REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Annual Monitoring Report on the implementation of the 2020 Structural Reform Support Programme
Date: 2023-06-29
Institutions: Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU aid, EU financing, EU programme, administrative reform, coronavirus disease, economic reform, epidemic, institutional reform, structural adjustment

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 29.6.2023  COM(2023) 352 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Annual Monitoring Report on the implementation of the 2020 Structural Reform Support Programme {SWD(2023) 222 final}  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
AND THE COUNCIL 

Annual Monitoring Report on the implementation of the 2020 Structural Reform 
Support Programme 

INTRODUCTION 

The European Commission has managed the Structural Reform Support Programme 
(SRSP) from 2017 until 2020. The SRSP, had an overall budget of EUR 222.8 million1 
and was aimed at strengthening Member States’ capacity to prepare and implement 
growth-enhancing  reforms,  including  by  providing  assistance  for  the  efficient  and 
effective  use  of  EU  funds.  The  final  decisions  on  the  design,  structure  and 
implementation of the reforms were always in the hands of the Member States. Support 
from  the  SRSP  was  available  to  all  EU  Member  States  upon  request,  required  no  co-
financing and involved very little administrative burden for Member States. In 2020, the 
SRSP  also  helped  Members  States  to  design  and  prepare  their  national  Recovery  and 
Resilience Plans. The SRSP was managed by the Commission’s DG REFORM. 

The  objective  of  the  SRSP  was  to  enhance  cohesion,  improve  competitiveness, 
productivity, sustainable growth, job creation and investment by helping Member States 
address  these  challenges  and  strengthen  their  capacity  to  prepare  and  implement 
growth-enhancing  reforms.  Structural  reforms  are,  by  their  very  nature,  complex 
processes.  Designing  and  implementing  these  reforms  requires  highly  specialised 
knowledge  and  skills  at  every  stage.  The  SRSP helped  to  strengthen  public  institutions 
and  administrations,  improve  governance  processes,  and  improve  the  performance  and 
resilience of the economy and society at large. 

2020  was  marked  by  the  global  outbreak  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  The  lockdown 
measures taken by EU Member States, although necessary for limiting the spread of the 
virus,  inevitably  had  grave  economic  and  social  impacts.  In  this  context,  the  SRSP 
became even more relevant  to  help  Member States  make fundamental  reform efforts to 
boost their economies and create the foundations of a sound recovery. 

This report provides an overview of the measures supported under the 2020 SRSP. It 
describes the process of selecting and implementing projects and gives an account of the 
results achieved by the programme.  

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SRSP 2020 

2020 was the fourth and final year of activities under the SRSP. Like in the previous 
years of the SRSP, there was an increasingly high demand for the programme. In total, 
27  Member  States  submitted  660  requests  for  support,  for  an  amount  estimated  at 
more  than  twice  the  SRSP’s  2020  budget  of  EUR  89.9  million.  These  requests  were 
submitted via different calls: 

  609 requests were submitted via the general SRSP 2020 call 

1  The  budget  increased  when  the  original  SRSP  Regulation  (EU)  2017/825  (OJ  L  129,  19.5.2017,  p.  1-16)  was 
amended (Regulation (EU) 2018/1671, OJ L 284, 12.11.2018, p. 3-5).  

1 

 
                                                 
  17  requests  were  submitted  under  the  special  call  for  a  targeted  training  on 

insurance supervision 

  18 requests were submitted under the dedicated call to support Member States for 

the preparation of their Territorial Just Transition Plans  

  14  requests  were  submitted  by  Greece  in  line  with  Article  11  of  the  SRSP 

Regulation 

  2  requests  were  submitted  by  Slovakia  and  Croatia  as  special  measures  in  the 
event of unforeseen and duly justified grounds of urgency requiring an immediate 
response, in line with Article 13.6 of the SRSP Regulation 

The  Commission  assessed  Member  States’  requests  against  the  principles  and 
criteria laid down in the SRSP Regulation and selected 287 requests from 27 Member 
States, which resulted in 270 projects.  

The selected requests were distributed across the main policy areas as follows:  

  19% – financial services and access to finance;  
  17% – governance and public administration; 
  28% – growth and business environment (including climate and environment); 
  21% – labour market, education, health and social policy; and 
  14% – revenue administration and public financial management. 

In line with the principle of sound financial management, priority was given to requests 
that  made  it  possible  to  quickly  deliver  support  and  rapidly  implement  reforms  on 
the ground. Requests that addressed well-defined objectives, and which were likely to 
have a strong impact, were also a priority.  

