Budgetary
commitments
The budgetary commitments of the Community are established yearly
on the basis of the decision of participation of the Funds.
The first commitment is implemented
when the Commission decides to approve the intervention. The following
commitments are usually established yearly prior to April 30.

Payments
The Commission will transfer to the paying authority the share of
the Funds in accordance with budgetary commitments.
The paying authority will ensure
that the final beneficiaries receive the amounts of the share of
the funds to which they are entitled.
Payment may be made through advance
payments, intermediate payments or balance payments.
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Throughout the
intervention, the paying authority will make use of advance
payments to cover community participation in the expenses related
to that intervention
The Commission will
make intermediate payments to refund expenses paid in accordance
with the Funds and certified by the paying authority. They will
be made depending on each intervention and will be calculated
in accordance with the measures set in the financial plan of
the programme complement.
Member states will ensure that the applications
for intermediate payments are presented to the Commission grouped
together three times a year, the last on the 31st of October at
the latest.
Applications for intermediate payment will specify,
for each priority, expenses paid in the regions or areas benefiting
from the transitory assistance.
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Payment of the
balance will be made if the paying authority has issued a certified
declaration of expenses paid to the Commission; if the final
implementation report has been presented to and approved by
the Commission; and if the member state summarises the conclusions
of controls made in previous years and makes a declaration regarding
the validity of the application for payment of the balance,
as well as the legality and regularity of the registered operations.

Monitoring
System
The managing authority will be responsible for ensuring effective
and proper management and implementation of the actions.
Each CSF or SPD and each Operational Programme
will be supervised by a Monitoring Committee.
The managing authority and the Monitoring Committee
monitor by means of physical and financial indicators defined in
the Operational Programme, the SPD or the programme complement.
Said indicators include the specific objectives, the stage of the
intervention with regard to performance, results or impacts, and
the state of implementation of the finance plan.
Every year, a report prepared and approved by
the Monitoring Committee is sent to the Commission, including any
changes in the general conditions affecting the implementation of
the intervention; the situation of the application of the priority
and the measures which correspond to each Fund, in relation to their
specific objectives; the financial implementation of the intervention;
the provisions made to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the
application; and the measures taken to guarantee compatibility with
community policies.
The Commission and the management authority analyse
the main results together, following which they may make observations
and recommendations for adjustments to be made for the purpose of
improving monitoring activities or management of the intervention.
Follow-up Bulletin of
E.S.F. aids

Evaluation
For the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of the structural
intervention, community actions will be subject to an ex-ante evaluation,
an intermediate evaluation and an ex-post evaluation. In addition,
at the initiative of the Member States or of the Commission, complementary
evaluations can be carried out, focusing on specific themes, so
as to define experiences which can be transferred.
The effectiveness of the actions
is measured in accordance with the global impact on the objectives
established in the Treaty, and specifically, the strengthening of
the economic and social cohesion of the Community, as well as the
impact of the priorities included in the plans and provided for
in the community support frameworks..
The
ex-ante evaluation serves as the basis for the preparation
of the plans, interventions and complement of the programme they
correspond to. It is implemented under the responsibility of the
authorities in charge of preparing said programme plans, interventions
and complement.
The ex-ante evaluation includes aspects
related to:
The
social and economic situation
The
region's environmental situation, with the provisions made
and adopted to guarantee respect of community legislation
in this matter
The
situation in terms of equal labour market opportunities and
treatment for men and women.
The
intermediate evaluation analyses, on the basis of the ex-ante
evaluation, the initial results of the intervention; its relevance
and achievement of objectives. Use of the credits is also analysed,
along with the implementation of monitoring and of the application,
with respect to each CSF and each intervention. The management
authority is in charge of this assessment, in collaboration with
the Commission and the member state. It is to be implemented in
2 phases which end in the years 2003 and 2005.So
the first phase of the intermediate evaluation,
corresponding to the period 2000-2002, it has thrown the first
results of the total programming.
The
objective of the ex-post evaluation is to account for the
use of resources, of the effectiveness and efficiency of the interventions
and their impact, and will draw conclusions for policy in the
field of economic and social cohesion.
It will indicate the success or failure of the different actions,
including the measures taken and their results.
The Commission, in collaboration with the member state and the
management authority, will be in charge of this evaluation,
which will finalise at the latest three years after the end
of the programming period.

Financial
control
Each member state assumes responsibility for the financial control
of the interventions, including:
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Verification
that efficient and acceptable use of Community Funds is guaranteed,
informing the Commission of provisions made to that respect
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Guarantees
that the interventions are managed in accordance with community
legislation, preventing and correcting, if need be, any irregularities
for the purpose of ensuring, in co-operation with the Commission,
that funds are used pursuant to the principles of proper financial
management.
Certification
that the declarations of expenses submitted to the Commission
are correct and precise.
To that end, the member states carry out regular
controls of the interventions. In addition, the Commission, as the
body responsible for the application of the general budget of the
European Union, is entitled to implement on-site controls of the
operations it finances and of the management and control systems
applied.
The Commission and the member states co-operate
to co-ordinate the programs, the methodology and the application
of controls for the purpose of maximising their usefulness. Once
a year they examine and assess the results of the controls carried
out; the observations that may have been made by other national
or community control bodies or institutions; and the financial repercussions
of any existing irregularities, the measures taken or needed to
correct them and, if appropriate, the modifications of management
and control systems.
In the event of possible irregularities, the
member state is responsible for investigating and taking action,
implementing the appropriate financial corrections, with total or
partial elimination of community participation.

Information
and publicity
The management authority and those in charge of implementing structural
community interventions are responsible for ensuring the publicity
of said intervention and of informing of the possibilities offered
potential final beneficiaries, professional organisations, social
and economic agents, bodies devoted to the promotion of equal opportunities
for men and women and non-governmental organisations. Furthermore,
they are responsible for informing public opinion regarding the
role of the Community in the interventions.
In each programme and in each SPD,
the programme complement will include the measures intended to guarantee
the information and publicity regarding the intervention.
In their yearly reports and in the
final ones on the implementation of the interventions, the Monitoring
Committees must include elements concerning provisions made for
the publicity of the intervention.
Information and publicity measures
are those related to development plans, community support frameworks,
operational programmes, single programming documents and community
initiative programmes.
The European Commission publishes
a Guidebook regarding information and publicity rules for activities
related to Structural Funds and the FIFG.
The UAFSE publishes
a Guide of Information and Communication
about the norms of information and publicity for the activities
of FSE.
For graphic specifications about
the european emblem, used in all publicity measures of cofinanced
helps, click here


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