EU warns English regional authorities over monitoring of structural funds after payments suspended
The European Union (EU) has warned English regional authorities to improve the way that they administer EU structural fund payments after it emerged that EU structural fund payments were suspended late last year while the European Commission investigated “serious shortcomings” in the way that funds were managed.
According to a report in the Financial Times, payments totalling to English projects with a value of £155m were withhold between mid-October and mid-December, following an audit which expressed concerns about the monitoring and supervision of the way that funds were allocated
“Payments to the UK were interrupted for two months last year because the Commission was concerned that the UK's management and control systems for regional funds were not sufficient to guarantee that they were being spent legally and properly,” a spokeswoman for Algirdas Semeta, the EU commissioner in charge of fighting fraud, told the FT.
The suspension of payments, which affected all 10 of the English regional authorities through which the money is routed, has since been lifted, but the European Commission has warned that further suspensions will follow if better proof that the distribution of funds is being made in accordance with EU cannot be supplied.
Structural funds are intended to assist less well off EU regions deal with changing economic conditions. They broken down into the European Social Fund, which is administered in England by the Department for Work and Pensions, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is distributed within England by the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs).
However, with RDAs due to be abolished, responsibility for administering ERDF payments is set (subject to the conclusion of a consultation process which closed on 10th January) to be transferred to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) from 1st July. The exception to this will be London, where ERDF funds will be administered by the Greater London Authority.
