State of play of OP negotiations and OP

implementation

ESF Technical Working Group Luxembourg, 2 December 2015

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I. Statistics on adoption of OPs

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• Number of ESF supported OPs adopted: • By 1.12.2015: 173 - out of which ALL 34 OPs

supported by the YEI

• Number of ESF supported OPs to be adopted: • 14 : all ES OPs

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MEMBER STATE

Total number of OPs

Adopted by end of 2014

Carry-over (all adopted)

To be adopted after MFF amendment

Austria 1 1

Belgium 4 4

Bulgaria 3 1 2

Croatia 1 1

Cyprus 1 1

Czech Rep. 3 3 (adopted)

Denmark 1 1

Estonia 1 1

Finland 2 2

France 33 33

Germany 17 16 1

Greece 17 17

Hungary 5 4 1 (adopted)

Ireland 1 1

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MEMBER STATE

Total number of OPs

Adopted by end of 2014

Carry-over (all adopted)

To be adopted after MFF amendment

Italy 29 20 1 8 (8 adopted)

Latvia 1 1

Lithuania 1 1

Luxemburg 1 1

Malta 1 1

Netherlands 1 1

Poland 17 8 9

Portugal 10 10

Romania 2 2

Slovakia 2 2

Slovenia 1 1

Spain 23 1 22 (8 adopted)

Sweden 2 1 1 (adopted)United Kingdom 6 4 2 (adopted)

II. OP Amendments

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• All OP amendments are to be examined and approved by the Monitoring Committee

(Art. 110(2)(e) CPR)• But not all OP amendments need to be

approved by the Commission • Art. 96(10) CPR lists the elements that are not

approved by COM decision: e.g. the categories of intervention and their indicative breakdown, the authorities, the role of partners in implementation, monitoring and evaluation, …

III. Amendments not requiring COM approval

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• MA has to inform the Commission within 1

month of the decision to amend the OP. The decision has to mention the date of entry into force – date cannot be earlier than its adoption (Art. 96(11) CPR).

Amendment to be introduced in SFC2014

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IV. Amendments requiring COM approval (1)

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• Procedure is set out in Art. 30 CPR• Requests must be duly justified: what, why and

impact ? • Set out expected impact on achieving the OP’s specific

objectives and on achieving the Europe 202O Strategy

• No need for an ex ante evaluation• Changes in the OP to be compliant with the

regulatory framework and consistent with Partnership Agreement Letter requesting the amendment and revised OP to be introduced in SFC2014

•

IV. Amendments requiring COM approval (2)

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• COM may make observations within one month following submission of amended OP

• Member State to provide the all necessary additional information

• COM to adopt the amendment ASAP but no later than 3 months after the submission of the amended OP – provided all observations have been adequately taken into account.

• 3 month deadline is interrupted following the COM observations until receipt of an amended OP that takes into account the observations

IV. Amendments requiring COM approval (3)

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• Expenditure that becomes eligible as a result of an amendment to an OP (that has to be approved by the COM) shall only be eligible from the date of the submission of the request for amendment to the COM.

V. What if an OP amendment also requires a PA amendment ?

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• Need to submit PA and OP amendments in SFC• In case the PA amendment is triggered by the

OP amendment and is limited to:• Selection of thematic objectives and main expected

results for each of the ESI Funds• Allocation of EU support to the thematic objectives for

each of the ESI Funds• Total indicative amount for climate change objectives• List of the programmes with the indicative allocation

by ESI Fund and by year

• Approval of the OP will constitute approval of the PA amendments (Art. 30(2) CPR)

VI. Good practice in case MS envisage PA and OP amendments

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• Important to plan amendments, in particular in case OP amendments affect the info in the PA so as to avoid too many PA amendments. Also need to plan OP amendments and if possible to combine and consolidate them.

• Contact the Geographical Unit and discuss informally any amendment you consider.

• Advantages:• COM can make its comments before the monitoring

committee meeting• Will facilitate adoption process as COM observations

may be avoided

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION