of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2016

May 2017

Budget

budgetary implementationAnalysis of the

print ISBN 978-92-79-66276-8 ISSN 2529-4318 doi:10.2761/189802 KV-AM-17-001-EN-C

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NB: 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 2016 budget out-turn.

Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2016

May 2017

2

This report covers the programming periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2020.

For the 2007-2013 programming period the implementation report deals with all the funds under Heading 1b "Cohesion policy" of the financial framework: ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund.

For the 2014-2020 programming period, the report deals with the European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds, namely ERDF, CF, ESF (including the YEI specific allocation), EAFRD and EMFF. It also covers the FEAD which is part of Heading 1b but it is not an ESI Fund.

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 Structural Funds during that programming period.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AB Amending Budget

CA Commitment appropriations

CB Cross-border cooperation

CI Community initiative

CEF Connecting Europe Facility

CF Cohesion Fund

CPR Common Provisions Regulation

DAB Draft Amending Budget

EAFRD European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

EAGF European Agricultural Guarantee Fund

EC European Commission

EMFF European Maritime and Fisheries Fund

ENPI European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument

ERDF European Regional Development Fund

ESF European Social Fund

ESIF European Structural and Investment Funds

ETC European Territorial Cooperation

EYT End of the Year Transfer

FEAD Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived

H1B Heading 1b of the Multiannual Financial Framework

H2 Heading 2 of the Multiannual Financial Framework

IIA Inter Institutional Agreement

IM & TA Innovation measures and technical assistance

IPA Instrument for Pre-Accession

LDR Less Developed Region

MCS Management and Control System

MDR More Developed Region

MFF Multiannual Financial Framework

MS Member State

NSRF National Strategic Reference Framework

OP Operational programme

PA Partnership Agreement

PA Payment appropriations

RAL "Reste à Liquider" – Outstanding Commitments

RCE Regional Competitiveness and Employment

SF Structural Funds

TR Transition Region

YEI Youth Employment Initiative

LIST OF COUNTRY CODES

AT Austria

BE Belgium

BG Bulgaria

CY Cyprus

CZ Czech Republic

DE Germany

DK Denmark

EE Estonia

ES Spain

FI Finland

FR France

GR Greece

HR Croatia

HU Hungary

IE Ireland

IT Italy

LT Lithuania

LU Luxemburg

LV Latvia

MT Malta

NL Netherlands

PL Poland

PT Portugal

RO Romania

SE Sweden

SI Slovenia

SK Slovakia

UK United Kingdom

CB Cross-border cooperation

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CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3

LIST OF COUNTRY CODES 3

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES 5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 72016 7

Outlook for 2017 8

SECTION 1: THE LEGAL AND FINANCIAL BACKGROUND 91. The 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework 9

2. The 2016 budgetary procedure 13

SECTION 2: THE 2014-2020 PROGRAMMING PERIOD 161. Budget implementation in 2016 16

2. Reimbursement of additional initial pre-financing paid to Greece in 2015 and 2016 20

3. Reimbursement of additional initial pre-financing paid to Youth Employment Initiative programmes in 2015 21

4. The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived: reimbursement of initial pre-financing 22

5. Evolution of the end-of-year concentration of payments and interim payment applications 23

6. Member States’ payment forecasts for Heading 1B 25

7. Overall implementation for the 2014-2020 programming period 27

SECTION 3: THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD 321. Implementation in 2016 32

2. N+2 and N+3 decommitments 33

3. Overall implementation for the 2007-2013 programming period 35

ANNEXES 39Annex 1: Economic, social and territorial cohesion — final 2014-2020 allocations by Member State (current prices) 40

Annex 2: Sustainable growth: natural resources (except EAGF) — final 2014-2020 allocation by Member State (current prices) 42

Annex 3: Change in Member State allocations following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes (EUR) 44

Annex 4: Historical analysis of the implementation rate of Member States’ payment forecasts 45

Annex 5: Implementation rate of forecasts in 2016 47

Annex 6: N+2/N+3 decommitments for the 2007-2013 programming period 49

Annex 7: Historical trend in commitments and payments 51

Annex 8: References 54

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LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Chart 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments by type of region, Fund and objective (million EUR) 10

Chart 2: Heading 2 2014-2020 commitments by fund (million EUR) 10

Chart 3: Heading 1b envelopes (commitments) following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes in 2016 (million EUR) 12

Chart 4: Monthly pattern of submission of payment applications for the 2014-2020 programmes (million EUR) 24

Chart 5: Monthly pattern of interim payments made for the 2014-2020 programmes (million EUR) 25

Chart 6: Cumulative execution at the end of 2016 by Member State for the 2014-2020 period (compared to allocations) 28

Chart 7: Outstanding commitments by Member State for the 2014-2020 period at the end of 2016 (million EUR) 29

Chart 8: Cumulative execution at the end of 2016 by Member State for the 2007-2013 period (compared to allocations after decommitments) 36

Chart 9: Outstanding commitments by Member State for the 2007-2013 period at the end of 2016 (million EUR) 37

Chart 10: Implementation rate of forecasts by Member State — January submission 47

Chart 11: Implementation rate of forecasts by Member State — July submission 48

Chart 12: Commitment and payment appropriations entered in the budget from 1994 to 2016 — including transfers and amending budgets, excluding carry-over (million EUR) 52

Chart 13: Implementation of commitment and payment appropriations and the evolution of outstanding commitments from 1994 to 2016 (million EUR) 52

Chart 14: Outstanding commitments by period of origin (million EUR) 53

Table 1: Heading 1b modification of commitments following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes in 2016 (million EUR) 12

Table 2: Voted budget for the 2016 financial year (million EUR) 13

Table 3: Payment appropriations available in the 2016 voted budget and after amending budget 4/2016 (million EUR) 14

Table 4: Out-turn of commitment appropriations for the 2014-2020 programming period in 2016 by fund (million EUR) 16

Table 5: Out-turn of payment appropriations for the 2014-2020 programming period in 2016 by fund (million EUR) 17

Table 6: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation in 2016 for the 2014-2020 programming period (million EUR) 19

Table 7: Additional pre-financing received by Greece in 2015 and 2016 (EUR) 20

Table 8: YEI additional pre-financing: amounts paid and recovered by Member State (EUR) 22

Table 9: Evolution of Member State payment forecasts for 2016 (billion EUR) 25

Table 10: Implementation rate in 2016 of forecasts for 2014-2020 programmes — January forecasts (million EUR) 26

Table 11: Outstanding commitments for 2014-2020 at the end of 2016 (million EUR) 29

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Table 12: Adopted operational programmes and status of the designation of authorities at 31 December 2016 30

Table 13: Evolution of unpaid payment applications at year end for 2014-2020 programmes (billion EUR) 31

Table 14: Out-turn of payment appropriations for the 2007-2013 programming period in 2016 by Fund (million EUR) 32

Table 15: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation in 2016 for the 2007-2013 programming period (million EUR) 33

Table 16: N+2/N+3 decommitments for the 2007-2013 programming period as of 31 December 2016 (million EUR) 34

Table 17: N+2/N+3 decommitments by Member State for 2007-2013 programming period as of 31 December 2016 (million EUR) 35

Table 18: Outstanding commitments for 2007-2013 at the end of 2016 (million EUR) 37

Table 19: Evolution of unpaid payment applications at year end for 2007-2013 programmes (billion EUR) 38

Table 20: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 Structural Funds, CF and FEAD — January submission (billion EUR) 45

Table 21: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 Structural Funds, CF and FEAD — July submission (billion EUR) 45

Table 22: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2007-2013 Structural Funds and CF (billion EUR) 45

Table 23: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 EMFF (billion EUR) 46

Table 24: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 EAFRD (billion EUR) 46

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2016

‣ The Commission has achieved the objective established in Elements for a payment plan to bring the EU budget back onto a sustainable track of May 2015 (1) of completely phasing out the ‘abnormal’ backlog of outstanding payment claims for the 2007-2013 cohesion programmes by the end of 2016. At the end of 2016 only a ‘normal’ backlog could be observed for both programming periods.

‣ The 2016 budgetary implementation was characterised by significant under-execution of payment appropriations. Despite a reduction by EUR 7.1 billion in amending budget 4/2016, a further EUR 4.7 billion in payment appropriations remained unused at the end of the year. The level of payment applications submitted by the Member States was significantly lower than their forecasts.

‣ As regards the 2014-2020 programmes, the delays in implementation observed in the previous years continued in 2016. These can be attributed to a number of factors, including significant delays in the designation of national authorities and the additional requirements introduced by the new regulations, which aimed at increasing the quality of programmes but required additional start-up time to be put in place.

‣ The 2007-2013 programmes progressed towards their closure. The total payments made by the end of 2016 represent around 94 % of the cohesion policy envelope.

(1) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/budg/dv/2015_elements_payment_plan_/2015_elements_payment_plan_en.pdf

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Outlook for 2017

‣ By the end of 2017 the 16 Member States concerned by the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes (2) will have to submit to the Commission their revised operational programmes. The Commission is in discussions with the Member States with a view to focusing the additional amounts on the following political priorities: the migration crisis, youth employment and investments in combination with the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

‣ The challenge for the years ahead is to reach cruising speed in the implementation of the European structural and investment programmes. In this context, reliable and accurate Member State forecasts are crucial to ensure the orderly progression of payment appropriations and to further reinforce trust in the timely implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds.

‣ The level of outstanding commitments is expected to rise in 2017, since commitments are higher than payment appropriations in the 2017 budget.

‣ By 31 March 2017 the Commission had received from Member States the information for the closure of the 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes. Closure payments will be made in 2017, following the examination of the closure packages.

(2) Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Netherlands, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom.

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D 9

SECTION 1:THE LEGAL AND FINANCIAL BACKGROUND

1. The 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework

The multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the 2014-2020 programming period was laid down by Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 (3) (the MFF regulation), which allocates EUR 325.1 billion (in 2011 prices) to ‘Economic, social and territorial cohesion’ (Heading 1b of the budget) and EUR 373.2 billion (in 2011 prices) to ‘Sustainable growth: natural resources’ (Heading 2 of the budget). This last figure also includes ‘Market-related expenditure and direct payments’ (EUR 277.8 billion), which is not the subject of this report.

Allocations under Heading 1b for the 2014-2020 programming period

The figure of EUR 325.1 billion allocated by the MFF regulation to Heading 1b has been adjusted as follows.

‣ The amounts in 2011 prices are converted into current prices with a fixed deflator of 2 % per year (4).

‣ In line with the European Council conclusions of June 2013 (5), additional allocations of EUR 200 million for Cyprus were partly added through a mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument in 2014 and 2015.

‣ Adjustments between categories of regions have been made following requests from some Member States (such transfers are permitted up to 3 % of the total appropriations of the reduced category of region (6)).

The following chart shows the H1b breakdown of commitments (EUR 367 billion in current prices) among funds and categories of regions (7).

(3) Later amended by Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2015/623 of 21 April 2015.

(4) In accordance with the MFF regulation, Article 6(2).

(5) Conclusions of European Council of 27 and 28 June 2013; Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument (2014/97/EU).

(6) In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013, Article 93(2).

(7) The ‘More developed’, ‘Transition’ and ‘Less developed’ categories of regions can be financed by both the European Regional Develop-ment Fund and the European Social Fund, while the ‘Outermost and northern sparsely populated’ category is covered by the ERDF only.

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D10

Chart 1: Heading 1b 2014-2020 commitments by type of region, Fund and objective (million EUR)

Less Developed Regions

Transition Regions

More Developed Regions

European Territorial Cooperation

10 108CF

YEI

3 211

FEAD

3 814

TA and Urban innovative action

1 649

Outermost and northern sparsely populated regions

1 555CEF

11 306

TOTAL: 366 991

179 334

63 39056 709

35 912

Allocations under Heading 2 for the 2014-2020 programming period

As from 2014, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) are part of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds).

