Council Regulation (EU) 2015/322Show full title

TITLE V U.K. FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 17 U.K. Participation by a third country or region

In order to ensure the coherence and effectiveness of Union assistance, the Commission may decide that non-ACP developing countries and regional integration bodies with ACP participation that promote regional cooperation and integration eligible for Union assistance under other Union financing instruments for external action, where the project or programme concerned is of a regional or cross-border nature and complies with Article 6 of Annex IV to the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, are eligible for funds referred to in point (a)(i) of Article 1(2) of the Internal Agreement. The OCTs eligible for Union assistance pursuant to Council Decision 2013/755/EU and the Union's outermost regions can also participate in regional cooperation projects or programmes, and the funding to enable the participation of these territories or outermost regions shall be additional to funds referred to in point (a)(i) of Article 1(2) of the Internal Agreement. The objective of a reinforced cooperation between the Member States, the Union's outermost regions, the OCTs and the ACP States should be taken into account and, where appropriate, coordination mechanisms be set up. Provision for this funding and for the types of financing referred to in the Council Regulation (EU) 2015/323(1) may be made in the strategy papers and multiannual indicative programmes and in the action programmes and measures referred to in Article 9 of this Regulation.

Article 18 U.K. Monitoring, reporting and evaluation of EDF assistance

1. The Commission and the EIB shall regularly monitor their actions and measures financed and review the progress made towards delivering expected results. The Commission will also conduct evaluations of the impact and effectiveness of its sectoral policies and actions, and the effectiveness of programming, where appropriate by means of independent external evaluations. Proposals by the Council for independent external evaluations will be taken into due account. Evaluations should be based on OECD/DAC good practice principles, seeking to ascertain whether the specific objectives, taking into account gender equality, have been met, to formulate recommendations and to provide evidence to facilitate learning with a view to improving future operations. Those evaluations shall be carried out on the basis of pre-defined, clear, transparent and, where appropriate, country-specific and measurable indicators.

The EIB shall periodically inform the Commission and the Member States of the implementation of projects financed from the 11th EDF resources it administers, following the procedures set out in the operational guidelines of the IF.

2. The Commission shall send its evaluation reports together with the response of the services to the main recommendations to the Member States through the EDF Committee and to the EIB for information. Any evaluation, including recommendations and follow-up actions, may be discussed in the EDF Committee at the request of a Member State. In such cases, the Commission will report back to the EDF Committee, one year later, on the implementation of agreed follow-up actions. The results shall feed back into programme design and resource allocation.

3. The Commission shall associate to an appropriate extent all relevant stakeholders in the evaluation phase of the Union assistance provided under this Regulation and may, where appropriate, seek to undertake joint evaluations with Member States, other donors and development partners.

4. The Commission shall examine the progress made in implementing the 11th EDF, including the multiannual indicative programmes, and as from 2016 shall submit to the Council an annual report on the implementation. The report will include an analysis of key outputs and outcomes and whenever possible, the contribution of the Union's financial assistance to impacts. A results framework will be created for this purpose. That report shall also be sent to the European Parliament, to the European Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions.

5. The annual report shall also contain information relating to the previous year on the measures financed, the results of monitoring and evaluation exercises, the involvement of the relevant development partners, and the implementation of commitments and of payments appropriations broken down by country, region and cooperation sector. It shall also contain a qualitative analysis of the initially foreseen and achieved results, based on, among others, data from monitoring systems, and a follow-up on the lessons learned.

6. The report shall use as far as possible specific and measurable indicators of its role in meeting the objectives of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement. It shall reflect the main lessons learned and the follow-up to the recommendations of the evaluations of the previous years. The report shall also assess, where possible and relevant, the adherence to aid effectiveness principles, including for innovative financial instruments.

7. The Union and its Member States shall conduct, at the latest by the end of 2018, a performance review, assessing the degree of realisation of commitments and disbursements, and the results and impact of the aid provided by means of output, outcome and impact indicators measuring the efficiency of the use of resources as well as the effectiveness of the EDF. It shall also address the contribution of the measures financed to the achievement of the objectives of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement and to the Union priorities, as set out in the Agenda for Change. The review shall be undertaken on the basis of a proposal by the Commission.

8. The EIB shall provide the IF Committee with information as regards progress towards achieving the objectives of the IF. In accordance with Article 6b of Annex II to the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, the overall performance of the IF shall be subject to a joint review at the mid- and end-term of the 11th EDF. The mid-term review shall be carried out by an independent external expert, in cooperation with the EIB, and shall be made available to the IF Committee.

Article 19 U.K. Climate action and biodiversity expenditure

An annual estimate of the overall spending related to climate action and biodiversity shall be made on the basis of the adopted indicative programming documents. The funding allocated in the context of the EDF shall be subject to an annual tracking system based on the OECD methodology (‘Rio markers’), without excluding the use of more precise methodologies where such are available, integrated into the existing methodology for performance management of Union programmes, to quantify the expenditure related to climate action and biodiversity at the level of the action programmes, individual and special measures referred to in Article 9, and recorded within evaluations and the annual reports.

Article 20 U.K. European External Action Service

This Regulation shall apply in accordance with Decision 2010/427/EU.

Article 21 U.K. Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

(1)

Council Regulation (EU) 2015/323 of 2 March 2015 on the financial regulation applicable to the 11th European Development Fund (See page 17 of this Official Journal).