N.Broks informs government about acquisition
of EU structural funding of 2005
During the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on November 13, Minister for Special Assignments for Administration of European Union Funds Normunds Broks (TB/LNNK) represented the quarterly report on acquisition of EU structural funds and Cohesion Fund. Latvia has acquired EU structural funding of 2005 and it will be retrieved from the European Commission thus complying with the decision of August 14 on improving efficiency of EU fund acquisition.
Concerns about possible non-retrieval of ERDF and ESF funding of 2005 in amount of approximately 40 million lats from EC were based on funding administration principle "N+2" which means that structural funding of 2005 has to be declared in the EC within 2 years, i.e. till the end of 2007, to retrieve resources to the national budget.
Line ministries have done "home works" initiated by N.Broks – by September 15, to ensure submission of ERDF and ESF requests in the stated amount to the responsible authority on behalf of their subordinated and supervised institutions, and submitted requests to ERDF and ESF administration institutions ensuring submission of financial requests in amount that exceeds the amount stated in the government meeting minutes on August 14 by 2 million lats.
By September 30, 2007, in Latvia, by undertaking over-obligations, projects have been approved in amount of 452 million lats or 102.8% of available structural funding, 226.7 million lats or 51.6% of available resources have already been paid to project applicants – 185.3 million lats or 42.2% of them have been declared in the EC by means of requests for payments, but in the national budget 28% or 124.8 million lats of funding for 2004-2006 have been retrieved from the total available funding.
Coordinating the work of EU fund administration departments in the Ministry of Finance, as well as work of other institutions involved in the administration of structural funds and Cohesion Fund, Minister for Special Assignments for Administration of European Union Funds supervises acquisition of EU funds in Latvia, ensures supervision of fund utilization, organizes and ensures work of EU structural funds and Cohesion Fund monitoring committees, performance of common project information system, coordinates communication on EU funds and cooperation with the European Commission.
Lita Kokale
Ministry of Finance
EU Funds Department
PR Division
Phone: +371 67083880; +371 2 6469946
Lita.Kokale@fm.gov.lv