The total allocation for these two funds amounts to EUR 105 billion in current prices.

The Chart 2 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 the ESI Funds and therefore not covered by this report.

With respect to the initial amounts allocated by the MFF regulation to the funds concerned, the figures presented in the Chart 2 have been converted into current prices with a fixed deflator of 2 % per year. In addition, the original amount for the EAFRD (pillar 2 of the common agricultural policy) of EUR 95 577 million has been increased to EUR 99 582 million to take into account the transfers and flexibility from EAGF (8) (pillar 1 of the common agricultural policy).

(8) Article 7(2) and Article 14 of 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.

Chart 2: Heading 2 2014-2020 commitments by fund (million EUR)

EAGF "Market related expenditure and direct payments"

EAFRD after EAGF trasnfers

EMFF

5 749

308 730

99 582

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D 11

Annual breakdowns of allocations

The annual breakdowns of allocations for the ESI Funds and the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) are laid down by the following legal bases.

‣ Commission Implementing Decision C(2014) 2082, as last amended by Commission Implementing Decision C(2016) 6909, for Heading 1b funds.

‣ Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, as last amended by Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) No 2015/791 and No 2016/142 for the EAFRD.

‣ Commission Implementing Decision C(2014) 3781 for the EMFF.

The annual breakdown by heading is provided in Annex 1 (Heading 1b) and Annex 2 (Heading 2).

Adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes

The MFF regulation establishes that, to take account of the particularly difficult situation of Member States suffering from the crisis, in 2016 the Commission should review all Member States’ total allocations under the ‘Investment for growth and jobs’ goal of the cohesion policy for the years 2017-2020 (9). The methods and results of this adjustment are presented in the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament of 30 June 2016 (COM(2016) 311).

The ceiling for the commitment appropriations of Heading 1b in the years 2017-2020 is increased by EUR 4 642 million (in current prices). The ceiling for payment appropriations has also been modified, with an increase of EUR 1 367 million (in current prices) in the years 2017-2020 (10).

The table below shows the changes in the commitments available for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF). Both the ERDF and the ESF envelopes increase, with a significant growth in the allocation for transition regions (TR) and less-developed regions (LDR) (a rise of some EUR 2 billion each, representing around 5.8 % and 1.1 % of the original allocation respectively), and a smaller one for more-developed regions (MDR) (EUR 0.72 billion, around 1.3 % of the original allocation). The CF envelope is reduced by EUR 107 million (around 0.2 % of the original allocation).

The overall effect at Heading 1b level is an increase by EUR 4 642 million.

(9) MFF regulation, Article 7.

(10) Given that most of the payments related to the increase in commitments are expected to occur post-2020, the increase in the payment ceiling in the years 2017-2020 remains limited.

Table 1: Heading 1b modification of commitments following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes in 2016 (million EUR)

Policy funding for H1b Amount

Less-developed regions 1 956

Transition regions 2 073

More-developed regions 720

Cohesion Fund (excluding CEF) – 107

TOTAL 4 642

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D12

This adjustment mainly benefits the Member States that were more seriously hit by the economic crisis: Spain (which gets an additional EUR 2.1 billion), Italy (EUR 1.6 billion) and Greece (EUR 1 billion). Another eight Member States see a more moderate increase in their allocations (EUR 183.3 million in total), while five see their envelope reduced (by EUR 289.5 million in total) due to a better socioeconomic performance (see the detailed list in Annex 3).

The chart below shows the Heading 1b breakdown of commitments, after taking into account the effects of the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes.

Chart 3: Heading 1b envelopes (commitments) following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes in 2016 (million EUR)

Less Developed Regions

Transition Regions

More Developed Regions

European Territorial Cooperation

10 108CF

YEI

3 211

FEAD

3 814

TA and Urban innovative action

0

Outermost and northern sparsely populated regions

1 555CEF

11 306

TOTAL: 366 991

181 290

63 28357 429

37 984

Pursuant to the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes, the 16 Member States affected, after having decided how to distribute the financial impact of the change among their operational programmes and priorities, shall submit to the Commission revised versions of the operational programmes concerned (11). After the receipt of the amended programme, the Commission has 1 month to assess it and make observations, with a view to focusing the additional amounts on the political priorities identified in the technical adjustment communication: measures to help tackle the migration crisis and youth unemployment, and on investments through financial instruments and a combination with the European Fund for Strategic Investments, taking into account the needs and relevance of those priorities for each Member State. When an agreement on the allocation of the resources is reached, the amended programme is adopted, and the additional appropriations can be committed.

(11) In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, Article 30.

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D 13

2. The 2016 budgetary procedure

For the 2014-2020 programming period, the adopted budget for 2016 for the ESI Funds followed the financial programming for commitment appropriations, while for payment appropriations it provided EUR 26.8 billion and EUR 8.9 billion for Heading 1b and Heading 2 funds respectively. The payment appropriations were intended to cover the final tranche of the initial pre-financing, the first instalment of the annual pre-financing and a significant level of interim payments.

For the 2007-2013 programming period, the budget for cohesion policy was EUR 21.5 billion in payment appropriations, to settle interim payments on the outstanding commitments. No commitment appropriations were included in the budget, as this programming period ended in 2013.

Table 2: Voted budget for the 2016 financial year (million EUR) (*)

Fund Commitment appropriations Payment appropriations

ERDF 26 999 14 591

ESF 12 048 6 549

CF 8 769 4 103

YEI 0 1 050

FEAD 536 461

EAFRD 18 676 8 511

EMFF 813 343

TOTAL 2014-2020 67 841 35 608

ERDF 0 14 463

ESF 0 4 581

CF 0 2 468

TOTAL 2007-2013 0 21 513

(*) Figures include operational lines and technical assistance.

In March 2016 the Commission detected a risk of under-implementation of cohesion policy payment appropriations, which was communicated to the budgetary authority in the ‘Active monitoring and forecast of budget implementation — 2015 information note’. Following the confirmation of this expectation by the reduced Member State forecasts submitted by 31 July 2016, the Commission proposed amending budget 4/2016, which decreased the level of payment appropriations for the ESI Funds by EUR 7.1 billion.

S E C T I O N 1 : L E G A L A N D F I N A N C I A L B A C K G R O U N D14

Table 3: Payment appropriations available in the 2016 voted budget and after amending budget 4/2016 (million EUR) (*)

Fund Voted budget AB4/2016 Budget after AB4/2016

ERDF 14 591 – 2 715 11 876

ESF 6 549 – 1 200 5 349

CF 4 103 0 4 103

YEI 1 050 0 1 050

FEAD 461 0 461

EAFRD 8 511 0 8 511

EMFF 343 – 118 225

TOTAL 2014-2020 35 608 – 4 033 31 575

ERDF 14 463 – 2 396 12 067

ESF 4 581 – 645 3 936

CF 2 468 0 2 468

TOTAL 2007-2013 21 513 – 3 041 18 472

(*) Figures include operational lines and technical assistance.

In addition to amending budget 4/2016, a number of transfers were aimed at meeting the payment needs of different policy areas, in particular the global transfer adopted on 9 November 2016 and the end-of-year transfer. In this last case, the reinforcement carried out was focused on covering the outstanding needs for the closure of EAFRD 2007-2013 programmes, while the 2014-2020 ESI Fund programmes were not reinforced.

As for the 2014-2020 programming period, the funds with the most significant reductions of payment appropriations via transfers were the ERDF and the EAFRD, while the CF was reinforced (12).

‣ ERDF LDR (line 13 03 60) was reduced by EUR 293 million, mainly in favour of 2007-2013 ERDF convergence, Structural Reform Support Service and CF.

‣ ERDF MDR (line 13 03 62) was reduced by EUR 252 million, mainly in favour of 2007-2013 ERDF regional competitiveness and employment (RCE) and CF.

‣ EAFRD (line 05 04 60 01) was reduced by EUR 677 million, mainly in favour of 2007-2013 EAFRD.

‣ CF (line 13 04 60) was reinforced by EUR 124 million from 2014-2020 ERDF (MDR, TR, LDR).

(12) For details on all 2014-2020 ESI Fund budget lines, please refer to Table 6.

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As for the 2007-2013 programming period, the funds with the most significant reinforcement were CF and ERDF regional competitiveness and employment, while ERDF convergence was reduced (13).

‣ CF (line 13 04 02) received EUR 671 million, mainly from 2007-2013 ERDF convergence and 2014-2020 ERDF (MDR, TR, LDR).

‣ ERDF RCE (line 13 03 18) received EUR 173 million, mainly from 2014-2020 ERDF MDR.

‣ ERDF convergence (line 13 03 16) was reduced by an overall amount of EUR 809 million, mainly in favour of 2007-2013 CF.

As regards commitment appropriations, for 2014-2020 budget lines, territorial cooperation benefited from the transfer of EUR 11.8 million from cross-border cooperation, while the EAFRD received EUR 1 million from the EAGF.

For the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), the 2014-2020 initial envelope (commitment appropriations) had been fully front-loaded in 2014 and 2015. However, in 2016 EUR 420.1 million of commitment and payment appropriations were generated as assigned revenue, corresponding to the part of additional initial pre-financing paid to YEI programmes in 2015 but recovered 1 year later (14).

(13) For details on all 2007-2013 cohesion policy budget lines, please refer to Table 15.

(14) For further details, see Chapter 3 in Section 2.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D16

SECTION 2:THE 2014-2020 PROGRAMMING PERIOD

1. Budget implementation in 2016

Implementation of commitment appropriations

Table 4: Out-turn of commitment appropriations (*) for the 2014-2020 programming period in 2016 by fund (million EUR)

Fund Voted budget

Transfers, amending budgets, additional appropriations

Total commitment appropriations

Out-turn %

ERDF 26 999 12 27 011 27 004 100.0 %

ESF 12 048 0 12 048 12 041 99.9 %

CF 8 769 0 8 769 8 763 99.9 %

YEI 0 420 420 420 100.0 %

FEAD 536 0 536 535 99.9 %

EAFRD 18 676 1 18 677 18 675 100.0 %

EMFF 813 0 813 813 99.9 %

TOTAL 2014-2020 67 841 433 68 274 68 251 100.0 %

(*) Figures include operational lines and technical assistance.

In line with Article 19 of the MFF regulation, a reprogramming exercise was carried out in 2015. As a result, the 2015 commitment appropriations increased significantly (15). When neutralising the impact of this reprogramming exercise, the 2016 commitment appropriations increased by 3.2 % compared to 2015, in line with the profile provided for in the MFF 2014-2020. The only 2014 commitments reprogrammed in 2016 were EUR 4.35 billion for the EAFRD.

All available appropriations (EUR 68.3 billion) were committed, except for EUR 0.96 million related to the EAFRD Wales programme and EUR 22.2 million for technical assistance.

The reduction in the Wales programme followed the UK High Court Consent Order of 12 December 2014, the implementation of which resulted in a decrease in the programme

(15) For further information, please refer to the previous version of this report (Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2015), Chapter 1.2.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 17

envelope (16). On the basis of this decision, 2016 commitments have been reduced by EUR 0.96 million.

The under-implementation of technical assistance commitments in 2016 is mainly due to the following reasons.

‣ The late adoption of many operational programmes, resulting in delays or cancellations of certain actions in the field of support for the effective implementation of the programmes, support for policy analysis and development, capacity building and communication.

‣ Lengthy negotiation procedures with international organisations.

‣ Savings made on IT contracts.

