Institutional structures for Structural Funds assistance

1. Institutional structures for Structural Funds assistance Ministry of Finance September 10, 2003

2. Approaches to design of Implementation Schemes • Diversity of activities within the SPD • Different target groups and recipients of assistance • Existing national institutional arrangements and administrative practices • Experience in management of EU pre-accession instruments

3. Types of projects • Projects to be selected in open call for applications • National projects • Aid schemes

4. Projects to be selected in open call for applications Applied for projects where the best projects can be selected by an open competition and depend on specificity of proposed activities. These projects can be implemented on case by case basis. Examples of Activities – Support to establishment public internet access points, support to agriculture holdings

5. National projects Applied in cases where it is necessary to agree on package of projects that are mutually linked and have a common objective. These packages of projects are elaborated in accordance with specific national sectoral strategy. Examples of Activities – optimisation of road infrastructure, labour market institutions capacity building.

6. Aid schemes In cases where there is a need to implement a large number of small scale sector specific interventions the implementing body granting aid needs to be capable in dealing with the specific group of recipients; Examples of Activities - marketing support to exporting SME’s

7. Institutional structures forStructural Funds assistance* Managing Authority Ministry of Finance Paying Authority State Treasury • Monitoring • Committee Steering Committees • Line ministries • Ministry of Regional Development and Local • Government Affairs; Ministry of Economy; • Ministry of Welfare; Ministry of Education and • Science; Ministry of Agriculture; • Ministry of Transport; Ministry of Environment; • Ministry of Health; Ministry of Culture. • Intermediate Bodies • - Central Finance and Contract Unit in relation to ERDF • State Employment Service in relation to ESF • (measures for development of employment) • - Professional Education Development Programme Agency • in relation to ESF • (measures for development of education) • - Rural Support Service in relation to EAGGF and FIFG Aid scheme managers (e.g. LDA, LGA, SIF) Final beneficiaries (state and municipal enterprises, private enterprises and physical persons, local governments, state institutions, non-governmental organisations a.o.) * Based on the Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers approved on September 2, 2003

8. Main institutions and their tasks • Managing Authority • Paying Authority • Line ministries • Intermediate bodies • Aid scheme managers • Monitoring Committee • Steering Committees

9. Managing Authority Ministry of Finance Ensures overall management, control, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme by maintaining and coordinating the functioning of the system

10. Managing Authority Planned internal structure of department of EU Funds: • Unit for ERDF • Unit for ESF • Unit of EAGGF and FIFG • IT systems unit • Information and publicity unit

11. Paying Authority State Treasury Ensures financial management and processing of payments

12. Line ministries Ensures coherent policy content of the programme by: • selecting the projects in case of open calls for proposals, • elaborating sectoral interventions in case of national projects, • approval of aid schemes

13. Intermediate bodies CFCU, SES, RSS, AVEDP • Ensures technical, administrative and financial management in respect to final beneficiaries • Enter in contract with the designated aid scheme managers on implementation of aid schemes and carry out controls

14. Aid Scheme managers • Implements the aid scheme by ensuring technical, administrative and financial management in respect to specific group of recipients e.g. Latvian Development Agency

15. Monitoring Committee • review and approve Programme complement; • approve selection criteria for projects financed within the relevant structural fund developed by Line ministries; • review and approve reviews and reports on the SPD implementation progress prepared by managing authority for submission to European Commission; • ensure monitoring of the implementation of the SPD in general, including reviewing reports and evaluating the implementation progress of SPD measures.

16. Steering Committees • review project selection criteria before their submission to the Monitoring Committee; • approve the project application form and guidelines for project preparation in the case of open call for proposals for ERDF and ESF; • check regularly the implementation progress of Priorities and measures of particular structural fund; • review implementation reviews and reports on SPD implementation progress for the Fund and Priority prepared by Managing authority for submission to European Commission; • Ensures coordination between differrent partners involved in the implmenetation of the priority 4 Steering Committees – one for each Structural fund chaired by Managing Authority Representatives: Managing Authority, line ministries, Intermediate Bodies, social partners, Regional Development Councils, Union of Local Governments of Latvia

17. ERDF and ESFproject selection - open call for applications

18. ERDF and ESF project selection - national projects

19. EAGGF and FIFG project selectionopen call for applications

20. Project implementation, payment flows and monitoring

23. ERDF and ESF implementationscheme - aid schemes