European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) - April 2018

Subject: European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) - April 2018

In the second half of last year, we received a reply from the Commission on the state of utilisation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) in Croatia for the 2014 -2020 period. According to available information, the total value of operational programmes amounts to EUR 348 759 346, of which EUR 252 643 138 was contributed by the EU. At that time, the payments to beneficiaries amounted to EUR 23 882 986 or 6.85% of total public funding, indicating that no payment request had been submitted to the Commission. Given that it is 2018, four years since the start of the financial perspective, could the Commission answer the following questions:

1) Has there been any improvement in the project selection rate and financial implementation rate in the meantime?

2) What is the situation regarding the implementation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for the 2014 -2020 period in the Republic of Croatia?

Answer given by Mr Vella on behalf of the Commission

(14 June 2018)

1. Based on the latest information provided by the Croatian European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Managing Authority, by mid-January 2018 the commitment rate for projects selected under the EMFF Operational programme was at about 28% of total allocations (some EUR 97 million) and the payments to beneficiaries at 10% (some EUR 35 million). Compared to last year update there is an increase of EUR 26 million for commitments and EUR 11 million for payments, respectively.

2. Moreover, in February 2018 Croatia completed the procedure for designating the EMFF authorities which is a pre-requisite for submitting interim payment applications. However, up to now, no such application has been received. The Managing Authority also introduced a request for amending the EMFF operational programme in order to optimise the use of funds. The Commission is in final stages of approving the request.

The Croatian authorities will submit the annual implementation report for 2017 by 31 May 2018. The report will contain information on the state of implementation. The latter will also be discussed during Monitoring Committee provisionally scheduled for June 2018 (tbc). The Commission will afterwards be in position to provide more qualitative and quantitative information on the advancement of the EMFF operational programme, if needed.

In the meantime, for more updated information on the implementation, the Honourable Members may address directly the Croatian Managing Authority (1).

⋅1∙ For the list of national authorities, please see https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/docs/body/national_authorities.pdf | | ( | | )