Experiences

Financing, rules and regulations

'Besides receiving a financial contribution from the European Union, it is extremely important to arrange co-financing by the Member States or regional authorities.'

Requirements
The IRMA programme cost approximately 356 million euros to implement. The European Union covered 141 million euros of this amount, and in many cases projects would not have got off the ground without its contribution. Project managers did have a hard time navigating their way through the different requirements set by regional authorities, national governments and the European Union. With a few exceptions, all the projects selected ultimately received financing. It took much puzzle work to apply the procedures properly without running the risk of exceeding the deadline for project completion. As the projects had other financing bodies as well, each of which had its own specific requirements, a great deal of creativity was called for in this respect.

Keeping bureaucracy to a minimum
The national secretariats and the Joint Secretariat assisted the project managers wherever possible in their efforts to drum up financing. The secretariats at both levels did what they could to keep the bureaucracy to a minimum. They passed on information on other projects and explained the EU's requirements.

Extremely tight deadlines
The deadlines were extremely tight in the view of many. This meant that several innovative and complex projects were not submitted in the end. The relevant initiators expected the procedures for moving polluted soil to take longer than the period of time designated by the EU to qualify for financing. In a more general sense, the tight deadlines favoured the selection of relatively manageable projects, without, however, making concessions to the requirement that they also be innovative.

Professional administration
The rules set by the EU and the Member States -and within those Member States, by the regional authorities- did not always correspond entirely. This sometimes made project financing a complex business, or at least made it seem so. For example, the project managers thought that they had to ensure their projects of advance financing, but in reality it was possible to receive a portion of the EU grant each time another 20% of the project work had been completed. Project managers who took care of their own financial administration also ran into problems occasionally, but these were later resolved. Some project managers felt that all the financial procedures involved were an administrative project in themselves. It took quite a bit of effort to apply the strict EU financing requirements properly, with the procurement rules turning out to be a crucial element.

Guidelines for new programmes

  • Maintain separate financial records for each project.
  • Make sure that the project's financial administration satisfies the requirements of the European Union.
  • Call in professional financial administrators to assist project managers.
  • Ensure that the project managers are familiar with the EU's procurement rules.
  • Have each party involved in each project produce an auditor's statement.
  • Bear the completion deadlines in mind when scheduling activities.
  • Keep track of whether expenditure is proportional to the progress the projects are making.
  • Keep a sharp eye on the timeframe for implementation and payments.

Experiences