Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2015 Budget May 2016
Cover image: kubais - Fotolia
EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL BUDGET Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2015 May 2016
NOTE: THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER (DG BUDGET) IS WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO THE CONTENT OF THE OFFICIAL COMMISSION REPORTS ON THE CLOSURE OF THE ACCOUNTS AND ON THE STRUCTURAL AND COHESION FUNDS. READERS SHOULD REFER IN PARTICULAR TO THE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE OFFICIAL FIGURES ON THE 2015 BUDGET OUTTURN. - 2 -
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AB CA CB CI CEF CF CPR DAB EAFRD EAGF EAGGF-G EC EMFF ENPI ERDF ESF ESIF ETC EU-10 EU-12 EU-15 EYT FEAD FIFG H1B IIA IM & TA IPA Amending Budget Commitment appropriations Cross-border cooperation Community initiative Connecting Europe Facility Cohesion Fund Common Provisions Regulation Draft Amending Budget European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development European Agricultural Guarantee Fund European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guidance section European Commission European Maritime and Fisheries Fund European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument European Regional Development Fund European Social Fund European Structural and Investment Funds European Territorial Cooperation Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia EU-10 plus Bulgaria and Romania Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom End of the Year Transfer Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance Heading 1b of the Multiannual Financial Framework Inter Institutional Agreement Innovation measures and technical assistance Instrument for Pre-Accession - 3 -
LDR MCS MDR MFF MS NSRF OP PAG PA RAL RCE SF TR YEI Less Developed Region Management and Control System More Developed Region Multiannual Financial Framework Member State National Strategic Reference Framework Operational programme Partnership Agreement Payment appropriations "Reste à Liquider" Outstanding Commitments Regional Competitiveness and Employment Structural Funds Transition Region Youth Employment Initiative - 4 -
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK FOR 2014-2020: PROGRAMMING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS - 9-1.1 THE 2014-2020 ALLOCATION - 9-1.2 ANNUAL BREAKDOWN AND ADJUSTMENTS TO THE 2014-2020 ENVELOPES - 11-1.3 PROGRAMMING - 12-1.4 IMPLEMENTATION OF PAYMENTS IN 2015-13 - 1.5 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014-2020 FOR ESIF AND FEAD - 14-2 BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION IN 2015-15 - 2.1 IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMITMENTS AND PAYMENTS IN 2015-15 - 2.2 TRANSFERS MADE IN 2015-19 - 2.3 EVOLUTION OF THE END-OF-YEAR CONCENTRATION - 20-2.4 EVOLUTION OF UNPAID PAYMENT CLAIMS AT YEAR END - 23-3 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2007-2013 PERIOD - 26-3.1 COMMITMENTS FOR THE 2007-2013 PERIOD - 26-3.1.1 The 2007-13 allocation for cohesion policy - 26-3.2 PAYMENTS FOR THE 2007-2013 PERIOD - 26-3.2.1 Implementation of payments in 2015-26 - 3.2.2 Implementation of the 2007-2013 allocation - 29-3.3 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2007-2013 - 31-3.4 N+2 and N+3 DECOMMITMENTS (for 2007-2013) - 33-3.4.1 Legal Framework - 33-3.4.2 N+2/N+3 de-commitments made in 2015-34 - 3.4.3 Cumulative N+2/N+3 de-commitments made by the end of 2015-34 - 3.5 MEMBER STATES PAYMENT FORECASTS FOR THE 2007-13 PERIOD - 35-4 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2000-2006 PERIOD - 39-4.1 PAYMENTS AND RECONSTITUTIONS FOR 2000-2006 PROGRAMMES IN 2015-39 - 4.2 CUMULATIVE DE-COMMITMENTS AT THE END OF 2015 (FOR 2000-2006) - 41-4.3 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2000-2006 - 43-4.3.1 Evolution of 2000-06 outstanding commitments in 2015-43 - 4.3.2 Breakdown of 2000-06 outstanding commitments by Member State - 44 - - 5 -
As mentioned in the last editions, the implementation report deals with all the funds of the 2007-2013 programming period assigned to Heading 1b "Cohesion policy" of the financial framework: ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund. It will also continue to cover the EAGGF-G and the FIFG until the closure of the respective programmes, as they were classified as Structural Funds of the period 2000-2006. As from this edition, the report will start covering implementation of the new 2014-2020 operational programmes for all the European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds, namely ERDF, CF, ESF (including the YEI specific allocation), EAFRD and EMFF. It will also cover the FEAD which is part of sub-heading 1b but not an ESI Fund. However, the report does not cover the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) of Heading 2 "Natural Resources" of the financial framework 2007-2013, which were no longer Structural Funds during that programming period. As the Cohesion Fund was not subject to the Structural Funds regulatory framework in pre-2007 programming periods, this report, as in previous years, does not cover the pre-2007 Cohesion Fund. Finally, no reporting on the pre-2000 period will be provided as programmes are close to completion and the reduction of outstanding commitments will be mainly done via de-commitments at closure. - 6 -
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Overall implementation All 2014-2020 operational programmes under the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) and the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived (FEAD) were adopted by the end of 2015, following a revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework. In 2015, payment of initial pre-financing totalled EUR 9.3 billion for the ESIF and FEAD while EUR 4.1 billion were disbursed in the form of interim payments For the 2007-2013 programmes the backlog of outstanding unpaid claims at the end of 2015 was reduced to EUR 8.2 billion from the peak of EUR 24.7 billion at the end of 2014, with a faster phasing out of the 'abnormal' backlog for Cohesion policy than foreseen in the so called 'payment plan' agreed with the European Parliament and the Council. Additional payments were made to Greek programmes following the modification of the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR), entailing an additional initial pre-financing of 3.5% in 2015 and 2016 for the 2014-2020 programmes and the increase of cofinancing to 100% coupled with the removal of the 95% threshold for the 2007-2013 programmes. The total impact of EUR 2 billion additional payments in 2015 and 2016 was accommodated within the authorised payment appropriations. The overall level of outstanding commitments (reste à liquider, or RAL in its French acronym) increased from EUR 110 billion in 2014 to EUR 143 billion in 2015, mainly driven by the increasing commitments for the new programmes. Implementation of the 2014-2020 programming period All the remaining programmes not adopted in 2014 and not included in the carry-over were adopted in 2015. This process concerned 121 programmes under Heading 1b and 113 programmes under Heading 2. The initial pre-financing for the YEI specific allocation in 2015 was increased to 30% in order to address the liquidity problems affecting many YEI programmes. This resulted in nearly EUR 930 million being made available upfront on top of the EUR 33.6 million initially foreseen by the legal base. 2015 payments relate to the second instalment of the initial pre-financing and first interim payments. Pre-financing totalled EUR 9.3 billion for the ESIF and FEAD (including additional amounts for YEI and Greece). Rural development programmes accounted for about 80% (or EUR 3.3 billion) of the interim payments made in 2015 with EUR 0.8 billion being paid to Heading 1b funds. No interim payments were made in 2015 for EMFF. EUR 2.2 billion in payment appropriations were transferred from the 2014-2020 programmes to reduce the backlog linked to the 2007-2013 operational programmes. Implementation of the 2007-2013 programming period for heading 1b In 2015, the initial budget of payment appropriations for the 2007-2013 period amounted to EUR 39.5 billion, a 15% decrease on the corresponding 2014 figure. Payment appropriations were reinforced by EUR 2.2 billion via internal transfers and the end-of-the-year transfer, resulting in a final level of available appropriations of EUR 41.7 billion. - 7 -
Overall cumulative payments have reached 79.9% of the 2007-13 financial allocation and the level of 2007-13 outstanding commitments (RAL) decreased significantly from EUR 80 billion to around EUR 38 billion. The year-end backlog of outstanding unpaid claims was reduced to EUR 8.2 billion from the record-high level of EUR 24.7 billion at the end of 2014. The faster than expected reduction of the abnormal backlog consolidates the objective defined in the 'payment plan' of May 2015 of phasing-out the unsustainable backlog by end 2016. Implementation of the 2000-2006 programming period 92% of the programmes, representing 80% of the total 2000-2006 financial allocation, had been closed by the end of 2015. The 2000-2006 outstanding commitments decreased by 35% from EUR 1.8 billion to EUR 1.2 billion contributing to the overall reduction of the RAL, of which payments (EUR 120 million) account for 19% of the reduction and closure de-commitments (EUR 526 billion) account for the remaining 81%. - 8 -
1 FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK FOR 2014-2020: PROGRAMMING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS 1.1 THE 2014-2020 ALLOCATION The envelope for economic, social and territorial cohesion (heading 1b) of the new multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the period 2014-2020 was decided at the European Council on 2 December 2013 following the European Parliament's consent of 19 November 2013 where it was fixed at EUR 325.1 billion in 2011 prices. In line with the European Council conclusions of June 2013 additional allocations of EUR 200 million for Cyprus (part of more developed regions below) were partly added through a mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2014 and 2015. The MFF allocations in 2011 prices are converted into 2014 current prices with a fixed inflator of 2% per year as foreseen by Article 6(2) of the MFF regulation. Finally, adjustments between categories of regions are made following some Member States' requests for transfers up to 3% of the total appropriations. The current H1b breakdown of commitments of EUR 367 billion (in current prices) is presented below: Chart 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments relative share by type of region, Fund and objective - 9 -
Table 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments by type of region, Fund and objective (EUR million) Policy funding for H1b Amount Less Developed Regions 179,349 Transition Regions 35,915 More Developed Regions 56,714 Outermost and northern sparsely populated regions 1,555 European Territorial Cooperation 10,108 Cohesion Fund (excl. CEF) 63,397 CEF contribution from Cohesion Fund 11,306 YEI special allocation 3,211 Urban innovative actions 372 ESF ERDF CF Technical Assistance 1,218 ESF ERDF Technical Assistance transferred to EC from MS 13 CF Technical Assistance transferred to EC from MS 3 FEAD allocation 3,814 FEAD Technical Assistance 13 Margin 3 Total 366,991 As from 2014 onwards, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the shared management part of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), together with heading 1b Funds, represent the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). The chart below presents the current share of these two Funds vis-à-vis the total Heading 2 envelope, the major component of which is the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), which is not part of ESIF and therefore not covered further by this report 1 : Chart 2: Heading 2 2014-2020 commitments relative share by Fund (EUR million) European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development - after EAGF transfers 99,582 European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 5,749 EAGF 'Market related expenditure and direct payments' after EAFRD transfers 308,730 1 Heading 2 also includes Environment and Climate Actions (0.7%) and other actions and programmes (0.1%) not presented above. - 10 -
The original amount for EAFRD (pillar 2 of the CAP) was EUR 95 577 million at the beginning of the 2014-2020 programming period but it has increased to EUR 99 582 million following transfers and flexibility from EAGF (pillar 1 of the CAP). The EMFF envelope for shared management of EUR 5 749 million has not changed. The annual breakdowns presented below were established by: European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013. European Maritime and Fisheries Fund: Annex I of C(2014) 3781 of 11.06.2014; 1.2 ANNUAL BREAKDOWN AND ADJUSTMENTS TO THE 2014-2020 ENVELOPES Both H1b and H2 ESIF annual 2015 commitment allocations increased significantly following the addition of the 2014 commitment appropriations not used in 2014 due to delays in programme adoptions, as foreseen by Article 19 of the Council Regulation No 1311/2013. The yearly and total impact of this reprogramming exercise on heading 1b and heading 2 is presented below by type of regions or by fund, when the regions classification is not applicable. Table 2: Heading 1b transfers of unused allocations from 2014 to subsequent years (EUR million) Table 3: Heading 2 transfers of unused allocations from 2014 to subsequent years (EUR million) Proposed transfers based on art.19 of the MFF in million EUR - current prices 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development -8,705 4,353 4,353 0 European Maritime and Fisheries Fund -741 741 0 Total H2-9,446 5,093 4,353 0 0 0 0 0 The presented current annual breakdown for Heading 1b below was modified to include a slight increase at the level of technical assistance transferred to the Commission by Member States by application of Article 25 of the Common Provisions Regulation No 1303/2013 2. 2 Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 320 469-11 -
No other changes took place since this reprogramming exercise in the beginning of 2015. Table 4: Heading 1b annual allocations after MFF revision in current prices (EUR million) Current H1b after article 19 reprogramming - million EUR 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total Less Developed Regions 16.877 29.805 24.767 25.647 26.528 27.423 28.302 179.349 Transition Regions 3.268 6.501 5.029 5.124 5.226 5.331 5.436 35.915 More Developed Regions 6.320 9.155 7.905 8.077 8.249 8.420 8.588 56.714 Outermost and northern sparsely populated regions 144 279 218 222 226 231 236 1.555 European Territorial Cooperation 152 1.048 1.049 1.940 1.934 1.973 2.012 10.108 Cohesion Fund (excl. CEF) 6.109 10.173 8.738 9.082 9.420 9.781 10.092 63.397 CEF contribution from Cohesion Fund 983 1.217 2.377 1.593 1.655 1.700 1.781 11.306 YEI special allocation 1.707 1.505 0 0 0 0 0 3.211 Urban innovative actions 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 372 SF+CF Technical Assistance 154 161 168 176 181 187 192 1.218 SF Technical Assistance transferred to EC from MS 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 CF Technical Assistance transferred to EC from MS 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 FEAD allocation 513 523 534 544 555 566 578 3.814 FEAD Technical Assistance 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 Margin 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 3 Total 36.296 60.420 50.837 52.461 54.032 55.670 57.275 366.991 The ESIF and FEAD annual allocations by Member State under H1b are included in ANNEX 6. The current annual breakdown for H2 is presented below: Table 5: Heading 2 annual breakdown of commitments in current prices (EUR million) Current H2 after article 19 reprogramming - in million EUR 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development - after EAGF transfers 5.299 18.184 18.684 14.371 14.381 14.330 14.333 99.582 European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 47 1.539 805 818 838 843 858 5.749 ESIF part of H2 5.346 19.723 19.489 15.190 15.219 15.174 15.192 105.332 EAGF 'Market related expenditure and direct 43.778 44.190 43.950 44.146 44.162 44.241 44.263 308.730 payments' after EAFRD transfers Total H2 54.470 83.635 82.929 74.525 74.599 74.588 74.647 519.393 The ESIF annual allocations by Member State under H2 (EAFRD and EMFF) are included in ANNEX 7. The initial annual breakdown for EAFRD was modified to include net additional allocations transferred from pillar 1 (EAGF) 3. EAFRD was then decreased by a total of EUR 4.25 million (deducted from years 2016-2020) as this amount was transferred back to EAGF following a UK Court decision to reduce the EAFRD programme for Wales. 1.3 PROGRAMMING All the remaining programmes not adopted in 2014 and not included in the carryover from 2014 to 2015 4, were adopted in 2015 (H1b:121; H2: 91 for EAFRD and 22 for EMFF). Table 6 below shows the final outcome of the entire programme adoption process by Fund together with the number of designated authorities at 31/12/2015 and the total initial prefinancing paid in 2014 and 2015. 3 Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 637/2008 and Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 (OJ 347, 20.12.2013, p.347) 4 Commission Decision C(2015) 827 on 11.2.2015-12 -
Table 6: Adopted operational programmes and status of designation of authorities per Fund at 31 December 2015 Fund ERDF Total number of programmes Total allocation of programmes (EUR million) 187,121 Total number of programmes adopted Number of designated authorities Total allocation of adopted programmes (EUR million) Total initial prefinancing paid in 2014 & 2015 (EUR million) 187,121 4,110 CF 63,397 63,397 1,410 313 5 313 5 55 5 ESF 86,412 86,412 1,901 YEI 3,211 3,211 1,003 FEAD 28 3,814 28 6 3,814 420 ETC 6 76 9,234 76 6 9,234 185 EAFRD 118 98,786 7 118 118 8 98,786 2,170 EMFF 27 5,749 27 0 5,749 134 TOTAL 562 457,724 562 185 457,724 11,333 The list of adopted operational programmes by Member State is included in ANNEX 8 together with the number of authorities designated by 31/12/2015. The lists of adopted programmes by MS for each Fund are included in ANNEX 9. In line with Article 20 of the CPR, 6% of the resources allocated to the ESIF Investment for Growth and Jobs goal, with the exception of resources allocated to YEI and transfers to EAFRD, CEF and FEAD, will constitute a performance reserve which shall be allocated after a 'performance review' in 2019 only to those programmes and priorities which have achieved their milestones. 1.4 IMPLEMENTATION OF PAYMENTS IN 2015 In 2015 the implementation of payment appropriations for the five ESI Funds 9 and FEAD amounted to EUR 13.6 billion corresponding to the second tranche of the initial pre-financing (EUR 9.3 billion) plus the first interim payments. As explained in the previous section, all the 562 ESI Funds programmes have been adopted before the end of 2015 (of which 417 programmes in Heading 1b) and the corresponding initial pre-financing has been paid out. However, implementation progressed at a slower pace than initially envisaged during the preparation of the draft budget 2015. 5 Due to high ratio of Multi-Fund Programmes, they are not assigned by Fun d to avoid double counting. 6 Excluding Heading 1b contribution to IPA/ENI 7 The total allocation for EAFRD programmes is EUR 99,347.51 million after taking into account the amounts transferred by Commission regulation (EU) No 1378/2014 of 17/14/2014. However, some programmes have been adopted without taking into account this transfer and will have to be revised. In such cases, the corresponding amount is not included in the table above until the programmes are revised. 8 Article 65(2) of the Rural Development Regulation 1305/2013, requires Member States to designate, for each rural development programme, the Managing Authority, the accredited paying agency and the certification body. However, this requirement is not linked to the submission of the first application for interim payment to the Commission as required by the other ESIF and FEAD. For the 2014-2020 programming period, the continuation of existing accredited paying agencies allows for Rural Development interim payments to take place as soon as the related programme is adopted. 9 ERDF, ESF (including YEI), CF, EAFRD and EMFF - 13 -
