Future of the Funds Blog

European Structural Funds – Annual Publicity Event & Awards Ceremony

Date:              Tuesday 14^th  May 2013

Time:             8:45 – 15:00

Event:            Glasgow Caledonian University

The Future Funds team are hosting the Annual Publicity Event on Tuesday 14th May 2013.

This event will see a keynote speech being delivered by Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, on the value of the European Structural funds to Scotland. We are also pleased to announce guest speaker Mr Stub Jorgensen from EU Commission who will discuss Structural Funds from a European perspective.

Since 2007, ESF has supported projects across Scotland to tackle challenges including youth employment and long-term unemployment, as well as supporting access to learning. Projects funded by the ERDF programmes have provided assistance to small and medium businesses, enabled research and innovation, and supported disadvantaged communities.

Programme Agenda

As we move towards the end of the 2007-2013 Structural Funds programmes, this year’s event will celebrate the projects which have been supported as part of the current period and look forwards to the forthcoming 2014-2020 programmes.

At the event, we will be launching a consultation on the draft Operational Programmes for 2014-2020 and seeking to get stakeholder’s opinions on how these programmes can deliver for Scotland.

Event Details

The Event will be held on Tuesday 14^th May 2013 at Glasgow Caledonian University, Banqueting Hall, Glasgow. Timings for the event will be between 8:45 to 15:00 including lunch.

I would be grateful if you could respond by email to Lorraine Cairns lorraine.cairns@scotland.gsi.gov.uk  indicating whether you are interested in attending this event, additionally please confirm the number of persons attending in your party.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact the European Structural Funds Division on 0300 244 6825.

Thank you to everyone who attended the external stakeholder events held in Glasgow, Inverness and Perth last week.  We were pleased that many stakeholders were able to come along and participate in the discussions.

We invited policy leads from organisations who have an involvement in Structural Funds, Agriculture and Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Funds in order to get a balance of stakeholder representation across the funds.  As a result places for these events were limited.

However, we realise that there are many stakeholders who should have the opportunity to make a contribution at this early stage and as a result we have pleasure in making available the speaking notes/presentation as well as the video clips from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment.

PA External Stakeholder Event – November 2012 – full presentation

PA External Stakeholder Event – November 2012 – speaking notes

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon:

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment Richard Lochhead:

Your input and views are important to us and we strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to review this material and comment on it.  Even if you attended one of the events and would like to make further comments please do so. 

Feedback will be used to tighten up the Scottish Partnership Agreement; and preferences emerging from this, the Structural Fund Surveys and the Rural Fund working groups will be used to draft the scope of the Operational Programmes.

Please contact Lynda Smith – lynda.smith@scotland.gsi.gov.uk if you wish to comment privately.

Thank you

Future Funds Team

4 December 2012

Thank you to everyone who attended the the stakeholder events held in Glasgow, Inverness and Perth last week. 

At the event we informed stakeholders that the presentation material would be available from the Future Funds blog and SG website early this week.

We are currently working on getting this information uploaded and hope to have this available as soon as possible.

Thanking you for your patience and co-operation.

Lynda Smith

Future Funds Team

Fasten your seat belts.  The Cyprus Presidency has committed to pushing hard on securing agreement on the Multi Annual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Cohesion etc Regulations by the time their Presidency concludes at the end of December.  The partial general approach to negotiations in the Structural Actions Working Party (SAWP) will continue with the aim of clearing most elements in October.  The current schedule suggests that pretty much all bar the EGTC provisions (European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation) might be on the October General Affairs Council agenda for sign-off.  No mean feat to get there with what looks like a punishing schedule of attaché meetings and SAWPs to prepare the ground.  And maybe that’s the easy bit.  MFF negotiations will intensify towards a special Council around the end of November.  Some are suggesting that it’s either this time, this year or this time, next year as progress under the Irish Presidency could stall due to the German elections.  Make of that what you will.  Either way, we should have a clearer – if not necessarily definitive one – by the time this year is out.

 Watch this space – or any other reliable source (!?) – as Council pushes forward and the ‘Trilogues’ attempt to reconcile Commission proposals, Council views and Parliament opinions.  Much midnight oil to be burned or some new more sustainable alternative.

 And if that’s not enough, the Commission is currently undertaking inter-service consultation on its ‘position papers’ for the respective member states.  These were due around the end of July but are now expected next month and will set the tone for the preparation of the Partnership Contracts.  Early skirmishes before detailed discussion and negotiation ensue over the draft Operational Programmes.

