Report from the Commission - Annual Report on the Cohesion Fund (2008) [SEC(2009) 1159 final]
Date: 2009-09-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Cohesion Fund, activity report

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 15.9.2009 
COM(2009) 465 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COHESION FUND (2008) 

[SEC(2009) 1159 final]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COHESION FUND (2008) ...................................................... 3 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

Financial execution of the 2000-2006 period in 2008 and closure of projects ............ 3 

Economic environment and conditionality .................................................................. 8 

Audits and financial corrections................................................................................... 8 

Irregularities notified by the Member States.............................................................. 12 

Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 13 

Information and publicity........................................................................................... 14

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Regulation  (EC)  No  1084/2006  establishing  a  Cohesion  Fund  and  repealing 
Regulation (EC) No 1164/94 does not require the presentation of an annual report on 
the Cohesion Fund. 

Therefore  this  report  is  presented  in  conformity  with  Article  14(1)  of  Regulation 
(EC)  No  1164/1994  and  thus  covers  the  implementation  during  2008  of  Cohesion 
Fund projects adopted under the 2000-2006 period as well as ex-ISPA projects in the 
Member States concerned, including Bulgaria and Romania. 

As  a  consequence,  this  report  covers  Cohesion  Fund  operations  in  the  thirteen 
beneficiary  Member  States  as  of  end-2006,  i.e.  Greece,  Spain,  Portugal,  Cyprus, 
Czech  Republic,  Estonia,  Hungary,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Malta,  Poland,  Slovakia  and 
Slovenia, as well as Bulgaria and Romania. 

Details  on  the  implementation  in  2008  of  projects  adopted  under  the  2000-2006 
period for each Member State are presented in the Annex to this report. 

1. 

FINANCIAL  EXECUTION  OF  THE  2000-2006  PERIOD  IN  2008  AND  CLOSURE  OF 
PROJECTS 

In 2008, fifteen Member States were eligible to receive assistance from the Cohesion 
Fund  (the  12  Member  States  who acceded in 2004 and 2007 plus Greece, Portugal 
and Spain). It must be recalled that, as a result of economic growth, Ireland has not 
been eligible since 1 January 2004.  

Given  that  all  commitments  for  the  Cohesion  Fund  projects  financed  under  2000-
2006  programming  period  have  been  executed  by  31 December 2006,  the  financial 
resources  available  for  the  Cohesion  Fund  in  2008  were  made  only  of  payment 
appropriations. 

Payments made in 2008 for projects adopted under the 2000-2006 period 

The 2008 initial budget amounted to € 1,937 m illion. However, the submission pace 
of  payment  requests  quickly  required  reinforcements  in  terms  of  payment 
appropriations.  The  Directorate  General  for  Regional  Policy  requested  increases  of 
payment appropriations for a total amount of around € 553 million. The increase of 
the  credits  was  the result  of  an  overall  good  performance  of Member  States  and  in 
particular for  four  beneficiary  Member States that exceeded their  forecasts,  namely 
Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania and Estonia.  

As far as the ex-ISPA budget lines are concerned, at the end of the year, the situation 
resulted in 100 % execution rate of the available appropriations.  

At the end of 2008, the average absorption rate  (payments vs.  commitments) of all 
current beneficiary countries for both the Cohesion Fund and former ISPA projects 
was  66.3 %.  Bulgaria  presents  the  lowest  absorption  rate  (39.8 %),  whereas  Malta 
shows  the  highest  absorption  rate  at  79.8 %.  The  other  Member  States  range  from 
50.9 % to 76.1 % of the decided amount.  