At the end of December 2015, managing and certifying authorities had been designated for 67 programmes out of 417 in Heading 1b, while for EMFF no authorities were designated last year. The designation of authorities is a pre-requisite for submitting payment applications to the Commission for the funds mentioned above (with the exception of EAFRD). Due to the delays observed, the level of payment claims submitted in 2015 remained very low. Out of the total EUR 1.3 billion of payable claims submitted by Member States for Heading 1b funds, EUR 0.8 billion were paid as interim payments. A marginal amount of claims (EUR 0.5 billion) arrived too late to be processed and paid before year end and will therefore be paid using appropriations from the 2016 budget (the so-called 'normal backlog'). The lower than expected implementation of the new programmes allowed for a faster implementation pace on the 2007-2013 Heading 1b programmes. Hence, in the second half of the year, some EUR 2.2 billion were transferred from the 2014-2020 programmes under Heading 1b to the 2007-2013 ERDF, ESF and CF programmes thus reducing the level of outstanding commitments for these programmes. In order to address the problem of the shortage of liquidity that prevented many Member States from starting YEI programmes on the ground, the Commission proposed in 2015 a modification of the ESF Regulation 10 allowing for an increase to 30% of the initial prefinancing applied in 2015 to the YEI specific allocation. This resulted in the disbursement of EUR 929.8 million additional pre-financing in 2015, which complemented the EUR 33.6 million initially foreseen by the legal base. Interim payments to the tune of EUR 66.6 million were made before year-end. Regarding FEAD, the implementation of payments in 2015 progressed much slower than expected, with only 12.5% of the payment appropriations in the initial budget being executed. This situation was caused by the delays in the designation of managing and certifying authorities which prevented many Member States from submitting payment applications to the Commission and is expected to be a temporary one. The FEAD operational budget line was the main source of redeployment in the End of Year transfer, returning EUR 285 million in payment appropriations which were chiefly used to reinforce the 2007-2013 rural development programmes. As for Heading 2 funds, rural development programmes fully executed their initial budget (EUR 5.2 billion). Out of this amount, pre-financing payments accounted for a relatively small share in the overall execution (EUR 1.9 billion) with the balance representing interim payments. As explained above, in the case of rural development programmes the submission of payment declarations can take place independently of the designation of authorities. For EMFF implementation was limited to the payment of pre-financing (EUR 134 million). 1.5 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014-2020 FOR ESIF AND FEAD The level of outstanding commitments for the 2014-2020 period for ESIF and FEAD has increased significantly in 2015 reaching EUR 103.5 billion (see Table 7 below). The increase 10 Regulation (EU) No 1304/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/779 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 470-14 -
on the corresponding figure at the end of 2014 (EUR 27.9 billion) can be explained on the one hand by the re-programming exercise of part of the 2014 allocation and on the other hand by the lower than expected take-up of the new programmes in terms of payments. Table 7: Outstanding commitments 2014-2020 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million) Outstanding commitments at the end of 2014 27 902 De-/Re-commitments in 2015 on RAL at the end of 2014** 0 Payments in 2015 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2014-5 541 (1) TOTAL outstanding commitments from before 2015 22 361 New commitments made in 2015 89 093 Payments on 2015 commitments - 7 881 (2) TOTAL outstanding commitments from 2015 81 213 (1)+(2) TOTAL outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 103 573 * only operational lines ** including transfer of Croatian pre-accession RAL to cohesion policy lines 2 BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION IN 2015 As above, regarding the 2007-2013 programming period, the report only deals with the Funds assigned to Heading 1b "Cohesion policy" of the financial framework: ERDF and ESF and the Cohesion Fund. It will also continue to cover the EAGGF-G and the FIFG until the closure of the respective programmes, as they were Structural Funds of the period 2000-2006 but not the pre-2007 Cohesion Fund which was not cover by the same regulatory framework. 2.1 IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMITMENTS AND PAYMENTS IN 2015 In line with the legal framework, the execution of commitments in 2015 for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) amounted to EUR 89.3 billion, as shown in Table 8 below. All available commitment appropriations were committed except for technical assistance where a marginal amount of commitment appropriations were not used and lapsed at the end of the year. This record-high level of commitment appropriations was the result of significant delays in the adoption of programmes for the current programming period, as explained below. Because of delays in the adoption of ESI Funds operational programmes, a large amount of commitment appropriations could not be implemented in 2014. For operational programmes where the adoption process was close to completion, the corresponding commitment appropriations were carried over to 2015 and implemented before 31 March. For Heading 1b fund the carry-over of commitments totalled nearly EUR 8.5 billion while for EAFRD and EMFF the corresponding figure was almost EUR 2 billion. In the cases where the adoption process was not sufficiently advanced, the non-implemented commitments were reprogrammed in 2015 and 2016, with a very small amount for ETC (EUR 43 million) being reprogrammed in 2017, as explained in part 1.2 above. All 28 Member States were concerned by the re-programming exercise. The re-programming was carried out via Amending Budget No 1 to the 2015 Budget which was presented at the same time as the proposal for a revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the - 15 -
years 2014-2020, in accordance with article 19 of the MFF Regulation 11. In accordance with the MFF revision, AB1 proposed an increase of commitment appropriations for Heading 1b funds by EUR 11.1 billion while for the funds under shared management in Heading 2 the corresponding increase was nearly EUR 5.1 billion. Table 8: Outturn of Commitment Appropriations for the 2014-2020 period in 2015* by Fund (in EUR million) FUND VOTED BUDGET TRANSFERS, AMENDING BUDGETS, ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS** TOTAL COMMITMENT APPROPRIATIONS OUTTURN % ERDF 26.811 12.123 38.934 38.923 100,0% ESF 10.874 4.656 15.530 15.525 100,0% CF 8.375 2.588 10.963 10.959 100,0% YEI 1.407 230 1.637 1.637 100,0% FEAD 525 12 537 537 99,9% EAFRD 13.824 6.316 20.140 20.136 100,0% EMFF 806 769 1.575 1.575 100,0% TOTAL 2014-2020 62.622 26.694 89.316 89.292 100,0% *figures include operational lines and technical assistance ** including carry-over from 2014 Executed payment appropriations totalled EUR 55.5 billion for the three programming periods covered by this report, an increase of some EUR 1.4 billion compared to 2014. The bulk of the payments, EUR 41.8 billion, covered interim payments for the 2007-13 programmes. As a larger number of old programmes approached completion, payments of the final balance for 2000-06 programmes represented less than half of the previous year's level, totalling EUR 120 million. For the 2007-13 programmes, the level of payment appropriations was reinforced during the year by means of internal transfers coming mainly from the 2014-2020 ESI Funds programmes and by the End of Year Transfer (EYT), albeit to a very limited extent. Additional payment appropriations for 2007-2013 programmes totalled EUR 2.2 billion, including the EYT reinforcement of EUR 127.4 million. The level of closure payments was lower in 2015 compared to 2014, as closure for the 2007-2013 period has not started yet. As no payment appropriations were foreseen in the initial budget for the 2000-2006 lines, payment needs were covered by additional appropriations from assigned revenue (EUR 182 million) and to a lesser extent by a limited number of internal transfers (EUR 20 million). As regards the 2014-2020 programmes, the bulk of the payments represented initial prefinancing (EUR 9.3 billion) while interim payments remained very limited, particularly for Heading 1b funds. Out of the EUR 4.1 billion of interim payments made last year, only EUR 0.8 billion were related to Heading 1b funds while the balance was paid in favour of rural development programmes. This is explained by the delays in the designation of authorities for the Heading 1b funds as well as EMFF, which is a pre-requisite for the submission of interim payment applications. While for rural development programmes there is also an obligation for Member States to designate the managing and certifying authorities for each programme, this 11 Council Regulation No 1311/2013, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013-16 -
requirement is not linked to the timing of the submission of interim payment applications, which explains the high level of interim payments made last year for EAFRD. As shown in Table 9 below, available payment appropriations were almost entirely executed at year end, with the overall execution rate for payments reaching 99.8% compared to the final available appropriations. Out of the remaining EUR 110 million, EUR 74.5 million appropriations related to assigned revenue from closure operations were automatically carried over to 2016. Thus, the effective net level of lapsing payment appropriations stood at only EUR 35 million (0.06% of the final available appropriations) concerning only technical assistance lines. Table 9: Outturn of Payment Appropriations in 2015* by Fund (in EUR million) FUND VOTED BUDGET TRANSFERS, AMENDING BUDGETS, ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS TOTAL PAYMENT APPROPRIATIONS OUTTURN % ERDF 0 55 55 55 100.0% ESF 0 73 73 0 0.5% EAGGF 0 64 64 64 100.0% FIFG 0 10 10 0 0.0% TOTAL 2000-2006 0 203 203 120 58.9% ERDF 21,764 1,833 23,597 23,597 100.0% ESF 7,280 386 7,666 7,665 100.0% CF 10,488 22 10,509 10,509 100.0% TOTAL 2007-2013 39,532 2,240 41,772 41,771 100.0% ERDF 5,696-1,387 4,310 4,302 99.8% ESF 1,922-335 1,587 1,577 99.4% CF 1,666-433 1,233 1,230 99.8% YEI 1,026 9 1,035 1,035 100.0% FEAD 364-317 46 46 99.0% EAFRD 5,276-7 5,269 5,265 99.9% EMFF 145-3 141 140 99.2% TOTAL 2014-2020 16,094-2,474 13,621 13,595 99.8% *figures include operational lines and technical assistance 55,626-30 55,596 55,486 99.8% Additional financing for Greek programmes in 2015 and 2016 In line with the Euro Summit Statement of 12 July 2015 calling for the mobilization of "up to EUR 35 billion (under various EU programmes) to fund investment and economic activity, including in SMEs", the Commission proposed a modification of the CPR governing the functioning of the ESIF during the 2014-2020 programming period in order to provide additional liquidity to Greek operational programmes in 2015 and 2016. This proposal concerned both the 2014-2020 programmes as well as the 2007-2013 ones. For the 2007-2013 programmes it was decided to increase the co-financing from the Structural and Cohesion funds to 100% and to lift the 95% threshold for the payment of prefinancing and interim payments in order to allow for the reimbursement of payment claims up to 100% of the programmes' envelopes. This change applies to convergence and regional competitiveness and employment programmes. The general rule stipulates that once the 95% threshold has been reached, submission of payment applications may continue but closure payments are made only following the submission of closure documents. As regards the 2014-2020 programmes the changes to the CPR foresee an additional initial pre-financing of 3.5% to be paid in 2015 and 2016 for the Greek operational programmes - 17 -
under the Cohesion policy and EMFF. This provision does not apply to ETC programmes and the YEI specific allocation. The budgetary impact of the Greek proposal was an additional EUR 1 billion in payments in each of the years 2015 and 2016, split equally between the two programming periods concerned. This legislative proposal implied the frontloading of approximately EUR 2 billion from 2018-2020 to 2015-2016 and it was deemed budgetary neutral in both years. The Commission did not present an Amending Budget for Budget 2015 or an Amending Letter for the DB 2016 in order to finance this proposal. Following the adoption of the amendments to the CPR 12, the Commission proceeded immediately with the corresponding payments to Greek programmes. 12 Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 October 2015, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 320-18 -
2.2 TRANSFERS MADE IN 2015 The transfers below have been carried out in 2015. As usual, a certain number of transfers were made by the Commission under its own prerogatives established in the Financial Regulation (a detailed list of these transfers is attached in ANNEX 2): Transfers of commitment appropriations were made for the following reasons: 1. Several transfers totalling EUR 908 million were carried out between the ERDF and ESF 2014-2020 operational lines in order to rebalance commitment appropriations following the adoption of the remaining operational programmes in the course of 2015. During the preparation of DB 2015, as the new operational programmes were not adopted, the breakdown of commitments between ESF and ERDF was based on the ESF minimum share that each Member State had to respect. Following the adoption of all operational programmes a rebalancing of commitments between funds was necessary as most Member States had programmed in favour of ESF more than the minimum share. 2. As in 2014 and in keeping with the provisions of Article 25 of the Common Provision Regulation (CPR) 13 Cyprus decided to transfer part of its technical assistance envelope for the 2014-2020 programmes to the technical assistance at the initiative of the Commission for the implementation of measures linked to administrative reforms in response to economic and social challenges. Thus, the ERDF operational technical assistance line managed by the Commission at the request of MS received a transfer of EUR 0.2 million from the Cypriot allocation for more developed regions. 3. EUR 1 million were returned from the Heading 1b contribution to IPA- Crossborder cooperation programmes to the ETC main line towards the end of the year due to the non-adoption of Greece-Turkey and Cyprus-Turkey IPA programmes. 4. EUR 44.2 million were transferred from ETC main line to the Heading 1b contribution to ENI-Cross-border cooperation programmes in the second half of the year. This was due to the fact that in 2014, at the time of the preparation of DB 2015, the precise breakdown by component of the ETC allocation was not known and the contribution to the ENI-Cross-border cooperation programmes had to be budgeted on the main ETC line. 5. Several transfers of assigned revenue from the ESF and ERDF 2000-2006 programmes to ERDF pre-2000 lines were necessary in order to proceed with payments in favour of Spain and Germany. This followed the final ruling of the Court of Justice on procedural issues related to the Commission's financial correction cases in these two Member States under 1994-1999 programmes. As regards payment appropriations, several transfers were carried out within and between periods in order to optimize budget implementation. As only very few valid 13 Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013-19 -
payment application for the 2014-2020 operational programmes were received in 2015 (some EUR 1.3 billion), it was possible to transfer approximately EUR 2.2 billion from the ERDF, ESF and CF 2014-20 lines to the 2007-13 programmes in order to further reduce the backlog of unpaid claims. A limited number of transfers were carried out for the ESF 2007-2013 programmes mainly in the second half of December in order to optimize year-end implementation. Thus, additional payment appropriations totalling some EUR 370 million were made available for the Convergence and RCE objectives mainly via a transfer from the 2014-2020 ESF programmes. For the ERDF, payment appropriations for the pre-2000 programmes were reinforced by around EUR 187 million as a result of a transfer from ERDF LDR. Additional transfers of assigned revenue from the 2000-2006 programmes were necessary in order to honour the financial obligations resulting from the Court of Justice ruling (totalling EUR 345.8 million). As regards the 2007-2013 period, ERDF lines were reinforced by approximately EUR 1.8 billion via transfers from the new ERDF programmes, the Cohesion Fund and ultimately via the End of Year Transfer. Finally, the Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 line was used to reinforce the ERDF programmes of the same programming period in September by EUR 0.5 billion and had to be reinforced in December by a similar transfer from the 2014-2020 CF line as well as the pre-2007 Cohesion Fund projects. The End of Year Transfer (EYT), introduced in 2012 in the context of the revision of the Financial Regulation 14, allows the Commission to make use of any unused payment appropriations across the budget made available in mid-december in order to mitigate the lack of payment appropriations for shared management funds. The mechanism allows for the transfer to be operated by the Commission before the end of the financial year N and presented to the budgetary authority in early January of the following year. In case of rejection by the Council or European Parliament the transfer is cancelled and the necessary regularization operations reducing the budgetary consumption of year N are applied. For the 2015 exercise, payment appropriations totalling EUR 415.9 million were drawn from 63 budget lines, with the bulk of the availabilities coming from the FEAD programmes and technical assistance lines. Because of delays in the designation of authorities, most Member States had not submitted any payment claims for FEAD by December 2015. Of this amount, EUR 127.4 million was used to reinforce the 2007-2013 ERDF Regional competitiveness programmes with the balance being transferred to the completion line of rural development programmes. The transfer was validated by the budgetary authority in January 2016. 2.3 EVOLUTION OF THE END-OF-YEAR CONCENTRATION As most of the commitments under the European Structural and Investment Funds are typically made at the beginning of the year in accordance with the legal base (except for the first year of the programming period), Chart 3 below focuses only on the end-of-year concentration for payments in December. 14 Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p.1) - 20 -
