EU funds for roads - CEDR

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- National governments cannot practically implement the required upgrading of their public
administrations, for example, by implementing measures leading to the incorporation of the
requirements of the EC Services in their operation routines or the upgrading of the
effectiveness of the administrations so that they can implement the co-financed interventions
quicker but without violating the existing rules and best practices.
• Insufficient time-frame for the proper implementation of all life-cycle stages of a project
It is quite typical for the whole life cycle of the co-financed projects/programmes to be squeezed
into an impossible time-frame. The main reason for this is that the competent authorities do not
have ‘mature’ projects at the beginning of the programming period mainly because they do not
have enough national funds for the early implementation of the design studies, investigations,
public consultations etc. for their projects. Given the very strict eligibility frame of each
programming period (which extends to about seven years), it is, of course, impossible to start
the ‘preparation’ of a road project at the beginning of the programming period and have the
project constructed at the end of the period.
This is why in such cases the project-implementing authorities usually try a number of ‘tricks’
that usually lead to mistakes, problems, and/or the non-eligibility of the relevant expenses. The
final results are usually disappointing:
Projects cannot be implemented within the eligible time-frame, which may lead either to
difficulties in meeting the remaining funding needs with purely national (own) funds, or
even to the return of the EU funds received so far (when the completion of the project
with own funds is not possible within the logical time-frame).
Available EU funds are not ultimately used (which means that the expected results and
impacts from their proper use are not achieved).
The state budget is stretched, which can lead to fiscal problems for countries with weak
national economies.
The lessons learned from the implementation of EU co-funded projects are valuable and should
always be considered in order to improve the situation (at least from one period to the next). The
recommendations resulting from the two examples outlined above are given below.
In order to have positive results from the implementation of projects that are co-financed by
money from EU funds, the funds’ recipients should at least:
- ensure they fully respect the relevant national and EU legal and regulatory frameworks;
- start the ‘preparation’ of their projects sufficiently early to ensure that they can be
implemented within the available time-frame of the programming period;
- develop their capacity and improve their effectiveness without resorting to any illegal
measures (e.g. bribes, conflicts of interest, illegal hiring of extra capacity);
- make special efforts with regard to the management of these projects, e.g. by conducting
periodic risk analyses and assessments of the progress pace of the projects.
EU funds for roads