European Regional Development Fund

Written evidence submitted by Network for Europe

Network for Europe

We are a voluntary organisation which represents and supports Civil Society in the North West of England in relation to the European Structural Funds. NFE has been in operation since 1986, and is funded through Technical Assistance as part of the ESF and ERDF Programmes, and co-ordinates Civil Society Representation on the various committees and sub-committees in the North West. It has links to other civil society organisations in the UK, and in other parts of Europe.

European Regional Development Fund

ERDF has been useful in England in the current 2007-13 programme, in particular in the development and implementation of strategic projects and partnership working, but more could have been done to enhance its effect. In particular lessons learnt should be built into the new programmes to be developed for 2014-20.

ERDF has a seven year cycle, which encourages longer term strategic thinking, allowing more effective and efficient solutions to be delivered.

In our view repatriation would have a negative effect on the funds - there are significant advantages in having funds connected to a long term strategy, and being able to compare our solutions and experience with those of other countries.

What is it for?

ERDF and the other European Structural Funds are designed to support Economic and Social Cohesion. As such, they are more concentrated in the poorer areas within Europe, where there needs to be change - in particular for the people and enterprises here. Consequently, a large proportion of the funds are allocated to the North of England. The North West has the largest regional allocation - more than several of the other regions put together (see figures attached).

North West Priorities

We have a spreadsheet of which projects have been supported in the North West (can forward if required).

There are four main priorities (budget headings) -

1 Support for growth enterprises

2 Knowledge economy (mainly to Universities)

3 Sites and premises (including Transport and Tourism)

4 Worst off areas (developing disadvantaged people and areas)

While less developed parts of Europe will focus on roads, bridges and big capital projects, England is more mature, and so ERDF can focus on a range of support, including advice, guidance and mentoring for enterprises, and the creation of conditions for growth.

As usual, the ERDF Operational Programme in the North West gives a detailed analysis of the area, including its strengths and weaknesses, with a detailed strategy and budget for change. Since on average half of the funding in the programme comes from Europe, this encourages aligning local, national and European strategies and funding.

A particular advantage is that the programme covers seven years - so strategies are medium term - longer than the life of any parliament. But the plans were written at the start of the programme, and need to meet the changing economic circumstances. This long term aspect to the funding is one which is welcomed and supported by the Civil Society organizations we work with.

Operating the ERDF programme

ESF and ERDF programmes have to be developed by a partnership (including national and local government, private sector, civil society etc), but the programme itself was managed by the North West Development Agency, until its abolition. For a variety of reasons the Programme got off to a very slow start. This in turn led to a concern over "de-commitment" (money has to be spent and claimed within two years of the yearly budget or it is lost), which led to the payment of almost a quarter of the money to projects which are only now beginning to spend.

In addition in our view, appraisal procedures became unnecessarily complex, with a long iterative process before approval, and standard forms, for example for offer letters, were not generally in use.

Nevertheless, progress has been made, and there is significant activity to be seen on the ground. Measurements of what has happened, and what works are being taken, and there is discussion of how best to use this for the next programme.

Looking, for example at better connections between the two main funds (ERDF with ESF), at a stronger role for Social Business and for Social Innovation, and a wider use of Financial Instruments (ERDF for loans rather than grants), to lever in more funding and use it more effectively). Network for Europe is very supportive of this direction of travel.

Particular examples

With the economic changes, the European Commission changed the rules to allow up to 4% of ERDF to be spent on energy efficiency and generation for Social Housing, to kick start local green jobs. The North West was able to respond to this, and re-allocate 3% of ERDF to this heading.

Social Business (and Social Enterprise) was supported in the last programme, and is a growing source of jobs, especially for the worst off areas and amongst disadvantaged groups. It will be a strong focus in the next European Programme (with the launch of the European Social Business Initiative). ERDF support in this programme has been a useful way to create jobs across the region.

Overall, the benefit of ERDF has been the development of Strategic Partnership working, and the change to CLG has begun to support this more - with strategies jointly developed between the partners, and administration coming from the CLG.

Our view is that Civil Society has a key role to play in the remainder of this current programme and in addition has an opportunity with support for organizations such as ourselves to prepare to play an even more significant role in the next programme.

Network for Europe

April 2012