In 2015, the year-end concentration of payments dropped to a level close to the one observed in 2013. Unlike in previous years, in 2015 no additional payment appropriations were made available for cohesion policy lines towards the end of the year as it had previously been the case. Chart 3: Concentration of payments in December (percentage executed in December) since 2000 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Payment Despite a somewhat slower start in the very beginning of the year, the payment claim submission in 2015 progressed faster than in the previous two years (see Chart 4 below). Thus by the end of the summer about half of the total payment applications had been received by the Commission. The year-end concentration was also reduced compared to previous years. While in 2013 and 2014 the claims submitted during the last two months of the year accounted for 38% and 44%, respectively, last year the corresponding figure was 24%. Out of the EUR 6 billion worth of payment claims submitted during the last two months of the year, about 87% (EUR 5.2 billion) only arrived in December. The low concentration of payment claims arriving very late in the year can be explained by the absence of an automatic de-commitment constraint at the end of 2015 for most Member States (Romania and Slovakia were still concerned by an n+3 de-commitment rule applicable to the 2012 commitment tranche). - 21 -
Chart 4: Monthly pattern of cumulative interim payment claim submission for the 2007-13 period between 2013 and 2015 (in % of the total) 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec % of Total 2013 0.5% 2.0% 9.5% 12.1% 18.7% 26.3% 35.3% 38.7% 48.3% 62.0% 65.4% 100.0% % of Total 2014 0.7% 3.0% 8.4% 12.5% 18.4% 26.3% 33.4% 35.8% 44.3% 55.8% 59.3% 100.0% % of Total 2015 0.0% 1.7% 13.7% 18.0% 22.5% 35.4% 43.7% 46.2% 59.6% 76.1% 79.1% 100.0% - 22 -
2.4 EVOLUTION OF UNPAID PAYMENT CLAIMS AT YEAR END The payment claims still pending at the end of the year are usually referred to as the year-end backlog. At the end of every year a certain volume of interim payment claims are submitted too late in December to be paid during the same year and therefore have to be honoured in the following year - the so called 'normal' backlog. In addition to the claims arriving too late in December to be paid and the ones interrupted or suspended, an increasing volume of claims arriving sufficiently early in November / December also remained unpaid between 2011 and 2014 due to the lack of payment appropriations the so called 'abnormal' backlog. This growing abnormal backlog had an increasingly adverse effect on the implementation of the following year s budget. The unsustainable level of unpaid claims at the end of 2014 (nearly EUR 25 billion) prompted the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament to commit to a payment plan" to progressively phase-out the outstanding payment claims for the 2007-2013 programmes by the end of 2016. Based on the analysis presented in the Commission document "Elements for a payment plan", as updated in October 2015, the backlog was estimated at a maximum amount of around EUR 17 billion for the end of 2015, down from the EUR 24.7 billion peak reached at the end of 2014. Taking into consideration the valid payment applications received and reimbursements made by the Commission by end-2015 (capped to the 95% ceiling), the actual backlog of unpaid payment applications for the 2007-2013 programmes under Heading 1b stood at some EUR 8.2 billion at the end of 2015. The faster than expected phasing-out of the abnormal backlog consolidated the objective defined in the "payment plan". It also reduced the cash-flow constraints at the beginning of 2016, redressing the pattern experienced over the last four years, thus minimizing delays in reimbursing Member States, which would have been unavoidable with a larger backlog. Two main reasons have been identified for the nearly EUR 9 billion lower-than-expected backlog of unpaid claims at the end of last year: 1. The submission of payment applications (for programmes below 95%) was almost EUR 7 billion lower than announced by Member States in their July forecasts (EUR 25.1 billion instead of an expected amount of around EUR 32.0 billion). This may be explained by the absence of the N+2/N+3 automatic de-commitment deadlines at the end of 2015 for most Member States. Although 31 December 2015 marked the end of the eligibility period for operations, interim payment applications for the 2007-2013 programmes can be submitted until 31 March 2017. Consequently, there was little incentive for Member States to submit payment applications during the last weeks of 2015. 2. Payments made by the Commission were some EUR 2.2 billion higher than originally planned (EUR 41.8 billion instead of EUR 39.5 billion initially budgeted), mainlythanks to transfers made from budget lines relating to the 2014-2020 programmes, including through the end-of-the-year transfer (EUR 127 million for Heading 1b). The - 23 -
slower than expected start-up of the new programmes can be explained by the delays experienced by Member States in the designation of the management and certifying authorities. Despite the simplification introduced by the new regulation, removing the obligation of having these authorities approved by the Commission through a compliance assessment, the designation process at national level seems to take longer than expected. While it is not a condition for starting the implementation of the programmes on the ground, it is a prerequisite for the submission of the payment applications. The year-end backlog has therefore been reduced substantially at the end of 2015 compared to 2014 as can be seen in Table 10 below. Table 10: Payment applications received in 2015 and unpaid applications at year-end for 2007-2013 period (in EUR billion) Fund Unpaid payment applications at 01/01/2015 Valid payment applications received by 31/12/2015 Payments made by 31/12/2015 Unpaid payment applications as at 31/12/2015 ESF 5.7 4.1 7.7 2.1 ERDF 15.5 13.2 23.6 5.2 CF 3.5 7.8 10.5 0.8 Total H1b 24.7 25.1 41.8 8.2 cf. 31/12/2014 23.4 52.9 51.6 24.7 Note: Execution figures exclude technical assistance Chart 5 shows the evolution of the year-end backlog for the 2007-13 programmes starting with 2010. Between 2010 and 2014, the level of unpaid claims at the end of the year had multiplied by four, from EUR 6.1 billion to EUR 24.7 billion but was reduced to EUR 8.2 billion at the end of 2015 (-67% compared to end 2014), thus approaching the 2010 level. In relative terms, the weight of ERDF claims in the total level of unpaid claims remained stable at a high level of around 62%, while the ESF and CF displayed opposing trends. Thus, between 2010 and 2013, the share of ESF pending claims decreased from nearly a third of the total at the end of 2010 to only about a sixth at the end of 2013, whereas the weight of unpaid CF claims has increased steadily over the same period from less than 6% to more than 18% of the total unpaid claims. A reversal of this trend could however be observed in 2014 and 2015, when the share of the ESF backlog increased to about a quarter of the total whereas the weight of unpaid CF claims in the total backlog declined to about 10% at the end of last year. - 24 -
Chart 5: Evolution of unpaid payment claims at the end of the year for 2007-13 period between 2010 and 2015 (in EUR billion) 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 ESF ERDF CF As regards the new programmes of ESF (including YEI), ERDF, CF and FEAD, the level of unpaid payment applications at the end of 2015 stood at approximately EUR 0.5 billion, all of which had come too late in December to be paid. This very low level of backlog reflects the slower start-up of the 2014-2020 programmes and the delays in the designation of managing and certifying authorities, as explained above. - 25 -
3 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2007-2013 PERIOD 3.1 COMMITMENTS FOR THE 2007-2013 PERIOD 3.1.1 The 2007-13 allocation for cohesion policy The final annual breakdown of the 2007-2013 cohesion policy allocations by Member State can be found in Annex 6 of the 2013 report. 3.2 PAYMENTS FOR THE 2007-2013 PERIOD 3.2.1 Implementation of payments in 2015 In 2015, the initial budget of payment appropriations for the 2007-2013 period amounted to EUR 39.5 billion (see Table 11 below), a reduction of about 15% compared to the corresponding 2014 figure. As explained above, payment appropriations were reinforced by some EUR 2.2 billion via internal Commission transfers and by the EYT resulting in a final level of available appropriations of EUR 41.7 billion. In its 2015 draft budget the Commission had proposed an amount of EUR 40.3 billion for the 2007-2013 programmes. Available appropriations were almost entirely implemented during the year, apart from very marginal amounts concerning technical assistance. At the end of 2014 payment claims totalling EUR 24.7 billion had remained unpaid and had to be settled using the appropriations available in Budget 2015. Thus, out of the EUR 39.5 billion in the 2015 budget for 2007-2013 programmes, less than 40% (EUR 14.8 billion) remained available for settling payment claims submitted in 2015. As in previous years this situation required a close monitoring of available cash-flow by the Commission but also sent a strong signal as to the unsustainable level of the backlog. Immediate action was needed to bring the backlog of payment claims for the Cohesion policy down to a sound level. In March 2015 the Commission presented to the budgetary authority the document Elements for a payment plan in which it committed to reduce the abnormal backlog of outstanding payment claims for the 2007-2013 Cohesion policy programmes to EUR 20 billion at the end of 2015 and to a maximum of EUR 2 billion at the end of 2016. The Council and the European Parliament adopted the document in May 2015 thus endorsing the shared goal of the three institutions to bring the Cohesion policy backlog back to a sustainable path and to prevent in the future a similar build-up of unpaid payment claims for the new generation of operational programmes. In October 2015 the Commission, drawing on the revised Member States forecasts submitted the previous July, presented an update of the analysis in the payment plan regarding the expected implementation in 2015. According to this updated analysis, the backlog at the end of the year was estimated at a maximum of EUR 17 billion. As explained above the end of the year backlog was below expectations by some EUR 9 billion mainly due to the lower than expected submission of payment claims and the additional payment appropriations which could be transferred from the 2014-2020 lines. - 26 -
As regards payment implementation by Fund, the Regional Competitiveness and Employment (RCE) and ETC lines under ERDF had already exhausted more than 80% of their available appropriations by July. Additional appropriations were made available via transfers from the new ERDF programmes as well as the Cohesion Fund line. The Regional competitiveness objective was reinforced by an additional EUR 127.4 million in the EYT. Overall the payment appropriations on the ERDF RCE and ETC lines were supplemented by 27% and 29%, respectively, of their initial budget. The ERDF convergence line received a reinforcement of some EUR 800 million in the last two months of the year from the ERDF Less developed Region (LDR) line in order to optimize implementation towards the end of the year. For the Cohesion Fund the year-end implementation differed only slightly from the initial budget but the line was used to provide much needed reinforcements to the ERDF RCE and ETC lines in September (EUR 500 million). A transfer of a similar order of magnitude in favour of the 2007-2013 Cohesion Fund was carried out in the second half of December from the 2014-2020 CF line with a marginal amount being provided by the pre-2007 CF projects. As for ESF, the payment appropriations on the Convergence and RCE lines were increased to a lesser extent compared to their initial budget (by 3% and 9% respectively) by means of a limited number of transfers from the new programmes. Overall, some EUR 370 million were made available last year by the 2014-2020 programmes in favour of the ESF completion lines. As regards the top-up of 10 percentage points to the applicable co-financing rates for Member States receiving financial assistance 15, the corresponding payments in 2015 totalled EUR 299.1 million. The Member States concerned by such payments in 2015 were Greece, Romania, Ireland and Cyprus. The validity of the top-up provisions was initially limited to expenditure declared until 31 December 2013. In order to take due account of the continued liquidity problems faced by the Member States implementing fiscal consolidation measures, an amendment of the General Regulation was adopted in December 2013 to allow for continuation of top-up payments until the end of the programming period. 16 As explained previously, the additional payments in favour of Greek 2007-2013 operational programmes triggered by the increase of the co-financing rate to 100% (approximately EUR 500 million) could be financed through the appropriations available in the 2015 budget without a need for an amending budget. However, these additional payments made after the modification of the CPR in mid -October were no longer reported as top-up payments. 15 Based on Regulation (EU) no 1311/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 13 December 2011 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards certain provisions relating to financial management for certain Member States experiencing serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability. 16 Regulation (EU) No 1297/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards certain provisions relating to financial management for certain Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability, to the decommitment rules for certain Member States, and to the rules on payments of the final balance. - 27 -
Table 11: Payments - available appropriations and their implementation in 2015 for the 2007-13 period (in EUR million) Budget item Title Initial Budget Amending Budgets Transfers Total available Total execution RAL 1/01/2015 Changes of RAL** Other additional appropriati ons* RAL 31/12/2015 04 02 17 ESF - Convergence 4,917.02 0 17.39 151.39 5,085.80 5,085.80 11,349.45-31.10 6,232.55 04 02 18 ESF - PEACE p.m. 0 0.00 p.m. 0.00 0.00 04 02 19 ESF - Regional competitiveness and employment 2,357.17 0 0 218.67 2,575.83 2,575.83 4,907.58-98.12 2,233.63 04 02 20 ESF - Operational TA 5.75 0 3.22-4.65 4.33 3.18 10.10-1.47 5.44 Total ESF 7,279.94 0.00 20.62 365.40 7,665.96 7,664.82 16,267.13-130.69 8,471.62 13 03 16 ERDF - Convergence 18,115.47 0 0 802.73 18,918.20 18,918.20 38,651.43-329.25 19,403.98 13 03 17 ERDF - PEACE 22.25 0 9.64 0 31.90 31.90 43.14 0.00 11.24 13 03 18 ERDF - Regional competitivess and employment 2,845.47 0 0 792.01 3,637.47 3,637.47 6,652.96-31.20 2,984.29 13 03 19 ERDF - European territorial co-operation 774.96 0 0 230.72 1,005.68 1,005.68 1,698.43-8.57 684.18 13 03 20 ERDF - Operational TA 5.75 0 0-2.29 3.46 3.46 11.02-1.18 6.38 13 03 31 ERDF - Operational TA Baltic Sea Strategy 0.17 0 0-0.17 0.00 0.00 0.76-0.05 0.71 Total ERDF 21,764.07 0.00 9.64 1,823.00 23,596.72 23,596.72 47,057.74-370.24 23,090.78 13 04 02 Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 10,487.81 0 0 21.54 10,509.34 10,509.34 17,318.37-0.47 6,808.55 Total CF 10,487.81 0.00 0.00 21.54 10,509.34 10,509.34 17,318.37-0.47 6,808.55 TOTAL 39,531.82 0.00 30.26 2,209.94 41,772.02 41,770.88 80,643.24-501.40 38,370.96 * Assigned revenue and appropriations made available again ** Recommitted & Decommitted & Cancelled Chart 6 shows the monthly distribution of payments throughout the year. Overall, implementation in 2015 followed a similar evolution with the one observed during the previous year, while staying slightly above the 2014 level. While during the summer period the implementation in 2015 nearly mirrored the one in 2014, as of September it picked up and remained above the 2014 level until the end of the year. As can be observed in the chart below, the evolution during the last quarter of the year was almost identical with the one in 2013. It should however be noted that the percentage refers to executed appropriations at year-end. In the absence of the additional payment appropriations provided via EYT and transfers from the 2014-20 programmes, the 2015 curve would have been much steeper in the second half of the year. - 28 -
% Chart 6: Monthly implementation patterns of payments in 2007-2015 (%) for the 2007-13 period 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Payments 2007 - period 07-13 Payments 2008 - period 07-13 Payments 2009 - period 07-13 Payments 2010 - period 07-13 Payments 2011 - period 07-13 Payments 2012 - period 07-13 Payments 2013 - period 07-13 Payments 2014 - period 07-13 Payments 2015 - period 07-13 3.2.2 Implementation of the 2007-2013 allocation The cumulative execution of the 2007-13 allocation by Member State broken down by payment type shown in Chart 7 below reflects the approach of the majority of programmes to the closure period. Overall, at 12% of the total 2007-13 allocation, the yearly interim payment execution in 2015 has declined below an average 2007-13 annual commitment tranche. At 79.9%, average cumulative interim payment execution now accounts for more than three quarters of the total 2007-13 allocation (5.5 average annual commitment tranches). For 8 Member States the cumulative total of pre-financing and interim payments made has reached the 95% threshold foreseen in the General Regulation 17 on the functioning of the Structural and Cohesion funds during the 2007-2013 period. In this case no additional interim payments can be made. Member States have until 31 March 2017 to submit closure documents, based on which the Commission can proceed with the payment of the final balance. Greece represents a particular case as the legislative modifications adopted in 2015 allow for the removal of the 95% threshold and the continuation of interim payments in favour of Greek operational programmes up to 100% of their allocation. At the opposite end of the scale, for 6 Member States interim payment execution stayed below 75% of the allocation. Romania represents an extreme case with interim payment execution still below 60% of its allocation. The particularly high level of cumulative advance payments of about 11% for Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary and Romania is the result of the additional advance payments these five countries received in 2010. As concerns Croatia, the chart refers to execution of the 17 Council Regulation (EC) N 1083/2006-29 -
