- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2023
For a better mobilisation of EU programmes under direct and indirect management in the outermost regions
The purpose of this project was to provide technical support to France to enhance the use of EU programmes under direct and indirect management by Outermost Regions (ORs). DG REGIO was closely associated with the project.
Context
Despite very significant needs, the six French ORs – Guyane, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Martin, La Réunion and Mayotte – have made modest use of EU programmes under direct and indirect management. For example, despite having key R&D assets, ORs’ participation in “Horizon 2020” was particularly low (0.3%), and below that of other French regions and of the three other outermost European ORs, Madeira and Azores in Portugal and the Canary Islands in Spain. French ORs accounted for 16% of the number of Horizon2020 OR projects vs 58% for the Canary Islands and 26% for the two Portuguese ORs[1], as of November 2022. For Erasmus, the share of Erasmus participants among all ORs was 27.3% for France, compared to 58.9% for the Canary Islands and 13.8% for Madeira and Azores[2].
Three main reasons were identified: (i) At national level, the lack of knowledge of the territorial specificities and needs of the ORs, in particular from the National Contacts Points (NCP); (ii) at regional level, limited knowledge and capacities to seize the opportunities offered by these programmes; (iii) a lack of effective multi-level coordination.
The project had three specific objectives:
- Increase the mobilisation of EU programmes under direct and indirect management by ORs;
- Increase the knowledge and capacities of the actors about those EU programmes and about ORs specificities;
- Improve the efficiency of the administration’s organisation to allow an increased mobilisation of the EU programmes.
Support delivered
The project was organised around 2 main pillars:
- Diagnosis, recommendations and preparation of a draft action plan. The diagnosis was based on an “as-is/to-be” and gap analysis on the use of EU programmes at both national and regional levels;
- Support for the implementation of the action plan, including an implementation report, the development of a toolbox and a pilot experimentation in one of the OR (selected by DGOM).
Results achieved
The project is fully finalised, with all deliverables produced and approved, including:
- An AS-IS/ TO-BE report also taking into account EU good practices underlining policy which are relevant to the French context,
- A report with recommendations and a draft action plan
- An implementation report for DGOM
- A toolbox for the ORs with practical tools both for local authorities and for project sponsors.
The Beneficiary authority also benefited from a TAEIX study visit in the Canary Islands with the objective to share challenges and good practices on the better mobilisation of EU funds.
Video
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here:
[1] See the H2020 FORWARD – Fostering research excellence in EU outermost regions project (https://forward-h2020.eu/) – and its Dashboard on the participation of EU ORs in FP7 and Horizon 2020 programmes (https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/nexa/viz/ORFPDashboard/Home).
[2] Calculated based on COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT - Outermost regions at a glance – assets, challenges and opportunities - Accompanying the document to the COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS “Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions” {COM(2022) 198 final} - {SWD(2022) 134 final}