Structural Funds 2014-2020 and Social Housing

PREPARING THE 2014-2020STRUCTURAL FUNDSPROGRAMMING PERIOD

IN 3 STEPS

1.1 Ask for a meeting with the ministry/ entity in charge of preparing the Partnership Agreement with the European Commission

Who is this entity? Usually the ministry of finance, but it could also be an inter-ministerial agency. It depends on the country.

What is this Partnership Agreement? That is a compli-cated name to say the national investment strategy for 2014-2020, which is ‘negotiated’ and agreed by the Euro-pean Commission and the Member State. Each Member State will have to tell the European Commission (in this Partnership Agreement document).

1. What investment priorities (also called thematic objectives) they have for the country and why? They will have to choose those priorities among a list of pre-defined thematic objectives (see below) which are all related to the EU 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The good news is that many of those priorities more or less relate to housing.

2. Which mix of Funds (ERDF, ESF, Rural Development Fund, Maritime Fund) and which allocation over the 2014-2020 they would like to get for each investment priority.

3. Whether all relevant EU legislation for those invest-ment priorities have been put in place (for instance the implementation of the EPBD or the Energy Efficiency Directive1 if they want to have a investment priority on low-carbon economy) and if not, what the actions plan-ned are (that is the so-called ex-ante conditionalities in case someone mention it to you. Not to be confused with the macro-conditionalities, which are much more contro-versial and relate to the macro-economic conditions of a country and would for instance prevent a country with a high debt/GDP ratio from getting EU funds)

There is also an obligation for the Member State (article 5 of the Regulation on Common Provisions for the Struc-tural Funds2) to discuss and agree with regional, local authorities and non-governmental organisations. This is where national and regional housing federations should step in and the justification why you ask for a meeting!

Be in the bigger picture(deadline: January 2013 — if not yet done, hurry up)

1 A speficic note on the EED, since it requires that Member States have a roadmap for the renovation of their entire building stock by 2050 (article 3a of the Directive) and that financial mechanisms should be put in put in place to finance the new obligations in terms of energy efficiency (article 15a of the Directive)2 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/what/future/proposals_2014_2020_en.cfm#1

STEP1

For Housing federations & members

Note: entries in the table are only examples

It could be summarised in the table below:

Thematic objectivesproposed by the European Commis-sion (see list below)

Eligible actionsproposed by theaffordable housing sector

Justification in terms of needs

Justification in terms of expected impact3

Proposed co-financing mechanisms

Supporting the shifttowards a low-carbon economy in allsectors;

Supporting the shifttowards a low-carbon economy in all sectors;

Thousands of dwellings are falling under energy band E, F, G

Thousands of households spent more than 10% of their disposable income for energyexpenditure

Hundreds of direct jobs in the construc-tion/insulation sec-tor will be created

Hundreds of indi-rect jobs (through supply chain effect)

Number of house-holds will have their energy consumptiondecrease by X%

ERDF and other EU funds to finance 30% of the costsOther public subsidies: 30% Eco-loans

(1) strengthening research, technological development and innovation;

(2) enhancing access to, and use and quality of, information and communication technologies;

(3) enhancing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises, the agricultural sector (for the EAFRD) and the fisheries and aquaculture sector (for the EMFF);

(4) supporting the shift towards a low-carbon economy in all sectors;

(5) promoting climate change adaptation, risk prevention and management;

(6) protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency;

(7) promoting sustainable transport and removing bottlenecks in key network infrastructures;

(8) promoting employment and supporting labour mobility;

(9) promoting social inclusion and combating poverty;

(10) investing in education, skills and lifelong learning;

(11) enhancing institutional capacity and an efficient public administration.

3 The European Commission has proposed a list of common indicators for all funds. This list is subject of discussions in the European Parliament and in the Council as the propose indicators are not seen as appropriate. You can however use them for your lobbying purposed as they are quite general. See the list in annex of the ERDF Draft Regulation:http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/regulation/pdf/2014/proposals/regulation/erdf/erdf_proposal_en.pdf

All this might look a bit too detailed for a meeting with the Government. But the sooner you have this overview of your needs and potential contribution to bigger investment priorities, the greater chance you get to succeed!

1.2. When you get the meeting with your Government, what should you tell them?

Well, first of all, your objective will be to be guaranteed that you will be consulted at every stage of the prepara-tion of the Partnership Agreement.

Second you will already start insisting that housing should be clearly linked to the investment priorities the

Government will present to the European Commission. For instance, you will argue that in the explanation of why your Government wants a priority on low carbon economy (financed by the European Regional Development Fund), needs in terms of refurbishment of affordable housing should be mentioned. Or you will present the importance of giving housing organisations a support to their activi-ties around labour market inclusion as part of the natio-nal investment priority on employment (financed by the European Social Fund).

