European Social Fund (ESF) - April 2018?

Subject: European Social Fund (ESF) - April 2018?

According to available information from the Commission's reply last year on the state of implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) in the 2014 -2020 period for the Republic of Croatia, its total value amounts to EUR 1.849 billion, of which EUR 1.582 billion was financed from the EU budget, including EUR 66 million from the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). Furthermore, according to available information, currently only 3% of ESF resources have been spent.

1) How does the Commission assess the state of play of the implementation process of the European Social Fund (ESF) for the 2014 -2020 period in the Republic of Croatia?

2) In the Commission’s view, what is the cause of this low utilisation of funds, which stands at just 3%, below the utilisation rate of other programmes?

Answer given by Ms Thyssen on behalf of the Commission

(15 June 2018)

The Commission adopted the Croatian European Social Fund (ESF) Operational Programme ‘Efficient Human Resources 2014 — 2020’ on 17 December 2014. It aims to contribute to creating jobs and strengthening social cohesion in Croatia. The whole territory of Croatia is eligible for both the ESF and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) funding. The Operational Programme was amended in 2017 in order to include additional resources for the YEI (EUR 35 million) following the decision to increase the overall YEI allocation by EUR 1.2 billion as part of the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) mid-term review.

The total value of the programme, including national co-financing, is EUR 1.885 billion. The amount of EU contribution is EUR 1.617 billion, including EUR 0.2 billion from the YEI (1). According to the latest information (2) available on the Open Data Portal for the European Structural and Investment Funds (3), in total EUR 0.17 billion net EU contribution (4) has been paid, meaning that the overall EU payment rate is 10.5%.

As regards the monitoring and evaluation of the programme for both Member State and Commission, main activities (monitoring committee, annual reports, annual review meetings etc.) are established by articles, 47, 50, 51 and 110 of the Common Provision Regulation for the Structural Funds (No 1303/2013) (5).

European Structural and Investment Funds and in particular ESF are pivotal in addressing key challenges to inclusive growth and convergence in Croatia. The Country report for Croatia published on 7 March 2018 by the Commission points out to the fact that weak administrative capacity hinders the implementation of public policies and the effective use of European Structural Investment Funds.

⋅1∙ YEI specific allocation and ESF matching component

⋅2∙ As at 21 May 2018

⋅3∙ https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/

⋅4∙ Pre-financing and interim payments, net of any recoveries

⋅5∙ OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 320‐469.