H1b envelope assigned upon accession, including the settlement of pre-accession assistance. Implementation of the new Croatian Convergence programmes has started only in 2014 due to delays in the adoption of management and control systems (MCS). As Croatia's accession took place towards the end of the 2007-2013 programming period, special arrangements were foreseen for the implementation of the Union assistance. Thus, the expenditure incurred by Croatian operational programmes is eligible for a contribution from the Structural and Cohesion Funds until 31 December 2016 (compared to 31 December 2015 for the other Member States) while the deadline for the submission of closure documents is 31 March 2018. Overall, it should be recalled that total interim payment execution in 2015 progressed further due to the EUR 2.2 billion transfer of additional payment appropriations from the new ESIF programmes, as explained above. Chart 7: Cumulative execution of advance and interim payments at the end of 2015 by EU-28 Member States (compared to the national allocation available for the period 2007-13 incl. reserves and pt17iia) EU28 EE LT PT FI DE IE EL BE SE PL LU AT LV NL SI ES CY FR HU CB UK DK SK CZ MT IT BG RO HR 8.7% 10.6% 10.8% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 9.2% 7.5% 7.5% 7.5% 9.5% 7.5% 9.5% 7.4% 10.8% 8.2% 7.5% 7.5% 9.4% 9.4% 9.5% 7.5% 10.7% 9.5% 11.0% 22.6% 58.4% 71.7% 74.7% 76.2% 73.0% 72.1% 75.8% 33.1% 79.9% 84.2% 87.5% 87.5% 84.9% 82.5% 85.3% 83.0% 84.3% 83.7% 84.7% 77.6% 80.4% 84.4% 87.2% 85.6% 87.5% 82.4% 82.4% 90.6% 85.5% 87.5% 39.3% 25.7% 0.0% 0.0% 13.4% 15.8% 10.8% 11.3% 6.4% 6.6% 7.1% 9.8% 12.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.6% 5.0% 5% 1.9% 2.2% 5% 4.5% 3.8% 2.9% 5% 4.4% 0.3% 5% 0.1% 5% 0.0% 5% 0.0% 5% 3.1% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Cumulative execution advance payments (%) as of end 2015 Cumulative execution interim payments (%) as of end 2015 Not executed (%) Last 5% Chart 8 below also illustrates the progress of interim payment execution. At 82.4%, and 82.5%, respectively, interim payments for the ESF and ERDF in Regional Competitiveness and Employment (RCE) regions are now equivalent to more than five and a half average annual commitment tranches. Cumulative interim payment execution for ERDF ETC regions is about 2.4 percentage points above the average while cumulative interim payment execution for ERDF Convergence and Cohesion Fund are very close to the average. - 30 -
Chart 8: Cumulative EU-28 execution of advance and interim payments at the end of 2015 by objective and fund, compared to the overall allocation available for the period 2007-13 (including reserves and pt17 IIA) Total 8.7% 79.9% 6.4% 5% RCE ESF 7.6% 82.4% 5.0% 5% CONV ESF 8.8% 79.1% 7.1% 5% RCE ERDF 7.6% 82.5% 4.9% 5% CONV ERDF 8.3% 79.3% 7.4% 5% ETC ERDF 8.2% 82.3% 4.5% 5% CONV CF 10.7% 79.3% 5.0% 5% 0% 10% 20% 30% Cumulative 40% execution advance 50% payments (%) 60% as of end 201570% 80% 90% 100% Cumulative execution interim payments (%) as of end 2015 Not executed (%) Last 5% 3.3 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2007-2013 The outstanding commitments for the period 2007-2013 have decreased by 52% (EUR 42 billion) to EUR 38.4 billion in 2015, continuing the downward trend started in 2014. Outstanding commitments for the 2007-2013 programmes have been reduced even further than initially foreseen in 2015 by making use of payment appropriations available under the 2014-2020 lines. As explained above, reinforcement by some EUR 2.2 billion of the 2007-2013 lines was possible via transfers from the new programmes for which the delays in the designation of authorities hindered the submission of payment applications. Table 12: Outstanding commitments 2007-2013 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million) Outstanding commitments at the end of 2014 80 621 De-/Re-commitments in 2015 on RAL at the end of 2014** -499 Payments in 2015 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2014-41 764 (1) TOTAL outstanding commitments from before 2015 38 358 New commitments made in 2015 0 Payments on 2015 commitments 0 (2) TOTAL outstanding commitments from 2015 0 (1)+(2) TOTAL outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 38 358 * only operational lines (incl. CF technical assistance) ** including transfer of Croatian pre-accession RAL to cohesion policy lines - 31 -
The share of the total RAL of EU-12 countries plus Croatia has slightly decreased in 2015 to 52.5% as the outstanding commitments of these Member States declined, on average, at a faster pace than the RAL of EU-15 countries which now accounts for 45.7% of total RAL for the 2007-2013 period. While the first five countries in terms of RAL have not changed at the end of 2015 compared to the previous year, the ranking was different. Thus, Italy remains the Member State with the highest level of outstanding commitments for the 2007-2013 programmes, and it is now followed closely by Romania and Spain. Czech Republic and Poland have reduced their level of RAL by 59% and 65%, respectively, thus distancing themselves from the first three. The five aforementioned Member States accounted together for almost 64% of total RAL at the end of 2015, up from 59% at the end of 2014. For the Greek 2007-2013 programmes the RAL decreased by more than 80% last year, while for French and Slovak programmes the reduction exceeded 60%. Overall, for most countries the share in the total RAL at the end of 2015 differs only rather slightly from the relative weight of the country's initial allocation. However, because of diverging speed of interim payment execution, for some MS discrepancies between the share in RAL and the share in the total allocation have increased. These discrepancies became particularly visible last year for Romania and Poland. Thus, while Romania's allocation accounts for 5.5% of the overall 2007-2013 allocation, its RAL accounted for nearly 15% of the overall RAL at the end of last year. Similarly, the share of outstanding commitments of Polish programmes in the total 2007-2013 RAL was reduced to 9% at the end of 2015 while their allocation accounts for more than 19% of the overall Heading 1b allocation for the same programming period. Chart 9: Outstanding commitments by Member State at the end of 2015 for the 2007-13 period (in EUR million) 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 IT RO ES CZ PL HU DE SK UK PT FR BG Other GR LT HR LV SI EE MT NL BE SE FI AT IE CY DK LU 2007-2013 5,769 5,735 5,497 3,951 3,451 2,874 1,916 1,685 1,185 1,074 1,067 974 695 387 339 311 227 205 170 155 147 143 86 80 80 75 49 25 3-32 -
Chart 10: Ratio 2007-13 RAL at end 2015 / average yearly commitments 2007-2013 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 RO IT MT ES CZ SK BG UK HU IE NL CB CY FR DE BE AT SE PL FI PT LV LT DK SI LU EE HR EL 3.4 N+2 and N+3 DECOMMITMENTS (for 2007-2013) 3.4.1 Legal Framework For the programming period 2007-2013 N+2/N+3 de-commitments are regulated by Article 93 of Council Regulation (EC) N 1083/2006 (General Regulation). According to the original version of Article 93 the first de-commitments for the 2007-2013 programming period were to have been calculated as of the end of 2009. The provisions were however modified by the amending Regulation (EU) N 539/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2010. Among the measures for combating the crisis, in July 2009, the Commission proposed a set of amendments to the cohesion policy General Regulation containing a simplification package and a financial package for the ESF. The financial proposal was rejected by the Council and finally replaced, with unanimity in Council, by additional advances of EUR 775 million limited to 5 MS and a change to the automatic de-commitment rule which spreads the 2007 commitment tranche equally over the years 2008 to 2013. For the commitments of year 2007 the automatic de-commitment rule does not apply as of end 2009 (N+2) / end 2010 (N+3) but rather 1/6 of this tranche is added to the calculation of de-commitments for each of the subsequent tranches. According to this modified rule the first de-commitments were therefore only calculated as of 31/12/2010 for the N+2 countries and as of 31/12/2011 for the N+3 countries 18. Any amounts at risk, calculated as of 31 December of year N+2/N+3, are subject to contradictory procedures with the Member States concerned. Amounts confirmed during these procedures shall then be de-committed by 30 September of the following year. 18 The Regulation was lastly amended at the end of 2013 to modify the de-commitment targets for Romania and Slovakia. Those countries were granted N+3 for two more years. Moreover, as stipulated in the Accession Treaty, Croatia will benefit from an N+3 rule up to the end of the period. - 33 -
Therefore, the first N+2 de-commitments for the period 2007-2013 were effectively implemented in 2011 as a result of the N+2 calculation as of 31 December 2010 for the N+2 countries, while the first N+3 de-commitments were effectively implemented in 2012, as result of the N+3 calculation as of 31 December 2011. 3.4.2 N+2/N+3 de-commitments made in 2015 In line with the revised legal framework, 2015 was the fifth year of implementation of N+2 de-commitments for the N+2 countries and the fourth year of implementation of N+3 decommitments for the N+3 countries during the programming period 2007-2013. The total amount de-committed under the N+2/N+3 rule in 2015 was EUR 498.2 million or 0.8% of the end 2014 target amount of commitments to be covered by either payments or valid payment claims. Thirty programmes were affected by the automatic de-commitment rule (see detailed list in ANNEX 3). As concerns the breakdown by fund, ERDF was the principal fund affected by decommitments also in 2015: N+2/N+3 targets were not met by four territorial cooperation programmes, seven OPs in the RCE Objective, four OPs in the Convergence Objective and one OP in both Convergence and RCE Objectives, leading to reductions of EUR 8.6 million, EUR 31.1 million, EUR 319.7 million and EUR 9.7 million respectively. The total decommitted amount related to ERDF is EUR 369 million, approximately 41.3% of the 2014 target for the OPs concerned. For the ESF, fourteen OPs - twelve in the RCE Objective and two in the Convergence Objective - were affected, with a reduction of EUR 98.1 million and EUR 31.1 million respectively. The total amount de-committed related to ESF is EUR 129.2 million, approximately 39.3% of 2014 target for the OPs concerned. For both ERDF and ESF the de-commitment figures include also late de-commitments of amounts related to 2008-11 commitment tranches. As concerns the breakdown by N+2/N+3, the total amount de-committed under the N+2 rule was EUR 163.5 million, while the total amount de-committed under the N+3 rule was EUR 334.8 million. 3.4.3 Cumulative N+2/N+3 de-commitments made by the end of 2015 The lower the part of the commitments that is lost over time, the more successful a programme is in making use of the respective financial allocation of the period 2007-2013. The corresponding performance indicator is the share of total accumulated de-commitments (implemented from 2011 to 2015) in the value of the cumulative N+2/N+3 target at end 2014 (i.e. commitment tranches 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 plus 5/6 of the 2007 tranche for N+2 and N+3 countries). This total does not yet include the de-commitments to be made in 2016 following the N+3 calculation at the end of 2015 (the N+3 rule applies in 2015 only to Croatia, Romania and Slovakia). The total amount de-committed under the N+2/N+3 rule up to 2015 was EUR 1.35 billion or 0.5% of the end 2014 cumulative target. The de-committed amount is equivalent to 0.4% of the total commitments of the period 2007-13. 54 programmes were affected by the automatic de-commitment rule. - 34 -
As concerns the breakdown by fund, ERDF was the principal fund affected by decommitments up to 2015: 13 territorial cooperation programmes lost a total amount of EUR 53 million, 13 OPs in the RCE Objective lost a total of EUR 79.7 million, 8 OPs in the Convergence Objective lost EUR 634 million and an OP related to RCE and Convergence lost EUR 30.2 million. The total cumulative de-committed amount related to ERDF is thus EUR 796.9 million, approximately 9.2% of the end 2014 cumulative targets for the OPs concerned. For the ESF, 19 OPs were affected: 12 OPs in the RCE Objective lost EUR 163.7 million, 4 in the Convergence Objective lost EUR 44.3 million and another 3 in sharing both Objectives lost EUR 140.7 million. The total cumulative de-committed amount related to ESF is thus EUR 348.7 million, approximately 4.7% of the end 2014 cumulative targets for the OPs concerned. For the Cohesion Fund, only two OPs were affected, losing EUR 204.5 million, approximately 3.8% of its end 2014 cumulative target. Table 13: 2007-2013 n+2/n+3 de-commitments by Fund as of 31/12/2015 (in EUR million) De-commitments De-commitment year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 TOTAL ESF 7,5 2,5 5,9 203,6 129,2 348,7 ERDF 2,2 18,7 183,5 223,5 369,0 796,9 CF 0,0 0,0 30,2 174,2 0,0 204,5 TOTAL 9,6 21,2 219,6 601,4 498,2 1.350,1 This table does not include yet the de-commitments that will be made in 2016 after the contradictory procedure as a result of the N+3 target at the end of 2015. 3.5 MEMBER STATES PAYMENT FORECASTS FOR THE 2007-13 PERIOD In the past, in accordance with the regulations on Cohesion Policy Funds, national authorities submitted by 30 April their forecasts of requests for payments for the current and following year, by Programme and Fund. For the programming period 2007-2013 this requirement is made under Article 76(3) of the General Regulation. Starting from 2015, for the purpose of simplification and ensuring coherence between the data of the two programming periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2020, Member States have anticipated the submission of their forecasts for the programming period 2007-2013 to 31 January (which is the new deadline for the submission of data on the programming period 2014-2020 under Article 112(3) of the CPR). Table 14 below presents the 2015 Member States' forecasting errors listed by country for the 2007-2013 programmes for EU-28. Relative forecast errors are used in the analysis, i.e. the forecasting error by a Member State for a given year measured in percentage of the actual payment claims submitted by that Member State during the same year. This approach has proven to be more appropriate than the one used before 2012 based on the comparison between forecast and payments made to Member States: the recurrent lack of payment appropriations at the end of the year would make the interpretation of forecast errors based on the comparison with payments less conclusive. The overall forecasting error was an overestimation of 14%, higher than the 2014 error (11% overestimation), but the situation varies widely across Member States. The significant - 35 -
underestimation by some countries partially counterbalanced high overestimation by other countries. Therefore in 2015 the general trend of overestimation observed during the previous years was confirmed. Malta and Romania had the highest overestimation reaching 255% and 211% respectively but, for Malta, this did not have a major impact on the total forecast error (its claims represent 0.1% of the total claims received). In absolute value, the countries with the highest overestimation are Romania, Spain and Italy. Their overestimation rates are 211%, 156%, and 109% respectively, which determined a major increase in the general forecast error, as the 2015 payment requests relating to Romania represent 5.3% of the total claims, those relating to Spain represent 4.5%, and those relating to Italy represent 6%. On the other hand, it should be noted that 17 countries underestimated their payment forecasts (in the interval from -1% to -100%). Their estimations significantly counterbalanced the general trend of overestimation, as the payment claims of these countries represent 60% in the total payment claims. Overall, as concerns the accuracy of forecasts, only 3 Member States have had error rates of less than 5% (Poland, Latvia and Slovakia). The update of payment forecasts, submitted by the Member States by 31 July 2015 19, involved a reduction to the total forecast amount by EUR 2.3 billion down to EUR 43.8 billion. This reduction of the payment forecasts was the net result of total increases by EUR 2.4 billion from 10 MSs and Territorial Cooperation and total decreases by EUR 4.7 billion from another 12 MSs (6 MSs did not modify their forecasts in July). The highest reduction came from Romania which decreased its forecast by EUR 2.8 billion. Taking into account this reduction, Romania switches from an overestimation of 211% in January as mentioned above to an overestimation of 80% in September. With an average overestimation of 9%, the update of forecasts in July was EUR 3.5 billion higher than the total amount of claims actually submitted by MSs between January and December. Consequently the accuracy rate in 2015 updated forecasts is significantly lower than in the previous years. However, this average remains the sum of over and underestimation between the various Member States and between operational programmes within a same Member State. The above figures are referring to the forecasts of the overall requests for payments sent by Member States in 2015. This figure does not always coincide with the payment requests actually payable by the Commission within the two months deadline indicated by the Regulation 1083/2006 20. Indeed, according to Article 79 of Regulation 1083/2006 21, the Commission shall pay the payment claims till the total of pre-financing and interim payments for a programme reaches 19 This deadline is set by Article 112(3) of Regulation 1303/2013 for payment forecasts related to the 2014-2020 programming period. In 2015, Member States aligned the submission of the mid-year update for the 2007-2013 programming period forecasts (previously provided each year in September) to the new deadline for the 2014-2020 programming period. 20 Article 87 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 lays down that " Subject to available funding, and the absence of a suspension of payments in accordance with Article 92, the Commission shall make the interim payment no later than two months after the date on which a application for payment meeting the conditions referred to in Article 86 is registered with the Commission". 21 Article 79 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 lays down that "The cumulative total of pre-financing and interim payments made by the Commission shall not exceed 95% of the seven-year contribution from the Funds to the Operational Programme; the remaining 5% will only be paid at the closure of the Operational Programme." - 36 -