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Table 1: Implementation of the Cohesion Fund and ex-ISPA payments in 2008 (Euro) 

Payment 
Appropriations 

Initial 

Movements 

Final 
Resources 

Outturn 

Cancelled 

Carryovers 
2009 

Cohesion Fund 

1.936.747.200 

+ 250.000.000 

2.489.526.618 

2.489.299.691 

+ 300.000.000 

+ 2.779.418 

Ex-ISPA 

650.000.000 

-100.000.000 

540.000.000 

531.454.029 

-10.000.000 

TOTAL 

2.586.747.200 

+442.779.418 

3.029.526.618 

3.020.753.720

- 

- 

-

-

Table 2 shows the level of payments in 2008 for each Member State. The payments 
done  in  the  framework  of  the  ex-ISPA  contribution  are  included,  as  they  have  all 
been  turned  into  Cohesion  Fund  projects  at  the  date  of  the  accession.  Main 
beneficiary Member States are Spain among the EU-3 Member States, Poland in the 
EU-10 Member States and Romania in the EU-2 Member States. 

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Table 2: Payments made in 2008 to Cohesion Fund and ex-ISPA projects per Member 
State (including technical assistance) 

Member State 

Environment 

Transport 

Technical 
Assistance 

TOTAL 

Amount 

% 

Amount 

% 

Amount 

Amount 

% of  

total EU 15 

Greece 

81.235.894  40,7% 

115.853.539  58,0% 

2.518.623 

199.608.056  6,6% 

Portugal 

121.124.899  62,3% 

73.149.733  37,6% 

181.537 

194.456.170  6,4% 

Spain 

EU 3 

Cyprus 

401.570.546  62,3% 

242.969.772  37,7% 

644.540.318  21,3% 

603.931.339  58,1% 

431.973.044  41,6% 

2.700.160 

1.038.604.543  34,4% 

5.814.955  65,0% 

3.134.086  35,0% 

8.949.040  0,3% 

Czech Republic 

86.699.762  50,3% 

84.954.613  49,3% 

633.784 

172.288.158  5,7% 

Estonia 

Hungary 

Latvia 

38.398.994  54,6% 

29.140.155  41,4% 

2.765.566 

70.304.714  2,3% 

40.777.254  51,3% 

36.533.591  46,0% 

2.110.617 

79.421.462  2,6% 

64.544.604  64,5% 

32.774.486  32,8% 

2.746.852 

100.065.942  3,3% 

Lithuania 

114.458.156  62,2% 

61.109.392  33,2% 

8.370.251 

183.937.800  6,1% 

Malta 

Poland 

Slovakia 

Slovenia 

EU 10 

5.212.565  99,4% 

  0,0% 

29.765 

5.242.331  0,2% 

528.130.703  67,3% 

247.053.953  31,5% 

9.419.180 

784.603.837  26,0% 

82.362.076  53,1% 

71.696.734  46,3% 

927.381 

154.986.191  5,1% 

22.326.262  45,3% 

26.911.481  54,7% 

49.237.743  1,6% 

988.725.331  61,4% 

593.308.491  36,9% 

27.003.396 

1.609.037.218  53,3% 

Bulgaria 

30.643.656  57,3% 

6.944.044  13,0% 

15.863.224 

53.450.924  1,8% 

Romania 

180.683.377  56,5% 

122.030.336  38,2% 

16.947.321 

319.661.035  10,6% 

EU 2 

211.327.034  56,6% 

128.974.380  34,6% 

32.810.545 

373.111.959  12,4% 

TOTAL 

1.803.983.704  59,7% 

1.154.255.915  38,2% 

62.514.101 

3.020.753.720  100,0% 

Outstanding commitments from the 2000-2006 period 

At  the  end  of  2008,  the  outstanding  commitments  ("reste  à  liquider",  RAL) 
corresponding to the 2000-2006 period (including two new Member States: Bulgaria 
and  Romania)  amounted  to  € 11.77 billi on,  down  from  2007  (€  14.80  billion).  The 
2000-2006 regulatory framework for commitments and payments implies a relatively 
large stock of outstanding commitments. They are equal to the amount corresponding 
to almost three years of commitments. 

