MoF submits proposals to the Government for simplification of the EU funds acquisition
On Tuesday, August 11, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) presented to the Cabinet of Ministers its informative report on proposals for simplification of the European Union (EU) funds acquisition.
The goal of the EU funds acquisition simplification is to increase the speed of EU funds system performance at the same time decreasing administrative expenditure and maintaining the client-oriented approach.
To achieve this goal the MoF proposes an action plan in three main directions:
increasing effectiveness of institutions involved in the EU funds administration;
ensuring client-oriented EU funds administration;
decreasing administrative and financial burden on EU funds final beneficiaries.
To promote effectiveness of institutions involved in the EU funds administration, project evaluation experts should be attracted only if the necessary expertise is specific and cannot be found in other public administration institutions, as well as in an open project application selection when the number of project application received is inappropriately big for the amount of internal human resources in the institution. Also the MoF proposes to evaluate effectiveness of the EU funds management and control system setting the level of permissible error under which irregularity and error avoidance procedure is financially ineffective. The MoF also plans to organize a working group of cooperation institutions to exchange best practice and align work practice of cooperation institutions.
To ensure client-oriented EU funds administration it is proposed to simplify application and evaluation procedure in limited selection competitions, submitting simplified criteria sets and at the same time maintaining possibility for qualitative project application evaluation. The MoF also plans to introduce amendments to legislative acts to decrease the accounting burden on final beneficiaries, as well as to develop common requirements for submission of statements and expenditure justification documents. It is also planned to promote availability of information on the web pages of institutions involved in the EU funds management, as well as to prepare methodological materials for project implementers.
To decrease administrative and financial burden on EU funds final beneficiaries the MoF proposes to continue work at development of export guarantee granting conditions and state aid alignment conditions. The action plan also envisages evaluation of possibility for final beneficiaries to submit their statements electronically.
The three proposed directions also envisage other measures for simplification of the EU funds acquisition. The full text of the report in Latvian is available here.
Information prepared by:
Elīna Dobulāne
Head of Press Division
Phone 67083850, Elina.Dobulane@fm.gov.lv
