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EUROPEAN FUNDS IN HALF-TIME

NEW CHALLENGES

Jack Engwegen

Head of the Czech UnitEuropean Commission, Directorate General for

Regional Policy

Prague, 23 June 2011

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EU Funds in the Czech Republic 2007-2013: What has been achieved so

far? (1)• EU Funds make major financial contribution to

the development of national public policies:– Transport: reconstruction of 138 km TEN-T railways

– Environment: 627 km of new or reconstructed waster water pipes and 584 km2 of regenerated sites

– Enterprise: over 8 000 new jobs created

– R&D: share of R&D expenditure on the overall GDP increased from 1.42 % to1.53%

…And for regional development: – 1.3 billion paid so far from ERDF to 9 regional OPs to finance

regional transport, cultural and educational infrastructure

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EU Funds in the Czech Republic 2007-2013: Achievements and challenges (1)

Issue Achievements Challenges

Strategy building and planning

Early launch of the preparation for the future cohesion policy involving partners at national and regional level

Development of the transport strategy with the EC and Jaspers

Draft Competitiveness strategy

National Reform programme agreed

Good progress made on strategy building in a number of regions

Limited strategic vision in most policy areas Ensuring coherency and coordination between

thematic and regional strategies Regional strategies to find the right balance

between regional specificities and EU 2020 Ensuring an operational link with the priorities

of the National Reform Programme Ensuring networking to connect more

advanced regions with lagging regions Creating an academic/public/private

partnership in support of competitiveness and Innovation

Ensuring a stronger involvement of the private sector

Ensuring sufficient attention for the needs of marginalised groups in the society

Stricter concentration of SF on activities with a measurable added value inn terms of agreed objectives

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Issue Achievement Challenge

Overallcoordination / OP management

Creation of evaluation culture Improved monitoring Good practices in financial

management Financial progress in a number

of programmes Open communication structure

between MA and REGIO Monitoring of OP

implementation risks Functioning of partnership in a

number of programmes Improvement in forecasting of

expenditure

Increasing coordination and cooperation between regional and thematic OP (overlaps)

Complex implementation methods in most OP OP modifications should not be driven by

absorption problems only Compliance with public procurement Role and functioning of the audit authority and

delegated audit bodies Balanced representation of partners at MC OP with a complex management structure,

including several IB Independence of MA Medium to long-term sustainability of projects

ERDF co-financed

EU Funds in the Czech Republic 2007-2013: Achievements and challenges (2)

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EU Funds in the Czech Republic 2007-2013: Achievements and challenges (3)

Issue Achievements Challenges

Capacity

building

Developing of expertise and knowledge in the bodies implementing the SF

Quality schemes under TA Guidance on the selection

and remuneration of staff

High fluctuation of staff, vulnerable to political changes

Introduction of a public services code for staff responsible for SF implementation

Extensive outsourcing of tasks parallel to capacity building

Insufficient Administrative Capacity at the level of final beneficiaries

Proper need analysis of human capacity under the different programmes

Strengthen the "learning from the past" process at all levels

Strengthen "learn from each other", exchange of experience within CZ Rep and from other MS

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EU Funds in the Czech Republic 2007-2013: Achievements and challenges (4)

Issue Achievements Challenges

Majorprojects

Better quality of projects thanks to close-co-operation with Jaspers

Development of common CBA methods (rail ,water, R&D)

High unit costs of infrastructure projects Compliance with public procurement rules Added value of financing of already

completed projects Preparation of a pipeline of quality MP for

next programming period Quality control mechanism ex-ante

submission

Publicityissues/TA

More awareness about the EU Funds and EU in general

A number of good practice publicity measures implemented

Risk of financing projects with limited added value

Stricter application of the "sound financial management" principle in the use of TA

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Points for reflection on the future (1)

• Ensuring more complementarities and synergies between OP

• More performing delivery systems• More standardized procedures/templates for

submission of project applications • Risk management to become an integral part of SF

preparation and implementation• More effective role of monitoring committees in the

policy debates, more active involvement of partnership• Ex-ante programme evaluation to include an economic,

environmental and social impact assessment• Strengthen the role of the audit authority and to

ensure a better coordination of audit activities between the different organisations concerned

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• More transparency, political independence and stability of staff working on the Funds/ SF staff code

• Stronger coordination role for the NCA with more authority and responsibility

• Outsourcing of administrative tasks should not oppose the development of administrative capacity

• Creating an environment in terms of legal, administrative and financial structure/rules and procedures that enables an efficient and effective use of SF resources

• Appropriate strategy building as a prerequisite for successful implementation of OP

• Make better use of past experience and strengthen exchange of experience

Points for reflection on the future (2)

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Thank you for your attention !