The European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) consist of five instruments jointly managed by the European Commission and the Member States: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). The ESI Funds finance investments that provide a major contribution to the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
Representing 44% of the EU budget in the 2014-2020 period, the ESI Funds promote a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of the Union, bring strong European added value and contribute to economic, social and territorial cohesion and convergence, all important prerequisites for the good functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union.
The ESI Funds are the major source of funding for several headline ambitions of the von der Leyen Commission. Support for a low-carbon economy as well as for the environment and climate change mitigation and adaptation helps to achieve the ambitious objectives of the European Green Deal. The investments supporting broadband rollout, digital transformation of the economy and technologies, services and skills help to achieve the objective of making Europe fit for the digital age. Supporting enterprises to become more productive and competitive, investing in health and social care, education, skills and housing, as well as addressing particular challenges faced by rural areas and their inhabitants help to build an economy that works for people. The ESI Funds ensure lasting improvements in the economy and quality of life for everybody, leaving no one and no region behind in the transition to a green and digital economy.
While primarily supporting long-term investment strategies, the ESI Funds can also be deployed to respond to emerging needs. To alleviate the negative impacts of the health and economic crisis caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, resources available from the ESI Funds were quickly redirected to counter the effects of the crisis. With a retroactivity applied to expenditure incurred as of February 2020, the ESI Funds provided an essential emergency response to the crisis by supporting the purchase of medical equipment and helping companies, workers and vulnerable groups of the population to cope with the crisis, demonstrating their flexibility and ability to react fast under unforeseeable circumstances. This led to the mobilisation of about €20 billion until end-2020 and their re-direction to emerging acute needs.
This report takes stock of the implementation of the ESI Funds over the period 2014-2019. It provides information on progress in financial implementation and on what the Funds were able to achieve by end-2019 in terms of physical outputs and results. It is based on the monitoring information in the 2019 annual implementation reports that the Member States submitted to the Commission regarding their investment programmes. The submission deadline of the programmes’ annual implementation reports was extended from 30 June to 30 September 2020, in accordance with the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) amendment of the Common Provisions Regulation 1 . The publication of this report was therefore postponed accordingly, allowing the Commission to already provide some information on the financial implementation of the ESI Funds in 2020 and their mobilisation to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This 2020 summary report takes stock of the accelerated pace of financial implementation that was maintained in 2019 across all thematic areas. It demonstrates that the level of financial implementation is consistent with the multiannual nature of the policies financed by the ESI Funds. More than €260 billion, representing 41% of the overall allocation, were spent by the end of 2019. Progress in financial implementation varied across the different themes, with support to SME competitiveness, climate change adaptation and risk prevention, and transport and energy network infrastructures performing best. The achievements in 2019 significantly surpassed the 2014-2018 cumulative achievements measured through indicators in many instances. Past experience shows that the achievements of the co-financed operations supported by the ESI Funds closely follow the level of financial implementation in the Member States.