Cross border co operation at the EU external borders

Seminar on Territorial Co-operation

Egidio Canciani European Commission Directorate General for External Relations Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

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Proposal represents a radical improvement over the current situation; For the first time a single instrument applies to the two sides of EU external borders; Design largely completed … some aspects need further work …together.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Main questions raised by the Member States

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Coherence in the approach to Cross Border co-operation under SF/ENPI/IPA;

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Geographical eligibility; The “Sea basin” approach under the ENPI;

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Management and control systems for the implementation of programmes;

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Future consultations with Member States.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

A few basics

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CBC at the EU external borders will be covered, from 2007 by two instruments; These instruments are doing more then CBC but have a separate CBC component; ENPI will fund CBC at the EU external border with ENP countries and Russia; IPA will fund CBC at the EU external border with candidate and pre-candidate countries; Both instruments will cover eligible border regions of MS and partner countries adjacent to the relevant borders; They will apply a set of rules specific to CBC.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

The conceptual toolkit

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The Pre-Accession Policy: preparing the candidate countries to become EU Members; The European Neighbourhood Policy: projecting EU system of values through the extension of internal policies and tools; Neighbourhood Programmes 2004-2006: blending the CBC experience of Interreg and external relations instruments; The Interreg approach: developing a full fledged partnership between adjacent border regions of different countries.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Two budget sources: one set of rules

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Funds for CBC programmes under ENPI and IPA will be drawn from two headings of Financial perspective: this reflects the dual nature of the instruments (external relation-cohesion); External relations funds will be at least equivalent to the ERDF one (a minimum of 2 times 12% of the ERDF allocation under objective 3); The concept of "common benefit" is introduced: no obligation to spend external funds outside EU and ERDF funds inside EU.

For the participating countries: one budget table in the programming documents, no obligation to report where the funds are spent.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Geographical eligibility: Common elements to IPA and ENPI

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Land borders and Maritime borders/Sea crossings: NUTS III level Regions of Member Sates and partner countries;

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Maritime borders/Sea crossings programmes where conditions (e.g. short distance) allow border regions to elaborate a common, territorially based, development strategy;

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Possibility for adjoining regions to participate in co-operation.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

ENPI “Sea basin” co-operation

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Eligibility: NUTS II level coastal Regions along common sea basins; Reflects the importance of maritime borders under the ENP; Co operation framework “broadens” co-operation possibilities: Multi-lateral, NUTS II, no restrictions of objectives; Allows bilateral co-operation between cities or coastal regions; Builds on the “trans-national” maritime neighbourhood programmes (MEDOC, Archimed, BSR); A link to be established with Trans-national co operation.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Joint programming

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Participating countries define together priorities for co-operation, respecting the principles of partnership, co-financing, complementarity;

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Joint programme: document agreed by the parties, multi-annual, includes priorities/measures, describes in details implementation modalities;

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Commission adopts the document after negotiations with participating countries.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Joint management

COM proposals provides for:

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One structure based on a "joint managing authority" normally” in MS;

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One budget management mode: shared management – maximise MS flexibility – minimise COM involvement;

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MS will have to assume responsibility vis à-vis the Commission for the entirety of the programme.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

The management and control system

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ERDF model: Joint managing authority, joint certifying authority, joint audit authority, JTS – functions as set in the SF and ERDF regulation;

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Compliance with community rules mainly on environment, public procurement, state aids and equal opportunities; Certification of expenditures: ERDF model – validation by approved auditors before being submitted to the certifying authority;

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Public Procurement

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Aim: a set of common rules; Proposal: rules to be applied should be those of the managing authority; Advantages: coherence with SF approach, automatic compliance with public procurement directives; Difficulties: partner countries contractors will have problems related to the application of a third country legislation, difficult to apply to multilateral programmes; Possible options: common set of rules established ad hoc for the programme, separate procurement.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

Agreements

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Framework agreements: already existing, necessary to bind third countries to the essential provisions of the regulations; Financing agreements: necessary to make the joint programmes binding in partner countries establish final responsibility of the State in case of irregularities; Bilateral agreements: covering the operational arrangements necessary for the Member State in order to assume financial responsibility vis à vis the Commission.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

The implementing rules

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Implementing rules = Commission implementing regulation - CBC only;

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Includes all the details necessary to design and implement the programmes striving for maximum coherence between internal and external borders;

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COM intends to continue technical discussions with MS technical experts: paper on management and control system to be circulated soon, follow up technical meeting in April/May.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005

The future

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Main ENPI/IPA regulations: Commission aims at an approval of ENPI/IPA by 3 rd quarter 2005;

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Implementing regulation: presentation to the Committee soon after;

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Programming: start in January 2006.

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Programmes ready for implementation: January 2007.

Seminar on European Territorial Co-operation – Brussels - 21 February 2005