Implementation of payment appropriations

Table 5: Out-turn of payment appropriations for the 2014-2020 programming period in 2016 by fund (million EUR)

Fund Voted budget

Transfers, amending budgets, additional appropriations

Total payment appropriations

Out-turn %

ERDF 14 591 – 3 294 11 297 9 448 83.6 %

ESF 6 549 – 1 194 5 355 4 407 82.3 %

CF 4 103 133 4 236 4 220 99.6 %

YEI 1 050 420 1 470 347 23.6 %

FEAD 461 0 462 278 60.3 %

EAFRD 8 511 – 678 7 833 7 827 99.9 %

EMFF 343 – 141 202 195 96.5 %

TOTAL 2014-2020 35 608 – 4 753 30 854 26 721 86.6 %

The payments executed in 2016 amounted to EUR 27 billion, twice the 2015 amount. EUR 12 billion (44 %) was for pre-financing and EUR 15 billion (56 %) was for interim payments.

The ratio between pre-financing and interim payments is a good indicator of the progress of implementation on the ground: where pre-financing is higher, such as for the ERDF, the ESF and the EMFF, the implementation experiences some delays; where interim payments are significantly higher, such as for the EAFRD, implementation progresses faster.

In 2016 the implementation of payment appropriations for the ESI Funds and the FEAD advanced at a slower pace than initially envisaged during the preparation of the budget, and despite the reduction of appropriations via amending budget 4/2016 and transfers, the implementation amounted to 86.6 % of the available resources, leading to a surplus of EUR 4.1 billion at the end of the year.

(16) The overall decrease in the EAFRD Wales programme is EUR 4.2 million, affecting the years 2015-2019. This reduction has been added to the annual net ceilings for direct payments for the United Kingdom.

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For Heading 1b funds the Commission paid out EUR 18.7 billion, 82 % of the available resources. At the end of 2016 there was a ‘normal’ backlog of unpaid claims of less than EUR 1 billion.

As for Heading 2 funds, EAFRD programmes almost completely executed their budget (EUR 7.8 billion), while for the EMFF the implementation was EUR 0.2 billion, 96.5 % of the available resources.

Many factors contributed to the delays observed in budgetary implementation, including the following.

‣ The late adoption of the main legal bases.

‣ The new designation process for managing and certifying authorities, which experienced significant delays at national level. Although the designation of authorities does not prevent implementation of programmes on the ground, it is nonetheless a prerequisite for the submission of interim payment claims for all funds except the EAFRD. At the end of 2016 the designation of 176 managing authorities (31 % of the total) had not yet been notified to the Commission.

‣ The additional requirements introduced by the new regulations (including a common strategy and stronger coordination requirements for the ESI Funds, and the fulfilment of ex ante conditionalities) are aimed at increasing the quality of programmes and projects, but required additional start-up time to be put in place.

‣ The absence of a deadline for automatic decommitments at the end of 2016.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 19

Table 6: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation in 2016 for the 2014-2020 programming period (million EUR)

Budget item

Title Initial budget

Amending budgets

Other additional appropriations (*)

Transfers Total available appropriations

Total execution

04 01 04 01 ESF — Expenditure on administrative management 15 0 6 0 21 11

04 02 60 ESF — Less-developed regions 3 420 – 528 0 – 3 2 889 2 828

04 02 61 ESF — Transition regions 928 – 192 0 0 736 460

04 02 62 ESF — More-developed regions 2 178 – 480 0 1 697 1 097

04 02 63 01 ESF — Operational TA 7 0 0 1 8 8

04 02 63 02ESF — Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of an MS

0 0 0 3 3 3

04 02 64 YEI 1 050 0 420 0 1 470 347

Total ESF 7 599 – 1 200 426 0 6 825 4 75304 01 04 05 FEAD — Non-operational TA 0 0 0 0 1 0

04 06 01 FEAD 460 0 0 0 460 277

04 06 02 FEAD — Operational TA 1 0 0 0 1 1

Total FEAD 461 0 0 0 462 27805 01 04 04 EAFRD — Expenditure on administrative management 4 0 2 0 6 4

05 04 60 01EAFRD — Rural development programmes 2014-2020

8 487 0 0 – 677 7 810 7 810

05 04 60 02 EAFRD — Operational TA 20 0 0 – 3 17 13

05 04 60 03EAFRD — Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of an MS

0 0 0 0 0

Total EAFRD 8 511 0 2 – 680 7 833 7 82711 01 04 01 EMFF — Expenditure on administrative management 4 0 1 – 0 5 4

11 06 60 EMFF — Sustainable and competitive fisheries 335 – 118 0 – 25 192 187

11 06 63 01 EMFF — Operational TA 4 0 0 0 5 4

11 06 63 02EMFF — Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of an MS

0 0 0 0 0 0

Total EMFF 343 – 118 1 – 25 202 19513 01 04 01 ERDF — Expenditure on administrative management 11 0 6 0 18 10

13 03 60 ERDF — Less-developed regions 9 468 – 1 069 0 – 293 8 106 6 489

13 03 61 ERDF — Transition regions 1 860 – 636 0 – 72 1 152 1 042

13 03 62 ERDF — More-developed regions 2 751 – 1 000 0 – 252 1 498 1 405

13 03 63 ERDF — Outermost and sparsely populated regions 108 – 10 0 0 98 85

13 03 64 01 ERDF — European territorial cooperation (ETC) 285 0 0 21 306 301

13 03 65 01 ERDF — Operational TA 57 0 0 9 67 65

13 03 65 02ERDF — Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of an MS

0 0 0 11 11 9

13 03 66ERDF — Innovative actions in the field of sustainable urban development

49 0 0 – 7 42 42

13 03 67ERDF — European strategy for the Baltic Sea region — Technical assistance

1 0 0 – 1 0 0

13 03 68ERDF — European Union strategy for the Danube region — Technical assistance

1 0 0 – 0 1 1

Total ERDF 14 591 – 2 715 6 – 585 11 297 9 44813 01 04 03 CF — Expenditure on administrative management 4 0 2 0 6 4

13 04 60 CF 4 078 0 0 124 4 202 4 191

13 04 61 01 CF — Operational TA 21 0 0 3 24 23

13 04 61 02CF — Operational TA managed by the Commission at the request of an MS

0 0 0 4 4 3

Total CF 4 103 0 2 131 4 236 4 220TOTAL 35 608 – 4 033 438 – 1 158 30 854 26 721

(*) Carry-over (for non-differentiated appropriations), assigned revenue and appropriations made available again.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D20

2. Reimbursement of additional initial pre-financing paid to Greece in 2015 and 2016

Greece has been badly affected by the consequences of the economic and financial crisis, with persistently negative gross domestic product growth rates, serious liquidity shortages and a lack of public funds available for public investment. This exceptional situation has been addressed by the EU with specific measures, including an amendment of the common provisions regulation (CPR) (17).

Greece benefited from an increase in the 2015 and 2016 initial pre-financing tranches, in an amount corresponding to 3.5 % of its main allocation each year (18), for programmes financed by the ERDF (with the exception of the European territorial cooperation goal), the CF, the ESF (with the exception of the YEI) and the EMFF (19). In total, Greece received some EUR 1 billion in additional pre-financing.

Table 7: Additional pre-financing received by Greece in 2015 and 2016 (EUR)

Fund (*) Total main allocation in 2014-2020 programming period

Additional initial pre-financing paid to Greece in 2015 and 2016

ERDF 7 675 287 040 537 270 093

ESF 3 479 605 461 243 572 382

CF 3 052 004 848 213 640 339

EMFF 365 451 239 25 581 587

TOTAL 14 572 348 588 1 020 064 401

(*) ESF and ERDF allocations do not include contributions to YEI and European territorial cooperation.

If the total amount of the additional initial pre-financing paid in 2015 and 2016 to an operational programme was not covered by payment applications by 31 December 2016, Greece shall repay in total the additional pre-financing for that programme (20).

Greece did not meet the target for two programmes.

‣ The EMFF programme (2014GR14MFOP001), for which EUR 25 581 587 in additional pre-financing will be recovered.

‣ The programme for competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation (2014GR16M2OP001), for which EUR 44 381 337 in additional pre-financing will be recovered (this only concerns the ESF component).

Greece has to repay a total amount of EUR 69 962 923. This repayment does not constitute a financial correction and does not reduce the support from the funds for the operational programmes concerned.

(17) Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 of 14 October 2015 amending Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 as regards specific measures for Greece.

(18) The 3.5 % of additional pre-financing is calculated on the main allocation only (performance reserve is excluded).

(19) For further details on the implications of the CPR modification for programming periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2020, please refer to the previous version of this report (Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2015), Chapter 2.1.

(20) In accordance with Article 1 of Regulation (EU) 2015/1839, amending Article 134 of the CPR.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 21

3. Reimbursement of additional initial pre-financing paid to Youth Employment Initiative programmes in 2015

The urgent need to address youth unemployment, combined with the budgetary constraints faced by Member States at the initial stage of the programming period, led to an increase in pre-financing for the operational programmes supported by the YEI (21).

Additional initial pre-financing (EUR 929.8 million) from the specific allocation for the YEI was paid in 2015, on top of the normal initial pre-financing, in order to increase the total initial pre-financing for 2015 to 30 % of the YEI’s specific allocation (EUR 3 211 million).

Article 1(3) of Regulation (EU) 2015/779 states that if by 23 May 2016 a Member State had not submitted interim payment applications for at least 50 % of its additional initial pre-financing, it should reimburse to the Commission the total additional amount received.

Eight Member States (out of 20 supported by the YEI) did not meet the above target, and in 2016 a total amount of EUR 420.1 million (45 % of total additional pre-financing) was recovered. Of these eight Member States, by 23 May 2016 only the Spanish programme had designated its national authorities and submitted a payment application (although for a lower amount than 50 % of the additional pre-financing received); the other seven Member States had not designated their authorities and consequently could not submit any payment application.

These recoveries do not constitute financial corrections and do not reduce the support from the fund. The recovery process was completed in 2016 and generated EUR 420.1 million in assigned revenue in both commitment and payment appropriations. The commitment appropriations have been used to cover 2016 needs, while payment appropriations were fully carried over to 2017.

(21) Regulation (EU) 2015/779 of 20 May 2015 amending Regulation (EU) No 1304/2013, as regards an additional initial pre-financing amount paid to operational programmes supported by the Youth Employment Initiative.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D22

Table 8: YEI additional pre-financing: amounts paid and recovered by Member State (EUR)

Member State Additional initial pre-financing received in 2015 Additional initial pre-financing reimbursed in 2016

BE 12 306 170 0

BG 16 004 736 0

CY 3 298 049 0

CZ 3 943 995 3 943 995

ES 273 613 931 273 613 931

FR 89 946 806 0

GR 48 882 353 0

HR 19 191 372 0

HU 14 431 953 0

IE 19 762 172 19 762 172

IT 164 578 262 0

LT 9 216 964 9 216 964

LV 8 413 085 0

PL 73 206 968 0

PT 46 623 929 0

RO 30 208 380 30 208 380

SE 12 807 298 0

SI 2 671 345 2 671 345

SK 20 930 825 20 930 825

UK 59 768 456 59 768 456

TOTAL 929 807 050 420 116 068

4. The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived: reimbursement of initial pre-financing

The FEAD is part of Heading 1b, but it is not an ESI Fund.

Not being covered by the CPR, the FEAD has its own regime of pre-financing (22), with no annual pre-financing and an initial pre-financing amount corresponding to 11 % of the fund’s overall contribution to the operational programme, paid immediately after the adoption of the OP.

