STRUCTURAL FUNDS : MAXIMUM CO-FINANCING FOR COUNTRIES HIT HARDEST BY CRISIS.

• Position: Brief article

Special temporary rules on Structural Fund co-financing have entered the final straight: the Council adopted, on 12 December 2011, a regulation that temporarily raises to at most 95% of programme costs the co-financing rate under EU Structural Funds in countries most affected by the crisis. The countries eligible for the measure at this stage are Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Latvia and Hungary, because they have received financial assistance under the balance of payments support mechanism (Romania, Latvia and Hungary) or under the European Financial Stability Facility (Greece, Ireland and Portugal). By allowing these states to lower their share of co-financing of projects supported by the Structural Funds, the Commission hopes to promote continuing execution of programmes on the ground during this critical period of tight national budgets.

Under the compromise, the higher...