95% of the allocation of the programme. Once this threshold is reached, the Member State can continue sending its payment requests but these are not paid by the Commission until the closure of the programme. They are used to clear the outstanding pre-financing in the Commission's accounts. As more and more programmes reach the 95% ceiling, this distinction is quite significant: the difference between the overall claims submitted in 2015 by the Member States (EUR 40.3 billion, used in the comparison with forecasts in Table 14), and the claims payable by the Commission (EUR 25.1 billion) is EUR 15.2 billion. This difference represents the claims to be paid only at the closure of the related operational programmes. Like the forecasts of total claims to be submitted in 2015, also the forecasts of payment requests actually payable by the Commission as interim payments were significantly overestimated. In the July update, MS forecast to send EUR 31.5 billion of payable claims, while the actual amount submitted was EUR 25.1 billion (25% over-estimation). In absolute value, the countries with the highest overestimation are Italy, Romania and Spain, counting for EUR 5.5 billion of the total EUR 6.4 billion over-estimated. This significant deviation from the actual payable claims submitted, unusual in the forecasts provided in the second part of the year, contributes to explain why the Commission had also during the autumn over-estimated the final claims to be expected at the end of the year and, consequently, also the end of the year backlog of unpaid claims, which was lower than forecast. - 37 -
Table 14: Forecasting errors by EU-28 in 2015 for 2007-2013 programmes (in EUR million) * 2015 Forecasts* Payment requests Difference Difference % AT 77 132-55 -42% BE 156 221-65 -29% BG 1.355 1.173 182 15% CY 61 68-7 -11% CZ 4.008 3.444 564 16% DE 1.950 2.402-452 -19% DK 24 58-34 -59% EE 91 233-143 -61% ES 4.655 1.818 2.837 156% FI 212 147 65 44% FR 1.628 1.862-234 -13% GR 750 2.525-1.776-70% HR 216 159 58 36% HU 3.860 3.311 549 17% IE 30 43-13 -30% IT 5.065 2.418 2.647 109% LT 86 877-790 -90% LU 6 7-1 -12% LV 539 560-21 -4% MT 140 39 100 255% NL 204 82 122 150% PL 8.922 8.998-75 -1% PT 511 2.339-1.829-78% RO 6.638 2.136 4.502 211% SE - 153-153 -100% SI 385 821-436 -53% SK 2.677 2.798-122 -4% UK 816 545 271 50% CB 1.047 915 132 14% TOTAL 46.109 40.284 5.825 14% Data as 03/03/2015-38 -
4 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2000-2006 PERIOD The financial framework for the Structural Funds for the programming period 2000-2006 (former Heading 2a) consisted of the 2000-2006 allocation for the EU-15 MS decided in 1999 and the 2004-2006 allocation for the EU-10 MS decided in 2002. By the end of 2015, operational programmes with combined allocations equivalent to 80% of the global 2000-2006 allocation had already been closed. 4.1 PAYMENTS AND RECONSTITUTIONS FOR 2000-2006 PROGRAMMES IN 2015 The closure of the 2000-2006 programmes continued in 2015 as shown in Table 15. While the reduction of outstanding commitments was mainly achieved through de-commitments rather than closure payments, the overall rate of reduction of RAL was somewhat higher than in 2014. As no payment appropriations were foreseen in the Budget 2015 for the 2000-2006 programmes, closure payments were made in most cases using additional appropriations from assigned revenue. Further reinforcements were required for ERDF and EAGGF towards the end of the year and they were carried out using the credits available for the new programming period. ERDF Objective 1 received a reinforcement of EUR 13.87 million from ERDF LDR, while a transfer of EUR 6.70 million from the new rural development programmes was conducted in order to reinforce the EAGGF Objective 1 line. Table 15: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation for 2000-2006 programmes and evolution of the RAL (in EUR million) Budget item Title Initial Budget Amending Budgets Transfers Other additional appropriations* Total available Total execution RAL 1/01/2015 Changes of RAL** RAL 31/12/2015 04 02 01 ESF Objective 1 0.00 0.00 72.66 72.66 0.00 437.17-15.57 421.60 04 02 02 ESF - PEACE p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 04 02 04 ESF Objective 2 p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.94-3.92 0.02 04 02 06 ESF - Objective 3 0.00 0.00 0.66 0.66 0.39 42.52-7.62 34.51 04 02 08 EQUAL 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 9.39 9.39 04 02 10 ESF - TA and Innovative Measures p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total ESF 0.00 0.00 0.00 73.32 73.32 0.39 493.02-27.11 465.52 13 03 01 ERDF Objective 1 0.00 0.00 13.87 38.18 52.05 52.05 809.63-260.19 497.40 13 03 02 ERDF - PEACE p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13 03 04 ERDF Objective 2 0.00 0.00 2.99 2.99 2.99 199.71-150.17 46.56 13 03 06 URBAN 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.56 0.56 13 03 08 ERDF - TA and Innovative Measures p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 13 03 13 Interreg III 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 56.60-16.39 40.21 Total ERDF 0.00 0.00 13.87 41.16 55.03 55.03 1,066.51-426.75 584.73 Total Heading 1B 0.00 0.00 13.87 114.48 128.35 55.42 1,559.53-453.86 1,050.25 05 04 02 01 EAGGF Objective 1 0.00 0.00 6.70 57.51 64.21 64.19 149.64-10.56 74.89 05 04 02 02 EAGGF - PEACE p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 05 04 02 06 Leader p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 05 04 02 09 EAGGF - Operational TA p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total EAGGF 0.00 0.00 6.70 57.52 64.22 64.19 149.64-10.56 74.89 11 06 01 FIFG Objective 1 0.00 0.00 1.36 1.36 0.00 124.00-41.43 82.57 11 06 02 FISH - PEACE p.m. 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 11 06 04 FIFG outside Obj 1 0.00 0.00 9.06 9.06 0.00 33.13-20.59 12.54 11 06 07 FIFG - Operational TA and Innovative Measures 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Total FIFG 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.43 10.43 0.00 157.13-62.02 95.11 Total Heading 2 0.00 0.00 6.70 67.94 74.64 64.19 306.76-72.58 169.99 * Assigned revenue and appropriations made available again ** Recommitted & Decommitted & Cancelled T o tal 0.00 0.00 20.57 182.42 202.99 119.62 1,866.30-526.44 1,220.24-39 -
Following a final judgement of the Court of Justice, the Commission lost cases concerning financial corrections at the closure for 3 Spanish programmes and 2 German programmes under the ERDF envelope for the 1994-1999 programming period. While the Court's ruling was based on procedural aspects (financial correction decisions being adopted more than 6 months after the hearings with the MS) and the arguments regarding the substance of the financial corrections have not been considered in the final judgement, the Commission had to proceed with the corresponding reimbursements. Thus, before the end of 2015 a total of EUR 345.8 million were paid in favour of ERDF pre-2000 programmes using assigned revenue derived from new financial corrections linked to the 2000-2006 programmes. The remaining balance of EUR 145.8 million shall be paid in 2016 by reconstituting the necessary commitment appropriations following de-commitments made in 2015. For the following analysis of closure, programmes are considered as closed in budgetary terms when the final payment has been processed and the commitment has been brought to zero through final payment and/or de-commitment. Multi-fund programmes are considered as individual programmes for each fund concerned, which results in a total number of 830 OPs. Following the above mentioned criteria, 92% (765 OPs) of the programmes have been closed by the end of 2015. These 765 OPs represent EUR 180.7 billion (80%) of the original total allocation. For these 765 programmes closed by the end of 2015, overall 2.2% of their initial allocation was de-committed. As can be seen in Chart 11, the closure process advanced at a particularly fast pace for the FIFG and the ERDF for which the OPs closed in 2015 account for 10.2% and 10% of those funds respective allocations. Chart 11: Progress of closure of total allocation per fund for the 2000-2006 period as of end 2015 (in EUR billion) 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 ERDF ESF EAGGF FIFG Still to close Closed in 2015 Closed <2015-40 -
4.2 CUMULATIVE DE-COMMITMENTS AT THE END OF 2015 (FOR 2000-2006) This chapter presents the cumulative N+2 de-commitments together with the 2010-2015 decommitments related to closure. For the programming period 2000-2006 N+2 de-commitments are regulated by article 31.2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999, known as the N+2 rule. The implementing rules are set in Commission Communication C(2002)1942, as amended by Commission Communication C(2003)2982. The last N+2 de-commitment exercise was in respect of 2005 commitments, at the end of 2007. There was no N+2 de-commitment for 2006 commitments. The de-commitment cases for 2006 commitments are treated in the framework of the closure exercise. It should be noted that the 2010-2015 closure de-commitments can be: a) final closure de-commitments, when the final commitment is brought to zero, any balance due is paid and therefore the programmes closed from the budgetary point of view; the Commission has already analysed the certified expenditure (see also chapter 4.1 above) or b) preliminary closure de-commitments, representing the difference between the outstanding commitments and the amount of the certified expenditure declared together with the closure documents. The Commission is still in the process of analysing the certified expenditure; in the situation of a partial approval of the certified expenditure, the amount not approved will also be de-committed later. In order to measure the effect of de-commitments, the performance indicator used is the share of total accumulated N+2 de-commitments (from 2003 to 2008) on top of which are added the closure de-commitments (from 2010 to 2015), in the value of total commitments (2000-2006). The average de-commitments so far are equivalent to 2.22% of the total commitments of the period 2000-06, (N+2: 0.56%, closure: 1.66%). In absolute terms the cumulative amount of de-commitments has reached EUR 5 billion so far (of which EUR 1.3 billion were N+2 decommitments and another EUR 3.7 billion were closure de-commitments). Using the indicator of de-commitments relative to total commitments, the following 3 charts give the (cumulative) situation by Member State, Fund and Objective, respectively. - 41 -
Chart 12: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015, by Member State 20% 18% 16% 2010-2015 closure de-commitments in % of 2000-2006 commitments Cumulative N+2 de-commitments (2003 to 2008) in % of 2000 to 2006 Commitments 14% 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% Average= 2,22% 2% 0% By Fund, as of the end of 2015, the ERDF and the EAGGF have de-commitments which are lower than the average. As in the last years, the FIFG is still indicated as having the highest cumulative de-commitments with 8.4% of 2000 to 2006 commitments. Following the relevant closure de-commitments experienced in the last three years, there is now a near balance between FIFG closure de-commitments and de-commitments related to the application of the N+2 rule. To the contrary, for the ESF high closure de-commitments reaching 2.69% of 2000-2006 commitments already account for ¾ of total ESF de-commitments. Chart 13: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015, by Fund - 42 -
By objective, the de-commitments as of the end of 2015 are below the average of 2.22% for Objective 1 only; for Objective 2 they are not far above the average, whereas for all of the other objectives/initiatives the de-commitments are significantly above average. Chart 14: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015 by Objective 4.3 OUTSTANDING COMMITMENTS FROM THE PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2000-2006 4.3.1 Evolution of 2000-06 outstanding commitments in 2015 In 2015, the RAL from the 2000-2006 programming period declined further with an overall decrease of 35%, from EUR 1.8 billion to EUR 1.2 billion (see Table 16 below). While more operational programmes approach completion, the weight of de-commitments in the decrease of outstanding commitments becomes more significant than that of closure payments. Thus, closure de-commitments (EUR 526 million) accounted for 81% of the reduction of the RAL while the remaining 19% was the result of payments (EUR 120 million). The closure of these programmes will continue in 2016. Table 16: Outstanding commitments from 2000-2006 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million) Outstanding commitments at the end of 2014 1 866 De-commitments in 2015 on RAL at the end of 2014-526 Payments in 2015 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2014-120 (1) TOTAL outstanding commitments from before 2015 1 220 New commitments made in 2015 0 Payments on 2015 commitments 0 (2) TOTAL outstanding commitments from 2015 0 (1)+(2) TOTAL outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 1 220 * only operational lines - 43 -
4.3.2 Breakdown of 2000-06 outstanding commitments by Member State Chart 15 presents total outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 by Member State. As in the previous year, at the end of 2015 Italy remains the Member State with the highest RAL followed at quite some distance by Germany. Due to a reduction by less than 23% of its outstanding commitments in 2015 (below the 35% average reduction), Italy's part of total 2000-2006 RAL has increased further from 45.4% in 2014 to 53.7% at the end of last year. Similarly, the slow reduction of RAL for German programmes in 2015 translated into an increase of the Member States' share of overall outstanding commitments compared to the end of 2014, while the RAL for Ireland, Slovakia and Hungary remained unchanged in 2015. Significant progress in the reduction of outstanding commitments could be observed for Portugal (-98.5%), United Kingdom (-96.7%) and Greece (-66.1%), well in excess of the general decrease of the RAL 2000-2006. At the end of 2015, the outstanding commitments for Dutch 2000-2006 programmes were brought to zero. As a result of the relatively lower progress of residual closure, the three Member States with the highest RAL accounted for more than 80% of total outstanding commitments at the end of 2015, up from about 70% at the end of 2014. Chart 15: Outstanding commitments by Member State at the end of 2015 (in EUR million) (2000-2006 period) 750 500 250 0 IT DE ES GR IE Other FR PL SK CZ UK BE HU SE PT 2000-2006 655.3 230.5 107.3 75.9 45.1 40.2 22.4 14.7 10.5 6.8 6.4 2.9 1.4 0.5 0.3-44 -
OVERVIEW OF CHARTS Chart 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments relative share by type of region, Fund and objective... - 9 - Chart 2: Heading 2 2014-2020 commitments relative share by Fund (EUR million)... - 10 - Chart 3: Concentration of payments in December (percentage executed in December) since 2000... - 21 - Chart 4: Monthly pattern of cumulative interim payment claim submission for the 2007-13 period between 2013 and 2015 (in % of the total)... - 22 - Chart 5: Evolution of unpaid payment claims at the end of the year for 2007-13 period between 2010 and 2015 (in EUR billion)... - 25 - Chart 6: Monthly implementation patterns of payments in 2007-2015 (%) for the 2007-13 period... - 29 - Chart 7: Cumulative execution of advance and interim payments at the end of 2015 by EU-28 Member States (compared to the national allocation available for the period 2007-13 incl. reserves and pt17iia)... - 30 - Chart 8: Cumulative EU-28 execution of advance and interim payments at the end of 2015 by objective and fund, compared to the overall allocation available for the period 2007-13 (including reserves and pt17 IIA)... - 31 - Chart 9: Outstanding commitments by Member State at the end of 2015 for the 2007-13 period (in EUR million)... - 32 - Chart 10: Ratio 2007-13 RAL at end 2015 / average yearly commitments 2007-2013... - 33 - Chart 11: Progress of closure of total allocation per fund for the 2000-2006 period as of end 2015 (in EUR billion)... - 40 - Chart 12: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015, by Member State... - 42 - Chart 13: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015, by Fund... - 42 - Chart 14: Relative significance of the cumulative de-commitments up to the end of 2015 by Objective... - 43 - Chart 15: Outstanding commitments by Member State at the end of 2015 (in EUR million) (2000-2006 period)... - 44 - - 45 -
OVERVIEW OF TABLES Table 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments by type of region, Fund and objective (EUR million)... - 10 - Table 2: Heading 1b transfers of unused allocations from 2014 to subsequent years (EUR million)... - 11 - Table 3: Heading 2 transfers of unused allocations from 2014 to subsequent years (EUR million)... - 11 - Table 4: Heading 1b annual allocations after MFF revision in 2014 prices (EUR million) - 12 - Table 5: Heading 2 annual breakdown of commitments in 2014 prices (EUR million)... - 12 - Table 6: Adopted operational programmes and status of designation of authorities per Fund at 31 December 2015... - 13 - Table 7: Outstanding commitments 2014-2020 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million)... - 15 - Table 8: Outturn of Commitment Appropriations for the 2014-2020 period in 2015* by Fund (in EUR million)... - 16 - Table 9: Outturn of Payment Appropriations in 2015* by Fund (in EUR million)... - 17 - Table 10: Payment applications received in 2015 and unpaid applications at year-end for 2007-2013 period (in EUR billion)... - 24 - Table 11: Payments - available appropriations and their implementation in 2015 for the 2007-13 period (in EUR million)... - 28 - Table 12: Outstanding commitments 2007-2013 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million)... - 31 - Table 13: 2007-2013 n+2/n+3 de-commitments by Fund as of 31/12/2015 (in EUR million).. - 35 - Table 14: Forecasting errors by EU-28* in 2015 for 2007-2013 programmes (in EUR million)... - 38 - Table 15: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation for 2000-2006 programmes and evolution of the RAL (in EUR million)... - 39 - Table 16: Outstanding commitments from 2000-2006 at the end of 2015* (in EUR million)... - 43 - - 46 -
- 47 -
ANNEXES ANNEX 1: IMPLEMENTATION BY BUDGET LINES IN 2015 ANNEX 2: COMMISSION TRANSFERS IN 2015 ANNEX 3: N+2/N+3 DECOMMITMENTS IN 2015 ANNEX 4: HISTORICAL TREND IN COMMITMENTS AND PAYMENTS ANNEX 5: HISTORIC ANALYSIS OF MEMBER STATES PAYMENT FORECASTS ANNEX 6: HEADING 1B 2014-2020 ALLOCATION BY MEMBER STATE ANNEX 7: HEADING 2 2014-2020 ALLOCATION BY MEMBER STATE [EXCEPT EAGGF] ANNEX 8: LIST OF ADOPTED PROGRAMMES BY MEMBER STATE ANNEX 9: LIST OF ADOPTED PROGRAMMES BY MEMBER SATE AND BY FUND ANNEX 10: REFERENCES - 48 -
ANNEX 1: IMPLEMENTATION BY BUDGET LINES IN 2015-49 -
