Applications: 222.600 financing application  amounting to PLN 473.6 billion (EUR 113,3 billion).

Contracts: 70.115 co-financing contracts signed with beneficiaries for a total of of PLN 298.3 billion (EUR 71.389.807.482 ), of which PLN 204.9 billion (EUR 49,03 billion) EU co-financing. The latter represents 74,5% of the total allocation for 2007-2013.

The draft agenda of the next meeting of the Committee on Regional Development is now available.

Source: European Parliament

On its meeting of 29 May 2012 the Committee on Regional Development will hold an exchange of views on the latest developments concerning the Legislative Package for Cohesion Policy with Mr Johannes Hahn, Commissioner on Regional Policy and an exchange of views on the state of play of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU with Mr Nicolai Wammen, Minister for European Affairs.

The exchange of views with the Commissioner is scheduled for 11.00-12.30. The exchange of view with Mr. Wammen is scheduled for 17:30-18:30.

Detailed statistics on the implementation of Structural and Cohesion Funds in Lithuania are available on the Lithuanian EU Funds portal (http://www.esparama.lt).

Information on the number of applications, signed contracts, closed projects and projects in implementation, as well as payment indicators are presented below.

Source: www.eufunds.bg

The Commission has set out in general terms the principles by which countries in the European Union must be guided in order to ensure the successful participation of the partners whose involvement in the implementation of European funds is required. This paper contains the elements for a future ‘European Code of Conduct on Partnership’.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) audit was mainly carried out on the basis of a review of 40 programmes in which significant management and control deficiencies had been identified. It aimed at assessing whether the Commission dealt in a satisfactory way with deficiencies identified in the Member States' management and control systems.

The ECA concludes in its special report (No. 3/2012) that the Commission takes appropriate corrective actions when deficiencies in Member States' systems are identified, but the process to implementation is lengthy. The Commission had some success in ensuring that financial corrections were correctly applied, but was less successful in obtaining assurance that its actions led to improvements in Member States’ management and control systems

The Council took the first step towards the adoption of new rules for EU cohesion policy for the 2014-2020 period by agreeing on a partial general approach (8207/12 REV 2+ 8207/12 ADD 7 REV 1).
The purpose of cohesion policy is to reduce disparities between the levels of developmentof the EU's various regions. The Council's partial general approach is aimed at strengthening results orientation and improving the quality of cohesion spending. It also seeks to contribute to the integration of cohesion policy in the economic governance of the EU.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) assessed the objectives and outputs of 27 randomly selected transport infrastructure projects in seaports which were co-financed between 2000 and 2006 through the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund. The Court found that only 11 out of the 27 projects were effective in supporting transport policy objectives. In addition, some constructions had not been completed, some were not in use and others will need considerable further investment before they can be put into effective use. The Court’s report puts forward various reasons to explain these findings and makes recommendations to address the shortcomings noted so as to improve future EU-spending in seaports.