News, 25.9.2020

Technical assistance programme call 2021 for projects supporting structural reforms has been opened

The European Commission offers the Member States technical assistance to promote sustainable economic growth, competitiveness and employment, for instance. Assistance has so far been offered from the Structural Reform Support Programme, which will be replaced by the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) during the new Financial Framework period. The approval process for the new TSI Regulation will soon be completed. The call for projects 2021 has now been opened. The national deadline for submitting the applications is 28 October 2020.

The objective of the technical assistance programme is to support the Member States in actions to promote structural reforms, economic recovery and resilience as well as growth and competitiveness. In addition, Recovery and Resilience Plans concerning the deployment of the Recovery and Resilience Facility can be supported during the ongoing call. Assistance can be granted both to the preparation and deployment of plans.     

A new theme during the 2021 call is green budgeting, which supports climate and environmental targets. To promote this, a special training programme on green budgeting will be arranged within the programme, for which parties dealing with environmental and financial matters can apply.  

So far more than one thousand projects in 27 Member States have been implemented through the Structural Reform Support Programme. Examples of implemented projects can be found, for example, on the European Commission’s website(Link to another website.). Approximately EUR 114 million is available for project activities during the 2021 call. Financial support is granted on the basis of criteria defined in the TSI Regulation, such as the topicality of the reforms, quality of applications as well as compatibility with the Government programme and the goals of the European semester.

Support can be targeted at the following administrative sectors, such as: governance and public administration, revenue administration and public financial management, growth and business environment, labour market, education, health and social services as well as the financial sector and access to finance. Project funding granted from the programme on the basis of applications will be allocated to a party providing expert services to the applicant, such as another Member State, the Commission, an international organisation or another party agreed together with the Commission. There is no self-financing requirement in the programme.

The programme is coordinated in the Commission by DG REFORM, in which the country coordinator for Finland is Elka Ilyova Elka.ILYOVA@ec.europa.eu. DG Reform is prepared to offer support and guidance already before applications are submitted. The national coordinator is the Twinning Team of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which also provides additional information on the application process.

Applications must be submitted to DG Reform’s internet portal on Wednesday 20 October 2020 at the latest. An EU Login ID must be created for the agency for logging in to the portal (former ECAS ID). An e-mail address using the ID must be reported to the address twinning@formin.fi on 15 October 2020 at the latest, after which the Commission will grant permission to the e-mail address to access the portal for submitting applications.  

 

The Commission will process the applications by the end of the year, and the projects selected for implementation can begin in the spring 2021.

 

 

More information: Tiina Järvelä, tel. +248 295 351 555, e-mail tiina.jarvela@formin.fi or twinning@formin.fi.