Materials on EU funds Programming

While the EU regulations for the Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 themselves contain many important provisions on integrating environmental protection and fostering sustainable development, the draft Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes presented by national governments do not fully exploit the potential to build a green, sustainable economy with the help of the EU budget.

CEE Bankwatch Network and Friends of the Earth campaigners across the central and eastern Europe region have reviewed the draft documents, detecting a number of problematic issues – both regarding the funding priorities and the process of EU funds programming itself.

A highly problematic Danube dam project has found its way into the Slovak Operational Programme for the Cohesion Policy spending in the 2014-2020 period and has become a small scandal in the country.

At the moment from an NGO's point of view the Operational Programme of Latvia looks well defined and very promising in general. But the way how the OP is described at the moment is too general also for a SEA to assess the possible negative impacts on environment as well as for NGOs to consider that the implementation of OP could cause serious environmental problems, let alone the strategic direction Latvia chose to follow with support of ESI funds.

The Czech Republic's long-standing difficulties in realising major waste incinerator schemes via EU funds investments have taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks as the European Commission has poured cold water on the country's incineration plans, both as they apply to the 2007-2013 EU funding period and to the forthcoming 2014-2020 period now entering the final stages of negotiations.