ANNEX 1 : IMPLEMENTATION BY BUDGET LINES IN 2015 - STRUCTURAL FUNDS Financial year 2015: Outturn of Commitment Appropriations on 31.12.2015 by budget item Source C2 provisional outturn reports at date of 27/01/2016 in EUR BUDGET ADDITIONAL APPROPR. TOTAL ITEM HEADING VOTED BUDGET TRANSFERS & AMENDING BUDGET TOTAL OUTTURN % CARRY OVER, OUTTURN ASSIGNED REVENUE, RECONSTITUTIONS TOTAL APPROPRIATONS OUTTURN % 1 2 3 = 1+2 4 5 = 4/3 6 7 8 = 3+6 9 = 4+7 10 =9/8 PRE-2000 programming periods 04 02 03 ESF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 05 ESF - Former Objectives 2 and 5b p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 07 ESF - Former Objectives 3 and 4 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 09 ESF - Community Initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 11 ESF - TA and Innovative measures - 0 0 0 2,879 0 2,879 0 0.00% 05 04 02 03 EAGGF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 156,907 0 156,907 0 0.00% 05 04 02 04 EAGGF - Former Objective 5b p.m. 0 0 0 1,694,274 0 1,694,274 0 0.00% 05 04 02 05 EAGGF - Former Objective 5a p.m. 0 0 0 535,516 0 535,516 0 0.00% 05 04 02 07 EAGGF - Community intitiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 158,165 0 158,165 0 0.00% 05 04 02 08 EAGGF - Completion of earlier innovative measures (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 66,042 0 66,042 0 0.00% 11 06 03 FIFG - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 06 FIFG - Community Initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 03 ERDF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 317,962,138 317,962,138 317,962,138 317,962,138 100.00% 13 03 05 ERDF - Former Objectives 2 and 5b p.m. 0 0 0 27,884,692 27,884,692 27,884,692 27,884,692 100.00% 13 03 07 ERDF - Community initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 09 ERDF - TA and Innovative Measures (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL PRE-2000 0 0 0 0 0 348,460,614 345,846,830 348,460,614 345,846,830 99.25% 2000-2006 Programming period 04 02 01 ESF Objective 1 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 02 ESF - PEACE p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 04 ESF Objective 2 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 06 ESF - Objective 3 p.m. 0 0 0 658,362 0 658,362 0 0.00% 04 02 08 EQUAL p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 10 ESF - TA and Innovative Measures - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 04 02 01 EAGGF Objective 1 p.m. 0 0 0 38,074,360 0 38,074,360 0 0.00% 05 04 02 02 EAGGF - PEACE p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 04 02 06 Leader p.m. 0 0 0 219,299 0 219,299 0 0.00% 05 04 02 09 EAGGF - Operational TA p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 01 FIFG Objective 1 p.m. 0 0 0 1,897,116 0 1,897,116 0 0.00% 11 06 02 FISH - PEACE p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 04 FIFG outside Obj 1 p.m. 0 0 0 25,301,675 0 25,301,675 0 0.00% 13 03 01 ERDF Objective 1 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 02 ERDF - PEACE p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 04 ERDF Objective 2 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 06 URBAN p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 08 ERDF - TA and Innovative Measures p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 13 Interreg III p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 2000-2006 0 0 0 66,150,812 0 66,150,812 0 0.00% 0 0 2007-2013 Programming period 04 02 17 ESF - Convergence 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 19 ESF - Regional competitiveness and employment 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 20 ESF - Operational TA 0 0 0 0 203,400 0 203,400 0 0.00% 13 03 16 ERDF - Convergence 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 17 ERDF - PEACE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 18 ERDF - Regional competitivess and employment 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 19 ERDF - European territorial co-operation 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 20 ERDF - Operational TA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 31 ERDF - Operational TA Baltic Sea Strategy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 04 02 Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 2007-2013 0 0 0 0 203,400 0 203,400 0 0.00% 2014-2020 programming period 04 01 04 01 ESF - Expenditure on adm. management 15,400,000 0 15,400,000 12,540,640 81.43% 739 0 15,400,739 12,540,640 81.43% 04 02 60 ESF Less developed regions 6,500,532,038 1,089,707,479 7,590,239,517 7,590,239,517 100.00% 1,675,795,878 1,675,795,878 9,266,035,395 9,266,035,395 100.00% 04 02 61 ESF Transition regions 1,668,335,386 323,915,981 1,992,251,367 1,992,251,367 100.00% 28,472,415 28,472,415 2,020,723,782 2,020,723,782 100.00% 04 02 62 ESF More developed regions 2,675,531,087 1,261,311,051 3,936,842,138 3,936,842,138 100.00% 276,750,075 276,750,075 4,213,592,213 4,213,592,213 100.00% 04 02 63 01 ESF Operational TA 14,700,000 0 14,700,000 11,801,111 80.28% 0 0 14,700,000 11,801,111 80.28% 04 02 63 02 ESF Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 64 Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) 1,407,161,806 97,409,219 1,504,571,025 1,504,571,024 100.00% 132,290,556 132,290,556 1,636,861,581 1,636,861,580 100.00% 04 01 04 05 FEAD -Expenditure on adm. Management 425,000 0 425,000 305,000 71.76% 0 0 425,000 305,000 71.76% 04 06 01 FEAD 523,247,709 0 523,247,709 523,247,709 100.00% 12,203,892 12,203,892 535,451,601 535,451,601 100.00% 04 06 02 FEAD - Operational TA 1,410,000 0 1,410,000 889,710 63.10% 0 0 1,410,000 889,710 63.10% 05 01 04 04 EAFRD Expenditure on admin management 4,450,000 0 4,450,000 4,128,266 92.77% 0 0 4,450,000 4,128,266 92.77% 05 04 60 01 EAFRD - Rural development programmes 2014-2020 13,796,873,677 4,352,663,052 18,149,536,729 18,149,536,729 100.00% 1,970,095,304 1,970,095,304 20,119,632,033 20,119,632,033 100.00% 05 04 60 02 EAFRD - Operational TA 22,292,400-6,500,000 15,792,400 12,520,491 79.28% 933 0 15,793,333 12,520,491 79.28% 05 04 60 03 EAFRD - Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 01 04 01 EMFF - Expenditure on adm. management 3,622,610-207,000 3,415,610 3,415,610 100.00% 0 0 3,415,610 3,415,610 100.00% 11 06 60 EMFF - sustainable and competitive fisheries 798,128,031 740,724,593 1,538,852,624 1,538,852,624 100.00% 28,169,090 28,169,090 1,567,021,714 1,567,021,714 100.00% 11 06 63 01 EMFF - Operational TA 4,300,000 0 4,300,000 4,210,548 97.92% 0 0 4,300,000 4,210,548 97.92% 11 06 63 02 EMFF- Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 01 04 01 ERDF - Expenditure on adm. management 11,300,000 0 11,300,000 11,271,378 99.75% 331 0 11,300,331 11,271,378 99.74% 13 01 04 03 CF- Expenditure on adm. management 4,200,000 0 4,200,000 4,190,509 99.77% 0 0 4,200,000 4,190,509 99.77% 13 03 60 ERDF Less developed regions 17,702,784,879 4,511,547,071 22,214,331,950 22,214,331,950 100.00% 3,925,485,651 3,925,485,651 26,139,817,601 26,139,817,601 100.00% 13 03 61 ERDF Transition regions 3,185,884,426 1,322,832,006 4,508,716,432 4,508,716,424 100.00% 365,931,880 365,931,880 4,874,648,312 4,874,648,304 100.00% 13 03 62 ERDF More developed regions 4,853,554,368 364,600,388 5,218,154,756 5,218,154,756 100.00% 1,250,818,593 1,250,818,593 6,468,973,349 6,468,973,349 100.00% 13 03 63 ERDF Outermost and sparsely populated regions 213,401,352 65,119,389 278,520,741 278,520,741 100.00% 0 0 278,520,741 278,520,741 100.00% 13 03 64 01 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) 720,820,268 266,121,203 986,941,471 986,941,471 100.00% 50,624,280 50,624,280 1,037,565,751 1,037,565,751 100.00% 13 03 65 01 ERDF Operational TA 72,000,000 0 72,000,000 61,249,401 85.07% 0 0 72,000,000 61,249,401 85.07% 13 03 65 02 ERDF Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 200,000 200,000 200,000 100.00% 0 0 200,000 200,000 100.00% 13 03 66 ERDF Innovative Actions in the field of Sustainable Urban Development 51,028,945 0 51,028,945 51,028,945 100.00% 0 0 51,028,945 51,028,945 100.00% 13 03 67 ERDF- European strategy for the Baltic Sea region Technical assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 68 ERDF- European Union strategy for the Danube region Technical assistance 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 04 60 Cohesion Fund 8,346,548,261 1,826,702,791 10,173,251,052 10,173,251,052 100.00% 761,296,791 761,296,791 10,934,547,843 10,934,547,843 100.00% 13 04 61 01 Cohesion Fund Operational TA 24,000,000 0 24,000,000 20,673,785 86.14% 0 0 24,000,000 20,673,785 86.14% 13 04 61 02 Cohesion Fund Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 2014-2020 62,621,932,243 16,216,147,223 78,838,079,466 78,813,882,897 99.97% 10,477,936,409 10,477,934,405 89,316,015,875 89,291,817,302 99.97% Total 62,621,932,243 16,216,147,223 78,838,079,466 78,813,882,897 99.97% 10,892,751,234 10,823,781,235 89,730,830,700 89,637,664,132 99.90% - 50 -
ANNEX 1 : IMPLEMENTATION BY BUDGET LINES IN 2015 - STRUCTURAL FUNDS Financial year 2015: Outturn of Payment Appropriations on 31.12.2015. by budget item Source: C2 provisional outturn reports at date of 27/01/2016 in EUR BUDGET ADDITIONAL APPROPR. ITEM HEADING VOTED BUDGET TRANSFERS & TOTAL OUTTURN % CARRY OVER, OUTTURN AMENDING ASSIGNED BUDGET REVENUE, RECONSTITUTIONS TOTAL APPROPRIATIONS TOTAL OUTTURN % 1 2 3 = 1+2 4 5 = 4/3 6 7 8 = 3+6 9 = 4+7 10 =9/8 Pre-2000 programming periods 04 02 03 ESF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 05 ESF - Former Objectives 2 and 5b p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 07 ESF - Former Objectives 3 and 4 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 09 ESF - Community Initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 11 ESF - TA and Innovative measures - 0 0 0 2,159 0 2,159 0 0.00% 05 04 02 03 EAGGF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 04 02 04 EAGGF - Former Objective 5b p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 04 02 05 EAGGF - Former Objective 5a p.m. 0 0 0 172,200 0 172,200 0 0.00% 05 04 02 07 EAGGF - Community intitiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 05 04 02 08 EAGGF - Completion of earlier innovative measures (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 66,042 0 66,042 0 0.00% 11 06 03 FIFG - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 05 FIFG - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 06 FIFG - Community Initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 03 ERDF - Former Objectives 1 and 6 p.m. 187,572,359 187,572,359 187,572,359 100.00% 130,389,779 130,389,779 317,962,138 317,962,138 100.00% 13 03 05 ERDF - Former Objectives 2 and 5b p.m. 0 0 0 27,884,692 27,884,692 27,884,692 27,884,692 100.00% 13 03 07 ERDF - Community initiatives (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 09 ERDF - TA and Innovative measures (prior to 2000) p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL PRE-2000 187,572,359 187,572,359 187,572,359 100.00% 158,514,873 158,274,471 346,087,232 345,846,830 99.93% 0 2000-2006 programming period 04 02 01 ESF Objective 1 0 0 0 0 72,657,628 0 72,657,628 0 0.00% 04 02 02 ESF - PEACE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 p.m. 04 02 04 ESF Objective 2 p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 06 ESF - Objective 3 0 0 0 658,362 390,274 658,362 390,274 0 59.28% 04 02 08 EQUAL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 04 02 10 ESF - TA and Innovative 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Measures p.m. 05 04 02 EAGGF Objective 1 6,700,484 6,700,484 6,700,484 57,512,750 57,492,251 64,213,235 64,192,735 01 0 100.00% 99.97% 05 04 02 02 EAGGF - PEACE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 p.m. 05 04 02 06 Leader p.m. 0 0 0 2,537 0 2,537 0 0.00% 05 04 02 09 EAGGF - Operational TA p.m. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 06 01 FIFG Objective 1 0 0 0 1,363,544 0 1,363,544 0 0.00% 0 11 06 02 FISH - PEACE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 p.m. 11 06 04 FIFG outside Obj 0 0 0 9,062,315 0 9,062,315 0 1 0 0.00% 11 06 07 FIFG - Operational TA and Innovative Measures 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 01 ERDF Objective 1 0 13,870,966 13,870,966 13,870,966 100.00% 38,175,620 38,175,620 52,046,585 52,046,585 100.00% 13 03 02 ERDF - PEACE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 p.m. 13 03 04 ERDF Objective 0 0 0 2,986,950 2,986,950 2,986,950 2,986,950 2 0 100.00% 13 03 06 URBAN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 08 ERDF - TA and Innovative 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Measures p.m. 13 03 13 Interreg III 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL 2000-2006 0 20,571,450 20,571,450 20,571,450 100.00% 182,419,707 99,045,095 202,991,157 119,616,545 58.93% 2007-2013 programming period 04 02 17 ESF - Convergence 4,917,020,000 151,387,168 5,068,407,168 5,068,407,168 100.00% 17,393,333 17,393,333 5,085,800,501 5,085,800,501 100.00% 04 02 19 ESF - Regional competitiveness and employment 2,357,168,235 218,665,750 2,575,833,985 2,575,833,985 100.00% 0 0 2,575,833,985 2,575,833,985 100.00% 04 02 20 ESF - Operational TA 5,752,675-4,649,727 1,102,948 1,102,948 100.00% 3,222,143 2,080,688 4,325,092 3,183,636 73.61% 13 03 16 ERDF - Convergence 18,115,473,754 802,727,019 18,918,200,773 18,918,200,773 100.00% 0 0 18,918,200,773 18,918,200,773 100.00% 13 03 17 ERDF - PEACE 22,253,265 0 22,253,265 22,253,265 100.00% 9,642,963 9,642,963 31,896,228 31,896,228 100.00% 13 03 18 ERDF - Regional competitivess and employment 2,845,465,225 792,006,377 3,637,471,602 3,637,471,602 100.00% 0 0 3,637,471,602 3,637,471,602 100.00% 13 03 19 ERDF - European territorial co-operation 774,962,047 230,721,763 1,005,683,810 1,005,683,810 100.00% 0 0 1,005,683,810 1,005,683,810 100.00% 13 03 20 ERDF - Operational TA 5,752,675-2,287,681 3,464,994 3,464,994 100.00% 0 0 3,464,994 3,464,994 100.00% 13 03 31 ERDF - Operational TA Baltic Sea Strategy 167,560-167,560 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 04 02 Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 10,487,806,882 21,535,609 10,509,342,491 10,509,342,491 100.00% 0 0 10,509,342,491 10,509,342,491 100.00% TOTAL 2007-2013 39,531,822,318 2,209,938,718 41,741,761,036 41,741,761,036 100.00% 30,258,440 29,116,984 41,772,019,476 41,770,878,020 100.00% 2014-2020 programming period 04 01 04 01 ESF - Expenditure on adm. management 15,400,000 0 15,400,000 6,695,304 43.48% 7,585,436 6,272,075 22,985,436 12,967,379 56.42% 04 02 60 ESF Less developed regions 1,029,000,000-33,567,479 995,432,521 995,432,521 100.00% 0 0 995,432,521 995,432,521 100.00% 04 02 61 ESF Transition regions 284,757,420-88,820,804 195,936,616 195,936,616 100.00% 0 0 195,936,616 195,936,616 100.00% 04 02 62 ESF More developed regions 583,896,529-218,665,750 365,230,779 365,230,779 100.00% 0 0 365,230,779 365,230,779 100.00% 04 02 63 01 ESF Operational TA 8,629,013-2,900,000 5,729,013 5,727,633 99.98% 0 0 5,729,013 5,727,633 99.98% 04 02 63 02 ESF Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 1,651,885 1,651,885 1,651,885 100.00% 1,651,885 1,651,885 100.00% 04 02 64 Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) 1,026,479,465 8,576,921 1,035,056,386 1,035,056,386 100.00% 0 0 1,035,056,386 1,035,056,386 100.00% 04 01 04 05 FEAD -Expenditure on adm. management 425,000 0 425,000 106,426 25.04% 0 0 425,000 106,426 25.04% 04 06 01 FEAD 362,116,807-316,677,964 45,438,843 45,438,842 100.00% 0 0 45,438,843 45,438,842 100.00% 04 06 02 FEAD - Operational TA 958,779-800,000 158,779 1,500 0.94% 0 0 158,779 1,500 0.94% 05 01 04 04 EAFRD Expenditure on admin management 4,450,000 0 4,450,000 2,291,363 51.49% 1,399,894 1,396,093 5,849,894 3,687,456 63.03% 05 04 60 01 EAFRD - Rural development programmes 2014-2020 5,252,192,422 0 5,252,192,422 5,252,192,422 100.00% 0 0 5,252,192,422 5,252,192,422 100.00% 05 04 60 02 EAFRD - Operational TA 19,770,986-8,835,269 10,935,717 8,785,745 80.34% 933 933 10,936,651 8,786,679 80.34% 05 04 60 03 EAFRD - Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 01 04 01 EMFF - Expenditure on adm. management 3,622,610-207,000 3,415,610 2,518,980 73.75% 995,235 829,464 4,410,845 3,348,443 75.91% 11 06 60 EMFF - sustainable and competitive fisheries 138,235,825-3,748,572 134,487,253 134,487,253 100.00% 0 0 134,487,253 134,487,253 100.00% 11 06 63 01 EMFF - Operational TA 2,697,540-169,272 2,528,268 2,520,765 99.70% 0 0 2,528,268 2,520,765 99.70% 11 06 63 02 EMFF- Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 01 04 01 ERDF - Expenditure on adm. management 11,300,000 0 11,300,000 4,803,502 42.51% 6,278,871 5,671,763 17,578,871 10,475,266 59.59% 13 03 60 ERDF Less developed regions 3,742,700,000-1,293,656,046 2,449,043,954 2,449,043,954 100.00% 0 0 2,449,043,954 2,449,043,954 100.00% 13 03 61 ERDF Transition regions 607,866,009-18,447,177 589,418,832 589,418,832 100.00% 0 0 589,418,832 589,418,832 100.00% 13 03 62 ERDF More developed regions 925,413,678 27,903,516 953,317,194 953,317,194 100.00% 0 0 953,317,194 953,317,194 100.00% 13 03 63 ERDF Outermost and sparsely populated regions 37,296,511-11,868,027 25,428,484 25,428,484 100.00% 0 0 25,428,484 25,428,484 100.00% 13 03 64 01 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) 263,856,034-98,914,692 164,941,342 164,941,342 100.00% 0 0 164,941,342 164,941,342 100.00% 13 03 65 01 ERDF Operational TA 57,526,752-31,424,474 26,102,278 26,102,278 100.00% 0 0 26,102,278 26,102,278 100.00% 13 03 65 02 ERDF-Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 03 66 ERDF Innovative Actions in the field of Sustainable Urban Development 48,418,349 32,427,509 80,845,858 80,845,858 100.00% 0 0 80,845,858 80,845,858 100.00% 13 03 67 ERDF- European strategy for the Baltic Sea region Technical assistance 479,390 1,141,775 1,621,165 1,621,165 100.00% 0 0 1,621,165 1,621,165 100.00% 13 03 68 ERDF- European Union strategy for the Danube region Technical assistance 1,198,474 51,526 1,250,000 1,250,000 100.00% 0 0 1,250,000 1,250,000 100.00% 13 01 04 03 CF - Expenditure on adm. management 4,200,000 0 4,200,000 1,939,702 46.18% 2,185,610 2,051,578 6,385,610 3,991,280 62.50% 13 04 60 Cohesion Fund 1,641,334,101-425,298,301 1,216,035,800 1,216,035,800 100.00% 0 0 1,216,035,800 1,216,035,800 100.00% 13 04 61 01 Cohesion Fund Operational TA 20,134,363-10,129,966 10,004,397 10,004,397 100.00% 0 0 10,004,397 10,004,397 100.00% 13 04 61 02 Cohesion Fund Operational TA managed by the COM at request of a MS 0 400,000 400,000 399,918 99.98% 0 0 400,000 399,918 99.98% TOTAL 2014-2020 16,094,356,057-2,491,977,662 13,602,378,395 13,579,226,845 99.83% 18,445,979 16,221,906 13,620,824,374 13,595,448,751 99.81% Total 55,626,178,375-73,895,135 55,552,283,240 55,529,131,690 99.96% 389,638,999 302,658,457 55,941,922,238 55,831,790,147 99.80%
ANNEX 2: COMMISSION TRANSFERS IN 2015
