e-Cohesion Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

e-Cohesion

Interreg

V-A Romania-Hungary

Programme

1

ST

MONITORING COMMITTEE MEETING

Békéscsaba

, 26

th

of May 2016

Slide2

What is e-Cohesion all about

?

"

e-Cohesion"

is a

new European initiative

intended to support the reduction of administrative burden for beneficiaries

.

In practice,

e-Cohesion

requires Member States to implement e-government services allowing beneficiaries of the Funds to exchange information with programme bodies through the use of electronic portals accessible through the web.

Slide3

The concept of

e-Cohesion

, as outlined in Article 122(3) of Regulation 1303/2013 (Common Provisions Regulation, CPR), concerns the

electronic exchange of information between beneficiaries and programme bodies

during the 2014-2020 programming period

.

What is

e-Cohesion?

Slide4

Legal background:

Article 122(3) of Regulation 1303/2013 (Common Provisions Regulation, CPR)

establishes the minimum requirements regarding e-Cohesion:

“

3. Member States shall ensure that

no later than 31 December 2015, all exchanges of information

between beneficiaries and a managing authority, a certifying authority, an audit authority and intermediate bodies

can be carried out by means of electronic data exchange systems

...”

Slide5

e-Cohesion

means

that:

the

'only once' encoding principle is applied

(i.e. beneficiaries should not need to enter the same data more than once in the system). This principle should apply at a minimum, in the framework of the same operational programme.

the

concept of interoperability is guaranteed

(data encoded by beneficiaries needs to be shared between different bodies within the same operational programme

).

the

electronic audit trail

complies

with

relevant articles of the CPR

(Articles 112 and 132) as well as with any

national requirements

on the availability of documents.

Slide6

e-Cohesion

means

that

:

the system

for electronic data exchange

guarantees

:

  -

data integrity + confidentiality

-

authentication of the sender

(Directive 1999/93/EC),

-

storage

in compliance with defined retention rules

(

relevant articles of the

CPR, 72, 106)

Slide7

In

other words, there are several

reasons for using the

electronic

data exchange system

:

the

data

is already

safe from the moment of encoding

it in the system. This is not the case when sending data per regular e-mail or post;

the

sender

of information can be

easily identified in the system

and therefore data provided by the beneficiary is valid without written signature

;

elimination of parallel paper flow

reduces storage

space

and

often

costs

;

providing

the data only once

saves time for beneficiaries and programme managers

and

information is stored in one place

;

also

,

authorized

institutions

can

access

necessary pieces of

information without the necessity of

sending the

paper documents

.

Slide8

To fulfill the e-Cohesion

requirements,

the

INTERREG V-A Romania-Hungary Programme

is implementing

the

electronic

Monitoring

System

(eMS).

Slide9

eMS

is a

web application

built by the

Interact Programme

for the benefit of all Interreg Programmes

.

According to the

Audit Report

of the Ernst & Young, the

eMS is fulfilling all requirements

of the art. 122(3) of the Regulation 1303/2013 and in particular the requirements set out in EU Regulations 821/2014, 1011/2014 and 480/2014.

Slide10

BENEFICIARIES

APPLICANTS

Electronic exchange of

information

in 2014-2020 period

Slide11

The

eMS

is a monitoring system

with communication portal

to support submission, evaluation, approval, contracting, monitoring, management and administration of projects

in the context of

Interreg

programmes

.

The

system supports collection of all information

on submitted and approved projects, their implementation and achievements, modifications and closure.

Slide12

Additionally

aggregated data

on the progress of projects and the programme level

are recorded in the

system

.

All

programme

bodies are able to communicate with beneficiaries via the system and re-use the data already collected. The

eMS

is built to support

programme

authorities in day-to-day

programme

management and should fulfil all legal requirements of the regulations.

Slide13

Data in eMS

are

structured in several layers of information

and follows a strict workflow.

The

following elements are part of the standard

workflow:

Enter

programme data (information

from the Cooperation

Programme

)

This

section contains the basic information of the

Interreg

programme

recorded in the system.

It

is the information from the document called “Cooperation

Programme

”, which is approved by the European Commission

.

Slide14

2. Management of calls

Interreg programmes finance projects based on application forms submitted within a defined timeslot and conditions. These timeslots are calls for

proposal.

3. Application Form

Any applicant intending to submit an application within an open call for

proposals

can register a user and fill out the application form directly in the eMS. It is possible to submit applications only within the timeslot and conditions (opened calls for proposal).

Slide15

4. Assessment

All submitted applications need to go through a two-step assessment

.

5.

Recommendation

The

outcome of the assessment is a recommendation by the assessors to the Monitoring Committee

.

6. Funding decision (Monitoring Committee)

The Monitoring Committee decides which projects are approved by the programme or approved under conditions.

Slide16

7. Handover and supplementary

information

After the project is approved and before it can be contracted, the lead applicant needs to appoint an

eMS

user who will be the lead beneficiary for the project. Additionally, some important information on project management

structure

(e.g. bank account, state aid, public procurement) are ready to be filled out at this stage in the section entitled ‘supplementary information’.

