EUROOPAN PARLAMENTTI Talousarvion valvontavaliokunta

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1 EUROOPAN PARLAMENTTI Talousarvion valvontavaliokunta TYÖASIAKIRJA Euroopan tilintarkastustuomioistuimen erityiskertomuksesta nro 20/2014 (vastuuvapaus 2013): Onko EAKR:n tuki pk-yrityksille ollut vaikuttavaa verkkokaupan alalla? Talousarvion valvontavaliokunta Esittelijä: Zigmantas Balčytis DT\ doc PE v01-00 Moninaisuudessaan yhtenäinen

2 E-commerce technologies are viewed as a way of accelerating economic growth, of further developing the Single Market and of speeding up European integration. The Commission has therefore increasingly placed importance on the need to foster e-commerce developments, in particular through one of its flagship initiatives, the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE). The EU structural funds budget has devoted three billion euro to the promotion of information and Communication Technology (ICT) uptake by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) during the programming period. The European Court of Auditors'(ECA) conclusions The audit addressed the question of whether ERDF support to SMEs in the field of e-commerce was effective and concluded that the ERDF support to ecommerce projects contributed to increasing the availability of business services online. However, shortcomings in the monitoring made it impossible to assess to what extent it contributed to the achievement of the EU and Member States ICT strategies as well as SMEs development objectives. Moreover, weak selection procedures resulted in co-funded projects that were unlikely to provide value for money. Member States operational programmes (OPs) served as a good basis for providing support to SMEs in the field of e-commerce. They included e-commerce measures in line with their national or regional needs, as defined in their respective ICT strategies. However, meaningful measurement of the progress made was sometimes jeopardised by the fact that indicators and target values were revised, frequently towards the end of the programming period, and not always with proper justification. Moreover, expenditure related to e-commerce projects was not always reported to the Commission under the correct category and this hindered its overall assessment. In 2013, the Commission addressed the slow absorption of funds by proposing an alternative use of structural funds to promote ICT-uptake by SMEs through its ICT Innovation Voucher Scheme. But it did not pay enough attention to performance monitoring, which is indispensable for evaluating actual progress made. Managing authorities focused more on outputs than on results, at both selection and monitoring stages. The limited nature of the selection criteria applied meant that they sometimes financed all eligible projects for as long as funding was available, regardless of any potential added value from the perspective of developing SMEs or the EU information society s objectives. Moreover, managing authorities were, in most cases, unable to assess the impact of a project on a SMEs development. Finally, in two of the Member States selected, they did not carry out the necessary checks on the reliability of the data fed into the system. Overall SMEs implemented the projects smoothly and outputs were generally in line with the related application. Many SMEs stated that they had benefited from the implementation of their projects but results were only measured in less than half of the projects audited. In these cases, it was found that there were benefits for over half the SMEs concerned. PE v /5 DT\ doc

3 The Commission's position concerning the Court's conclusions In general, the Commission accepted the Court's conclusions, explaining that some shortcomings were due to the legal provisions in the structural fund regulations applicable during the period , and that the new regulations for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) would remedy weaknesses. In particular the guiding principles for selection of operation, as part of OPs, would be carefully scrutinised by the Commission. Furthermore, the Commission pointed to the responsibility of managing authorities for conducting of the selection procedures, possible amendments to the programmes and for the classification of expenditures. The European Court of Auditors' recommendations 1. The Commission should ensure that it obtains consistent and reliable information from the Member States on the OPs progress, not only in financial but also in performance terms. To this end, it should: a) assess the relevance of the result indicators proposed, both when approving the OPs and subsequent amendments; b) design a monitoring system in such a way that progress towards all target values set can be measured in a timely way and allowing for comparison over time; c) suggest standard indicators relevant to EU strategic objectives on e-commerce. 2. The Commission should insist that the selection criteria and procedures put in place by the Member States ensure the selection of projects that maximise added value among applicants in terms of fostering e-commerce development in SMEs and achieving the DAE targets while, at the same time, ensuring such procedures are appropriate to their targeted beneficiaries in terms of the time and administrative work required. When selecting projects, Member States authorities should, where appropriate, require applicants to: a) provide justification of the need to implement the project concerned, ideally in the form of a sufficiently detailed and realistic business plan; b) demonstrate the financial viability of the project; c) demonstrate the need for public financial support in order to avoid deadweight spending; d) incentivise project owners to take the cross-border dimension of their business into account in order to fully exploit the opportunities of the Single Market. 3. The Commission should require Member States managing authorities to put management tools in place for the purpose of monitoring the impact of the grant on the business development of the SME supported. It should require in particular that: a) a minimum set of robust indicators with related targets are defined in the grant agreements, measured and subjected to subsequent monitoring, both once the DT\ doc 3/5 PE v01-00

