ARBEJDSDOKUMENT. DA Forenet i mangfoldighed DA

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1 EUROPA-PARLAMENTET Budgetkontroludvalget ARBEJDSDOKUMENT Revisionsrettens særberetning nr. 20/2014 (decharge 2013): "Har EFRUstøtten til SMV'er på e-handelsområdet været effektiv?" Budgetkontroludvalget Ordfører: Zigmantas Balčytis DT\ doc PE v01-00 Forenet i mangfoldighed

2 E-commerce technologies are viewed as a way of accelerating economic growth, of further developing the Single Market and of speeding up European integration. The Commission has therefore increasingly placed importance on the need to foster e-commerce developments, in particular through one of its flagship initiatives, the Digital Agenda for Europe (E). The EU structural funds budget has devoted three billion euro to the promotion of information and Communication Technology (ICT) uptake by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) during the programming period. The European Court of Auditors'(ECA) conclusions The audit addressed the question of whether ERDF support to SMEs in the field of e- commerce was effective and concluded that the ERDF support to ecommerce projects contributed to increasing the availability of business services online. However, shortcomings in the monitoring made it impossible to assess to what extent it contributed to the achievement of the EU and Member States ICT strategies as well as SMEs development objectives. Moreover, weak selection procedures resulted in co-funded projects that were unlikely to provide value for money. Member States operational programmes (OPs) served as a good basis for providing support to SMEs in the field of e-commerce. They included e-commerce measures in line with their national or regional needs, as defined in their respective ICT strategies. However, meaningful measurement of the progress made was sometimes jeopardised by the fact that indicators and target values were revised, frequently towards the end of the programming period, and not always with proper justification. Moreover, expenditure related to e-commerce projects was not always reported to the Commission under the correct category and this hindered its overall assessment. In 2013, the Commission addressed the slow absorption of funds by proposing an alternative use of structural funds to promote ICT-uptake by SMEs through its ICT Innovation Voucher Scheme. But it did not pay enough attention to performance monitoring, which is indispensable for evaluating actual progress made. Managing authorities focused more on outputs than on results, at both selection and monitoring stages. The limited nature of the selection criteria applied meant that they sometimes financed all eligible projects for as long as funding was available, regardless of any potential added value from the perspective of developing SMEs or the EU information society s objectives. Moreover, managing authorities were, in most cases, unable to assess the impact of a project on a SMEs development. Finally, in two of the Member States selected, they did not carry out the necessary checks on the reliability of the data fed into the system. Overall SMEs implemented the projects smoothly and outputs were generally in line with the related application. Many SMEs stated that they had benefited from the implementation of their projects but results were only measured in less than half of the projects audited. In these cases, it was found that there were benefits for over half the SMEs concerned. PE v /5 DT\ doc

3 The Commission's position concerning the Court's conclusions In general, the Commission accepted the Court's conclusions, explaining that some shortcomings were due to the legal provisions in the structural fund regulations applicable during the period , and that the new regulations for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) would remedy weaknesses. In particular the guiding principles for selection of operation, as part of OPs, would be carefully scrutinised by the Commission. Furthermore, the Commission pointed to the responsibility of managing authorities for conducting of the selection procedures, possible amendments to the programmes and for the classification of expenditures. The European Court of Auditors' recommendations 1. The Commission should ensure that it obtains consistent and reliable information from the Member States on the OPs progress, not only in financial but also in performance terms. To this end, it should: a) assess the relevance of the result indicators proposed, both when approving the OPs and subsequent amendments; b) design a monitoring system in such a way that progress towards all target values set can be measured in a timely way and allowing for comparison over time; c) suggest standard indicators relevant to EU strategic objectives on e-commerce. 2. The Commission should insist that the selection criteria and procedures put in place by the Member States ensure the selection of projects that maximise added value among applicants in terms of fostering e-commerce development in SMEs and achieving the E targets while, at the same time, ensuring such procedures are appropriate to their targeted beneficiaries in terms of the time and administrative work required. When selecting projects, Member States authorities should, where appropriate, require applicants to: a) provide justification of the need to implement the project concerned, ideally in the form of a sufficiently detailed and realistic business plan; b) demonstrate the financial viability of the project; c) demonstrate the need for public financial support in order to avoid deadweight spending; d) incentivise project owners to take the cross-border dimension of their business into account in order to fully exploit the opportunities of the Single Market. 3. The Commission should require Member States managing authorities to put management tools in place for the purpose of monitoring the impact of the grant on the business development of the SME supported. It should require in particular that: a) a minimum set of robust indicators with related targets are defined in the grant agreements, measured and subjected to subsequent monitoring, both once the DT\ doc 3/5 PE v01-00