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Table 3: Cohesion Fund and ex-ISPA accepted amounts in 2000-2006 (including RAL) 

Member State 

Net Committed 
(until 12/2008) 

Paid  
(until 12/2008) 

RAL  
as at 31/12/2008 

Greece 

Spain 

Ireland 

Portugal 

EU 4 

Cyprus 

2.503.744.174 

2.450.738.235 

1.152.286.728 

11.788.531.423 

9.838.026.775 

3.094.434.304 

573.575.321 

570.010.223 

55.745.185 

3.156.539.424 

2.427.127.170 

1.077.862.318 

18.022.390.343 

15.285.902.403 

5.380.328.535 

54.014.695 

31.793.262 

22.221.433 

Czech Republic 

1.228.077.241 

796.786.963 

431.290.278 

Estonia 

Hungary 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Malta 

Poland 

Slovakia 

Slovenia 

EU 10 

Bulgaria 

Romania 

EU 2 

TOTAL 

427.034.848 

289.151.602 

137.883.246 

1.482.597.185 

780.102.018 

702.495.167 

713.862.336 

499.522.087 

214.340.249 

846.449.583 

559.974.524 

265.380.251 

21.966.289 

17.529.702 

4.436.587 

5.634.539.614 

2.871.741.538 

2.762.798.076 

766.250.297 

539.212.844 

227.037.453 

254.198.103 

162.579.583 

91.618.520 

11.428.990.190 

6.548.394.123 

4.859.501.260 

879.941.333 

350.021.546 

529.813.137 

2.043.037.858 

1.040.128.078 

1.002.599.040 

2.922.979.191 

1.390.149.624 

1.532.412.177 

32.374.359.723 

23.224.446.150 

11.772.241.972 

Closure of projects from the 2000-2006 period 

During  2008,  49  Cohesion  Fund  and  ex-ISPA  projects  were  closed,  representing 
around € 750 million of payments. At the end of 2008, the total number of closed CF 
projects for the 2000-2006 period (including ex-ISPA projects) reached 216 and the 
number of projects remaining open decreased to 976 out of 1.192 projects. Table 4 
provides information on the projects closed until the end of 2008 per Member States.  

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Table 4: Number of CF projects closed until the end of 2008 (including ex-ISPA) 

Total 
number 
of CF 
projects 

Projects closed as of end 2008 

Number 
of 
Projects 

Total Paid in 
Euro 

Number of 
open 
projects as 
of end 2008 

34 

80 

3 

24 

886.825.780 

90 

2.363.473.998 

327 

250.368.797 

580.082.620 

7 

85 

141 

4.080.751.195 

509 

Member State 

Greece 

Spain 

Ireland 

Portugal 

EU 4 

Czech Republic 

Estonia 

Cyprus 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Hungary 

Malta 

Poland 

Slovenia 

Slovakia 

124 

407 

10 

109 

650 

58 

37 

2 

46 

51 

47 

3 

130 

28 

39 

14 

14 

0 

10 

9 

10 

0 

5 

6 

4 

EU 10 

441 

72 

Bulgaria 

Romania 

EU 2 

38 

63 

101 

1 

2 

3 

192.671.263 

75.086.815 

0 

44.331.604 

82.084.499 

11.153.890 

0 

44 

23 

2 

36 

42 

37 

3 

27.825.974 

125 

55.213.444 

6.880.841 

495.248.330

950.121 

1.794.822 

2.744.943 

22 

35 

369 

37 

61 

98 

TOTAL 

1.192 

216 

4.578.744.468 

976 

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2. 