94% of requests selected for funding under the SRSP 2020 were directly related to 
the EU’s strategic priorities:  

  57% went  to  implementing  reforms  in  response to challenges highlighted in  the 
European  Semester  process  (country-specific  recommendations  and  country 
reports);  

  30% went to implementating EU priorities (the capital markets union, the digital 

single market, the energy union, climate objectives, etc.);  

  5% went to implementing the EU’s economic adjustment programmes; and 
  2% went to implementing EU law. 

Of  the  remaining  funds,  5%  were  related  to  the  implementation  of  Member  States’ 
reforms  linked  to  other  priorities  and  1%  were  related  to  the  preparation  the  national 
Recovery and Resilience Plans. 

PROGRESS  TOWARDSTHE PROGRAMME’S OBJECTIVES 

Actions  selected  and  implemented  under  the  SRSP  2020  were  designed  to  ensure 
European  added  value.  The  SRSP  complemented  other  programmes  and  policies  at 
national,  EU  and  international  level.  It  also  promoted  mutual  trust  and  cooperation 
between  beneficiary  Member  States  and  the  Commission.  In  addition,  SRSP  actions 
supported  the  development  and  implementation  of  solutions  that  address  national 
challenges  while  also  having  a  positive  impact  on  EU-wide  challenges  or  challenges 
involving  several  Member  States.  SRSP  actions  also  helped  the  economic  recovery 
from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

2 

 
 
 
 
It is not within the remit of this report to illustrate the ultimate effects of the reforms on 
which a Member State may have embarked as a result of SRSP support measures. This is 
the purpose of the mid-term evaluation and the ex-post evaluation of the SRSP.  

The  mid-term  evaluation  of  the  SRSP,  covering  covering  the  programme’s  budgetary 
cycles 2017 and 2018, has concluded that the SRSP was on track in delivering on its 
general  objective  and  that  it  addressed  adequately  the  needs  of  Member  States:  the 
programme remained relevant and needed. The evaluation also concluded that the SRSP 
was progressing towards achieving its results, even though it was facing challenges such 
as  weak  collaboration  among  stakeholders,  political  changes,    political  instability,  and 
resource constraints. 

The independent ex-post evaluation report of the SRSP, concluding on the results of the 
entire programme and including information on its longer-term impact, will be published 
by mid-2023.  

CONCLUSION 

Reforms  are  crucial  to  modernise  the  economies  of  the  Member  States,  encourage 
investment,  create  jobs,  and  raise  living  standards.  The  successful  implementation  of 
reforms requires good administrative capacity and a strong sense of ownership of the 
reform  process  by  the  Member  State  concerned.  The  SRSP  aimed  to  help  Member 
State authorities in their efforts to design and implement growth-enhancing reforms. The 
COVID-19  pandemic  had  grave  economic  and  social  impacts  across  the  EU.  In  this 
context,  the  SRSP's    activities  became  even  more  relevant  than  ever  to  help  Member 
States  make  fundamental  reform  efforts  to  boost  their  economies  and  create  the 
foundations of a sound recovery. 

In its fourth and final year, the SRSP saw another increase in demand, with 27 Member 
States submitting 660 requests for support, out of which 287 were selected, resulting in 
270 projects to be implemented.  

Overall, during the 2017-2020 period, the SRSP was the subject of growing interest from 
Member States. In 2017, 16 Member States requested and received technical support to 
address their reform agenda under the programme. By 2020, all 27 Member States were 
part  of  the  programme.  The  SRSP  demonstrated  its  capacity  to  support  national 
authorities identify and overcome structural weaknesses and bottlenecks when designing 
and implementing reforms.   

However,  although  the  SRSP’s  measures  aim  to  support  the  reform  process,  the 
recipient Member State is responsible for both effective follow-up of the actions and 
actual implementation of the reforms.  

With a view to continuing to provide technical support to Member States after the end of 
the  SRSP  in  2020,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  adopted  a  Regulation 
establishing the successor to the SRSP - the Technical Support Instrument2 - which has a 
similar scope and objectives, but a larger budget.  

2  Regulation  (EU)  2021/240  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  10  February  2021 

establishing a Technical Support Instrument, OJ L 57, 18.2.2021, p. 1 – 16. 

3 

 
 
                                                 
The  Commission  will  continue  to  monitor  the  uptake  of  the  support  measures  and  the 
implementation  of  institutional,  administrative  and  growth-enhancing  reforms  in  the 
years to come.  

4