Most folk seem to be back from summer holidays and Brussels is starting to resemble its usual self.  Presidency business resumed last week and, if you’ve not already seen it, the Cyprus Presidency provided an interesting and helpful synopsis of their ambitions.  It’s still available on their website.  Nothing new but it is a quick and easy refresher if too much sun or rain have impaired your recall faculties.

Others appear to have been busy over the summer, particularly on Territorial Cooperation – that’s Interreg in old money.  A few things to report soon on Northern Periphery and North Sea, I hope.

Something now on our Cross Border Programme with Northern Ireland and Ireland where a Programme Development Steering Group has been established to track, guide and inform programme development.  Still relatively early days but the Special EU Programmes Body, as Managing Authority for the programme, have launched a consultation.  The public consultation on the new European Territorial Co-Operation programmes opened on 28 August and will run until 20 November 2012.  Full details of the consultation process, the consultation documentation and details on how to respond can be found at:

 http://www.seupb.eu/2014-2020Consultation/overview.aspx 

Your chance to contribute to the debate. And time enough to do so. No prizes for speed but potentially bigger prizes as you help shape the programme and its objectives.

Hiya – it’sLynn from the Future Funds Team here blogging today.  Some of you may be aware we have been working with colleagues in Rural and Fisheries to look at how we can collectively contribute towards the Partnership Agreement.  The Partnership Agreement has to set out how each of the funds will contribute towards the thematic objectives.  To take that work forward a number of workstreams have been established and I have been supporting the work on the SME Competitiveness, Employability and Social Inclusion work stream.  I really like to pick the easy ones!! Although I think it is the most interesting.  External stakeholders have been involved in the initial discussions but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to get everyone round the table – given the number of organisations and individuals who have a real interest in this area – it wasn’t even possible to get a fraction of the people round the table!  So I thought that I could use the blog to share the paper that was the focus of discussions at the recent workshop we had and ask everyone to think about the questions in the paper and feed back their views to help us develop our thinking.  The paper can be accessed here .   

 Feel free to post comments on the blog but if you want to send me lots of information (and I hope you do) then you can use our Future Funds mailbox – futurefunds2020@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

 Also don’t forget that there is still time to complete the questionnaire on Structural Funds which can be accessed here.

 Look forward to hearing from you all – Lynn

STRUCTURAL FUNDS SURVEY

The Future Funds team invites you to participate in a survey being carried out by Scottish Government on the 2014 -2020 European Structural Funds programmes.

You will no doubt be aware that the European Commission is keen on promoting alignment and integration between the four funds covered by the Common Strategic Framework. This includes Structural Funds as well as the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. We are working with colleagues across Government and stakeholders to develop the UK Partnership Agreement which will outline how the funds collectively will contribute to the thematic objectives. Some of you are already involved in this work. Through the Partnership Agreement we can assess what each of the funds is doing and where possible complement activity across the funds.

As well as the work on the Partnership Agreement, there is also work underway on each of the individual funds – Structural Funds, European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Funds, and many of you will be involved in these ongoing discussions.

This survey concentrates solely on Structural Funds but given the work on alignment and integration we are keen to get the views from stakeholders in all sectors – including rural and fisheries and we would encourage you to share this survey with others that you think may have an interest in Structural Funds and how they could contribute towards growth and employment in their sector.

For all of the funds the European Commission has proposed greater concentration around fewer priorities. With less funding expected, the challenge is to identify the priorities that will make the biggest difference towards delivering economic growth.

This survey seeks your views on what the priorities should be in the new programme for Structural Funds and we would strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to express your views as information from this survey will form the basis of programme development.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Respond to the Survey HERE

Deadline to Respond : Friday 7 September 2012

Those of you who have been keeping up with the Commission’s appearances will have spotted a new feature of European funding programming for 2014-2020 – the Partnership Agreement (PA). The Partnership Agreement will be at Member State level, but for the UK each country will have a separate Agreement within the overall PA.   The Partnership Agreement works in two ways – as a direction setter, helping us prioritise all the things we hope to achieve with the funds; and as a summary of the Operational Programmes, showing how they will deliver against Europe 2020.

The Partnership Agreement doesn’t just cover structural funds – it also covers rural development and fisheries funds. That doesn’t mean that the funds will do everything together, but it does give us a chance to assess what each of those funds is doing, or could do, which would complement each other and all told add up to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Scotland. It also gives us a chance to tell the story of all the funds and their achievement together for the first time.

Work is underway over the summer to look at how the funds can deliver the thematic objectives, what community led local development and integrated territorial development might look like in Scotland, starting to build the evidence base we need to underpin and justify our spending decisions from 2014 onwards.