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT AND CONDITIONALITY 

Council Regulation (EC) No 1164/94, which governs the Cohesion Fund for projects 
approved  prior  to  the  end  of  20061,  attaches  budgetary  policy  conditions  to  the 
disbursements  by  the  Fund.  It  provides  that  "no  new  projects  or,  in  the  event  of 
important projects, no new project stages shall be financed by the Fund in a Member 
State in the event of the Council, acting by a qualified majority on a recommendation 
from the Commission, finding that the Member State […] has not implemented [its 
stability or convergence programme] in such a way as to avoid an excessive deficit". 
At the end of 2008, one Member State eligible for support under the Cohesion Fund 
(Hungary) remained in the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) which, according to the 
aforementioned  Regulation,  may  under  certain  conditions  be  associated  with  the 
suspension of transfers from the Fund. There was however no need to adopt such a 
measure  since  the  Council,  on  the  basis  of  available  information,  decided  that  the 
Hungarian  government  had  acted  in  a  manner  consistent  with  its  recommendation. 
As noted in the previous annual report, the Council decided to abrogate the EDP for 
Slovakia, Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic in July 2008. 

Hungary  entered  EDP  immediately  upon  accession  in  2004,  based  on  a  general 
government deficit of 5.9% for 2003. Since then, Hungary's failure to take effective 
action in response to Council recommendations has been noted on two occasions, in 
January  2005  and  in  November  2005.  Since  Hungary  is  not  a  member  of  the  euro 
area, it has a specific derogation from the application of further steps of the EDP. In 
July 2007, the Council issued a new set of recommendations under Article 104(7) of 
the  treaty.  On  neither  of  these  occasions  did  the  Commission  recommend  a 
suspension of Cohesion Fund commitments to the Council. In July 2009 the Council 
decided, in view of the economic crisis, to issue a new deadline of 2011 to put an end 
to the excessive deficit in accordance with Article 104(7). 

Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  1084/2006,  which  governs  the  Cohesion  Fund  for  the 
period  2007-20132,  has  cleared  up  several  uncertainties  that  surrounded  the 
application of Cohesion Fund conditionality in the past. It foresees that, following an 
Article  104(8)  decision  the  Commission  may  propose  the  suspension  of  Cohesion 
Fund  support.  In  turn,  the  Council  may  decide  to  suspend  all  or  part  of  the 
commitments,  with  effect  from  1  January  of  the  year  following  the  decision.  If  the 
Council  subsequently  finds,  in  the  context  of  the  EDP,  that  the  Member  State  has 
taken the necessary corrective action, this automatically implies a decision to lift the 
suspension  of  Cohesion  Fund  commitments.  Rules  for  re-budgeting  the  suspended 
commitments have been laid down. 

3. 

AUDITS AND FINANCIAL CORRECTIONS 

2008  was  a  year  of  overlap  between  the  management  of  the  final  stage  of 
implementation of the 2000-2006 programming period including the preparation for 
its  closure,  and  the  opening  of  the  2007-13  programming  period.  The  management 
and control environment in place in 2008 was therefore meant to address both risks 

1 
2 

Based on Article 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1164/94. 
Council Regulation (EC) No 1084/2006 of 11 July 2006. 

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related to the preparation for closure of past programmes and projects and the risks 
of set up of management and control systems in the new programmes. 

Audit work for Programming period 1994-1999 - EU 4 (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, 
Spain). 

The Cohesion Fund closure enquiry concerning the period 1994-1999 covered 10% 
of  Cohesion  Fund  projects  representing  20%  of  the  co-financed  expenditure  during 
this  period.  The  fieldwork  was  finalised  in  2003  and  the  main  deficiencies  found 
were  insufficient  management  verifications  resulting  in  ineligible  expenditure  and 
breaches of public procurement rules. Financial correction procedures resulting from 
the closure enquiry were concluded during 2008, except for three remaining projects 
(two in Spain, one in Portugal) which will be finalised in 2009. 

Audit work for Programming period 2000-2006 - EU 14 (EU 10 + EU 4). 

For  EU-14  Member  States  in  2008,  four  audit  missions  were  carried  out  which 
focused  on  the  follow-up  of  previous  audit  recommendations.  In  addition,  five 
missions for the review of winding-up bodies were performed in order to verify the 
preparation of Member States for closure and to identify and mitigate related risks. 

In  2008,  DG  Regional  Policy  examined  winding  up  declarations  submitted  for  the 
closure  of  2000-2006  Cohesion  Fund  projects,  of  which  60  (representing  5%  of  all 
CF projects) related to Spanish projects. 

