Ministry of Finance will look for solutions to ensure advance payments to entrepreneurs within EU funds projects
On Tuesday, September 15, in the extraordinary sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers the Ministry of Finance (MoF) introduced the Government with the European Union (EU) resources (structural funds and Cohesion Fund) acquisition process, as well as proposals for facilitation of faster acquisition.
On Tuesday, September 15, in the extraordinary sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers the Ministry of Finance (MoF) introduced the Government with the European Union (EU) resources (structural funds and Cohesion Fund) acquisition process, as well as proposals for facilitation of faster acquisition.
In the nearest future, the MoF in cooperation with international lenders plans to prepare and submit to the Government a proposal for increasing the budget financing for implementation of EU structural fund and Cohesion Fund projects setting a priority ensuring advance payments within entrepreneurship promotion projects.
Currently when the state budget resources are limited entrepreneurs have already been given a possibility to implement projects from their own resources and retrieve the EU co-financing part from the European Commission according to declared expenditure.
To facilitate effective acquisition of available EU funds financing according to current economic situation and readiness of projects, the MoF will reconsider possibilities for implementation of large-scale EU fund projects with expenditure exceeding 30 million lats and will give proposals for possibility to channel the financing to aid programmes for promotion of the entrepreneurship.
The Government also supported a proposal stating that the MoF together with other institutions involved in the EU funds management should set in programming documents for the EU funds period 2007–2013 new achievable indicators according to current economic situation which would reflect on EU funds contribution in improvement of economic and social situation in the country.
Until September, in Latvia the contracts signed with project implementers amount to 28.6% of total financing in amount of 3.18 billion lats in the programming period 2007–2013, however, until September, final beneficiaries were paid 5.3% of total EU funds financing.
The biggest number of contracts has been signed in transport and information communication technologies sector – in amount of 191 million lats, in the business sector – in amount of 161 million lats, which is already 85% of total EU funds financing available for the sector. In the business sector the amount of repayments made to final beneficiaries is also the biggest – 120 million lats. In the environment sector contracts have been signed for 156 million lats, however in the employment and social integration sector – in amount of 95 million lats.
Acquisition data for EU funds programming period 2004–2006 and 2007–2013, as well as presentation of the MoF for the extraordinary sitting of the CoM are available in Latvia on the EU funds home page.
Information prepared by:
Agnese Beļkeviča
Press Division
Phone 67083938
Agnese.Belkevica@fm.gov.lv