List of thematic objectives for the Structural Funds(article 9 of the draft common provision regulation)

STEP2

You should send it to the Head of Geographic Units covering your country. See the list below:

Geographical Unit covering Head of UnitBELGIUM, FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG [email protected]

IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM [email protected]

GERMANY and NETHERLANDS [email protected]

CZECH REPUBLIC [email protected]

SLOVAKIA [email protected]

HUNGARY [email protected]

SPAIN [email protected]

PORTUGAL [email protected]

ITALY, MALTA [email protected]

POLAND [email protected]

ESTONIA, FINLAND, LATVIA [email protected]

LITHUANIA, SWEDEN, DENMARK [email protected]

ROMANIA [email protected]

BULGARIA [email protected]

GREECE, CYPRUS [email protected]

AUSTRIA, SLOVENIA [email protected]

As you certainly know, Structural Funds & Cohesion Poli-cy are about REGIONS. So you won’t escape from working at the regional level. Either with your regional offices or with your members directly in cities.

2.1. Organise a meeting with your regional offices or local members

To inform them about the EU funding opportunities in the field of energy efficiency, investment in social infras-tructures, urban regeneration, training…

To help them prepare the same table you prepared above for the central Government

While the central government will be negotiating with the European Commission about the national strategy, re-gions and now cities will start thinking about the regional strategy. And since it is where the money will ultimately flow to support programmes and projects, there should be housing programmes and projects ready to be supported!

4 For that, the European Commission will publish soon a study with many interesting case studies(for further information contact [email protected])

Identify with them projects or schemes that could re-ceive the support of Structural Funds (ESF and ERDF) in particular for innovative financing (for instance using ESF to create funds for social entreprises, using ERDF to create revolving funds for energy efficiency programmes at the local level).

If needed, inform them about successful projects in other EU countries4.

Convince them that it is worth the effort.

Indeed, some might think by now that it is a lot of work for a tiny part of the resources needed to carry out a project. Well, it is true that the co-financing rate by the EU will in most cases not go over 50% of the costs if you are in a ri-cher region, and could be even as low as 20%. But we have plenty of examples of projects by now and they all come to the same conclusion: EU support has brought something more in terms of visibility, achievement above the original targets, or quality of relationship between the actors.

Talk local! (Deadline: April 2013)

1.3 Send the same table to the European Commission

Indeed, the European Commission has its own information about the socio-economic situation of each Member State. Why not help by informing them on the housing needs in your local context?

STEP3

2.2. Organise a meeting with your members and the managing authorities of the Funds at regional level

What are the managing authorities? To manage the Structural Funds at the regional level Member states designate a managing authority which will inform poten-tial beneficiaries, select the projects and generally moni-tor implementation. But the new Regulations on Structu-ral Funds give the possibility for cities to manage directly the funds. It is also interesting to know that Managing Authorities will be allowed to select an entity (it could be a social housing organisation) to lead a programme or se-ries of project as part of community-led local development (article 28 to 31 of the Common Provisions Regulation5).

5 http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/what/future/proposals_2014_2020_en.cfm#1

Graphic Design by Diane Morel

If you manage to get to this step, you can relax a bit. But do not underestimate the importance of tracking what is going on the ground. It is not only good to get to know success stories, but it is also crucial to learn about the problems, the obstacles and then be able to differentiate between what requires an EU solution or what requires a national/local solution to those problems.

Member States will be legally required to report to the European Commission in 2017 and 2019 about the pro-gress made under each investment priority. It means that regions will have to set up a reporting mechanism which unlike the 2007-2013 programming period will not simply look at whether and how money is spent, but whether the qualitative and quantitative targets set at regional level have been achieved.

Be prepared to monitor (milestones in 2017 and 2019)

3.1.Set up a communication tool (a webfo-rum for instance) that will allow an easy reporting from your members up to you and then to CECODHAS Housing Europe

3.2.Prepare documents about the regional socio–economic impact of the use of Struc-tural Funds in the housing sector. This point is key for our lobbying at the EU level. Indeed many EU decision makers are still a bit sceptical about whether investing in affordable housing is the best way to use EU money in particular in terms of support to growth. This programming period 2014-2020 should serve to give a clear (and positive!) answer to this question.

Regional governments might argue that it is too soon to talk about the regional priorities since the EU regulations have not been yet adopted. But you should tell them that there are in many countries informal discussions going on, that the negotiations won’t change the list of invest-ment priorities and that you have many ideas for projects that have a huge economic impact. It is at this stage that you will need to use the argument of the economic impact (socio-economic return on invest) of investing in housing related activities!

CECODHAS Housing Europe The Federation of public, cooperative and social housing

CECODHAS Housing Europe is a network of national and regional housing federations of housing organisations. Together the 43 members in 18 European members States manage 25 million dwellings which represent 12% of the total housing stock.

Its members work together for a Europe that provides access to decent and affordable housing for all in communities which are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and where all are enabled to reach their full potential.

To contact CECODHAS Housing Europe: Housing Europe Center - 18 square de Meeus /1050 Brussels - BELGIUMTel: +32 2 541 05 63 - Fax: +32 2 541 05 69Web: www.housingeurope.eue-mail: [email protected]

After all that, if you still need some help…. you are very welcome to contact us!

Documents

Structural Funds 2014-2020 and Social Housing