Other audit work for the programming period 2000-2006 included the examination of 
the  annual  control  reports  received  under  Article  12  of  Regulation  No.  1386/2002. 
By the end of 2008, the majority of reports had been analysed, and replies sent to the 
Member  States  with  observations  and,  where  necessary,  requests  for  additional 
information  in  order  to  be  able  to  draw  as  much  assurance  as  possible  from  the 
results  of  national  audit  work.  Furthermore,  a  number  of  national  system  audit 
reports were received in 2008. 

The  last  of  the  annual  bilateral  coordination  meetings  with  the  Directorate  General 
for  Regional  Policy  for  the  year  2007  was  held  in  February  2008.  As  2008  was  a 
transitional year, it was decided to reschedule the bilateral coordination meetings for 
2008 to the first half of 2009. Bilateral meetings are held annually with national audit 
authorities  to  exchange  information  on  the  implementation  of  audit  work  and  to 
discuss progress on sample checks and follow-up of audit findings. The meetings in 
2009 will cover issues concerning both programming periods 2000-2006 and 2007-
2013. 

Impact of controls 

Financial corrections 

In the exercise of its supervisory role, DG Regional Policy has implemented a policy 
of  suspending  interim  payments  and  applying  financial  corrections  as  soon  as  it  is 
established that there are serious deficiencies which put at risk the reimbursements of 
Funds made to Member States. It also established a revised manual of procedures to 
streamline  the  internal  arrangements  for  the  adoption  of  suspension  and  correction 
decisions. 

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Where, after due verifications, the Commission finds that the expenditure certified in 
an interim payment application is linked to a serious irregularity and not immediate 
remedial  action  is  taken  by  the  Member  State,  the  formal  suspension  of  payments 
procedure is launched. During 2008 DG REGIO adopted for the Cohesion Fund one 
suspension  decision  concerning  Bulgaria  in  relation  to  two  projects  in  the  road 
sector. 

Financial  corrections  totalling  €  92.7  m illion  were  made  in  2008  as  follow-up  to 
audits  by  the  Commission  or  the  Court  or  Auditors  or  to  OLAF  enquiries.  Of  this 
total,  €  38.2  million  related  to  project s  of  the  1994-99  programming  period  and  
€  54.5  million  to  the  2000-2006  period.  The  co rrections  were  either  applied  by 
formal  Commission  decisions  (€  66.2  million)  or  were  accepted  by  the  Member 
States without the need for a decision (€ 26.5 million). 

Four  financial  correction  decisions  related  to  Cohesion  Fund  projects  in  the  1994-
1999 programming period were adopted for an amount of € 31.5 million and nine for 
the 2000-2006 programming period for an amount of € 34.7 million. 

Of  the  €  26.5  million  of  corrections  acc epted  by  the  Member  States  €  6.7  million 
related  to  1994-1999  and  €  19.8  million  to  2000-2006.  These  are  implemented  by 
deduction from payment claims or from the balance payable at closure.  

Table  5  illustrates  the  amount  of  financial  corrections  by  Member  State  and 
programming period. 

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Table 5: Cohesion Fund financial corrections in 2008 by period and country (in EUR) 