ANNEX II LIST OF COMMISSION TRANSFERS EXECUTED BY THE SF TEAM OF DG BUDG/A2 IN 2015 P a y m e n t s Not SF Transfer Origin Description Amount Destination Description Amount Request SI2.code Reason of budget line Withdrawn of budget line Reinforced PP Tow ards a common regional identity, reconciliation of nations and economic and VIC CP FROM ERDF PP DANUBE MACRO-REGION 2014-20 13.037708-c1 social cooperation including a Pan-European -122,294 13.036700-c1 Baltic Sea region 122,294 6/03/15 SI2.2051609 2014-2020: TA (2014-20) (13.037708) TO ERDF BALTIC SEA REGION TA 2014-20(13.0367) Expertise and Excellence Platform in the Danube macro-region VIC C4 CP FROM ERDF2000-06 OBJ2(13.0304-C4) TO ERDF2000-13.030400-c4 ERDF Objective 2 (2000 to 2006) -4,429,783 13.030100-C4 ERDF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) 4,429,783 6/03/15 SI2.2051607 06 OBJ1(13.0301-C4) 13.037708 PP Tow ards a common regional identity, reconciliation of nations and economic and social cooperation including a Pan-European Expertise and Excellence Platform in the Danube macro-region -228,255 13.0367 2014-2020: Baltic Sea region TA (2014-20) 228,255 8/04/15 SI2.2056515 VIC CP FROM PILOT PROJECT ERDF2014-2020(13.037708) TO ERDF2014-2020-BALTIC SEA TA(13.0367) 13.037707 PA The definition of governance model for -51,526 13.0368 2014-2020: Danube region TA (2014-20) 51,526 18/05/15 SI2.2061463 VIC CP FROM PA-DANUBE(13.037707) TO TA-DANUBE (13.0368) 04.0220 ESF Operational TA (2007 to 2013) -500,000 04.026302 ESF Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of a Member State 500,000 26/06/15 SI2.2067674 VIC CP FROM ESF-OPERATIONAL TA 2007-2013(04.022000) TO ESF-OPERATIONAL TA REQUESTED BY MS 2014-2020(04.026302) 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) ERDF ETC Contribution from Heading 4 (IPA II) -187,116 13.036402 (2014-20) 187,116 ERDF Less developed regions Investment 13.0360 for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) ERDF Innovative Actions in the field of -27,427,509 13.0366 Sustainable Urban Development (2014-20) 32,427,509 7/07/15 SI2.2069596 need for CP on pm lines 13.036501 ERDF Operational TA (2014-20) -5,000,000 04.026302 ESF Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of a Member State -2,000,000 04.022000 ESF Operational TA (2007 to 2013) 2,000,000 27/07/15 SI2.2073450 VIC CP FROM 2007-13 ESF TA OPERATIONAL(04.022000) TO 2014-20 ESF-TA OPERATIONAL(04.026302) ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) 13.031900.15 (2007-13) -15,000,000 13.031800 ERDF Regional competitiveness and employment (2007-13) 183,000,000 ERDF Transition regions Investment for 13.0361 grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) ERDF More developed regions Investment 13.0362 for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -74,000,000 13.031900.14-26,000,000 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) (2007-13) 30,000,000 30/07/15 SI2.2074073 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF TR(13.0361), ERDF MDR(13.0362), ERDF ETC(13.036401) AND 2007-13 ERDF ETC(13.031900.15) TO 2007-13 ERDF RCE(13.0318) AND 2007-13 ERDF ETC(13.031900.14) 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) -98,000,000 13.031300.10-C4 INTERREG III Community initiative (2000 to 2006) -9,642,963 13.031700-C4 ERDF PEACE (2007-13) 9,642,963 9/09/15 SI2.2078941 VIC C4 CP FROM INTEREG 2000-2006(13.0313) TO ERDF PEACE III (13.0317) 13.050301 CBC IPA Contribution from Subheading 1b -7,975,560 13.056301 Cross-border cooperation (CBC) Contribution from Heading 1b (2014-20) 7,975,560 9/09/15 SI2.2078942 VICCP FROM IPA -CBC H1B CONTRIB 2007-13(13.050301) TO IPA- CBC H1B CONTRIB 2014-20(13.056301) 13.0402 Cohesion Fund (2007 to 2013) -500,000,000 13.0318 ERDF Regional competitiveness and employment (2007-13) 370,000,000 13.031900.14 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) (2007-13) 117,308,447 21/09/15 SI2.2080395 VFO CP FROM 2007-13 CF(13.0402) TO 2007-13 ERDF- RCE(13.0318), ERDF-ETC(13.031900.14 AND 13.031900.15) 13.031900.15 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) (2007-13) 12,691,553 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) -812,884 13.036402 ERDF ETC Contribution from Heading 4 (IPA II) (2014-20) 812,884 21/09/15 SI2.2080446 VIC CP FROM ERDF ETC (13.036401) TO ERDF ETC CONTRIB FROM H4(13.036402) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -109,457,000 13.0361 13.0362 ERDF Transition regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) ERDF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) 55,553,000 53,904,000 28/09/15 SI2.2082400 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF-LDR(13.0360) TO 2014-20 ERDF- TR(13.0361) AND 2014-20 ERDF-MDR(13.0362) 13.050301 CBC IPA Contribution from Subheading 1b -8,523,342 13.056301 Cross-border cooperation (CBC) Contribution from Heading 1b (2014-20) 8,523,342 7/10/15 SI2.2084078 VIC CP FROM COMPLETION OF ERDF -PRIOR 2000(13.050301) TO ERDF-CBC (13.056301) Cohesion Fund Operational TA managed by 13.046101-REGIO Cohesion Fund Operational TA (2014-20) -400,000 13.046102-EMPL the Commission at the request of a Member State (2014-20) 400,000 12/10/15 SI2.2084448 VIC CP FROM CF-OPERATIONAL TA(13.046101-REGIO) TO CF- OPRATIONAL TA MANAGED BY COMMISSION(13.046102-EMPL) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -618,601,586 13.031900.14 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) (2007-13) 78,267,576 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF-LDR(13.0360) TO 2007-13 ERDF- 13.031900.15 ERDF European territorial cooperation (ETC) (2007-13) 7,454,187 19/11/15 SI2.2091187 ETC(13.031900.14,13.031900.15) AND 2013-13 ERDF-CONV(13.0316) 13.0316 ERDF Convergence (2007-13) 532,879,823 04.0601 Promoting social cohesion and alleviating the w orst forms of poverty in the Union -22,000,000 04.0264 Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) 22,000,000 3/12/15 SI2.2095077 VFO CP FROM FEAD (04.060100) TO YEI (04.026400) 04.0201-C5 ESF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -17,393,333 04.021700-C5 ESF Convergence (2007 to 2013) 17,393,333 7/12/15 SI2.2096145 VIC CP C5 FROM ESF OBJ1 2000-06(04.0201-C5) TO ESF- CONVERGENCE 2007-13(04.0217-C5) 13.040100.10 Cohesion Fund projects (prior to 2007) -86,507,342 13.040200.10 Cohesion Fund (2007 to 2013) 511,805,643 13.046000 Cohesion Fund Investment for grow th and -425,298,301 jobs goal (2014-20) 14/12/15 SI2.2097573 VIC CP FROM CF PRIOR 2007 (13.0401.10) AND 2014-20 CF(13.0460) TO 2007-13 CF(13.0402.10) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment -220,597,592 13.0301 ERDF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) 13,870,966 13.0361 ERDF Transition regions Investment for -177 13.0316 ERDF Convergence (2007-13) 109,503,629 13.0362 ERDF More developed regions Investment -484 13.0318 Regional competitiveness and 109,006,377 ERDF ERDF Additional allocation for outermost and 13.0363 sparsely populated regions Investment for -11,868,027 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) 85,308 (2014-20) grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) 14/12/15 SI2.2097572 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF-LDR(13.0360), ERDF-TR(13.0361), ERDF-MDR(13.0362) AND ERDF-OTMSPR(13.0363) TO 2007-13 ERDF-CONVERGENCE(13.0316), 2007-13 ERDF-RCE(13.0318), 2000-06 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0301) AND 2014-20ERDF-ETC(13.036401) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -187,572,359 13.0303 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 187,572,359 14/12/15 SI2.2098160 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF-LDR(13.0360-C1) TO PRIOR 2000 ERDF-OBJ1 (13.0303-C1) 13.0304-c4 ERDF Objective 2 (2000 to 2006) -151,778,952 13.0303-c4 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 130,379,921 VIC CE + CP FROM 2000-06 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0301-C4), ERDF- 13.031300.10-c4 INTERREG III Community initiative (2000 to 2006) -954,313 13.0305-c4 ERDF Objective 2 (prior to 2000) 22,485,540 13.0307-c4 ERDF Community initiatives (prior to 2000) -132,196 14/12/15 SI2.2098150 OBJ2(13.0304-C4), ERDF-ETC(13.031300.10-C4) AND PRIOR 2000 COMMUNITY INITIATIVES(13.0307-C4) TO PRIOR 2000 ERDF- OBJ1(13.0303-C4) ANDERDF-OBJ2(13.0305-C4) 13.030800.11-c5 ERDF TA and innovative measures (2000 to 2006) VIC CE + CP FROM 2000-06 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0301-C5), ERDF- OBJ2(13.0304-C5), URBAN(13.030600.10-C5), ERDF -9,859 13.0303-c5 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 9,859 14/12/15 SI2.2098156 TA+INNOVAT(13.0318.11-C5) AND ERDF-ETC(13.0313.10-C5) TO PRIOR 2000 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0303-C5) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -2,632,785 13.0318 ERDF Regional competitiveness and employment (2007-13) 2,632,785 16/12/15 SI2.2100173 VIC CP FROM 2014-20 ERDF-LDR(13.0360) TO 2007-13 ERDF- RCE(13.0318) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -127,367,215 13.0316 ERDF Convergence (2007-13) 160,343,566 13.036501-EMPL ERDF Operational TA (2014-20) -49,519 13.0367 2014-2020: Baltic Sea region TA (2014-20) 791,226 13.036501-REGIO ERDF Operational TA (2014-20) -25,324,955 13.037715 PA World cities: EU third countries 30,782 cooperation on urban development.036501-reserve ERDF Operational TA (2014-20) -1,050,000 13.037706 PA Enhancing regional and local cooperation through the promotion of Union regional policy -545,758 on a global scale 13.037707 PA The definition of governance model for the European Union Danube Region better -1,287,098 and effective coordination 13.037708 PP Towards a common regional identity, reconciliation of nations and economic and social cooperation -638,003 including a Pan-European Expertise and Excellence Platform in the Danube macro-region PA Supporting Mayotte, or any other 13.037710 territory potentially affected, with the -25,347 16/12/15 SI2.2100660 VIC CP w ithin Chapter 13.03 switchover to outermost-region status PA Towards a common regional identity, reconciliation of nations and 13.037712 economic and social cooperation including a Pan-European Expertise -722,438 and Excellence Platform in the Danube macro-region PP Cohesion Policy and the 13.037713 synergies with the research and development funds: the "stairway to -1,350,000 excellence" PA The actual and desired state of 13.037716 the economic potential in regions -350,000 outside the Greek capital Athens 13.0320 ERDF Operational TA (2007-13) -2,287,681 13.0331 TA and Baltic Sea Region (2007 to 2013) -167,560 13.0402.11 Cohesion Fund (2007 to 2013) -316,398 13.0402.10 Cohesion Fund (2007 to 2013) 10,046,364 Cohesion Fund Operational TA (2014-13.046101 20) -9,279,966 17/12/15 SI2.2100833 VIC CP w ithin Chapter 13.04 Cohesion Fund Operational TA (2014-.046101-RESERVE 20) -450,000 05.046002 Rural Development - Operational TA -2,134,784 05.040501 EAFRD - Rural development programmes 2007-2013 2,134,784 18/12/15 SI2.2101019 VIC CP WITHINCHAPTER05.04 - RURAL DEVELOPMENT 04.0260 ESF Less developed regions Investment for growth and jobs goal -33,567,479 04.0217 ESF Convergence (2007 to 2013) 141,709,204 04.0261 ESF Transition regions Investment for growth and jobs goal -88,820,804 04.0219 ESF Regional competitiveness and employment (2007 to 2013) 218,665,750 ESF More developed regions 04.0262-218,665,750 Investment for growth and jobs goal 04.0264 Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) -13,423,079 18/12/15 SI2.2101096 VIC CP WITHIN CHAPTER 04.02 04.0220 ESF Operational TA (2007 to 2013) -2,149,727 04.026301 ESF Operational TA -2,900,000 ESF Operational TA managed by the 04.026302 Commission at the request of a -848,116 Member State 04.0602 Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived - TA -9,677,964 04.0217 ESF Convergence (2007 to 2013) 9,677,964 18/12/2015 SI2.2101593 VFO <10% - 53 -
ANNEX II LIST OF COMMISSION TRANSFERS EXECUTED BY THE SF TEAM OF DG BUDG/A2 IN 2015 Commitments Origin Description Amount Destination Description Amount Request SI2.code Reason of budget line Withdrawn of budget line Reinforced 13.0362 ERDF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -186,645,082 04.0262 ESF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal 186,645,082 24/04/15 SI2.2058381 VIF CE FROM ERDF INVEST FOR JOBS-MDR(13.0362) TO ESF INVEST FOR JOBS-MDR(04.026200) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -577,658,755 13.0361 ERDF Transition regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) 143,769,308 ERDF More developed regions Investment 13.0362 for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -287,852,008 04.0260 ESF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal 203,483,377 10/09/15 SI2.2078963 VIF REBALANCING OF CE BETWEEN ERDF(LDR, TR, MDR, ETC) AND ESF(LDR, TR, MDR) 13.036401 04.0261 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) ESF Transition regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal -591,085 04.0262-62,734,396 ESF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal 581,583,559 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) -44,281,775 21.030302 CBC ENI Contribution from H1b (Regional Policy) (former lines 19.080201, 19.0803, 44,281,775 13/10/2015 SI2.2084441 VIF CE FROM 2014-20 ERDF ETC-CBC(13.036401) TO CONTRIBUTION FROM H1B TO 2014-20 ENI-CBC(21.030302) 04.0260 ESF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal -5,754,743 04.0262 ESF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal 5,754,743 16/10/2015 SI2.2085157 VIC CE FROM 2014-2020 ESF - LDR (04.0260) TO 2014-2020 ESF MDR(04.0262) 13.0362 ERDF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -200,000 13.036502 ERDF Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of a Member State (2014-20) 200,000 27/10/2015 SI2.2086973 VIC CE 2014CY16M1OP001 tfr TA to Commission on behalf of Cyprus (TFCY) VIF CE C4 FROM 2000-06 ESF OBJ1(04.0201-C4) TO ERDF 04.0201-c4 ESF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -72,553,764 13.0303-c4 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 72,553,764 24/11/2015 SI2.2093023 PRIOR2000 OBJ1(13.0303-C4) VIF CE C4 FROM 2000-06 ESF OBJ1(04.0201-C4) TO PRE2000 04.0201-c4 ESF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -103,864 13.0303-c4 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 103,864 27/11/2015 SI2.2093923 ERDF OBJ1(13.0303-C4) VIF CE C5 FROM 2000-06 ESF OBJ1(04.0201-C5) TO PRE2000 04.0201-C5 ESF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -32,103,545 13.0303-C5 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 32,103,545 27/11/2015 SI2.2093925 ERDF OBJ1(13.0303-C5) 13.0360 ERDF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) -1 13.0361 ERDF Transition regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal (2014-20) 1 02/12/2015 SI2.2094710 VIC CE FROM ERDF-TR (13.0361) TO ERDF-LDR(13.0360) 13.056301 Cross-border cooperation (CBC) Contribution from Heading 1b (2014-20) -1,042,689 13.036401 ERDF European territorial cooperation(etc) (2014-20) 1,042,689 02/12/2015 SI2.2094713 VFO CE FROM CBC CONTRIB FROM HEADING 1B (13.056301) TO ERDF-ETC(13.036401) 13.0301-c4 ERDF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -33,745,836 13.0303-c4 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 187,329,014 13.0304-c4 ERDF Objective 2 (2000 to 2006) -159,195,685 13.0305-c4 ERDF Objective 2 (prior to 2000) 16,341,980 13.0307-c4 ERDF Community initiatives (prior to 2000) -132,196 14/12/2015 SI2.2098150 13.031300.10-c4 INTERREG III Community initiative (2000 to 2006) -10,597,276 VIC CE + CP FROM 2000-06 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0301-C4), ERDF- OBJ2(13.0304-C4), ERDF-ETC(13.031300.10-C4) AND PRIOR 2000 COMMUNITY INITIATIVES(13.0307-C4) TO PRIOR 2000 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0303-C4) AND ERDF-OBJ2(13.0305-C4) 13.0301-c5 ERDF Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) -16,062,811 13.030300-c5 ERDF - Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 25,871,951 13.0304-c5 ERDF Objective 2 (2000 to 2006) -1,681,487 13.030600.10-c5 ERDF - Urban (2000 to 2006) -1,726,821 13.030800.11-c5 ERDF TA and innovative measures (2000 to 2006) -9,859 13.031300.10-c5 INTERREG III Community initiative (2000 to 2006) -6,390,972 14/12/2015 SI2.2098156 VIC CE + CP FROM 2000-06 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0301-C5), ERDF- OBJ2(13.0304-C5), URBAN(13.030600.10-C5), ERDF TA+INNOVAT(13.0318.11-C5) AND ERDF-ETC(13.0313.10-C5) TO PRIOR 2000 ERDF-OBJ1(13.0303-C5) 04.0262 ESF More developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal -11,509,486 04.0260 ESF Less developed regions Investment for grow th and jobs goal 11,509,486 18/12/2015 SI2.2101086 VIC CE FROM ESF-MDR (04.0262) TO ESF-LDR(04.0260)
ANNEX II LIST OF COM M ISSION TRANSFERS EXECUTED BY THE H2 TEAM OF DG BUDG/A2 IN 2015 P a y m e n t s Origin Description Amount Destination Description Amount Request SI2.code Reason of budget line Withdrawn of budget line Reinforced Completion of earlier programmes Objectives 1 Completion EAGGF, Guidance Section 05.040203-51,624.63 05.040201 924,070.06 17/08/15 SI2.2075689 Need CP - Fund source C4 & 6 (prior to 2000) Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) 05.040204 Completion of earlier programmes in Objective -104,047.80 5b (prior to 2000) 05.040205 Completion of earlier programmes outside -152,212.68 Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 05.040206 Completion of Leader (2000 to 2006) -148,399.78 05.0404 Transitional instrument for RD the EAGGF Guarantee Section for the new MS -467,785.17 Completion of programmes (2004 to 2006) Completion of earlier programmes Objectives 1 Completion EAGGF, Guidance Section 05.040203-105,282.12 05.040201 20,231,218.18 17/08/15 SI2.2075690 Need CP - Fund source C5 & 6 (prior to 2000) Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) 05.040204 Completion of earlier programmes in Objective -1,590,226.47 5b (prior to 2000) 05.040205 Completion of earlier programmes outside -211,102.93 Objective 1 (prior to 2000) 05.040206 Completion of Leader (2000 to 2006) -68,362.45 Completion of earlier Community initiatives (prior 05.040207-158,165.00 to 2000) Transitional instrument for RD the EAGGF 05.0404 Guarantee Section for the new MS -18,098,079.21 Completion of programmes (2004 to 2006) Completion EAGGF, Guidance Section 05.046002 RD 14-20-Operational TA -6,700,484.46 05.040201 6,700,484.46 27/11/15 SI2.2093876 Need for payments for closure programme 00-06 Objective 1 (2000 to 2006) CFP - Compulsory contributions to international 11.066301 EMFF Operational TA -783.00 11.0302 783.00 3/12/15 SI2.2095495 VFO-missing amount for final payment bodies Voluntary contributions to international 11.066301 EMFF Operational TA -146,489.00 11.066203 146,489.00 3/12/15 SI2.2095496 Need for payments organisations Completion EFF Outside convergence (2007 11.066000 EMFF Struct. Policy 14-20 -3,748,572.14 11.0613 2,474,963.14 14/12/15 SI2.2098112 Need for payments to 2013) 11.066204 Governance & communication -1,019,333.00 11.066201 Scientific advice & know ledge 2,325,969.00 11.067709 PP offshore fishing small-scale vessels in -33,027.00 outermost regions 11.0612 Completion EFF Convergence (2007 to 2013) -2,569,516.20 11.0613 Outside convergence (2007 4,197,890.00 Completion EFF 17/12/15 SI2.2100369 Need for payments 11.0661 Integrated Maritime Policy -1,178,437.15 11.066201 Scientific advice & know ledge 217,078.80 11.066202 Control & enforcement -382,875.65 11.067707 PP netw ork of marine protected areas EU 6,338.00 Mediterranean fisheries 11.067706 PA Guardians of the Sea -290,477.80 05.046002 RD 14-20-Operational TA -2,134,784.16 05.040501 Rural development programmes 2,134,784.16 17/12/15 SI2.2101019 Need for payments 11.066301 EMFF Operational TA -22,000.00 11.066201 Scientific advice & know ledge 22,000.00 22/12/15 SI2.2101912 Need for payments - 55 -