8

. Subsidy contract

The system supports the generation of a Subsidy Contract. It is template-based and uses data from the approved application form.

Slide17

9. Partner reporting

Once the project is contracted, it enters the reporting phase, which will last until the project is finalised. Each project partner needs to report its activities and expenditure in a partner

report.

10. FLC

First level Controllers are national controllers who need to check every

partner’s report

and expenditures. They have access to the eMS and see the relevant information. They have their working documents available in the system and can do the verification work online. As a result of the FLC check, an FLC certificate is generated and approved by the controller.

Slide18

11. Project

reporting

The

Lead Partner collects all FLC certified partner reports (including its own) and creates a project report. The Lead Partner decides on which FLC certificates to include in the project report.

12.

JS verification

The JS receives a project report and verifies it accordingly; It has the possibility to make positive or negative corrections to individual expenditure items. Once approved, the report is submitted to the MA

.

.

Slide19

1

3.

MA verification

MA receives a project report and verifies it accordingly;

Once

approved, the report is then submitted to the

Authorization Unit.

14

. MA Authorization

MA verifies the report. MA can deduct some expenditure or exclude temporarily for further

verification

and includes the report in the MA certificate. Once included in the certificate, the report may be paid

.

Slide20

15. Payment

MA performs the payment to the Lead Partner outside of the system and records date and amount paid for every partners. The payment can be done in full or in instalments.

16

. Reporting

MA with

certification function,

is responsible for generating several reports and submitting them to the European Commission.

Slide21

The

eMS

system generates different

reports

which allow to extract the desired data from different sections as well:

►

Financial data is exportable to Microsoft Excel data format

►

Overview tables – like list of application forms waiting for the

Monitoring Committee

decision, including the ranking – can be exported to Microsoft Excel data format

.

► Overview tables on financial data are exportable on various levels (e.g. partner report, FLC certificate, project report,

programme

)

Slide22

►

Custom reports

needed by specific ETC

Programmes

based on application form or project report information can be added in a special section; export of custom reports to PDF is possible

► An integrated

OLAP (online analytical processing)

cube reporting tool allows for

generation of statistics

/calculations based on selected information. Results can be exported to Microsoft Excel, PDF. Generated charts can be saved as image (PNG

).

►

Programme annual implementation reports

as specified in Regulation 1303/2013, Art. 50(2) are

pre-defined in the system

and exportable to PDF

.

Slide23

The

up-to-date state of facts

, regarding the implementation of the

eMS system

, is as

follows:

the

eMS

license

for the

Interreg

V-A

Romania-Hungary

Programme

was signed in

September 2015

(by City of Vienna, MRDAP and BRECO

);

The

protocol for

hosting

the eMS server

, was signed in November 2015 with

STS

the

server acquisition

(for real database) is

in progress

;

Slide24

meantime, a

test base is available for

users, at

programme bodies

level:

http

://

ems-rohu.mdrap.ro/app/main?execution=e1s1

for potential applicants

, a

test base

is

available on the Interact

website

:

http

://ems.interact-eu.net/demo/app/main?execution=e1s1

Slide25

trainings for eMS

users were developed by Interact and/or programme bodies and there are also planned in the future, for projects' beneficiaries and programme bodies;

19-20.11.2015

- eMS

training for advanced users; Viena - Austria - held by Interact Vienna and PL.O.T. (with the participation of over 10 cooperation programs in

Europe including

ROHU, RORS, BSB

).

Slide26

18 - 22.01.2016 –Interreg

V-A Romania

Hungary- Working

meeting

at MRDAP Bucharest – calls testing

-

(various

configurations

for calls were

tested - with the participations of ROHU and ROBG

members)

06 - 08.04.2016

- technical meeting between representatives programs, ROHU, ROBG, RORS and BSB and the company

PL.O.T. Vienna,

a company that developed

e-MS

system, in order to ensure installation, configuration, use and operation of the

eMS

at

MDRAP Bucharest

Slide27

Future actions:

The first

eMS

training for

programme

bodies will take place in Oradea at BRECO premises during

31.05 - 01.06.2016

;

Trainings for project applicants/beneficiaries will be held in the

future,

according to programme

necessities

;

An “eMS Application Instructions” will be available for applicants, on ROHU

web

site

after the approval of the

Programme’s

visual identity when the website will became functional

An “

eMS

Manual 3_0.10” will

be available for

users,

on ROHU

web

site

after the approval of the

Programme’s

visual identity when the website will became functional

Slide28

Joint Secretariat - BRECO

Tel: +40 259 473 174

+40 256 406 478

Fax: +40 259 473 175

E-mail: joint.secretariat@brecoradea.ro

Thank you

for your attention!

Managing Authority

Ministry

of

Regional Development

and

Public

Administration

Romania

Tel

:

+

40

372 11

13

26

Fax

: +

40

372

11 16

13

E-mail

:

rohu@mdrap.ro