Out of a total of 28 FEAD programmes (one per Member State), 25 were adopted in 2014 and had their pre-financing paid in the same year (for a total amount of EUR 409.5 million). The German, Swedish and UK programmes were adopted in the first part of 2015, and their pre-financing was paid immediately after (EUR 10 million).

According to Article 44(3) of Regulation (EU) No 223/2014, the total amount paid as pre-financing shall be reimbursed to the Commission if no payment application (23) for the

(22) Regulation (EU) No 223/2014 of 11 March 2014 on the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, Article 44.

(23) Unlike the additional pre-financing for the YEI and Greece, in the case of the FEAD the submission of a payment application of any amount is sufficient to fulfil the legal requirement.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 23

operational programme concerned is sent within 24 months of the date on which the pre-financing was paid.

Consequently, the deadlines for the submission of at least one interim application for the 25 programmes adopted in 2014 were in 2016 (24). All programmes met this requirement with the exception of the Irish OP (2014IE05FMOP001), which must reimburse the entire pre-financing amount received (EUR 2 504 295.97) (25).

This recovery does not constitute a financial correction and does not reduce the support from the fund.

5. Evolution of the end-of-year concentration of payments and interim payment applications

While most of the commitments for the operational programmes under the ESI Funds and the FEAD are typically made at the beginning of the year in accordance with the legal basis, payments are spread across the year, with a recurrent concentration in the last 2 months.

The two following charts illustrate the monthly pattern in the submission of interim payment applications by Member States and in the execution of payments by the Commission (26).

Monthly pattern in the submission of interim payment applications

Chart 4 presents the claims as submitted by the Member States, without adjustments to take into account the 10 % retention amount set in Article 130 of the CPR.

There is a clear difference in the pattern of submission of claims for the two headings: while EAFRD programmes have mandatory quarterly declarations (in January, April, July and October), the other funds have no such constraints, and the Member States have no regulatory deadlines for the submission of payment claims.

In 2016, EUR 6.3 billion in claims were submitted for Heading 2, spread over 8 months, with peaks corresponding to the deadline for EAFRD quarterly declarations. The EMFF accounted for a small part of this amount, with only EUR 13.4 million in claims submitted between May and October.

Heading 1b totalled EUR 9.6 billion in claims, with a substantial concentration in November (EUR 1.9 billion, 20 % of the overall claims) and December (EUR 5.1 billion, 53 % of the overall claims). This is in line with the historical trend observed in the 2007-2013 programming period. Although at the end of 2016 there was no N+3 regulatory deadline for automatic decommitments, the submission of claims continued to be concentrated in the last 2 months of the year.

(24) Each OP had a different deadline depending on the day the related pre-financing was paid by the Commission.

(25) Of the remaining three programmes only the Swedish OP had already submitted an interim application in 2016.

(26) The figures in this chapter refer to claims and payments for ERDF, CF, ESF, YEI, FEAD, EMFF and EAFRD operational programmes; they do not include technical assistance.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D24

Chart 4: Monthly pattern of submission of payment applications for the 2014-2020 programmes (million EUR)

0

1 000

2 000

3 000

4 000

5 000

6 000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

H1b claims H2 claims

Monthly pattern in the execution of interim payments

In 2016 the Commission paid the pre-financing in the first part of the year, within the regulatory deadlines (27), and interim payments regularly followed the submission of claims.

The total amount of interim payments made for Heading 1b was EUR 8.1 billion, while for Heading 2 it was EUR 6.8 billion.

For Heading 1b payments were concentrated in the last 2 months of the year, with EUR 1.7 billion (21 % of the total) paid in November and EUR 3.9 billion (48 % of the total) paid in December, in line with the submission of interim claims by Member States. EUR 0.6 billion in payment applications arrived after 28 December, with their payment then postponed to 2017.

For the EAFRD payments were concentrated in the months following the quarterly declaration deadlines.

For the EMFF there was no specific pattern in payments or in the submission of claims.

(27) Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, Article 134.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 25

Chart 5: Monthly pattern of interim payments made for the 2014-2020 programmes (million EUR)

H1b payments H2 payments

0

500

1 000

1 500

2 000

2 500

3 000

3 500

4 000

4 500

5 000

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

6. Member States’ payment forecasts for Heading 1B

Every year, by 31 January and 31 July, Member States must transmit to the Commission a forecast of the payment applications they expect to submit during the current and subsequent financial year, for each operational programme (28).

Table 9 presents the evolution of the payment forecasts related to 2016, starting from the submission of July 2015. In January 2015 forecasts were incomplete due to the late adoption of many operational programmes.

Table 9: Evolution of Member State payment forecasts for 2016 (billion EUR)

Payment forecasts for 2016Submission date

July 2015 January 2016 July 2016

Heading 1b 25.32 21.15 18.41

Member States progressively reduced their expectations on interim claims to be submitted to the Commission in 2016, with a 27 % drop (EUR 6.9 billion) between the July 2015 and July 2016 submissions.

The following table presents the implementation rate for the payment forecasts submitted by 31 January 2016. The implementation rate is the ratio between the actual payment claims submitted by a Member State in 2016 and its forecasts for the same year (29).

(28) Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, Article 112(3) for the Cohesion Fund and the Structural Funds. Payment forecasts on the FEAD are provided on a voluntary basis.

(29) The figures presented in the table are the amounts as submitted by Member States, without any adjustment. The table is related to Heading 1b funds: the ERDF, the CF, the ESF, the YEI and the FEAD.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D26

Table 10: Implementation rate in 2016 of forecasts for 2014-2020 programmes — January forecasts (million EUR)

2014-2020 periodYear 2016

(a) Payment forecasts

(b) Interim claims

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate

AT Austria 11 2 8 21 %

BE Belgium 102 31 71 30 %

BG Bulgaria 449 312 137 69 %

CY Cyprus 67 12 55 18 %

CZ Czech Republic 393 204 189 52 %

DE Germany 1 118 215 903 19 %

DK Denmark 37 3 35 7 %

EE Estonia 367 216 152 59 %

ES Spain 1 419 324 1 095 23 %

FI Finland 99 112 – 13 113 %

FR France 857 170 687 20 %

GR Greece 2 373 1 559 813 66 %

HR Croatia 174 10 165 6 %

HU Hungary 2 790 602 2 188 22 %

IE Ireland - - -

IT Italy 1 749 274 1 475 16 %

LT Lithuania 467 380 87 81 %

LU Luxemburg 3 2 2 53 %

LV Latvia 269 190 79 71 %

MT Malta 25 14 11 57 %

NL Netherlands 38 0 38 0 %

PL Poland 3 633 3 275 358 90 %

PT Portugal 1 748 1 057 691 60 %

RO Romania 800 4 796 1 %

SE Sweden 32 61 – 30 194 %

SI Slovenia 210 50 161 24 %

SK Slovakia 1 224 455 769 37 %

UK United Kingdom 491 88 403 18 %

CB 205 27 177 13 %

TOTAL 21 149 9 647 11 502 46 %

As can be seen from Table 10, the overall implementation rate was 46 %, with the actual claims submitted in 2016 EUR 11.5 billion lower than forecast (30).

The situation varied widely across Member States, though with the common trend of overestimation: only Sweden and Finland had forecasts lower than the payment claims actually submitted in 2016, while the other Member States significantly overestimated their needs (31).

(30) Annex 4 provides historical data on forecast implementation rate over the last years.

(31) Ireland represents a unicum: both its payment forecasts and interim claims in 2016 were zero.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 27

The Member States with the best implementation rates were therefore Sweden (194 %) and Finland (113 %), followed by Poland (90 %) and Lithuania (81 %).

Looking at the accuracy of the forecasts, in relative terms the most reliable Member States were Poland, Finland and Lithuania, while the Member States with the highest gap between forecasts and claims actually submitted were the Netherlands and Romania.

In absolute value, the Member States with the highest levels of overestimation were Hungary, Italy and Spain (EUR 2.2 billion, EUR 1.5 billion and EUR 1.1 billion of overestimation, respectively), while the Member State with the lowest discrepancy between the amounts forecast and claimed was Luxemburg.

The update of payment forecasts, submitted by the Member States by 31 July 2016, involved a reduction of EUR 2.7 billion in the total expected amount, down to EUR 18.4 billion (32). However, even this new estimate proved to be too optimistic, as the overall implementation rate for July forecasts was 52 %, with forecasts EUR 8.8 billion higher than the actual payment applications submitted.

This update was one of the elements used by the Commission in the preparation of amending budget 4/2016, together with the data on the pace of implementation on the ground and the delay in the appointment of the programmes’ managing and certifying authorities.

In its calculation, the Commission took a prudent approach and adjusted the Member States’ forecasts downwards, assuming that programmes for which the national authorities had been appointed in the last quarter of 2016 or in 2017 would not submit any claims in 2016, and applying a 9 % correction rate to the remaining forecasts (33). This figure was then further reduced to take into account the 10 % retention on interim claims (34) and an expected end-of-2016 ‘normal’ backlog of some EUR 1.3 billion.

Despite this considerable reduction in Member States’ forecasts, the interim claims submitted were even lower than expected, leaving some EUR 4 billion in unused payment appropriations at the end of the year.

Annex 5 shows the implementation rates of forecasts as sent in January and July 2016, by Member State.

7. Overall implementation for the 2014-2020 programming period

While the previous chapters are focused on the year 2016, this chapter provides an overview of the implementation of the programmes since the beginning of the programming period and up to 31 December 2016.

(32) In view of the change of methodology in the submission of forecasts, for 2016 only, if a programme did not submit an updated forecast by 31 July 2016 the analysis includes the forecast submitted in January 2016. According to the CPR, and unlike in the 2007-2013 programming period, Member States are now obliged to resubmit their forecasts in July, even if the January figures are still valid.

(33) 9 % was the average error rate observed in the summer submission of payment forecasts in years 2012-2015 for the 2007-2013 programmes.

(34) Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, Article 130(1).

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D28

Chart 6 presents the cumulative execution of Member State allocations (35), broken down by payment type. By the end of 2016 all Member States had received the whole of the initial pre-financing (EUR 16 billion, 3.6 % of the total envelope) and the 2016 tranche of annual pre-financing (EUR 7 billion, 1.4 % of the total envelope). In addition the Commission made interim payments, the level of which depends on the amounts certified by Member States since the beginning of the programming period.

The Member States with the highest absorption rate were Finland, Ireland and Austria, with an overall absorption of 25.2 %, 21.9 % and 19.1 % respectively. The fact that more than two thirds of the payments made were interim payments is an indication that implementation on the ground is also progressing rapidly (36).

On the other hand, 17 Member States and territorial cooperation had an absorption rate lower than 10 %, with pre-financing higher than interim payments for all of them but Denmark.

At EU-28 level the average cumulative absorption rate was 9.2 % of the overall envelope, with interim payments accounting for 4.2 % and pre-financing for 5 % of the total envelope.

Chart 6: Cumulative execution at the end of 2016 by Member State for the 2014-2020 period (compared to allocations)

Cumulative execution advance payments (%) as of end 2016 Cumulative execution interim payments (%) as of end 2016

3.7%

4.7%

3.4%

3.7%

10.5%

4.2%

5.1%

4.5%

4.4%

4.5%

4.6%

4.9%

5.0%

3.7%

4.6%

5.6%

4.5%

4.7%

4.4%

4.1%

5.8%

4.4%

4.5%

4.0%

5.4%

4.6%

4.6%

4.8%

4.5%

5.0%

21.5%

17.2%

15.7%

14.0%

5.3%

10.6%

7.7%

7.4%

7.4%

6.6%

6.0%

4.6%

4.2%

5.1%

4.1%

3.0%

4.0%

3.7%

3.8%

4.0%

2.2%

3.5%

3.0%

3.3%

1.7%

2.3%

1.8%

1.5%

1.6%

0.3%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% FI IE

AT LU EL SE PT UK EE LT LV BE

EU-28 DK PL ES BG SK FR DE CY SI

HU NL RO CZ HR IT

MT CB

(35) Allocation for operational programmes; technical assistance is not included.