4 project has been implemented and is operational and at a later stage, when its full impact is likely to have taken effect; b) wherever appropriate, a mechanism is introduced that ensures that payments are linked to performance and allows for their adjustment in the event of serious underperformance; c) the necessary checks and controls are carried out to ensure that the data entered into the monitoring systems are reliable and consistent. The Commission's position concerning the Court's recommendations The Commission accepted the Court's first recommendation observing that only the new ESIF programmes would put a stronger emphasis on results. In addition, the Commission was of the opinion that indicators would not be standardised as they depend on the specific objectives for operational programmes. The Commission accepted the Court's second recommendation, although pointing to the fact that whether specific incentives for cross-border dimensions in projects are appropriate would depend on the specific objectives and types of actions in a programme. The Commission agreed with the Court's third recommendation with the exception of recommendation 3(b) as results of an e-commerce projects could be influenced by external factors that cannot be known in advance, and linking ERDF payments for e- commerce with results could be difficult. Ordførerens henstillinger til eventuel indarbejdelse i betænkningen om Kommissionens decharge for 2014 Europa-Parlamentet, - glæder sig over Revisionsrettens særberetning "Har EFRU-støtten til SMV'er på e-handelsområdet været effektiv?" og er enig i dens konklusioner og anbefalinger; - glæder sig også over Kommissionens konstruktive reaktion på Revisionsrettens anbefalinger; - bemærker, at e-handelsteknologier er nøglen til at forbedre SMV ernes udvikling og konkurrenceevne; påpeger SMV ernes betydning for den økonomiske udvikling og jobskabelsen i EU; - glæder sig over, at Revisionsrettens særberetning understregede betydningen af resultatmålinger og europæisk merværdi; - bemærker, at selv om onlinehandel er blevet mere tilgængelig, så var de projekter, der var udvalgt til investering, svage; mener, at mangel på sammenligning i forbindelse med udvælgelsen af ansøgninger og på omfattende forretningsoplysninger resulterede i, at mere end en tredjedel af projekterne i ringe grad eller slet ikke gav valuta for pengene; PE v /5 DT\ doc

5 - påpeger, at ti af de 30 reviderede medfinansierede projekter ville være blevet gennemført også uden offentlig medfinansiering, at fem af disse projekter var påbegyndt, før tilskuddet blev meddelt, og at tre af dem endog var påbegyndt, inden virksomheden havde indgivet en anmodning om medfinansiering; - mener, at det bør være obligatorisk at fremlægge en forretningsplan, der viser den europæiske merværdi, for at undgå dødvægtsudgifter; - understreger, at medlemsstaterne bør indføre udvælgelseskriterier og -procedurer, der sikrer, at de udvalgte projekter maksimerer merværdien med hensyn til at fremme udviklingen af e-handel i SMV'er og nå målene for den digitale dagsorden for Europa; - bemærker, at manglende overvågning fra Kommissionens side gjorde det umuligt at vurdere, i hvilket omfang EFRU-støtte har bidraget til opfyldelsen af målene for informationsteknologi på nationalt plan og på EU-plan samt SMV ernes egne forretningsplaner; - mener, at Kommissionen bør sikre, at den modtager sammenhængende og pålidelige oplysninger fra medlemsstaterne om fremskridt i de operationelle programmers resultater; - deler Revisionsrettens synspunkt om, at et minimumssæt solide indikatorer med tilhørende mål bør defineres i tilskudsaftalerne og måles og efterfølgende overvåges, både når projektet er gennemført og er i drift samt på et senere tidspunkt med henblik på at evaluere resultaterne. DT\ doc 5/5 PE v01-00