ANNEX 3: N+2/N+3 DECOMMITMENTS IN 2015 FUND PROGRAMME COUNTRY TITLE OBJECTIVE (CCI code) CODE AMOUNT ERDF 2007AT162PO005 Kärnten RC&E AT 1,176,650 ERDF 2007AT162PO007 Styria RC&E AT 20,195,655 ERDF 2007BE162PO001 Bruxelles-Capitale RC&E BE 390,462 ERDF 2007BG161PO005 Environment Conv BG 9,824,536 ERDF 2007BG161PO005 Environment Conv BG 9,535,961 ERDF 2007CB163PO015 INTERACT TC CB 847,570 ERDF 2007CB163PO021 Romania Bulgaria TC CB 5,097,812 ERDF 2007CB163PO043 ETC Caraïbes TC CB 2,597,194 ERDF 2007CB163PO060 ETC Greece-Italy TC CB 25,939 ERDF 2007CZ161PO008 OP NUTS II Northwest Conv CZ 54,638,421 ERDF 2007CZ161PO012 Research and Development for Innovation Conv CZ 242,528,153 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO001 Technical assistance Conv CZ 3,467,302 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO001 Technical assistance Conv CZ 6,096,462 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO001 Technical assistance RC&E CZ 67,966 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO001 Technical assistance RC&E CZ 63,578 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO002 Integrated Operational Programme RC&E CZ 617,823 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO002 Integrated Operational Programme RC&E CZ 1,317,298 ERDF 2007CZ16UPO002 Integrated Operational Programme RC&E CZ 370,909 ERDF 2007ES162PO008 Aragón RC&E ES 5,789,877 ERDF 2007FR162PO012 Ile-de-France RC&E FR 758,387 ERDF 2007IT161PO001 Attrattori culturali, naturali e turismo Conv IT 3,163,750 ERDF 2007UK162PO002 South East England RC&E UK 448,745 ERDF Total 369,020,450 ESF 2007BE052PO003 Federal State RC&E BE 935,698 ESF 2007BE052PO004 Région de Bruxelles-Capitale RC&E BE 61,514 ESF 2007CZ052PO001 Prague Adaptability RC&E CZ 276,474 ESF 2007CZ05UPO001 Human Resources and Employment RC&E CZ 1 ESF 2007DE051PO005 ESF Sachsen-Anhalt 2007-2013 Conv DE 23,010,808 ESF 2007ES052PO003 Comunidad Valenciana RC&E ES 4,727,422 ESF 2007ES052PO003 Comunidad Valenciana RC&E ES 11,730,237 ESF 2007ES052PO003 Comunidad Valenciana RC&E ES 2,460,191 ESF 2007ES052PO004 Aragon RC&E ES 2,283,395 ESF 2007ES052PO005 Baleares RC&E ES 1,736,642 ESF 2007ES052PO005 Baleares RC&E ES 4,883,857 ESF 2007ES052PO007 Cataluna RC&E ES 34,350,509 ESF 2007ES052PO008 Madrid RC&E ES 22,959,315 ESF 2007ES052PO011 La Rioja RC&E ES 546,231 ESF 2007ES052PO011 La Rioja RC&E ES 1,756,913 ESF 2007HU05UPO002 State Reform RC&E HU 0.04 ESF 2007IT052PO009 Bolzano RC&E IT 1,747,533 ESF 2007IT052PO009 Bolzano RC&E IT 7,659,564 ESF 2007UK05UPO001 England and Gibraltar Conv UK 8,090,585 ESF Total Grand Total 129,216,888 498,237,338-56 -
ANNEX 4: HISTORICAL TREND IN COMMITMENTS AND PAYMENTS Charts 1 and 2 illustrate the evolution of the budget and its execution from 1994 to 2015. As mentioned above, the EAGGF-G and the FIFG are included in the data, while from 2007 until 2013 their successors, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Fisheries Fund, are not. On the other hand, the data now include the Cohesion Fund programmes of the 2007-2013 period, as its regulatory framework and financial management have become the same as for the Structural Funds. As before, the pre-2007 projects funded by the Cohesion Fund are excluded. As regards the 2014-2020 programming period, the data in the charts covers the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESF, ERDF, CF, EAFRD and EMFF) plus the FEAD. Comparisons between pre-2007 years and the years from 2007 onwards should therefore be treated with caution. Since the accession of ten Member States (EU-10) in 2004, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 (EU-2) and Croatia in 2013, the commitments budget for the Structural Funds has increased considerably. Although the medium-term trend for payments also points upwards, the short term evolution is more irregular due to variations in payment execution especially during the start-up phase of new programmes (see also Chart 2 years 2000 until 2003 and 2007-2010). Chart 1: Commitment and payment appropriations entered in the budget from 1994 to 2015 (EUR million, including all transfers during the year but excluding amounts carried over.) 90,000 80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 Commitments Rebudgetisation Payments In 2015 the outturn of commitment appropriations reflects the combined effects of the carryover from 2014 (EUR 10.4 billion) and of the re-programming (EUR 16.2 billion) while the execution of payment appropriations has remained more or less in line with the one observed in 2014 (see Chart 2 below). - 57 -
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Chart 2: Execution of commitments and payments (outturn, including of appropriations carried forward) from 1994 to 2015 (EUR million) 100,000 90,000 80,000 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 Commitments Payments Chart 3 shows the evolution of the overall RAL for the Structural Funds (all periods combined) since 1994 resulting from the evolution of commitments and payments over the years. Following the reduction observed in 2014, the RAL resumed its upward trend as the level of new commitments for the 2014-2020 programmes exceeded significantly that of the payments. Chart 3: Implementation of commitments and payments and outstanding commitments at the end of each year (EUR million) 160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 commitment payment RAL - 58 -
mio EUR Table 1 shows the evolution of the outstanding commitments by programming period. Table 1: Outstanding commitments at the end of 2015* (in EUR million) RAL pre-2000 RAL 2000-2006 RAL 2007-2013 RAL 2014-2020 Total RAL Outstanding commitments at the end of 2014 49 1,866 80,621 27,902 110,439 De-/Re-commitments in 2015** on RAL at the end of 2014 0-526 -499 0-1,025 Payments in 2015 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2014 0-120 -41,764-5,541-47,425 (1) TOTAL outstanding commitments from before 2015 49 1,220 38,358 22,361 61,988 New commitments made in 2015 346 0 0 89,093 89,439 Payments on 2015 commitments -346 0 0-7,881-8,227 (2) TOTAL outstanding commitments from 2015 0 0 0 81,213 81,213 (1)+(2) TOTAL outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 49 1,220 38,358 103,573 143,201 * only operational lines (incl. CF technical assistance for 2007-2013 programmes) ** see Sections 3.4 and 4.2 on de-commitments Chart 4 below gives the evolution of the RAL since 1993 broken down by programming period. It shows that in 2015 the RAL for the new programmes has increased substantially whereas the level of outstanding commitments for the 2007-2013 period was reduced by half. Chart 4: Outstanding commitments by period of origin (in EUR million) 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0 Pre-2000 period 2000-06 period 2007-13 period 2014-20 period - 59 -
ANNEX 5: HISTORIC ANALYSIS OF MEMBER STATES PAYMENT FORECASTS Table 1 gives an overview of the aggregate results of the forecasting exercise since 2001 thus showing the evolution of the forecasting performance over time. Up to 2011 the forecast error was expressed as a percentage of payment execution while from 2012 onwards, following the change in methodology due to the lack of payment appropriations (see Chapter 3.5), the forecast error is expressed as a percentage of claims submitted. Thus, in 2015 the total relative forecast error for the 2007-2013 programmes is 14%. This means that for every EUR 100 of payments claims actually submitted in 2015, the Member States had forecasted they would claim EUR 114. In absolute terms, the error was EUR 5.8 billion. - 60 -
Table 1: Overall forecasting errors from 2001 to 2015 Year Forecast Paid/Claimed** Error % Structural Funds 2000-2006 billion billion billion 2000-2006 programmes EU15 2001 18.0 14.7 3.3 22% 2002 27.8 19.0 8.8 46% 2003 34.2 22.7 11.5 51% 2004 33.1 26.3 6.8 26% 2005 33.9 27.9 6.0 22% 2006 34.5 26.0 8.5 33% 2007 31.4 26.4 5.0 19% 2008 22.9 20.2 2.7 13% 2009 8.8 5.9 2.9 49% 2000-2006 programmes EU10 2004 1.3 1.5-0.3-19% 2005 4.0 1.6 2.4 152% 2006 4.2 3.0 1.2 39% 2007 5.4 4.9 0.5 10% 2008 4.6 3.6 1.0 28% 2009 1.8 0.3 1.5 586% Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 2007-2013 programmes 2008 14.5 11.4 3.0 27% 2009 28.5 25.4 3.1 12% 2010* 38.0 31.9 6.1 19% 2011 47.2 39.3 7.8 20% 2012 58.4 50.6 7.8 15% 2013 65.8 60.8 5.1 8% 2014 61.2 55.2 5.9 11% 2015 46.1 40.3 5.8 14% Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund 2014-2020 2015*** 4.5 1.5 3.0 207% European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 2014-2020 2015 6.5 3.8 2.8 74% * Pre-financing not included in the paid amount. **Following a change in methodology to take into account the context of lack of payment appropriations at year-end, data from 2012 onwards show a comparison between forecast and payment claims submitted by Member States (replacing the former comparison between forecast and payments executed, used for the period 2001-2011). *** This figure doesn`t include FEAD, as the related payment forecasts have been submitted starting from July 2015. - 61 -
ANNEX 6: Economic, Social and territorial cohesion - Final 2014-2020 allocations by Member State (current prices) Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 TOTAL AT 137,153,360 164,964,501 166,049,899 190,581,934 194,395,371 198,285,015 202,252,229 1,253,682,309 BE 302,765,077 329,355,316 314,403,783 342,389,238 349,240,722 356,229,120 363,356,813 2,357,740,069 BG 648,547,579 1,410,339,055 1,132,482,052 1,163,112,564 1,205,463,447 1,248,734,402 1,290,785,217 8,099,464,316 CY 201,996,443 195,713,324 84,851,548 76,746,202 76,412,665 76,163,880 75,421,726 787,305,788 CZ 113,478,014 6,048,454,289 3,303,092,492 3,313,754,743 3,380,058,306 3,447,681,223 3,516,665,489 23,123,184,556 DE 2,490,550,747 2,612,569,659 2,667,601,360 2,800,564,392 2,856,608,769 2,913,772,969 2,972,076,264 19,313,744,160 DK 54,360,116 63,107,263 69,708,216 89,803,289 91,599,951 93,432,526 95,301,678 557,313,039 EE 459,542,063 489,038,952 530,534,319 543,677,861 565,747,399 588,727,506 612,086,779 3,789,354,879 EL 2,204,884,622 2,277,285,268 2,302,525,045 2,327,303,431 2,370,877,914 2,418,314,018 2,466,702,524 16,367,892,822 ES 2,206,243,121 6,298,543,725 3,923,637,422 4,060,995,704 4,136,314,549 4,219,088,947 4,303,512,537 29,148,336,005 FI 183,515,548 193,747,465 202,394,039 222,720,463 224,141,699 228,626,848 233,201,399 1,488,347,461 FR 2,193,368,875 2,314,840,984 2,207,813,734 2,344,511,313 2,390,811,271 2,438,653,593 2,487,449,346 16,377,449,116 HR 1,040,563,037 1,214,305,769 1,281,425,489 1,311,661,380 1,362,175,083 1,417,403,748 1,474,598,455 9,102,132,961 HU 2,860,994,647 3,202,811,717 3,266,117,190 3,296,560,292 3,380,989,762 3,478,918,848 3,588,399,403 23,074,791,859 IE 174,503,829 178,986,406 153,818,533 170,808,309 174,226,231 177,712,457 181,268,185 1,211,323,950 IT 2,091,719,220 7,245,794,274 4,566,321,419 4,757,409,629 4,846,496,471 4,943,481,886 5,042,399,746 33,493,622,645 LT 899,832,095 952,565,622 1,018,058,815 1,041,570,888 1,078,179,897 1,117,747,954 1,157,745,504 7,265,700,775 LU 5,851,433 8,430,695 8,174,897 10,001,674 10,201,787 10,405,898 10,614,083 63,680,467 LV 589,511,831 626,166,498 667,032,363 685,628,244 712,473,131 741,432,887 771,222,786 4,793,467,740 MT 99,254,862 103,988,462 109,661,575 110,405,032 112,563,456 114,815,408 117,112,722 767,801,517 NL 148,669,130 175,633,377 182,847,597 218,627,335 223,001,718 227,463,530 232,014,346 1,408,257,033 PL 9,912,152,288 10,569,887,724 11,460,700,504 11,758,495,728 12,289,673,011 12,826,534,485 13,360,111,389 82,177,555,129 PT 3,012,617,081 3,069,327,955 3,111,037,190 3,145,779,358 3,208,691,021 3,272,894,786 3,338,384,073 22,158,731,464 RO 974,796,605 5,061,059,965 3,436,777,060 3,560,830,435 3,721,233,856 3,881,630,431 4,034,494,163 24,670,822,515 SE 269,231,321 285,546,732 277,116,364 311,320,812 317,095,007 323,439,922 329,911,341 2,113,661,499 SI 426,364,889 443,936,290 463,595,863 466,120,857 475,447,214 484,959,138 494,662,591 3,255,086,842 SK 1,812,585,830 1,926,157,933 2,057,837,993 2,111,410,779 2,206,887,257 2,309,367,462 2,365,724,233 14,789,971,487 UK 553,314,742 2,685,236,661 1,597,027,920 1,700,340,358 1,734,366,594 1,769,072,726 1,804,470,523 11,843,829,524 Interregional 5,737,769 57,031,424 53,202,024 96,667,763 98,601,118 100,573,140 102,584,604 514,397,842 Urban innovative actions 50,028,377 51,028,945 52,049,523 53,090,514 54,152,324 55,235,371 56,340,079 371,925,133 Technical assistance EC 156,087,902 162,681,682 169,405,791 177,506,743 182,932,262 188,499,930 193,830,529 1,230,944,839 Technical assistance: MS to EC 15,500,000 200,000 - - - - - 15,700,000 Total H1b 36,295,722,453 60,418,737,932 50,837,302,019 52,460,397,264 54,031,059,263 55,669,300,054 57,274,700,756 366,987,219,741
ANNEX 7: Sustainable growth: natural resources (except EAGF) - Final 2014-2020 allocation by Member State (current prices) Country 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 TOTAL AT 558.761.196 560.296.802 561.859.192 563.459.286 565.099.390 566.734.919 568.306.212 3.944.516.997 BE 78.342.401 90.017.196 96.926.579 103.118.067 103.147.481 109.035.574 108.956.512 689.543.810 BG 335.499.038 359.354.609 349.607.791 352.947.208 352.794.994 352.439.969 352.139.979 2.454.783.588 CY 18.895.839 29.850.620 24.460.910 24.548.681 24.677.829 24.714.107 24.811.600 171.959.586 CZ 314.349.445 321.551.469 350.313.704 348.937.633 347.565.092 327.804.638 326.260.030 2.336.782.011 DE 1.221.378.847 1.280.436.567 1.437.948.884 1.435.335.152 1.432.916.180 1.430.122.674 1.427.378.022 9.665.516.326 DK 90.287.658 147.652.301 165.586.252 174.529.668 183.476.932 182.926.865 182.699.434 1.127.159.110 EE 103.626.144 131.507.858 125.337.291 137.239.298 140.261.262 142.086.433 144.253.690 924.311.976 EL 605.051.830 711.794.012 759.674.802 758.817.889 758.354.225 757.064.827 756.312.122 5.107.069.707 ES 1.187.488.617 1.506.906.318 1.349.390.609 1.350.922.012 1.353.636.650 1.353.822.755 1.356.842.749 9.459.009.710 FI 345.637.953 347.261.069 348.878.002 350.599.710 352.430.572 354.109.525 355.884.675 2.454.801.506 FR 1.404.875.907 1.798.095.591 1.745.676.685 1.749.482.782 1.753.957.251 1.757.563.326 1.763.172.880 11.972.824.422 HR 332.167.500 352.044.462 317.735.277 318.308.920 319.145.821 319.397.474 320.066.184 2.278.865.638 HU 495.668.727 505.803.186 494.742.618 494.186.454 493.722.622 493.136.579 492.500.600 3.469.760.786 IE 313.148.955 353.781.517 333.827.526 334.020.112 334.393.335 334.413.024 334.609.663 2.338.194.132 IT 1.480.213.402 1.631.599.369 1.566.758.101 1.569.865.164 1.573.848.258 1.577.373.683 1.581.985.349 10.981.643.326 LT 230.392.975 247.912.694 239.318.107 239.481.933 239.712.762 239.787.154 239.914.837 1.676.520.462 LU 14.226.474 14.272.231 14.318.896 14.366.484 14.415.051 14.464.074 14.511.390 100.574.600 LV 157.494.382 170.380.286 172.655.368 175.046.099 177.606.549 179.883.896 182.370.944 1.215.437.524 MT 16.981.683 17.106.197 17.108.495 17.136.180 17.189.231 17.195.250 17.237.284 119.954.320 NL 101.033.866 101.097.068 132.718.976 132.810.162 133.014.958 132.998.133 133.135.441 866.808.604 PL 1.569.517.638 1.322.149.215 1.267.847.591 1.267.649.940 1.267.973.540 1.267.017.534 1.266.620.812 9.228.776.270 PT 577.031.070 686.178.217 633.897.176 635.680.454 637.895.834 639.202.672 641.060.415 4.450.945.838 RO 1.149.848.554 1.194.802.322 1.200.283.285 1.210.520.711 1.209.259.852 1.166.627.836 1.165.075.213 8.296.417.773 SE 257.858.535 291.164.714 266.056.594 266.491.612 267.055.611 267.334.177 267.760.011 1.883.721.254 SI 118.678.072 125.851.486 122.817.696 123.215.972 123.647.164 124.023.494 124.425.033 862.658.917 SK 271.154.575 217.456.918 217.814.374 217.603.806 217.405.898 217.159.377 216.881.896 1.575.476.844 UK 475.531.544 915.523.172 884.920.723 789.183.406 789.818.398 791.103.186 792.476.499 5.438.556.928 Technical assistance EC 34.130.699 34.131.977 34.133.279 34.134.608 34.135.964 34.137.346 34.138.756 238.942.629 Total H2 (except EAGF) 13.859.273.526 15.465.979.443 15.232.614.783 15.189.639.403 15.218.558.706 15.173.680.501 15.191.788.232 105.331.534.594
ANNEX 8: List of adopted programmes and status of designation of authorities at 31 December 2015 by Member State for ESI Funds and FEAD Member State Total number of programmes adopted Number of Designated Authorities Total allocation of adopted programmes (EUR million) Total initial prefinancing paid in 2014 & 2015 (EUR million) AT 5 1 4,941 99 BE 11 2 2,784 72 BG 11 5 9,982 216 CY 5 1 878 29 CZ 11 1 24,003 460 DE 49 15 28,014 543 DK 5 3 1,255 25 EE 4 3 4,467 86 ES 66 20 37,964 1,225 FI 6 2 3,782 76 FR 72 32 27,235 662 GR 21 19 20,663 1,174 HU 10 7 25,108 499 HR 5 1 10,779 228 IE 6 1 3,381 105 IT 76 26 43,338 1,054 LT 4 2 8,463 177 LU 4 2 144 3 LV 4 3 5,675 120 MT 6 1 832 16 NL 8 5 1,727 34 PL 25 5 86,469 1,753 PT 17 3 25,970 679 RO 9 1 31,279 963 SE 14 10 3,655 84 SI 4 1 3,895 79 SK 10 1 15,384 317 UK 18 6 16,421 370 ETC 76 6 9,234 185 TOTAL 562 185 457,724 11,333
ANNEX 9: List of adopted programmes by Member State and by fund H2: EAFRD Member State Total no of OPs Total Allocation by Member State (EUR million) AT 1 3,938 BE 2 648 BG 1 2,367 CY 1 132 CZ 1 2,306 DE 15 9,446 DK 1 919 EE 1 823 ES 19 8,297 FI 2 2,380 FR 30 11,385 GR 1 4,718 HR 1 2,026 HU 1 3,431 IE 1 2,191 IT 23 10,444 LT 1 1,613 LU 1 101 LV 1 1,076 MT 1 97 NL 1 765 PL 1 8,698 PT 3 4,058 RO 1 8,128 SE 1 1,764 SI 1 838 SK 1 1,560 UK 4 5,200 Total H2 EAFRD 118 99,348-65-
H2: EMFF Member State Total no of OPs Total Allocation by Member State (EUR million) AT 1 7 BE 1 42 BG 1 88 CY 1 40 CZ 1 31 DE 1 220 DK 1 208 EE 1 101 ES 1 1,162 FI 1 74 FR 1 588 GR 1 389 HR 1 253 HU 1 39 IE 1 148 IT 1 537 LT 1 63 LU 0 0 LV 1 140 MT 1 23 NL 1 102 PL 1 531 PT 1 392 RO 1 168 SE 1 120 SI 1 25 SK 1 16 UK 1 243 Total H2 EMFF 27 5,749-66-
H1b: FEAD Member State Total no of OPs Total Allocation by Member State (EUR million) AT 1 18 BE 1 74 BG 1 105 CY 1 4 CZ 1 23 DE 1 79 DK 1 4 EE 1 8 ES 1 563 FI 1 23 FR 1 499 GR 1 281 HR 1 37 HU 1 94 IE 1 23 IT 1 671 LT 1 77 LU 1 4 LV 1 41 MT 1 4 NL 1 4 PL 1 473 PT 1 177 RO 1 441 SE 1 8 SI 1 21 SK 1 55 UK 1 4 Total H1b FEAD 28 3,814-67-
H1b: ERDF, CF, ESF, YEI and TC Member State Total no of OPs Total Allocation by Member State (EUR million) AT 2 978 BE 7 2,021 BG 8 7,423 CY 2 702 CZ 8 21,643 DE 32 18,269 DK 2 413 EE 1 3,535 ES 45 27,942 FI 2 1,304 FR 40 14,763 GR 18 15,275 HR 2 8,463 HU 7 21,544 IE 3 1,020 IT 51 31,687 LT 1 6,709 LU 2 40 LV 1 4,418 MT 3 708 NL 5 1,015 PL 22 76,866 PT 12 21,343 RO 6 22,541 SE 11 1,764 SI 1 3,012 SK 7 13,768 UK 12 10,974 Territorial cooperation (TC) 76 9,234 Total H1b (except FEAD) 389 349,375 Total H1b (all Funds) 417 353,189-68-
ANNEX 10: REFERENCES More information about the Structural and Cohesion Funds in general as well as their recent implementation may be found on the EUROPA site at the following addresses: GENERAL INFORMATION ERDF and CF: Regional Policy DG Inforegio: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.cfm ESF and YEI: Employment and Social Affairs DG ESF: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/esf/index_en.htm EAFRD: Agriculture and Rural Development DG: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rural-development-2014-2020/index_en.htm FIFG 2000-2006 and EMFF 2014-2020: Maritime Affairs and Fisheries DG: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/eff/fifg/index_en.htm LEGAL BASES Overview of Regulations for 2014-2020: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/legislation/regulations/ Overview of Regulations for 2007-2013: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/legislation/regulations/2007-2013/ Overview of Regulations for 2000-2006: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/legislation/regulations/2000-2006/ Overview of Regulations for 1994-1999: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/legislation/regulations/1994-1999/ ANNUAL REPORTS The annual Reports on the Structural Funds and on the Cohesion Fund edited by the operational DGs (up to 2011) are published at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information/reports/index_en.cfm -69-
Find out more about the EU financial programming and budget by visiting our website regularly: http://ec.europa.eu/budget If you would like to be informed about any of our publications and get the latest publication news, please subscribe by sending an email to: BUDG-budget-inbox@ec.europa.eu Follow us on: https://www.facebook.com/eubudget https://twitter.com/eu_budget/ Google+: http://goo.gl/wxzrq Designed & Printed by OIB