Communication: Ex-post verification of additionality 2007-2013

Additionality is a principle of the European Union's cohesion policy aiming to ensure that the Structural Funds complement but do not replace equivalent public expenditure of a Member State.

Article 15 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 specifies that the Commission should verify additionality in the Convergence objective in cooperation with each concerned Member State by the end of 2016 and should publish the results of this exercise. Although, under the regulations, Croatia has an additional year for this verification process, the Croatian authorities decided to submit all documentation one year early. This report therefore closes the verification of additionality for the 2007-2013 programming period, after the ex-ante and the mid-term verifications carried out in 2007 and 2011-2012 respectively.

Additionality is considered to be respected if the average structural expenditure by the Member State over the period 2007-2013 was, in real terms, at least equal to the level determined at the beginning of the period, or the level revised at the mid-term verification in 2011 and 2012 ('the baseline') to take account of the significant changes in the economic situation.

This report summarises the results of the ex-post verification carried out in 2016 for the whole programming period 2007-2013. Compliance with additionality in this period has been probably the most challenging until now; it refers to the years of the worst economic downturn that the EU has witnessed in several decades. The significant decline of the economic activity which started in 2008 had a profound impact on public finances in Member States and gave rise to stringent fiscal consolidation plans aimed principally at ensuring the sustainability of public finances. The result was a significant decline of public investment.