The Commission makes recommendations in the following areas:

Accelerating investment to create demand

Cohesion Policy is the Community’s largest source of investment in the real economy. With significant financial resources (€ 347 billion over the period 2007-13), this policy provides vital support and stable investment at local and regional level. The public sector has an essential role to play in restoring confidence; in some Member States, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, the relative contribution of Cohesion Policy in total public investment amounts to over 50%.

Accelerating structural funds’ investment helps create demand in key sectors of the economy and front-loading resources provides an important financial stimulus in the short term. Innovative financing schemes can also facilitate access to secure finance. The Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) are encouraging Member States to take advantage of the JEREMIE scheme (Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises), which makes it easier for SMEs to obtain loans. With the European Investment Bank Group, the Commission is also backing JASMINE (Joint Action to Support Micro-Finance Institutions in Europe), which helps non-bank micro-credit providers to improve their services and become sustainable.

Funding targeted at growth and jobs

Of the funding allocated under the Cohesion Policy, more than 65% (€230 billion) is earmarked for investment in the four priority areas of the Union’s growth and jobs strategy – people (employment), business, infrastructure and energy, research and innovation. This focus is crucial as these priorities will contribute to a quicker recovery, improve competitiveness and help the Union adapt to a low-carbon economy.

The report suggests that some Cohesion Policy programmes may need to be reviewed to increase focus on investments in areas of immediate growth potential or in the sectors most affected. Member States’ national strategic reports (due at the end of 2009) will be an opportunity to report on early results and plan for revised national and regional programmes. To help Europe weather the downturn, the Commission recommends that European Social Fund programmes are refocused to help the unemployed back into jobs, prevent long-term unemployment and to raise overall skill levels to better match with labour market needs. It also encourages Member States to invest more in energy efficiency, clean technologies, sustainable transport infrastructure, energy connections and broadband networks.

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1983&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

“Innovation and entrepreneurship develop more intensively in regions equipped with modern and efficient transport, energy, education and telecommunication infrastructure. The new Cohesion Policy programme addresses all these factors and, at a time when all countries are facing the consequences of the global economic slowdown, this is an excellent tool for boosting investment in Poland. I am confident that the country will use this support wisely and effectively, for the benefit of all its citizens,” said Commissioner Hübner ahead of the launch ceremony.

The new programme promotes investment in six sectors which are crucial for increasing competitiveness and achieving sustainable economic growth: environment, transport, energy, higher education, culture and health. Funding support will be channelled through the Cohesion Fund (€22.1 billion) and the European Regional Development Fund (€5.8 billion).

In the field of environment, investment will contribute to:

• Helping businesses to meet EU environmental protection standards;
• Conserving biodiversity and protected areas.
• Improving waste and wastewater management systems.

In the field of transport, the focus is on:

• Developing Trans-European transport networks including the E65 railway line linking Gdansk in Northern Poland to the Czech Republic and Slovakia;
• Upgrading and developing road infrastructure in Eastern Poland;
• Supporting multimodal transport, inland waterways and intelligent transport systems;
• Promoting eco-friendly transport (specific allocation of €7.6 billion from the Cohesion Fund).

Thanks to the EU investment, 1570 km of railway lines will be modernised, 640 km of motorways and over 2220 km of expressways will be built, and eight main airports will be expanded.

In addition, it is expected that around 120 educational institutions and 31 cultural centres will be constructed or renovated, with 160 health care centres primed for modernisation.

The programme will also enable Poland to pursue its objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will support activities to increase energy efficiency, promote renewable energies and invest in sustainable transport systems. Investment in the energy sector should result in 690 MW of additional capacity in energy plants using renewable energy sources

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1957&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN

The overarching aim of the €1.3 million fund is to stimulate the capacity for cross-border cooperation of public Polish entities on regional and local levels. Project proposals can be submitted to fund manager The East European Democratic Centre until 10 February 2009.

A total €80,000 will be awarded to projects carried out in bilateral partnerships with one partner from the EEA EFTA states (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) or the Baltic Sea area countries (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Germany).

The major bulk of funding in this call, €335,000, will be awarded to projects carried out in multilateral partnerships with at least two foreign partners, including Ukraine, Belarus, the Russian Federation- Kaliningrad District.