(36) Unlike pre-financing, interim payments need to be justified by certified expenditure claimed by the Member State; the Commission can pay only after the receipt of a valid payment application from the Member State.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 29

As the payments made since the beginning of the programming period were limited for the reasons explained previously, the level of outstanding commitments (RAL) has increased over the years, reaching EUR 145.1 billion at the end of 2016, from EUR 103.6 billion at the end of 2015 (40 % growth).

Table 11: Outstanding commitments for 2014-2020 at the end of 2016 (*) (million EUR)

Outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 103 573

De-/Recommitments in 2016 on RAL at the end of 2015 0

Payments in 2016 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 - 25 694

(1) Total outstanding commitments from before 2016 77 879

New commitments made in 2016 (**) 68 006

Payments on 2016 commitments - 824

(2) Total outstanding commitments from 2016 67 181

(1) + (2) Total outstanding commitments at the end of 2016 145 060

(*) Only operational lines.(**) Includes assigned revenue.

The three Member States with the highest RAL were Poland, Italy and Spain (EUR 26.7 billion, EUR 15.6 billion, and EUR 13.3 billion respectively), which are also the three Member States with the largest envelopes.

In relative terms, the Member States with the highest RAL compared to commitments made were Cyprus, Italy and Malta, with 86 % for the former and 85 % for the latter two. The Member States with the lowest ratios were Finland and Ireland, where RAL accounted respectively for 40 % and 50 % of commitments.

Chart 7: Outstanding commitments by Member State for the 2014-2020 period at the end of 2016 (million EUR)

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

5 000

10 000

15 000

20 000

25 000

30 000

26 7

29

15 6

03

13 3

13

10 2

52

9 22

2

9 17

6

8 41

2

8 26

2

7 52

7

5 26

1

5 02

9

4 87

7

3 63

9

3 19

0

2 48

7

1 66

9

1 62

3

1 31

3

1 22

4

1 14

7

1 02

8

887

749

635

616

451

410

293

35

One of the factors explaining the low payment implementation for most of the Member States was the delay in the notification of national authorities.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D30

Except for the EAFRD, where the continuation of existing accredited paying agencies allowed for interim payments to take place as soon as the related programme was adopted (37), for the other ESI Funds and the FEAD the designation of the national authorities is a precondition for the submission of interim claims. By the end of 2016, 176 managing authorities (out of 564) had not yet been notified to the Commission.

Table 12: Adopted operational programmes and status of the designation of authorities at 31 December 2016

Fund Total number of programmes Number of designated authorities

ERDF

315 (*) 217CF

ESF

YEI

FEAD 28 23

ETC 76 21

EAFRD 118 118**

EMFF 27 9

TOTAL 564 388

(*) Due to the high ratio of multifund programmes they are not assigned to an individual fund to avoid double counting.

Another important element is the evolution of the year-end backlog.

The payment claims still pending at the end of the year are usually referred to as the year-end backlog.

A ‘normal’ backlog is composed of interim payment claims submitted too late in December to be paid during the same year. As a general rule these claims are paid at the beginning of the following year. Moreover, the ‘normal’ backlog also includes the claims suspended and interrupted at the end of the year.

Claims that are pending due to a lack of payment appropriations constitute an ‘abnormal’ backlog. Given that there were enough payment appropriations to honour all payment claims, in 2016 there was no ‘abnormal’ backlog.

The backlog for the ESI Funds and the FEAD since the beginning of the 2014-2020 programming period is therefore considered to be a ‘normal’ backlog only.

The following table shows the evolution of the year-end backlog for the 2014-2020 programmes starting with 2015 (38). At the end of 2016 the total backlog amounted to EUR 1 billion, consisting of some EUR 0.3 billion in suspended claims and some EUR 0.6 billion in claims that arrived too late in the year to be paid. This backlog relates to Heading 1b only.

(37) Article 65(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 (the rural development regulation) 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.

(38) Due to the lack of interim payment claims, there was no backlog in 2014.

S E C T I O N 2 : 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 31

Table 13: Evolution of unpaid payment applications at year end for 2014-2020 programmes (billion EUR)

Fund 2015 2016

ESF 0.1 0.3

ERDF 0.4 0.4

CF 0.0 0.2

FEAD - -

Total H1b 0.5 1.0

EMFF - -

EAFRD - -

Total H2 - -

TOTAL 0.5 1.0

This report focuses on budgetary implementation. For more details on the implementation on the ground, please refer to COM(2016) 812 (2016 summary report of the programme annual implementation reports) and to the ESI Funds’ open data platform (https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/), which shows the financial volume of project selection and the forecasts and achievements for common indicator.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D32

SECTION 3:THE 2007-2013 PROGRAMMING PERIOD

1. Implementation in 2016

Table 14: Out-turn of payment appropriations (*) for the 2007-2013 programming period in 2016 by Fund (million EUR)

Fund Voted budget

Transfers, amending budgets, additional appropriations

Total payment appropriations Out-turn %

ERDF 14 463 – 3 051 11 412 11 370 99.6 %

ESF 4 581 – 646 3 935 3 385 86.0 %

CF 2 468 671 3 139 3 139 100.0 %

TOTAL 2007-2013 21 513 – 3 026 18 486 17 894 96.8 %

The payments executed in 2016 amounted to EUR 17.9 billion, i.e. 96.8 % of the available appropriations.

The implementation progressed at a slower pace than initially envisaged during the preparation of the budget. Despite the reduction in payment appropriations via amending budget 4/2016, EUR 0.6 billion remained unused at the end of the year.

Member States submitted fewer payable payment claims than announced in their 2016 forecasts.

One of the reasons for this delay is the absence of N+2/N+3 deadlines for automatic decommitments. It should be noted that Member States can still submit their claims until the end of March 2017.

Another reason is the level of claims suspended and interrupted at end of the year. At the end of 2016 EUR 2.3 billion in claims was not paid for this reason. Part of these amounts will remain suspended until the closure of the related programmes.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 33

Table 15: Payments: available appropriations and their implementation in 2016 for the 2007-2013 programming period (million EUR)

Budget item Title Initial budget Amending

budgetsOther additional appropriations (*) Transfers Total available

appropriationsTotal

execution

04 02 17 ESF — Convergence 3 470 – 645 0 – 1 2 824 2 448

04 02 18 ESF — PEACE p.m. 0 0 p.m.

04 02 19ESF — Regional competitiveness and employment

1 110 0 0 0 1 110 936

04 02 20 ESF — Operational TA 2 0 0 – 0 2 1

Total ESF 4 581 – 645 0 – 1 3 935 3 385

13 03 16 ERDF — Convergence 11 631 – 1 072 0 – 809 9 749 9 710

13 03 17 ERDF — PEACE 20 0 0 – 20 0 0

13 03 18ERDF — Regional competitivess and employment

2 303 – 1 097 0 173 1 379 1 376

13 03 19 ERDF — European territorial cooperation 504 – 227 0 6 283 283

13 03 20 ERDF — Operational TA 5 0 0 – 4 1 1

13 03 31ERDF — Operational TA Baltic Sea strategy

1 0 0 – 1 0 0

Total ERDF 14 463 – 2 396 0 – 655 11 412 11 370

13 04 02 Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 2 468 0 0 671 3 139 3 139

Total CF 2 468 0 0 671 3 139 3 139

TOTAL 21 513 – 3 041 0 14 18 486 17 894

(*) Carry-over (for non-differentiated appropriations), assigned revenue and appropriations made available again.

2. N+2 and N+3 decommitments

For the 2007-2013 programming period, N+2/N+3 decommitments are regulated by Article 93 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 and its modifications (39).

In 2013 Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 was modified in order to grant Romania and Slovakia an additional year to use the commitments made in 2011 and 2012, meaning that these commitments could be used until the end of 2014 and 2015 respectively. Moreover, as stipulated in its Accession Treaty, Croatia benefits from N+3 decommitment rule up to the end of the programming period. As a result, in 2015 the N+3 rule applied only to Romania, Slovakia and Croatia (40).

As at the end of 2015 only three Member States were concerned by the N+3 rule, the decommitments made in 2016 were limited.

The only N+3 automatic decommitment made in 2016 was related to the programme on human resources for Romania (2007RO051PO001) and amounted to EUR 276.1 million, or 7.9 % of the overall EU contribution to the programme.

(39) For further details on the legislation governing the N+2/N+3 de-commitments, please refer to Analysis of the budgetary implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds in 2015, Chapter 3.4.1.

(40) Regulation (EU) No 1297/2013 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.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D34

Looking at the entire programming period, the total amount decommitted under the automatic decommitment rule up to the end of 2016 was EUR 1.6 billion, or 0.5 % of the total commitments for the 2007-2013 period. Fifty-five programmes were affected by the automatic decommitment rule (see detailed list in Annex 6).

As concerns the breakdown by fund, in absolute terms the ERDF was the principal fund affected by decommitments up to 2016: 13 territorial cooperation programmes lost a total amount of EUR 53 million, 13 OPs under the RCE objective lost a total of EUR 79.7 million, eight OPs under the convergence objective lost EUR 634 million and an OP related to RCE and convergence lost EUR 30.2 million. The total cumulative decommitted amount related to the ERDF was thus EUR 796.9 million, approximately 0.4 % of the total commitments for the 2007-2013 period.

The ESF is the fund most affected by decommitments in relative terms. Twenty OPs were concerned by decommitments: 12 OPs in the RCE objective lost EUR 163.7 million, five in the convergence objective lost EUR 320.4 million and another three sharing both objectives lost EUR 140.7 million. The total cumulative decommitted amount related to the ESF was thus EUR 624.8 million, approximately 0.8 % of the total commitments for the 2007-2013 period.

For the CF only two OPs were affected, losing EUR 204.5 million, approximately 0.3 % of the total commitments for the 2007-2013 period.

Table 16: N+2/N+3 decommitments for the 2007-2013 programming period as of 31 December 2016 (million EUR)

De-commitments

Decommitment year 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 TOTAL As % of initial allocation

ESF 7.5 2.5 5.9 203.6 129.2 276.1 624.8 0.8 %

ERDF 2.2 18.7 183.5 223.5 369.0 0.0 796.9 0.4 %

CF 0.0 0.0 30.2 174.2 0.0 0.0 204.5 0.3 %

TOTAL 9.6 21.2 219.6 601.4 498.2 276.1 1 626.2 0.5 %

Twelve Member States were affected by N+2/N+3 decommitments, plus some territorial cooperation programmes. The size of decommitments ranges from EUR 3.7 million for France to EUR 720.8 million for Czech Republic.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 35

Table 17: N+2/N+3 decommitments by Member State for 2007-2013 programming period as of 31 December 2016 (million EUR)

Member State De-commitments

AT Austria 34.3

BE Belgium 4.6

BG Bulgaria 78.6

CZ Czech Republic 720.8

DE Germany 30.6

ES Spain 156.8

FR France 3.7

HU Hungary 28.2

IT Italy 55.3

RO Romania 431.5

SK Slovakia 15.6

UK United Kingdom 13.2

CB 53.0

TOTAL 1 626.2

3. Overall implementation for the 2007-2013 programming period

This chapter gives an overview of the implementation of the 2007-2013 cohesion policy programmes since the beginning of the programing period, and up to 31 December 2016.

Chart 8 presents the cumulative execution of Member States’ allocations (after decommitments), broken down by payment type (41).