4 project has been implemented and is operational and at a later stage, when its full impact is likely to have taken effect; b) wherever appropriate, a mechanism is introduced that ensures that payments are linked to performance and allows for their adjustment in the event of serious underperformance; c) the necessary checks and controls are carried out to ensure that the data entered into the monitoring systems are reliable and consistent. The Commission's position concerning the Court's recommendations The Commission accepted the Court's first recommendation observing that only the new ESIF programmes would put a stronger emphasis on results. In addition, the Commission was of the opinion that indicators would not be standardised as they depend on the specific objectives for operational programmes. The Commission accepted the Court's second recommendation, although pointing to the fact that whether specific incentives for cross-border dimensions in projects are appropriate would depend on the specific objectives and types of actions in a programme. The Commission agreed with the Court's third recommendation with the exception of recommendation 3(b) as results of an e-commerce projects could be influenced by external factors that cannot be known in advance, and linking ERDF payments for e-commerce with results could be difficult. Esittelijän suositukset, jotka voidaan sisällyttää mietintöön vastuuvapauden myöntämisestä komissiolle varainhoitovuodelta 2014 Euroopan parlamentti on tyytyväinen tilintarkastustuomioistuimen erityiskertomukseen Onko EAKR:n tuki pk-yrityksille ollut vaikuttavaa verkkokaupan alalla? ja kannattaa siinä esitettyjä päätelmiä ja suosituksia; on tyytyväinen myös komission rakentavaan reagointiin tilintarkastustuomioistuimen suosituksiin; toteaa, että verkkokaupan teknologialla on ratkaiseva asema pk-yritysten kehityksen ja kilpailukyvyn parantamisessa; painottaa pk-yritysten merkitystä talouskehitykselle ja uusien työpaikkojen luomiselle Euroopan unionissa; pitää myönteisenä, että tilintarkastustuomioistuimen erityiskertomuksessa painotettiin tulosmittauksen ja eurooppalaisen lisäarvon merkitystä; panee merkille, että sähköisen kaupan yleistymisestä huolimatta investointikohteiksi valitut hankkeet olivat heikkoja; toteaa, että koska sovelluksia ei valittu vertailevan valintamenettelyn avulla eikä kattavia tietoja yritystoiminnasta ollut, reilu kolmasosa tapauksista toi vain vähän jos ollenkaan vastinetta rahalle; PE v /5 DT\ doc

5 korostaa, että tarkastetuista 30 yhteisrahoitusta saaneesta hankkeesta kymmenen olisi toteutettu myös ilman julkista tukea, viisi hankkeista oli käynnistynyt jo ennen kuin avustus oli annettu tiedoksi ja kolme hanketta käynnistettiin jo ennen kuin yritys oli edes hakenut yhteisrahoitusta; katsoo myös, että tappioiden välttämiseksi eurooppalaisen lisäarvon osoittavan liiketoimintasuunnitelman esittämisen olisi oltava pakollista; painottaa, että jäsenvaltioiden olisi otettava käyttöön valintaperusteet, joilla varmistetaan, että valituksi tulleilla hankkeilla maksimoidaan lisäarvo pk-yritysten verkkokaupan kehittämisen ja Euroopan digitaalistrategian tavoitteiden edistämisen osalta; panee merkille, että seurannan puutteen vuoksi Euroopan komissio ei kyennyt arvioimaan, missä määrin EAKR:n tuki oli osaltaan edistänyt kansallisten ja EU:n tietoteknisten tavoitteiden sekä pk-yritysten omien liiketoimintasuunnitelmien toteutumista; katsoo, että komission olisi varmistettava, että se saa jäsenvaltioilta johdonmukaista ja luotettavaa tietoa toimenpideohjelmien edistymisestä niiden tuloksellisuuden kannalta; on samaa mieltä tilintarkastustuomioistuimen kanssa siitä, että avustuksia koskevissa sopimuksissa on määritettävä vankat vähimmäisindikaattorit tavoitteineen, joita on mitattava ja joita on seurattava jatkuvasti sekä hankkeen täytäntöönpanon ja toiminnan aikana että myöhemmässä vaiheessa tuloksellisuuden arvioimiseksi. DT\ doc 5/5 PE v01-00