The co-financing requirement has been set at 10%.

For further information, see the open call text and the programme’s web page.

Source: http://www.eeagrants.org/id/986

This week, finally, and for the first time in EU history, has the EU taken the bold step (according to EU standards) to freeze Structural Funds payments to a country on grounds of rampant corruption. The laggard identified, named and shamed was Bulgaria.

It is an important sign that the EU is willing to finally walk the talk in the 13th successive year the European Court of Auditors refused to sign off on the EU’s overall accounts because they found, among others, that a significant part of regional spending is not properly accounted for, or in the Court’s words is “affected by a material level of error of legality and/or regularity” (which does not mean fraud, but which is just the tip of the iceberg, because they can only take samples and, as far as I understand, they don’t look at quality delivered or cost-effectiveness).

This seems to be only the symptom of a deeper crisis. We should perhaps start thinking about a complete redesign of regional aids instead of the typical EU approach of incremental and slow reform.

Read the whole article at http://iblog.blogactiv.eu/2008/11/29/eu-freezes-aid-to-bulgaria-%E2%80%93-time-to-rethink-the-system/.

Luc Van den Brande underlined “that the current financial crisis is forcing Europe to make a new start.” He urged for a European Policy Master Plan that will carry the European Union beyond the 2010 horizon of the current Lisbon strategy. “This plan should outline a global vision for Europe, based on four equal, mutually reinforcing pillars: peace and justice for all, economic growth (with full employment), social and territorial cohesion and environmental sustainability. Only with such a master plan, providing an overall vision, Europe will be able to face the challenges in the different policy areas,” he added.

Once the Master Plan designed, Europe and its member states would need institutional reforms to be able to implement it effectively. “A new sustainable governance model to build “Europe in Partnership” can only be achieved with the active involvement and institutional recognition of Europe’s regions. Thus, once the Lisbon Treaty is in force, the devolution of legislative powers within Member States to sub-national levels must be taken into account at European level. Multi-level governance has to become the foundation of Europe’s good governance,” said the CoR President.

Van den Brande announced that in 2009 the Committee of the Regions would present a White Paper on Multi-level governance in Europe. The White Paper would highlight the opportunities and advantages for Europe to work together in partnership, it would analyse current shortcomings and show the way forward to establish European multi-level governance.

Source: http://www.cor.europa.eu/pages/PresentationTemplate.aspx?view=detail&id=cc5b7519-20b6-4913-87a3-4d89919cb4d0

The Hungary-Slovakia Cross-Border Cooperation Programme – as a continuation of the INTERREG Programme announced earlier and running during the 2007-2013-period – grants European Union funding for cooperation to be launched in the above-listed areas. Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Komárom-Esztergom County, Nógrád County, Heves County, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and Pest County, as well as Budapest will be participating in the Programme on the Hungarian side; whilst the Slovak districts of Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Banska Bystrica and Kosice will be participating in the Programme on the Slovak side. Applications may, among others, be submitted in the following areas within the framework of the Programme: cross-border business cooperation; R+D and innovation cooperation; joint tourism projects; healthcare and risk prevention; development of partnership, programme and project management capacities; cross-border environmental and nature protection projects; small-scale transport infrastructure developments, as well as IT developments.  

The first call for applications of the Hungary-Slovakia Cross-Border Cooperation Programme was announced on 15 October and closes in the middle of December. Funding will be primarily made available for supporting Hungarian-Slovak cooperation efforts implemented in the field of sustainable economic development, tourism, human resource development, education and cultural cooperation, environmental protection and infrastructure development. Participants of the conference held on Thursday in Budapest had the opportunity to gather first hand information on, among others, the objectives of the calls, as well as their respective schedule and rules of procedure.

For further information on the programme visit the website of the National Development Agency or log onto www.husk-cbc.eu.

Source: http://www.nfu.hu/content/2498

Among the decisions of the Monitoring Committee, two warrant a particular mention.