The chart highlights that the cohesion policy programmes are approaching their closure. By the end of 2016 all pre-financing had been paid (EUR 30 billion, 8.8 % of the EU-28 envelope), along with EUR 295 billion in interim payments (85.4 % of the envelope). The average cumulative absorption rate at EU-28 level was 94.2 % of the envelope.

For 19 Member States the total amount of pre-financing and interim payments made has reached the 95 % threshold (42), above which no additional interim payments can be made. The remaining 5 % will be paid at the closure of the programmes (43), with the exception of Greece, for which Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 allowed the payment of the entire envelope before the closure.

Nine Member States and territorial cooperation have still not achieved the 95 % threshold.

(41) As concerns Croatia, the chart refers to execution of the H1b envelope assigned upon accession, including the settlement of pre-accession assistance. As Croatia’s accession took place towards the end of the 2007-2013 programming period, special arrangements were put in place for the implementation of EU assistance: the expenditure incurred by Croatian operational programmes is eligible for a contribution from the Structural and Cohesion Funds until 31 December 2016 and the deadline for the submission of closure docu-ments is 31 March 2018.

(42) A 95 % threshold for payments is provided for by Article 79 of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006.

(43) Member States had until 31 March 2017 to submit closure documents.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D36

The Member State with the lowest absorption rate is Croatia. This is explained by the fact that it acceded to the EU on July 2013, in the last year of the 2007-2013 programming period. The absorption of the funds is therefore delayed in comparison to other Member States.

Also, for Malta, Romania, Spain and Italy the gap to reach 95 % is more than 3 % of their national envelope.

Chart 8: Cumulative execution at the end of 2016 by Member State for the 2007-2013 period (compared to allocations after decommitments)

Cumulative execution advance payments (%) as of end 2016 Cumulative execution interim payments (%) as of end 2016

7.5%

7.5%

7.4%

9.6%

9.4%

7.5%

7.5%

7.5%

10.7%

9.2%

7.5%

7.5%

10.8%

9.5%

9.5%

7.7%

7.5%

7.5%

10.6%

8.2%

7.5%

7.5%

9.7%

8.8%

10.8%

7.5%

7.5%

11.2%

9.5%

22.6%

87.5%

87.5%

87.6%

85.4%

85.6%

92.5%

87.5%

87.5%

84.3%

85.8%

87.5%

87.5%

84.2%

85.5%

85.5%

87.3%

87.5%

87.5%

84.4%

86.6%

87.2%

87.1%

84.5%

85.4%

83.2%

83.8%

83.7%

79.2%

79.5%

60.2%

0.2%

0.3%

0.4%

0.8%

0.8%

1.0%

3.7%

3.8%

4.6%

6.0%

12.2%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

5.0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

PT UK FR BG SK EL DK NL LV PL SE FI LT

CY SI

AT LU IE

EE CB BE DE CZ

EU-28 HU

IT ES RO MT HR

Not executed (%) Last 5%

In 2016 the RAL decreased by 47 % (EUR 18 billion), reaching EUR 20 billion at the end of the year. This is in line with the downward trend that started in 2014.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 37

Table 18: Outstanding commitments for 2007-2013 at the end of 2016 (*) (million EUR)

Outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 38 358

De-/Recommitments in 2016 on RAL at the end of 2015 (** – 280

Payments in 2016 on outstanding commitments at the end of 2015 - 17 892

(1) Total outstanding commitments from before 2016 20 187

New commitments made in 2016 0

Payments on 2016 commitments 0

(2) Total outstanding commitments from 2016 0

(1) + (2) Total outstanding commitments at the end of 2016 20 187

(*) Only operational lines (including CF technical assistance).(**) Including transfer of Croatian pre-accession RAL to cohesion policy lines.

The three Member States with the highest RAL were Poland, Spain and Italy (EUR 3.4 billion, EUR 3 billion and EUR 2.4 billion respectively), which are also the three Member States with the largest envelopes.

In relative terms, the Member States with the highest RAL were Croatia, Malta and Romania, for which RAL accounted for 17 %, 11 % and 10 % of the commitments made. The Member States with the lowest ratios were the ones that achieved the 95 % threshold in payments. Greece has no RAL in line with the exception granted by Regulation (EU) 2015/1839 allowing payment of the entire envelope before the closure of the programme.

Chart 9: Outstanding commitments by Member State for the 2007-2013 period at the end of 2016 (million EUR)

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

3 35

9

3 03

2

2 42

9

1 79

5

1 50

0

1 48

3

1 36

9

1 06

9

677

574

494

413

339

330

227

205

170

121

110

92

83

81

80

59

38

31

25

3 0

0

500

1 000

1 500

2 000

2 500

3 000

3 500

4 000

A crucial element in the implementation of 2007-2013 cohesion policy is the year-end backlog.

By the end of 2016 the ‘abnormal’ backlog had been completely phased out, in line with the commitment made in 2015 in Elements for a payment plan to bring the EU budget back onto a sustainable track.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D38

The backlog observed at the end of 2014 reached EUR 24.7 billion. This backlog was fully phased out at the end of 2016, leaving a ‘normal’ backlog of EUR 2.3 billion, composed of suspended and interrupted claims.

Table 19: Evolution of unpaid payment applications at year end for 2007-2013 programmes (billion EUR)

Fund 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

ESF 1.8 3.2 4.1 4.0 5.7 2.1 0.9

ERDF 3.9 6.3 10.1 15.1 15.5 5.2 1.3

CF 0.3 1.3 2.0 4.3 3.5 0.8 0.0

TOTAL H1b 6.1 10.7 16.3 23.4 24.7 8.2 2.3

In 2017 the first significant closure payments will take place.

In order for the Commission to pay the final balance (5 % of the envelope), by 31 March 2017 the Member States shall submit a closure ‘package’ including the following documents (44).

‣ An application for payment of the final balance and a statement of expenditure.

‣ The final implementation report for the operational programme.

‣ A closure declaration assessing the validity of the application for payment of the final balance and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions covered by the final statement of expenditure.

Failure to send any of the above documents will automatically result in the decommitment of the final balance.

The commitments not covered by an acceptable payment application by 31 March 2017 are also automatically decommitted.

Subject to available funding, the Commission will pay the final balance within 45 days from either the date on which it accepts the final report or the date on which it accepts the closure declaration, whichever is later.

(44) Regulation 1083/2006, Article 89.

A N N E X E S 39

ANNEXES

Annex 1: Economic, social and territorial cohesion — final 2014-2020 allocations by Member State (current prices) 40

Annex 2: Sustainable growth: natural resources (except EAGF) — final 2014-2020 allocation by Member State (current prices) 42

Annex 3: Change in Member State allocations following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes (EUR) 44

Annex 4: Historical analysis of the implementation rate of Member States’ payment forecasts 45

Annex 5: Implementation rate of forecasts in 2016 47

Annex 6: N+2/N+3 decommitments for the 2007-2013 programming period 49

Annex 7: Historical trend in commitments and payments 51

Annex 8: References 54

A N N E X E S40

Annex 1: Economic, social and territorial cohesion — final 2014-2020 allocations by Member State (current prices) (*)

Mem

ber S

tate

Tota

l num

ber

of O

Ps (*

*)

Num

ber o

f OPs

w

ith d

esig

nate

d au

thor

ities

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

TOTA

L

AT3

113

7 15

3 36

016

4 96

4 50

116

6 04

9 89

919

0 58

1 93

419

4 39

5 37

119

8 28

5 01

520

2 25

2 22

91

253

682

309

BE8

330

2 76

5 07

732

9 35

5 31

631

4 40

3 78

334

2 38

9 23

834

9 24

0 72

235

6 22

9 12

036

3 35

6 81

32

357

740

069

BG9

964

8 54

7 57

91

410

339

055

1 13

2 48

2 05

21

163

112

564

1 20

5 46

3 44

71

248

734

402

1 29

0 78

5 21

78

099

464

316

CY3

320

1 99

6 44

319

5 71

3 32

484

851

548

76 7

46 2

0276

412

665

76 1

63 8

8075

421

726

787

305

788

CZ9

911

3 47

8 01

46

048

454

289

3 30

3 09

2 49

23

313

754

743

3 38

0 05

8 30

63

447

681

223

3 51

6 66

5 48

923

123

184

556

DE33

92

490

550

747

2 61

2 56

9 65

92

667

601

360

2 80

0 56

4 39

22

856

608

769

2 91

3 77

2 96

92

972

076

264

19 3

13 7

44 1

60

DK3

354

360

116

63 1

07 2

6369

708

216

89 8

03 2

8991

599

951

93 4

32 5

2695

301

678

557

313

039

EE2

245

9 54

2 06

348

9 03

8 95

253

0 53

4 31

954

3 67

7 86

156

5 74

7 39

958

8 72

7 50

661

2 08

6 77

93

789

354

879

EL19

192

204

884

622

2 27

7 28

5 26

82

272

525

045

2 32

7 30

3 43

12

370

877

914

2 41

8 31

4 01

82

466

702

524

16 3

37 8

92 8

22

ES46

462

206

243

121

6 29

8 54

3 72

53

923

637

422

4 06

0 99

5 70

44

136

314

549

4 21

9 08

8 94

74

303

512

537

29 1

48 3

36 0

05

FI4

218

3 51

5 54

819

3 74

7 46

520

2 39

4 03

922

2 72

0 46

322

4 14

1 69

922

8 62

6 84

823

3 20

1 39

91

488

347

461

FR41

292

193

368

875

2 31

4 84

0 98

42

207

813

734

2 34

4 51

1 31

32

390

811

271

2 43

8 65

3 59

32

487

449

346

16 3

77 4

49 1

16

HR3

21

040

563

037

1 21

4 30

5 76

91

281

425

489

1 31

1 66

1 38

01

362

175

083

1 41

7 40

3 74

81

474

598

455

9 10

2 13

2 96

1

HU8

82

860

994

647

3 20

2 81

1 71

73

266

117

190

3 29

6 56

0 29

23

380

989

762

3 47

8 91

8 84

83

588

399

403

23 0

74 7

91 8

59

IE4

017

4 50

3 82

917

8 98

6 40

615

3 81

8 53

317

0 80

8 30

917

4 22

6 23

117

7 71

2 45

718

1 26

8 18

51

211

323

950

IT52

142

091

719

220

7 24

5 79

4 27

44

566

321

419

4 75

7 40

9 62

94

846

496

471

4 94

3 48

1 88

65

042

399

746

33 4

93 6

22 6

45

LT2

289

9 83

2 09

595

2 56

5 62

21

018

058

815

1 04

1 57

0 88

81

078

179

897

1 11

7 74

7 95

41

157

745

504

7 26

5 70

0 77

5

LU3

35

851

433

8 43

0 69

58

174

897

10 0

01 6

7410

201

787

10 4

05 8

9810

614

083

63 6

80 4

67

LV2

258

9 51

1 83

162

6 16

6 49

866

7 03

2 36

368

5 62

8 24

471

2 47

3 13

174

1 43

2 88

777

1 22

2 78

64

793

467

740

MT

44

99 2

54 8

6210

3 98

8 46

210

9 66

1 57

511

0 40

5 03

211

2 56

3 45

611

4 81

5 40

811

7 11

2 72

276

7 80

1 51

7

A N N E X E S 41

Mem

ber S

tate

Tota

l num

ber

of O

Ps (*

*)

