EU Funds in Latvia Aleksandrs Antonovs Ministry of Finance Deputy director of Department of EU Funds December 4, 2006

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia 2 Content of the Presentation  SF/CF Implementation Progress  Results achieved  Lessons learned  Changes to SF Management System

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Structural Funds Implementation Progress (as to )

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Structural Funds Implementation Progress (as to )

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Structural Funds Implementation Progress (as to )

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Structural Funds Implementation Progress (as to )

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia Cohesion Fund Implementation Progress (as to )

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia 8 Results achieved  Appraised SF project applications  724 employees and experts hired  Organised 52 training courses under 35 subjects for participants  Completed 7 evaluation projects, 3 evaluation projects and 1 study commenced  Established 5 Structural Funds Regional Information Centres in all regions of Latvia  33 TV and 82 radio broadcasts, as well as 6 clips on ESF- related themes  Commenced data import to the SF MIS from the CFCA, LIDA and SRDA

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia 9 Lessons learned  Simplified project amendment process  Simplified project evaluation process: Project is evaluated in one institution; Reduced amount of documents that must be submitted; Maximum evaluation period – 3 month.  No Steering committees  Involve wide range of target groups (social, regional, NGOs, entrepreneurs, etc) in regulation designing process, public discussion is needed  Introduction of “Silence period” after the adoption of detail regulations  More elastic system of advance payments

SF & CF Managing Authority – Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia 10 Changes to SF Management System  Verifiable outputs No mandatory requirement to check verifiable outputs when making interim payments (Amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations on the State Budget Planning and Payment Procedure in SF Projects; announced to State Secretaries on 09/11/2006)  VAT A possibility to approve a SF claim prior to receiving a certification from the State Revenue Service (Amendments to the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations on the Application of VAT in SF Projects; scheduled for announcement to the State Secretaries on 16/11/2006)  Procurement methodologies The Procurement Monitoring Bureau (PMB) – an institution involved in the SF management, ensures sample checks of procurement documentation and procedures prior to launching a project Methodologies to the SF Final Beneficiaries for the application of the public procurement law – developed by the PMB by 01/01/2007