of the different steps required, active
implementation started around March 2008 on average.

Can direct comparisons be made across Member States?

It is more relevant and reliable to compare the progress of individual Member States
with the EU average. Caution should be exercised when making direct comparisons
between Member States as although the Commission requested data corresponding
to how the situation stood on 30 September 2009, some Member States chose to
send data extracted on other dates. Differences of several months could influence
the volume of allocations made to a particular sector.
Concepts and practices of project selection also vary between Member States, with
particular regional and national procedures playing an important role in selection.

Why can we not compare the current progress with the previous
period?
The requirement for the national strategic reports was introduced for the first time for
the programming period 2007-2013. The new form of reporting is facilitated by the
setting of certain target levels of EU priority investments – the so-called “Lisbon
earmarking” - where Member States committed themselves at the outset to investing
specific shares of their total investment on key priority themes, such as R&D and
innovation.
The programmes from the previous period (2000-2006) are governed by a different
set of rules. In addition, the start of the previous programming period covered only
the EU-15 and a different set of funds (e.g. funds to support fisheries and rural
development were previously part of cohesion policy), making comparisons even
more difficult.

2
What is the level of progress in selecting projects?
In the context of the financial and economic crisis and the reform made to the policy
for the period 2007-2013, the progress on average is reasonable and approximately
on track. However some Member States are behind the 27 % EU average for project
selection. They run the risk of major delays in investing the funds made available by
the EU and not reaching important objectives.
Practically all Member States have reported such delays in some priority areas or
another. This is why implementation of all projects selected must be accelerated and
the rest of the project pipeline prepared and selected as quickly as possible.

Reported rates of project selection by Member State:

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
AT BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE EL ES FI FR HU IE IT LT LU LV MT NL PL PT RO SE SI SK UK EU27

AT: 20,5% BE: 61,1% BG: 20,2% CY:42,3% CZ: 21,6% DE:19,3% DK:30% EE:52,3%
EL:11,9% ES:29,1% FI: 31,7% FR: 26% HU: 46,3% IE: 51,8% IT: 38% LT: 35,4% LU:28,6%
LV:36,9% MT:48,7% NL:55,8% PL:19,5% PT:38% RO:14,1% SE:48,5% SI:42,2% SK:18,6%
UK:35,2% EU: 27%

(NB – Six Member States (DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, SI) have provided their data on
allocation to selected projects on dates other than 30/09/09).

What can the Commission do to help Member States which are

progressing slowly?
A number of measures have already been taken in the context of the European
economic recovery plan to boost investment. For instance, the Commission made
some additional advance payments to the 2007-2013 programmes. These payments
provided an immediate cash injection of €6.25 billion in 2009 for investment, within
the financial envelope agreed for each Member State for 2007-2013.
In view of the challenge to ensure sufficient co-funding in these times of public
budgetary pressures, Member States can vary the proportion of EU and national
contributions for individual projects under a programme: for example some
operations may be financed at a rate of 100% by cohesion policy funds in 2009 and
2010.
The Commission is also willing to work closely with regional and national authorities
to address bottlenecks identified in programme delivery.

3
See other measures taken under cohesion policy in response to the economic crisis
at:
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funds/recovery/
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=736
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/esf/docs/supporting_en.pdf

What is the impact of cohesion policy?

Generating impacts takes time and can only be demonstrated through evaluations. It
is too early to assess the investment made so far in the regions under cohesion
policy 2007-2013. However, the evidence that the policy works on the ground is
provided by the evaluations on 2000-2006 programmes which are now available. On
19 April 2010, the Commission will publish a synthesis report analysing these results.
For instance:
• Between 2000 and 2006 cohesion policy provided 4% of all investment in
transport in Europe and 18% in the EU10;
• 730,000 gross jobs were created in "Objective 2 regions" (targeting at declining
industrial and rural areas, and urban districts in difficulty);
• 20 million additional people were served by waste water projects, half of the
increase in Europe in the period;
• The European Social Fund (ESF) is the main European tool for investing in
citizens and job skills: 9 million people are supported every year. The current
economic crisis has showed the importance of ESF interventions in combating
unemployment and supporting vulnerable groups;
• Between 2000 and 2006 more than 75 million people were involved in ESF
activities. This corresponds to about 24% of the total population between 16
and 64 years in the EU;
• It is estimated that on average roughly half of those unemployed find work
within 12 months of participating in an ESF training programme.
Detailed information on the ex post evaluation 2000-2006 is available here:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/expost_reaction_en.htm
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/impact/
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/esf/index_en.htm

How do the funds support employment and the Europe 2020 strategy?
The Commission proposal for a new Europe 2020 strategy entails several proposals
as part of flagship initiatives to make or reinforce EU instruments available for
combatting rising unemployment. The Flagship Initiative "An agenda for new skills
and jobs" proposes to facilitate and promote labour mobility across the EU and better
match labour supply with demand with appropriate financial support from the
structural funds, notably the ESF. The Flagship Initiative "Innovation Union"
proposes to strengthen the role of structural funds, rural development funds and
Research & Development (R&D) framework programme in supporting innovation.
The Flagship Initiative "A digital Agenda for Europe" proposes to facilitate the use of
EU's structural funds in pursuit of this agenda.

4
What is the planned follow-up to the national and EU strategic
reporting?
The Commission encourages Member States and regions to accelerate project
implementation and target fields that are performing slowly (rail sector, certain
energy and environmental investments, digital economy, social inclusion,
governance and capacity building). Member States are advised to develop action
plans in order to correct the delays in investing the EU funds and to deliver the
agreed results. The Commission also calls on the Member States to secure national
co-financing of projects and promote a public debate with policy stakeholders. The
effective implementation of Cohesion policy programmes will then make an important
early contribution to Europe 2020 agenda.
The Commission's Communication on the Strategic Report 2010 will be discussed at
the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions. In 2013, the Commission will prepare
the second strategic report on the implementation of the programmes 2007-2013.