Continuity & Change: Balancing between two programme periods

The beginning of a new year has not meant respite from challenges. ESIF programme managers continue to juggle responsibilities across two programme periods. The tail-end of the 2014-20 programme period remains busy, particularly in terms of monitoring and processing expenditure claims, making payments to beneficiaries and closure arrangements. This workload is now exacerbated by many projects needing extensions into 2023, due to the impact of COVID-19 and emerging challenges linked to REACT-EU implementation and the Ukrainian conflict. Significant progress has been made in the financial implementation of ESIF programmes, despite the ongoing exceptional circumstances and additional resources from REACT-EU. In the meantime, preparations for the 2021-27 period continue. This paper reviews progress with implementation of the 2014-20 and 2021-27 IQ-Net ESIF programmes over the last six months.