National Perspective: Improved Efficiency of Cohesion Policy through Incentives and Conditionalities Aleksandrs ANTONOVS Deputy State Secretary for the EU Funds Ministry of Finance, LATVIA

Contents Reserve Efficiency Conditionalities 2

Performance Reserve Link between eligibility and results accompanied by reduction of cost controls Introduction of performance reserve: -Unsuccessful experience of the 2 last periods -Skews strategic planning towards more easily achievable results -Practically impossible to set fair starting points and milestones for all priorities in all EU regions -Question of fairness of assessment procedure 3

Efficiency: the Best Option MS and the EC agree on targets MS deliver results and get co-financing Clear methodology for financial corrections Experience of the World Bank and the ENPI 4

Efficiency: the Plan B More and simpler simple costs would allow MS to concentrate on results rather than costs Horizontal Policies enforced outside the Cohesion Policy delivery 5

Conditionalities Only those directly linked to Cohesion Policy! Increased role of ex-ante conditionalities: –Latvian and other MS experience –Legal clarity necessary! Macroeconomic conditionalities: -Effect would be unproportionate among MS -Hitting a MS when it is already down -Question of fairness of assessment procedure / credibility? 6