Slovenia Supports Better EU Fund Phasing

Brussels, 11 October

Slovenia supports the new initiatives for improved phasing of structural and cohesion funds, prepared by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, Minister of Local Government and Regional Policy Ivan Zagar said in Brussels on Tuesday.

Zagar, who is taking part in a ministerial seminar entitled "Reforming Cohesion Policy: Two Major Policy Initiatives" explained that "phasing demands a lot of work that needs to be done at home".
The seminar examined JASPERS and JEREMIE, the mechanisms jointly run by the Commission and the European Investment Bank. The initiatives were labelled by the European Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Huebner as "key for the transformation of the EU cohesion policy".
JASPERS will provide advice on preparation and implementation of large, mainly environmental (at least EUR 25m) and transport-related (at least EUR 50m) projects, while JEREMIE aims at improving the financial support and access funds for small and medium enterprises.
Slovenia supports both initiatives, planned to be implemented in the 2007-2013 budget framework, Zagar said. However, he had several complaints regarding the principle of proportionality, size of projects and use of language.
"The size of countries and the size of projects must be taken into account. For example a large project for Slovenia is a small project for Germany", Zagar commented on the limits set by the JASPERS project.
Regarding language, Zagar believes that, "If the initiative is set to help small companies, it must be presented in the national language".
He does not believe Slovenia can make up for lost time in the phasing of EU funds this year. However, the situation is set to improve in 2006, as the government already adopted several measures for increasing the amount of drawn funds, Zagar added.
The Slovenian government has set 15 March 2006 as the date until which all contracts for the current programming (2004-2006) period must be signed, so fund phasing will accelerate next year, Zagar believes.

Slovenia Supports Better EU Fund Phasing

More articles from this issue:

Archive