How, for example, can all the funds help build a low carbon economy in Scotland? If structural funds invest in energy efficiency in housing and SMEs, and in renewable energy generation and distribution; and rural development funds invest in afforestation and other carbon sequestration measures, is that enough?

How do we get close links between employability and skills initiatives and investment which creates jobs – so that those newly skilled individuals have somewhere to go and apply their skills?

And not least, what’s not as important in Scotland, because with less funding, we will definitely have to prioritise some things over others? What can we afford for EU funding not to focus on, either because it’s already funded or done by others, or because we think it could be?

To borrow a summer-appropriate sporting cliché, we are definitely asking some big questions here – and I’m sure there are many who would quite like us to come up with some sensible answers!

The work we’re doing at the moment is really getting us thinking about how to construct the structural funds programmes as well, because without programmes, no Partnership Agreement. We’ll be launching a little survey at you shortly to start gauging what you think should be in the structural funds programmes, but, in the meantime, please do feel free to leave any comments here on which thematic objectives and priorities are important for Scotland (and which ones aren’t!).

Less a blog, more an end of term report.

We’re embarking on new ground under the Presidency of Cyprus, having been able to tick off four elements of the Structural and Cohesion Funds regulations – provisions on revenue generation, financial engineering, thematic concentration and the performance framework. This block was agreed at General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 26 June, with the usual caveat that ‘nothing is agreed till everything is agreed’.

Commissioner Hahn was quite bullish about prospects for progress under the Cyprus Presidency when he briefed Regional Office representatives recently on progress and his prognosis for Structural and Cohesion Funds. He was expecting Cyprus to continue the good work of Denmark. He suggested that a final deal on funding was possible by the end of the year. He anticipated the European Parliament’s Regional Development Committee adoption of their position on 11 July as helpful in moving the debate forward. In the event, it took the committee quite a marathon session to reach consensus but there is now a Regional Development Committee mandate for the EP rapporteurs for negotiations with the Council – welcomed by the Committee of the Regions and presented to an unsuspecting public by Danuta Hubner, Chair of the Committee this afternoon. Read more on line.

DG Regio seem open to suggestions on programming and increased harmonisation of the funds. Interestingly, the Commission also appeared to support the UK plea for greater harmonisation made during GAC and with support from other key member states. We’re keeping the pressure up by briefing MEPs. Mr Neil met George Lyon and we have had a number of conversations with MEP assistants.

Hahn warned that the Commission would strongly resist any dilution of thematic concentration (beyond perhaps opening up to ICT and Sustainable Urban Transport), proposals to relax rules around support for large infrastructure projects, any weakening of performance criteria and would oppose any moves to continue the ‘misuse’ of FEIs – ‘parking of funds’ to achieve n+2 and presumably accrue interest in some cases with no funds transferring to final recipients. He saw transition regions as integral to the Commission’s new approach to cohesion. He was strong on growth and reflected that recent elections might indicate some shift in that direction.

 Hahn is also keen to pursue negotiations with member states on partnership agreements in parallel with the Council consideration of the Regulations and the MFF. The Commission should be issuing their Country position papers before the summer break. Regions should ensure that they are engaged and contribute to OP development – so get your pencils sharpened.

 More to come on a new set of negotiating blocks in the Structural Actions Working Group and a proposed read-through of much of the draft Regulation on Territorial Cooperation. Helpful recognition, I think, that ETC is different. The advent of a separate regulation is welcome and ensuring that it is relevant and caters appropriately for this type of programme makes sense.

On a separate but related matter, Aileen McLeod MSP presented the EER Committee findings on HORIZON 2020 in Brussels yesterday. Not quite my domain but she made a number of relevant points. We’re good at turning (often Structural Funds) money into research but do less well at turning research into money. Bit of a challenge then for our new programmes. Greater SME involvement, asking more of the business sector and contributing to EU2020 objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

More soon – but must dash.  So many beers, and so little time.

What are your views on the push for harmonisation across the funds?

What is your organisation doing to lobby at a European level?

Is there anything we can do to help?

As some of you may be aware the Scottish Government is hosting a Youth Employment Workshop and we have invited a range of stakeholders to attend.

 It has been agreed that £25 million of unallocated European Structural Funds should now be focused on youth employment opportunities.

 The workshop will be an chance for stakeholders to shape project development and assist in the delivery of new and additional outcomes.

 By supporting the SME community, we intend to stimulate employment opportunities for young people and we hope that the workshop will be the first step in achieving this.

 If you did not get an invite this time round please be aware that there may be other opportunities to contribute in the future.

 I look forward to seeing you there.