ESIF Programme Monitoring Committee closure of 2014-20 programmes paper: December 2021

Purpose

To provide members with the key dates associated with the closure of the 2014-20 programme provided by the European Commission (EC). A list of the provisional key dates are detailed in the table below.

Decision

This paper provides the Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) with an update on the closure dates for the 2014-2020 Programme - no decisions are required from members.

Background

The Managing Authority (MA) issued an e-bulletin on 23 October 2021 alerting Lead Partners (LP) to the closure guidance published by the EC on 15 October 2021. The MA are currently reviewing the guidance to assess what potential impacts these dates may have on activities and projects supported through the European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes. 

The MA will attend a UK-wide meeting with the EC on 29 November 2021, at which the MA will have the opportunity to comment and ask questions about the guidance. Once the closure guidance is finalised, the MA will share details and associated deadlines on the ESIF website.

Risks

The closure dates allow no flexibility to extend the activity dates for the delivery of operations funded through the programmes. The financial close dates also allow no flexibility for LPs to seek extensions for the defrayal of cost associated with those activities. LPs should therefore ensure that all operational and financial activities are complete in accordance with the closure timetable.

In theory, LPs have two years to complete all activity and submit the subsequent claim. However, postponing the submission of claims until the final date will have significant resourcing implications for both the MA and LPs. To reduce and mitigate the risk of a deluge of claims over a short period of time and potentially overwhelming the MA, LPs are requested to submit fully complaint claims on a regular basis and avoid, where possible, the submission of collated claims that will require multiple verification checks before passing the claim for payment.

Closure of the 2014-20 programmes: key details and dates

• final stage 2 visits: all applicable operations to be visited in-line with desk instruction - 30/06/2023
• final physical end date: all operations must be physically complete - 30/09/2023
• final financial end date: all operation expenditure must be spent/defrayed by the LP - 31/12/2023
• final submission of claims: all operation expenditure must be claimed by LP - 31/01/2024
• final payment: all claims must be verified and paid by MA - 20/06/2024
• final declaration: including all expenditure and known irregularities removed from previous claims - 31/07/2024
• article 127: Audit Authority to complete Article 127 visits and MA to take account of actions - to be confirmed