Member State 

Cohesion Fund 

TOTAL 

Greece  

Spain  

Ireland 

Portugal  

EU 4 

Cyprus 

Czech Republic 

Estonia  

Hungary 

Latvia 

Lithuania  

Malta 

Poland  

Slovenia 

Slovakia 

EU 10 

Bulgaria  

Romania 

EU 2 

TOTAL 

Period 
2000-2006 

Period 
1994-1999 

23,405,436 

5,674,477 

29,079,913 

19,927,164 

32,483,151 

52,410,315 

- 

11,062,188 

- 

- 

- 

11,062,188 

63,259,764 

38,157,628 

92,552,416 

- 

- 

125,073 

- 

- 

65,833 

- 

123 

- 

- 

191,029 

6,156 

- 

6,156 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

125,073 

- 

- 

65,833 

- 

123 

- 

- 

191,029 

6,156 

- 

6,156 

54,591,973 

38,157,628 

92,749,601 

Management and Control systems 

In the Directorate General's Annual Activity Report for 2008, for the functioning of 
the management and control systems (2000-2006), an unqualified opinion, signifying 
that there are no material deficiencies in key elements of the system, was given for 
the  Cohesion  Fund  systems  in  seven  Member  States  (Cyprus,  Estonia,  Hungary  – 
transport  sector,  Latvia,  Malta,  Portugal  and  Slovenia)  corresponding  to  15.45%  of 
payments made in 2008 as a proportion of total payments for the Cohesion Fund. 

For  ten  Member  States,  representing  84.55%  of  CF  payments  made  in  2008,  the 
opinion was qualified, signifying the existence of material deficiencies in key system 

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elements.  This  concerned  Bulgaria, 
the  Czech  Republic,  Greece,  Hungary 
(environment sector), Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. In all 
cases the impact of the deficiencies was judged to be moderate, except for the road 
sector in Bulgaria. 

For  the  road  sector  in  Bulgaria  the  opinion  was  qualified  with  the  impact  of  the 
material deficiencies affecting key elements of the system being judged significant. 
Accordingly,  a  reservation  was  made  for  the  road  sector  in  Bulgaria  in  the 
Directorate  General's  Annual  Activity  report  for  2008.  The  Commission  suspended 
payments to the Bulgarian road sector projects between July 2008 and May 2009 for 
this reason. 

Details  on  the  audits  and  the  financial  corrections  for  each  Member  State  are 
presented in the Annex to this report. 

4. 

IRREGULARITIES NOTIFIED BY THE MEMBER STATES 

In  2008,  the  Member  States  communicated  to  the  Commission,  in  accordance  with 
Regulation  (EC)  No  1831/94,  140  notifications  of  irregularities  involving  a  total 
affected  amount  of  €  56,328,911  in  respect  of   co-financed  projects.  Out  of  this 
amount,  €  19,768,042  has  been  recovered,  and 
the  remaining  amount  is  to  be 
recovered.  The  Member  States  reporting  the  majority  of  cases  are  Spain,  Portugal, 
Hungary and Greece (64, 22, 13 and 12 respectively). Spain reported more than 46% 
of the total of the cases and 44% of the involved amount. However, it is to be pointed 
out that Ireland, with three notifications relating to the 1994-1999 period, stands on 
the second highest level in terms of amount involved, followed by Lithuania. 

The  number  of  notifications  shows  an  increase,  with  a  radical  decrease  of  the 
involved  amount,  compared  to  the  previous  year.  The  main  types  of  irregularities 
reported  are  ineligible  expenditure,  and  infringements  to  public  procurement  rules. 
These  two  typologies  cover  almost  75%  of  all  cases  reported.  However,  the 
Lithuanian authorities reported two cases of "suspected fraud". The involved amount 
concerning both cases is yet to be calculated. 

Table  6  illustrates  the  number  of  irregularities  and  the  related  financial  amounts 
communicated by Member States under Regulation (EC) No 1831/94 in 2008. 

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Table 6: Irregularities communicated by Member States in 2008 (in EUR) 

Member State 

Number of 
irregularities 

Financial amounts 

Amounts awaiting 
recovery 

Greece 

Spain 

Ireland 

Portugal 

EU 4 

Cyprus 

Czech Republic 

Estonia 

Hungary 

Latvia 

Lithuania 

Malta 

Poland 

Slovenia 

Slovakia 

EU 10 

TOTAL 

12 

64 

3 

22 

101 

0 

2 

2 

13 

5 

8 

0 

7 

0 

2 

39 

140 

4,937,771 

326,398 

24,827,955 

14,442,900 

9,498,140 

5,655,879 

0 

2,602,188 

44,919,745 

17,371,486 

0 

88,210 

129,614 

0 

0 

0 

1,400,938 

1,033,292 

86,279 

8,280,568 

0 

214,754 

0 

86,279 

47,056 

0 

65,550 

0 

1,208,803 

1,164,379 

11,409,166 

2,396,556 

56,328,911 

19,768,042 

5. 