Firstly, 13 out of 24 Thematic Networks are approved for their implementation phase for 30 months, after 6 months of development. The Monitoring Committee also decided to provide to 6 Thematic Networks one additional month to clarify and modify their budget. If the required modifications are made, the Monitoring Committee will approve their corrected applications by written procedure. Thus, the Monitoring Committee decided to not allow five projects to continue. The group of 7 external experts (EAP), which examined the dossiers, has estimated the quality of their proposals insufficient to expect a valid contribution towards the production of new know-how for European cities. This was a difficult decision for the member States, fully aware of their cities’ commitment, but an important majority chose to maintain the high quality expectations for the URBACT II Programme. The complexity of the problems the cities are facing requires answers to be at the height of the challenge.

It is encouraged that the continuing Thematic Networks will be open to those cities that were part of Networks which have been stopped, should they wish to join them.

Secondly, the Monitoring Committee and the representatives of the European Commission have drawn their conclusions from the first Call for proposals and they have taken the decision in principal, to launch a new Call for proposals for the creation of Thematic Networks and Working Groups at the end of spring 2009 (with a third call in the beginning of 2011). Between now and then, a dialogue shall be organised by the URBACT Secretariat in order to determine priority issues, which should be addressed by the new projects, Thematic Networks and Working Groups. Directorates of the Commission, the Member States, prominent European Associations of cities and the national Associations will be consulted.

In December, the Secretariat will launch two consultations: a call for proposals for the creation of a Working Group on the implementation by the cities of the Leipzig Charter and a call for tenders for the creation of National Dissemination Points.

Jean-Loup Drubigny

Source: http://urbact.eu/news-events/newsletter/categories/right-area-category.html

Bulgaria has already received advance payments from the EU in the size of 367.9 million euro. The funds have been allotted under the operative programs financed by the EU cohesion and the structural funds, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski said during a sitting of the Committee for Monitoring of Bulgaria’s National Strategic Reference Framework.
‘As regards the absorption of the funds allotted under the operative programs of the EU, Bulgaria’s Government has made it sure not to repeat the mistakes they made in the absorption of the funds from the pre-accession programs,’ Deputy PM Meglena Plugchieva said.
‘As a result of the increased capacity of Bulgaria’s state administration, over the past few months the financing of projects for 1.35 billion levs under the operative programs of the EU was negotiated,’ Mrs. Plugchieva said further.

Source: http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2008-11-29&article=25952

The Tempus programme supports the modernisation of higher education and creates an area of co-operation in countries outside the EU. Established in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the scheme now covers 28 countries in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

The Tempus projects are based on multilateral partnerships between higher education institutions from the EU and partner countries. They can develop, modernise and disseminate new curricula or teaching methods, boost a quality assurance culture, and modernise the management and governance of higher education institutions.

This new, fourth phase of the Tempus programme has introduced new features such as the need to implement larger projects, with a more noticeable impact, involving both larger university networks and more non academic partners and stressing regional cooperation. Tempus IV has thus given a new impetus to structural measures, which contribute to the development and reform of higher education institutions and systems in partner countries, and increase their convergence with EU developments, which is in line with the EU’s priorities in its external policies.

In concrete terms, the projects selected by the European Commission for funding under Tempus IV cover a broad range of disciplines, from sustainable development and chemical engineering to intellectual property law, biomedical engineering and social work. Through a strict procedure and a consultation process with the national authorities, the Commission has ensured that the selected projects are both of high quality and in line with national educational priorities.

For further information on the selected projects, and Tempus in general, please refer to: http://ec.europa.eu/tempus

Frequently asked questions about the Tempus programme: MEMO/08/291

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1832&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN

The total budget for 2007-2013 period is 18.863.479 Euro, from which 17.305.944 Euro represents the ENPI contribution and 1.557.535 Euro, the national co-financing.Turkey’s contribution from IPA funds has to be added to this budget, representing 1 million Euro per year for the 2009-2011 period.

In order to achieve its wider objective: “a stronger and more sustainable economic and social development of the regions of the Black Sea Basin”, the programme aims at economic and social development, environmental protection and conservation and promoting local people-to-people cooperation, by supporting cross border partnerships between communities within the Black Sea Basin.

The beneficiaries of this programme can be regional and local authorities, NGO’s, representative associations and organizations, universities, research institutes, cultural institutes, public agencies.

More information about the Black Sea Basin Joint Operational Programme 2007-2013 can be found on the the following web site: http://www.blacksea-cbc.net.

Source: http://www.blacksea-cbc.net/index.php?page=NEWS