Inforegio-Newsroom
Commission payments getting EU Cohesion Policy working on the ground
(25 January 2012)
End of year analysis confirms 2011 as another high performance year for cohesion policy in the Member States. The European Commission's analysis has shown record levels of payments in Member States, ensuring the timely implementation of the EU's main investment policy. Some EUR 32.9 billion were paid out by the Commission to the Member States in 2011, representing an increase of 8% over the previous level of EUR 30.5 billion in 2010.
The average payment rate for all 3 funds (ERDF, ESF, Cohesion Fund) in the EU-27 was at 33.4% of the allocated amounts on 31 December 2011. These rates vary significantly between countries, from 16.5% to 48.3%; while the analysis per fund reveals that the ERDF payments increased by 55% year-on-year from 22.3% at end 2010 to 34.3% at end 2011.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, temporary "top-up" payments were made to Greece and Romania for a value of 374 million € following the entry into force of Regulation 1311/2011 on 20 December.
|
Period |
Country |
Paid / Decided* |
|
2007-2013 |
|
|
|
|
Éire/Ireland |
48.27 % |
|
|
Lietuva/Lithuania |
47.98 % |
|
|
Sverige/Sweden |
46.52 % |
|
|
Eesti/Estonia |
41.99 % |
|
|
Deutschland/Germany |
41.15 % |
|
|
Suomi/Finland |
40.92 % |
|
|
Luxembourg |
40.58 % |
|
|
Österreich/Austria |
39.19 % |
|
|
United Kingdom |
38.83 % |
|
|
Danmark/Denmark |
38.28 % |
|
|
Portugal |
37.77 % |
|
|
Kypros/Cyprus |
37.39 % |
|
|
Polska/Poland |
37.23 % |
|
|
Slovenija/Slovenia |
37.01 % |
|
|
España/Spain |
36.52 % |
|
|
Latvija/Latvia |
36.43 % |
|
|
Magyarország/Hungary |
35.25 % |
|
|
Ellada/Greece |
34.94 % |
|
|
France |
34.77 % |
|
|
Nederland/The Netherlands |
33.62 % |
|
|
Belgique-België/Belgium |
32.17 % |
|
|
Slovenska Republica/Slovakia |
27.76 % |
|
|
Malta |
27.29 % |
|
|
Cross-border cooperation |
26.62 % |
|
|
Ceska Republika/Czech Republic |
26.14 % |
|
|
Balgarija/Bulgaria |
23.55 % |
|
|
Italia/Italy |
21.72 % |
|
|
România/Romania |
16.51 % |
|
|
|
|
|
2007-2013 |
Total |
33.36 % |
*Claims pending at end 2011 amount to EUR 9.6 billion for all funds (ERDF, ESF, CF). Due to lack of credits, this amount will be paid on 2012 credits, but would have brought the overall Structural Funds payments to 36.14%.