EVALUATION 

The Commission and the Member States carry out appraisal and evaluation of all co-
financed  projects. The  projects  to  be  financed  by  the  Fund  are  adopted  by  the 
Commission in agreement with the beneficiary Member States. 

Each request for assistance is accompanied by a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the 
project. The CBA has to demonstrate that the socio-economic benefits in the medium 
term  are  proportionate  to  the  financial  resources  mobilised. The  Commission 
examines this CBA on the basis of the principles set out in the guide for cost-benefit 
analysis. The guide, first published in 2003, was updated in 2008 to incorporate the 
development  of  Community  policies,  financial  instruments  and  the  new  regulatory 
framework  under  which  major  projects  will  be  financed  during  the  2007-2013 
programming period. 

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In  2008,  the  Commission  continued  to  assist  Member  States  through  actions  of 
capacity  building  aiming  to  improve  the  consistency  of  the  ex-ante  financial  and 
economic  analysis  of  the  projects.  As  a  result,  the  Guide  rapidly  achieved  a  wider 
circulation,  both  within  civil  servants  in  Member  States  and  candidate  countries  as 
well  as  within  the  staff  of  financial  institutions  and  consultants  involved  in  the 
preparation  and  evaluation  of  major  projects.  A  printed  version  of  the  Guide  was 
therefore  published,  providing  methodological  guidance  to  project  promoters  in  the 
Member States and candidate countries, while serving as a reference to Commission 
officials involved in the appraisal of major projects. 

In addition, the Commission carries out ex-post evaluation on samples of projects co-
financed  by  the  Cohesion  Fund. The  last  evaluation  was  published  in  2005  and 
looked at a sample of 200 projects implemented over the 1993-2002 period. The next 
ex-post  evaluation  will  be  launched  in  the  last  quarter  of  2009  and  will  look  at  a 
sample of both Cohesion Fund and ISPA projects implemented during the 2000-2006 
period. 

6. 

INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY 

As indicated in the annual report for 2007, issues concerning the Cohesion Fund are, 
as  from  1  January  2007,  dealt  within  the  Coordination  Committee  of  the  Funds 
(COCOF, according to Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006). 

Apart from issues of common interest for ERDF and Cohesion Fund, some issues of 
specific  interest  for  the  Cohesion  Fund  were  presented  or  discussed  during  the 
following  meetings  of  the  COCOF:  in  February  the  revised  "Guidelines  for  the 
amendment of Cohesion Fund projects 2000-2006", and in April the "Guidelines on 
the  closure  of  Cohesion  Fund  and  Ex-ISPA  projects  2000-2006",  which  were 
adopted by the Commission on 4 April (No (SEC(2008)415). 

As regards the Commission measures on information and publicity, the focus in 2008 
was on implementation of the publicity requirements for the 2007-2013 period. One 
of the biggest challenges was the examination of compatibility of the communication 
plans,  as  requested  by  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1828/2006.  A  network  of 
communication  officers  responsible  for  implementation  of  the  information  and 
publicity  rules  for  ERDF  and  Cohesion  Fund  ("INFORM")  met  in  June  and  in 
November.  DG  Regional  Policy  published  a  "Review  of  EU  Cohesion  Policy 
Communication  Plans  2007-2013  -  Activities  of  national  and  regional  managing 
authorities in the field of communication". The review, materials from the INFORM 
meetings,  as  well  as  various  information  and  publicity  tools  prepared  for  both 
Cohesion Fund and ERDF, are available at a dedicated website3. 

3 

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/country/commu/index_en.cfm?nmenu=1 

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