(11 June 2015) – The European Commission announced two days ago its intention to create a High Level Group on Simplification. Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) is concerned.
The new group aims to reduce the administrative burden for beneficiaries to access the five European Structural and Investment Funds. It will assess and monitor to what extent opportunities to simplify access and use of the funds are being taken up by Member States.
Former Commission Vice President Siim Kallas will chair this group which is planned to run for three years. Special focus is to be put on five priorities:
- Facilitating access to funding for SMEs.
- Tackling the practice of so called “Gold plating” practice, where extra requirements or administrative hurdles are added at national or regional level, including in the process of selecting projects.
- Using simpler ways to reimburse costs.
- Increasing the use of online procedures, such as “e-cohesion” in Cohesion Policy funded projects.
- Analysing how projects initiated and managed by local communities are implemented (Community-Led Local Development / CLLD).
Furthermore, the group is to make recommendations to improve the implementation of simplification measures on the way forward for post-2020.