Spidla voorzitter van EU-ministersconferentie over besteding ESF-gelden (en)

EU Ministers with responsibility for Public Administration and Structural Funds' implementation are meeting today in Brussels to discuss how to avail of European Social Fund (ESF) money to reform and strengthen the institutional capacity of their public administrations and services. The draft ESF Regulation for the period 2007-2013 introduces a new priority which will enable ESF support to be channelled towards improving the efficiency of public administrations and public services.

This meeting takes place at a crucial time as Member States are currently formulating their strategic priorities for Structural Fund interventions for the new programming period 2007-2013. The Commission is seeking to highlight this new ESF priority to support the reform and modernisation of public administrations and public services, in order to help attain sustainable socio-economic growth and good governance.

Commenting on the meeting, Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said "Efficiency of public administration and public services constitutes a prerequisite for competitiveness and can have a real impact on socio-economic development and growth. This new ESF priority is crucial for the implementation of the EU's Growth and Jobs strategy as it directly responds to the need to speed up reforms to support economic development and employment".

The new priority is designed to support Member States and regions which face the most significant problems in reforming their administrations and public services, namely Convergence regions[1]. It will also cover those Member States which are not entirely covered by the Convergence Objective but are eligible for Cohesion Fund support namely, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Portugal and Greece. This opportunity will be of particular interest to the new Member States as strengthening administrative capacity was identified as one of the main priorities for these countries in the run-up to accession.

The benefits such reforms can have are already evident. Portugal has recently been implementing programmes, supported by the ESF, dedicated to the development of administrative capacity.

These have supported the reform and modernisation of the Portuguese public administration, and increased the quality of services provided to citizens and enterprises. For example, a one-stop shop for citizens was introduced, enabling access to around 25 different public services at a single point. As regards enterprises, the establishment of 'Enterprises Formalities Centres' has served to reduce the average time needed to set up an enterprise - this fell from 37 days in September 2001 to 12 days three years later in September 2004.