Num

ber o

f OPs

w

ith d

esig

nate

d au

thor

ities

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

TOTA

L

NL6

614

8 66

9 13

017

5 63

3 37

718

2 84

7 59

721

8 62

7 33

522

3 00

1 71

822

7 46

3 53

023

2 01

4 34

61

408

257

033

PL23

239

912

152

288

10 5

69 8

87 7

2411

460

700

504

11 7

58 4

95 7

2812

289

673

011

12 8

26 5

34 4

8513

360

111

389

82 1

77 5

55 1

29

PT13

103

012

617

081

3 06

9 32

7 95

53

111

037

190

3 14

5 77

9 35

83

208

691

021

3 27

2 89

4 78

63

338

384

073

22 1

58 7

31 4

64

RO8

197

4 79

6 60

55

061

059

965

3 43

6 77

7 06

03

560

830

435

3 72

1 23

3 85

63

881

630

431

4 03

4 49

4 16

324

670

822

515

SE12

1226

9 23

1 32

128

5 54

6 73

227

7 11

6 36

431

1 32

0 81

231

7 09

5 00

732

3 43

9 92

232

9 91

1 34

12

113

661

499

SI2

142

6 36

4 88

944

3 93

6 29

046

3 59

5 86

346

6 12

0 85

747

5 44

7 21

448

4 95

9 13

849

4 66

2 59

13

255

086

842

SK8

71

812

585

830

1 92

6 15

7 93

32

057

837

993

2 11

1 41

0 77

92

206

887

257

2 30

9 36

7 46

22

365

724

233

14 7

89 9

71 4

87

UK13

1055

3 31

4 74

22

685

236

661

1 59

7 02

7 92

01

700

340

358

1 73

4 36

6 59

41

769

072

726

1 80

4 47

0 52

311

843

829

524

Inte

rregi

onal

40

5 73

7 76

957

031

424

53 2

02 0

2496

667

763

98 6

01 1

1810

0 57

3 14

010

2 58

4 60

451

4 39

7 84

2

Urba

n in

nova

tive

actio

nsN/

AN/

A50

028

377

51 0

28 9

4552

049

523

53 0

90 5

1454

152

324

55 2

35 3

7156

340

079

371

925

133

Tech

nica

l ass

istan

ce

Com

miss

ion

N/A

N/A

123

450

275

122

921

535

130

602

622

164

745

698

182

932

262

188

499

930

193

830

529

1 10

6 98

2 85

1

Tech

nica

l ass

istan

ce:

MS

to C

omm

issio

nN/

AN/

A15

500

000

200

000

30 0

00 0

000

00

045

700

000

TOTA

L H1

b34

724

036

263

084

826

60 3

78 9

77 7

8550

798

498

850

52 4

47 6

36 2

1954

031

059

263

55 6

69 3

00 0

5457

274

700

756

366

863

257

753

(*) 2

014-

2016

am

ount

s ar

e th

e ac

tual

com

mitm

ents

mad

e. 2

017

amou

nts

are

thos

e in

clud

ed in

the

final

EU

bud

get.

2018

-202

0 am

ount

s co

rresp

ond

to th

e m

axim

um fi

nanc

ial a

lloca

tions

env

isag

ed.

(**) E

xcep

t for

inte

rregi

onal

pro

gram

mes

, ETC

ope

ratio

nal p

rogr

amm

es a

re n

ot in

clud

ed a

s th

ey c

anno

t be

assi

gned

to o

ne s

ingl

e M

embe

r Sta

te.

In to

tal t

here

are

76

oper

atio

nal p

rogr

amm

es, o

f w

hich

21

had

thei

r aut

horit

ies

desi

gnat

ed a

t 31

Dec

embe

r 201

6.

A N N E X E S42

Annex 2: Sustainable growth: natural resources (except EAGF) — final 2014-2020 allocation by Member State (current prices) (*)

Mem

ber S

tate

Tota

l num

ber

of O

Ps

Num

ber o

f OPs

w

ith d

esig

nate

d au

thor

ities

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

TOTA

L

AT2

255

8 76

1 19

656

0 29

6 80

256

1 85

9 19

256

3 45

9 28

656

5 09

9 39

056

6 73

4 91

956

8 30

6 21

23

944

516

997

BE3

240

855

562

108

760

616

115

669

998

103

118

067

103

147

481

109

035

574

108

956

512

689

543

810

BG2

10

527

104

128

517

357

310

352

947

208

352

794

994

352

439

969

352

139

979

2 45

4 78

3 58

8

CY2

20

39 2

98 5

4033

908

829

24 5

48 6

8124

677

829

24 7

14 1

0724

811

600

171

959

586

CZ2

10

478

726

192

507

488

426

348

937

633

347

565

092

327

804

638

326

260

030

2 33

6 78

2 01

1

DE15

1466

4 60

1 90

31

558

825

041

1 71

6 33

7 35

41

435

335

152

1 43

2 91

6 18

01

430

122

674

1 42

7 37

8 02

29

665

516

326

DK2

190

287

658

147

652

301

165

586

252

174

529

668

183

476

932

182

926

865

182

699

434

1 12

7 15

9 11

0

EE2

210

3 62

6 14

413

1 50

7 85

812

5 33

7 29

113

7 23

9 29

814

0 26

1 26

214

2 08

6 43

314

4 25

3 69

092

4 31

1 97

6

EL2

10

1 01

4 31

9 92

71

062

200

717

758

817

889

758

354

225

757

064

827

756

312

122

5 10

7 06

9 70

7

ES19

190

2 10

0 65

0 63

11

943

134

913

1 35

0 92

2 01

21

353

636

650

1 35

3 82

2 75

51

356

842

749

9 45

9 00

9 71

0

FI3

334

5 63

7 95

334

7 26

1 06

934

8 87

8 00

235

0 59

9 71

035

2 43

0 57

235

4 10

9 52

535

5 88

4 67

52

454

801

506

FR30

294

353

019

2 49

8 35

7 04

42

445

938

120

1 74

9 48

2 78

21

753

957

251

1 75

7 56

3 32

61

763

172

880

11 9

72 8

24 4

22

HR2

10

518

128

212

483

819

027

318

308

920

319

145

821

319

397

474

320

066

184

2 27

8 86

5 63

8

HU2

10

753

637

550

742

576

981

494

186

454

493

722

622

493

136

579

492

500

600

3 46

9 76

0 78

6

IE2

10

510

355

995

490

402

003

334

020

112

334

393

335

334

413

024

334

609

663

2 33

8 19

4 13

2

IT24

230

2 37

1 70

6 07

32

306

864

799

1 56

9 86

5 16

41

573

848

258

1 57

7 37

3 68

31

581

985

349

10 9

81 6

43 3

26

LT2

123

0 39

2 97

524

7 91

2 69

423

9 31

8 10

723

9 48

1 93

323

9 71

2 76

223

9 78

7 15

423

9 91

4 83

71

676

520

462

LU1

10

21 3

85 4

6821

432

133

14 3

66 4

8414

415

051

14 4

64 0

7414

511

390

100

574

600

LV2

215

7 49

4 38

217

0 38

0 28

617

2 65

5 36

817

5 04

6 09

917

7 60

6 54

917

9 88

3 89

618

2 37

0 94

41

215

437

524

MT

22

3 10

1 54

024

046

269

24 0

48 5

6617

136

180

17 1

89 2

3117

195

250

17 2

37 2

8411

9 95

4 32

0

A N N E X E S 43

Mem

ber S

tate

Tota

l num

ber

of O

Ps

Num

ber o

f OPs

w

ith d

esig

nate

d au

thor

ities

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

TOTA

L

NL2

210

1 03

3 86

610

1 09

7 06

813

2 71

8 97

613

2 81

0 16

213

3 01

4 95

813

2 99

8 13

313

3 13

5 44

186

6 80

8 60

4

PL2

11

569

517

638

1 32

2 14

9 21

51

267

847

591

1 26

7 64

9 94

01

267

973

540

1 26

7 01

7 53

41

266

620

812

9 22

8 77

6 27

0

PT4

357

7 03

1 07

068

6 17

8 21

763

3 89

7 17

663

5 68

0 45

463

7 89

5 83

463

9 20

2 67

264

1 06

0 41

54

450

945

838

RO2

10

1 76

9 72

6 59

91

775

207

562

1 21

0 52

0 71

11

209

259

852

1 16

6 62

7 83

61

165

075

213

8 29

6 41

7 77

3

SE2

20

420

093

982

394

985

861

266

491

612

267

055

611

267

334

177

267

760

011

1 88

3 72

1 25

4

SI2

111

8 67

8 07

212

5 85

1 48

612

2 81

7 69

612

3 21

5 97

212

3 64

7 16

412

4 02

3 49

412

4 42

5 03

386

2 65

8 91

7

SK2

127

1 15

4 57

521

7 45

6 91

821

7 81

4 37

421

7 60

3 80

621

7 40

5 89

821

7 15

9 37

721

6 88

1 89

61

575

476

844

UK5

447

5 53

1 54

491

5 52

3 17

288

4 92

0 72

378

9 18

3 40

678

9 81

8 39

879

1 10

3 18

679

2 47

6 49

95

438

556

928

Tech

nica

l ass

istan

ce

Com

miss

ion

N/A

N/A

21 2

94 0

8624

274

915

32 5

17 0

0836

039

088

41 8

15 9

6441

737

346

41 7

88 9

7323

9 46

7 38

0

TOTA

L H2

(e

xcep

t EAG

F)14

212

45

333

353

183

19 7

12 6

64 2

6819

487

540

355

15 1

91 5

43 8

8315

226

238

706

15 1

81 2

80 5

0115

199

438

449

105

332

059

345

(*) 2

014-

2016

am

ount

s ar

e th

e ac

tual

com

mitm

ents

mad

e. 2

017

amou

nts

are

thos

e in

clud

ed in

the

final

EU

bud

get.

2018

-202

0 am

ount

s co

rresp

ond

to th

e m

axim

um fi

nanc

ial a

lloca

tions

env

isag

ed.

A N N E X E S44

Annex 3: Change in Member State allocations following the adjustment of cohesion policy envelopes (EUR)

Member State Amount added/deducted

BE Belgium 10 960 907

CY Cyprus 36 582 074

CZ Czech Republic – 114 979 627

DK Denmark 6 408 424

EE Estonia – 35 357 621

GR Greece 970 757 458

ES Spain 2 131 774 567

FI Finland 5 782 506

HR Croatia – 49 790 327

IE Ireland 3 647 834

IT Italy 1 645 185 308

NL Netherlands 5 928 950

SE Sweden – 20 496 377

SI Slovenia 56 025 157

SK Slovakia – 68 835 160

UK United Kingdom 58 005 958

TOTAL 4 641 600 031

A N N E X E S 45

Annex 4: Historical analysis of the implementation rate of Member States’ payment forecasts

The tables below give an overview of the aggregate results of the forecasting exercise in recent years.

The forecast implementation rate is determined by a comparison between the actual claims submitted by the Member States during a given year and the payment forecasts for the same year. Please note the following.

‣ No adjustment has been applied, either to interim claims or to payment forecasts. The tables present the amounts as submitted by Member States.

‣ The payment forecasts in the tables are those submitted by the first deadline of the year (in the 2014-2020 programming period, this is 31 January for all the ESI Funds). For Heading 1b funds the tables also provide figures for the payment forecasts submitted by the second deadline (31 July), in view of the significant historical variance experienced between the two submissions.

