EU Structral and investment fund partners group of experts was organised by European Commission on the 28st of February 2019
The mission of the Structured Dialogue group of experts, set up by the European Commission, is to establish an open, frank and informal dialogue with partners working in the field of the ESI Funds. The members of the Structured Dialogue are umbrella organisations at EU level. Tenth meeting of the Structured Dialogue with European Structural and Investment Funds’ partners group of experts was held in Brussels on February 28, 2019. On the agenda was the update on the negotiations of the post-2020 legislative package, alignment with the European Semester (programming/negotiations), 2018 Summary Report of the Annual Implementation Reports and information about the new policy objective 5 (Europe closer to citizens).
Detailed reports on the state of programming negotiations for the 2021-2027 period were presented. The Commission is ready to start informal dialogue, it is important to make as much progress as possible in 2019 and 2020 before the adoption of the 2021-2027 legislation. The Commission will ask Member States to prepare their programming plans (“roadmaps”) by end of June 2019, first drafts of the programming documents are expected by the end of 2019 and the objective is to adopt all Partnership Agreements and programmes by end of 2020.
Legal framework for 2021-2027 period will be based on Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) with its simplified policy objectives (11 objectives simplified to 5) and tools and requirements for integrated territorial development (including CLLD); Fund-specific Regulations (ERDF/CF, ETC, ESF+, EMFF) and CAP Second Pillar (EAFRD) that includes common set of rules for CLLD (LEADER). Although the legal framework for LEADER/CLLD will be changed, we were informed that overall similar rules will be retained. Territorial provisions of the CPR will also apply to EAFRD, CLLD can be supported under CAP Strategic Plans and multi-funded CLLD local development strategies will be possible with EAFRD. There is a shared objective to support Smart Village initiatives. LEADER will remain compulsory part of the CAP Strategic Plan with the common CPR provisions on the method and coordination of CLLD for the 4 funds and min. 5% EAFRD allocation.
All presentations from the meeting are available here:
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/communication/structured-dialogue-with-partners/
ESI FUNDS OPEN DATA PLATFORM
A remarkable presentation by DG REGIO Evaluation and European Semester Unit on ESIF Open Data Platform, an online platform that gives access to open data on financing and achievements under the ESI Funds 2014-2020. The platform visualises data in an interactive way for over 530 programmes, available in various level details (EU level, by theme, by country and by fund). The platform is available here: https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/, a short introduction video is available here: https://youtu.be/Q6ohALHldtg