New improvements for the implementers of EU funds projects
In order to ease implementation of European Social Fund, European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund projects the Ministry of Finance has introduced a number of new improvements reducing the administrative burden on project implementers, speeding up receipt of repayments, and facilitating repayments of the European Union funds financing to the state budget.
Improvement: | Benefit: |
A possibility for commercial entities to open a project account in a commercial bank (previously – a project account in the State Treasury) | A possibility to open a project account in the bank which the commercial entity cooperated with before, thus reduced time for opening of a project account
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Shortened time period for conclusion of the project implementation contact – 15 working days (previously – 30 working days) | Sooner start of project implementation
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Joint requirements for all EU funds institutions regarding project documentation: project implementation contracts, as well as payment justification documents | Equal and clear requirements for all project implementers, reduced administrative burden on beneficiaries
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Available information about the project of the public administration institutions already during the project evaluation stage: application of direct public administration and Society Integration Foundation, except the summary of the project budget, is public information to the extent and in the procedure prescribed by the Freedom of Information Law after submission of the project application | Interested parties can request information about the EU funds project application of public administration institutions already during the project evaluation stage, and information about almost all project application can be received. Thus freedom of information is greatly promoted related to planned projects of public administration institutions and use of resources in general
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Beneficiaries are given a possibility, on certain conditions, to prepare payment claims and receive EU financing repayments in euro (previously in national currency– in lats)
| Beneficiaries can receive EU repayment in full sooner (without currency exchange risks) for the financing invested in the project |
Introduction of flat rate for indirect payments within European Social Fund projects: indirect expenditure are covered according to the flat rate, which is certain percentage of total project expenditure (previously – requirement to submit payment justification documents) | Documents justifying indirect expenditure of the ESF project should not be submitted anymore, thus administrative burden on beneficiaries is reduced and it is possible to recover the financing sooner
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Introduced possibility to perform sample checks of payment claims (previously – checks of all payment claims) | Facilitated preparation of the expenditure declaration and submission to the European Commission, thus repayment of the EU financing to the state budget is hastened |
At the same time, to decrease the number of irregularities within EU funds projects, reveal them as soon as possible, and to avoid occurrence of non-eligible expenditure, capacity of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau is being strengthened now exactly for performance of procurement exante-checks.
From now on, EU funds institutions will also perform procurement exante -checks within the projects of state budget institutions. Timely detection of errors in procurement procedures will decrease the negative impact on the state budget, because the majority of irregularities are exactly within the public sector projects.
Additional information about the simplification of EU funds acquisition is available in the homepage section "EU Funds Simplification".
Information prepared by:
Agnese Beļkeviča
MoF Communication Division
Phone: +371 67083938
Agnese.Belkevica@fm.gov.lv
