Public event regarding the preparation of the Partnership Agreement and the Operational Programme
Ljubljana, 14 March 2014 – Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy organised a public event regarding the preparation of the strategic document the Partnership Agreement (PA) and the implementing programming document the Operational Programme (OP) for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy in the period 2014-2020. The State Secretary at the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy addressed the participants of the event, including the representatives of the European Commission. The State Secretary underlined that the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy is one of the priorities of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and that the key investments will be targeted at promoting research, innovation and technological development, enhancing the competitiveness of the economy and employment. The Partnership Agreement will be formally submitted to the European Commission at the beginning of April and the Operational Programmed will be submitted shortly after the submission of the Partnership Agreement.
Slovenia began with the preparation of the two documents, namely the Partnership Agreement (PA) and the Operational Programme (OP), already at the end of 2012. The programming is nearing its final phase. All the while Slovenia consulted with the European Commission as well as with other relevant stakeholders at the national, regional and local level, namely in accordance with the partnership principle. The latest such consultation took place in Ljubljana where the European Commission representatives congratulated Slovenia for the progress made in the preparation of the documents during the last few months. Raphaël Goulet from the Directorate-General for Regional Policy said that none of the Member States has signed the documents with the European Commission yet and that Slovenia should also focus on absorbing the remaining available funds under the financial perspective 2007-2013, namely by the end of 2015. He highlighted that the preparation of the documents needs to focus on selecting the investments with a clearly defined strategy and with concrete objectives and impacts which will contribute to the realisation of the Europe 2020 Strategy and will strengthen competitiveness, provide jobs and take advantage of the natural resources in a manner of concentrated investing.
State Secretary Andreja Kert said that Slovenia will use the 4 billion euros, available under the five funds over the next seven-year period, for the investments which will bring long-term and sustainable economic growth to Slovenia and for investments in employment by taking into account sustainable use of resources and sustainable mobility, environmental challenges and climate change. “We will allocate over one billion to the promotion of entrepreneurship, launch of new enterprises, internationalisation and the development of new business models for small and medium-sized enterprise; over 500 million euros will be allocated to investments in employment, strengthening and human resources development, mobility and investments into the educational system and the system of training to enhance the transition into the labour market; 100 million euros will be allocated to sustainable inclusion of young people into the labour market; 200 million euros to enhancing social inclusion and reducing the risk of poverty as well as active aging; one billion euros of the Cohesion Fund will be allocated to the construction of environmental and transport infrastructure as well as sustainable energy uses” highlighted the State Secretary.
The participants of the debate welcomed the presented orientations and said that the main shortcoming of the documents is the field of broadband connection in rural areas where Slovenia is lagging behind the Digital Agenda 2020 targets. Proposals were made to introduce the instrument of a Community-led local development, also in the framework of European Cohesion Policy, to continue with financing the activities for adult education, which are implemented by people’s universities, to reconsider the criteria for the selection of cities under the instrument for urban development of cities, to increase the amount of resources for investments in infrastructure of local and regional significance by reallocating the funds from the priority axis for entrepreneurship, to enhance cooperation between the academia and the private sector. The participants proposed to review the implementation of all the Funds under the period 2007-2013 with the aim of identifying the instruments the implementation of which can continue and which has brought evident results. The participants also spoke in favour of further removing administrative barriers and simplifying the procedures.
Andreja Kert thanked the participants for their proposals and their cooperation thus far and invited them to offer concrete proposals and incentives and thus continue with their constructive cooperation in the programming and implementation of the European Cohesion Policy by 2020.
The Partnership Agreement (PA) is the strategic document for the implementation of Cohesion Policy in the period 2014-2020. The PA should be in accordance with the Strategy Europe 2020 on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; it should also meet the Fund-specific requirements so as to establish economic, social and territorial cohesion. The PA covers the analysis of development needs, disparities and growth potentials on the basis of which it identifies investment priorities and the expected results. The PA also identifies the horizontal principles, such as partnership, enhancing equality of men and women, combating any discrimination and accessibility, sustainable development.
The Operational Programme (OP) is the implementing document which is based on national strategies, programmes and action plans of individual areas and which identify those investment priorities where Slovenia will invest the EU Cohesion Policy funds in the programming period 2014-2020 with the objective of realising national targets set within the EU 2020 objectives. For the period 2014-2020 Slovenia will prepare one operational programme for the absorption under all three European Cohesion Policy Funds – the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund.
