Press Release: EU Cohesion Policy is helping to weather the crisis and produce growth, says Commission 2013 Strategic Report

On 18 April 2013, the European Commission presented an overview of how EU Structural Funds are working in Member States. The ‘Strategic Report’ on the implementation of 2007-2013 Cohesion Policy programmes pulls together available information from Member States, up to end-2011 in most cases.

The “Strategic Report” outlines the progress of each country on delivering EU objectives, in line with the targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy. It encourages Member States to measure progress in key strategic sectors, such as research and innovation, rail, energy, capacity building, sustainable urban transport, job creation and training.

The reports submitted by the 27 Member States at the end of 2012 (based mainly on 2011 data) provide the Commission with the first opportunity to report, during a programming period, on progress in delivering outputs and results and to highlight important and timely messages on the potential of Cohesion Policy to play its part in the EU's economic recovery. The Commission identifies the investment areas where action must be taken to speed up the selection and execution of projects co-financed in 2007 2013 in order to meet the objectives set.