Table 20: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 Structural Funds, CF and FEAD — January submission (billion EUR)

Year(a)

Forecasts as sent by Member States

(b) Claims sent by Member

States

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate of

forecasts

2015* 4.5 1.5 3.0 33 %

2016 21.1 9.6 11.5 46 %

*This figure doesn`t include FEAD, as the related payment forecasts have been submitted starting from July 2015

Table 21: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 Structural Funds, CF and FEAD — July submission (billion EUR)

Year(a)

Forecasts as sent by Member States

(b) Claims sent by Member

States

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate of

forecasts

2015 3.9 1.5 2.5 37 %

2016 18.4 9.6 8.8 52 %

Table 22: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2007-2013 Structural Funds and CF (billion EUR)

Year(a)

Forecasts as sent by Member States

(b) Claims sent by Member

States

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate of

forecasts

2015 6.5 3.8 2.8 58 %

2016 11.1 6.3 4.8 57 %

A N N E X E S46

Table 23: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 EMFF (billion EUR)

Year(a)

Forecasts as sent by Member States

(b) Claims sent by Member

States

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate of

forecasts

2015 0.0 0.0 0.0 -

2016 0.6 0.0 0.6 2 %

Table 24: Implementation rate of forecasts for the 2014-2020 EAFRD (billion EUR)

Year(a)

Forecasts as sent by Member States

(b) Claims sent by Member

States

(c) = (a) – (b) Difference

(d) = (b)/(a) Implementation rate of

forecasts

2012 58.4 50.6 7.8 87 %

2013 65.8 60.8 5.1 92 %

2014 61.2 55.2 5.9 90 %

2015 46.1 40.3 5.8 87 %

2016 22.8 35.1 – 12.2 154 %

A N N E X E S 47

Annex 5: Implementation rate of forecasts in 2016

Chart 10: Implementation rate of forecasts by Member State — January submission

Implementation rateJanuary submission

80 % 60 % 40 % 20 % 0 %100 %

GR (66 %)

RO (1 %)

SE (194 %)

SI (24 %)

SK (37 %)

UK (18 %)

CB (13 %)

AT (21 %)

BE (30 %)

BG (69 %)

CZ (52 %)

CY (18 %)

DE (19 %)DK (7 %)

EE (59 %)

ES (23 %)

FI (113 %)

FR (20 %)

HU (22 %)

HR (6 %)

IT (16 %)

LT (81 %)

LV (71 %)

MT (57 %)

PT (60 %)

PL (90 %)

LU (53 %)

NL (0 %)

A N N E X E S48

Chart 11: Implementation rate of forecasts by Member State — July submission

AT (8 %)

BE (38 %)

BG (73 %)

CY (24 %)CZ (74 %)

DE (46%)

DK (10 %)

ES (25 %)

FI (87 %)

FR (20 %)

GR (66 %)

HR (7 %)

HU (19 %)EE (82 %)

IT (20 %)

LT (86 %)

LU (61 %)

LV (72 %)MT (69 %)

NL (0 %)

PL (101 %)

PT (60 %)

RO (2 %)

SE (61 %)

SI (37 %)

80 % 60 % 40 % 20 % 0 %100 %

Implementation rateJuly submission

A N N E X E S 49

Annex 6: N+2/N+3 decommitments for the 2007-2013 programming period

FUND PROGRAMME (CCI code)

TITLE OBJECTIVE COUNTRY CODE

AMOUNT

ERDF 2007AT162PO005 Kärnten RCE 2 438 367.00

ERDF 2007AT162PO007 Steiermark RCE 31 866 824.00

ERDF 2007BE162PO001 Bruxelles Capitale RCE 3 643 636.00

ERDF 2007BG161PO002 Technical Assistance CON 1 836 827.00

ERDF 2007BG161PO005 Environment CON 71 045 804.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO015 INTERACT ETC 847 570.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO021 Romania-Bulgaria cross-border cooperation ETC 11 668 404.08

ERDF 2007CB163PO026 Öresund-Kattegatt-Skagerak ETC 1 394 083.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO036 Italy-Slovenia ETC 6 935 156.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO037 Italy-Malta ETC 2 998 685.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO038 Two Seas (FR-Engl-Flanders) ETC 1 780 516.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO040 Channel (FR-UK) ETC 13 053 830.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO041 France-Zwitserland ETC 1 510 330.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO042 Océan Indien ( Réunion) ETC 115 692.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO043 ETC Caraïbes ETC 2 597 194.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO051 Amazonia (France-Brasil-Surinam) ETC 1 846 560.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO060 Greece-Italy ETC 1 130 615.00

ERDF 2007CB163PO069 South East Europe ETC 7 152 784.00

ERDF 2007CZ161PO006 Environment CON 100 415 118.00

ERDF 2007CZ161PO008 OP NUTS II Northwest CON 54 638 421.00

ERDF 2007CZ161PO012 Research and Development for Innovation CON 242 528 153.00

ERDF 2007CZ16UPO001 Technical Assistance RCE/CON 30 154 831.00

ERDF 2007CZ16UPO002 Integrated Operational Programme CZ RCE 3 864 287.00

ERDF 2007DE162PO002 Saarland RCE 6 911 999.00

ERDF 2007DE162PO009 Hamburg RCE 647 820.34

ERDF 2007ES162PO007 Baleares RCE 4 520 527.00

ERDF 2007ES162PO008 Aragón RCE 5 789 877.00

ERDF 2007FR162PO018 Picardie RCE 2 912 475.00

ERDF 2007FR162PO012 Ile-de-France RCE 758 387.00

ERDF 2007HU16UPO001 Electronic Public Administration RCE 11 215 726.00

A N N E X E S50

FUND PROGRAMME (CCI code)

TITLE OBJECTIVE COUNTRY CODE

AMOUNT

ERDF 2007IT161PO001 Attrattori culturali, naturali e turismo CON 38 400 296.00

ERDF 2007RO161PO002 Economic Competitiveness CON 17 576 055.00

ERDF 2007RO161PO003 Transport CON 107 595 668.00

ERDF 2007UK162PO002 South East ERDF RCE 2 550 248.00

ERDF 2007UK162PO010 East Midlands ERDF RCE RCE 2 605 120.00

ERDF total 796 947 885.42

ESF 2007BE052PO003 Federal State RCE 935 698.34

ESF 2007BE052PO004 Région de Bruxelles-Capitale RCE 61 513.99

ESF 2007BG051PO002 Administrative Capacity CON 5 721 801.21

ESF 2007CZ052PO001 Prague Adaptability RCE 276 474.30

ESF 2007CZ05UPO001 Human Resources and Employment RCE 4 351 039.78

ESF 2007CZ05UPO002 Education for Competitiveness RCE/CON 110 337 612.74

ESF 2007DE051PO005 ESF Sachsen-Anhalt 2007-2013 CON 23 010 808.38

ESF 2007ES052PO003 Comunidad Valenciana RCE ES 18 917 849.50

ESF 2007ES052PO004 Aragon RCE 2 283 394.94

ESF 2007ES052PO005 Baleares RCE 13 242 146.35

ESF 2007ES052PO007 Cataluna RCE 65 327 542.18

ESF 2007ES052PO008 Madrid RCE 43 150 417.47

ESF 2007ES052PO011 La Rioja RCE 3 549 386.78

ESF 2007HU05UPO001 Social Renewal RCE/CON 14 774 637.39

ESF 2007HU05UPO002 State Reform RCE 2 208 635.00

ESF 2007IT051PO003 Sicilia CON 7 465 426.77

ESF 2007IT052PO009 Bolzano RCE 9 407 096.71

ESF 2007SK05UPO001 Education RCE/CON 15 572 818.12

ESF 2007RO051PO001 Human Resources CON 276 106 540.88

ESF 2007UK05UPO001 England and Gibraltar CON 8 090 585.33

ESF total 624 791 426.16

CF 2007CZ161PO006 Environment CON 174 245 732.00

CF 2007RO161PO003 Transport CON 30 206 848.00

CF total 204 452 580.00

TOTAL 1 626 191 891.58

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 51

Annex 7: Historical trend in commitments and payments

The three charts in Annex 7 provide an overview of cohesion policy budgetary implementation in recent decades. Therefore, the funds covered vary according to the programming period considered.

As regards the 2000-2006 programming period, the charts include the EAGGF-G and the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). Moreover, the pre-2007 projects funded by the CF are excluded.

During the 2007-2013 programming period the EAFRD and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF) were not Structural Funds and thus they are not included in the charts. The CF followed the same rules as the Structural Funds and it is included.

As regards the 2014-2020 programming period, the charts include all the ESI Funds (ESF, YEI, ERDF, CF, EAFRD and EMFF) and the FEAD.

Comparisons between the pre-2007 years and the years from 2007 onwards should therefore be treated with caution.

Chart 12 illustrates the evolution of the budget and its execution from 1994 to 2016.

Since the accession of 10 Member States in 2004, followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and Croatia in 2013, the budget for commitments has increased considerably. After an exceptional increase in 2015, due to the combined effect of the reprogramming exercise (45) (EUR 16.3 billion) and the carry-over (EUR 10.5 billion), in 2016 commitments were back to the profile designed by the MFF for the programming period 2014-2020.

As regards payment appropriations, although the medium-term trend 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.

(45) In line with Article 19 of the MFF regulation.

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D52

Chart 12: Commitment and payment appropriations (*) entered in the budget from 1994 to 2016 — including transfers and amending budgets, excluding carry-over (million EUR)

Commitments Rebudgetisation Payments

0

10 000

20 000

30 000

40 000

50 000

60 000

70 000

80 000

90 000

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

(*) only operational lines

Chart 13 shows the evolution of the RAL for the Structural Funds (all periods combined) since 1994. Following the reduction observed in 2014 (for a combination of lack of commitments for the 2007-2013 programmes and limited new commitments for the 2014-2020 programmes), the RAL resumed its upward trend as the level of new commitments for the 2014-2020 programmes significantly exceeded that of payments.

Chart 13: Implementation of commitment and payment appropriations and the evolution of outstanding commitments from 1994 to 2016 (million EUR)

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

0

20 000

40 000

60 000

80 000

100 000

120 000

140 000

160 000

180 000

Commitments Payments RAL

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D 53

Chart 14 gives the evolution of the RAL since 1993 broken down by programming period. In 2016 the RAL for the new programmes increased by 40 %, while for the 2007-2013 period they decreased by 47 %.

Chart 14: Outstanding commitments by period of origin (million EUR)

Pre-2000 period 2000-06 period 2007-13 period 2014-20 period

0

20 000

40 000

60 000

80 000

100 000

120 000

140 000

160 000

1993

19

94

1995

19

96

1997

19

98

1999

20

00

2001

20

02

2003

20

04

2005

20

06

2007

20

08

2009

20

10

2011

20

12

2013

20

14

2015

20

16

mio

EUR

S E C T I O N 3 : 2 0 0 7 - 2 0 1 3 P R O G R A M M I N G P E R I O D54

Annex 8: References

This report is also available in PDF format on the website of DG Budget: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/biblio/publications/publications_en.cfm

More information about the Structural and Cohesion Funds in general, along with their recent implementation, can be found on the Europa site at the following addresses.

General information

‣ ESI Fund open data platform: https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/

‣ ERDF and CF: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.cfm

‣ ESF: http://ec.europa.eu/esf/home.jsp?langId=en

‣ YEI: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1176

‣ FEAD: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1089

‣ EAFRD: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rural-development-2014-2020/index_en.htm

‣ EMFF: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/emff_en

‣ ‘EU budget focused on results’ initiative: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/budget4results/index_en.cfm

‣ EU expenditure and revenue 2014-2020: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/figures/interactive/index_en.cfm

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 documents on the 2014-2020 financial framework: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/biblio/documents/fin_fwk1420/fin_fwk1420_en.cfm

Reports

The annual reports on the Structural Funds and on the Cohesion Fund produced by the operational directorates-general are available at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information/reports/index_en.cfm

The 2016 summary report of the programme annual implementation reports is available at the following address: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/reports/2016/european-structural-and-investment-funds-2014-2020-2016-summary-report-of-the-programme-annual-implementation-reports-covering-implementation-in-2014-2015

KV-AM-17-001-EN

-N

ISBN 978-92-79-66275-1doi:10.2761/58021

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