The chair of the Committee on Regional Development in the European Parliament Iskra Mihaylova MEP (Bulgaria / ALDE) organised a seminar in Romania on the simplification of European structural and investment funds.  ALDE’s CoR member and Flevoland province representative Michiel Rijsberman (Netherlands / D66) shared the viewpoint of the Dutch provinces and called for reducing administrative burdens.

Michiel Rijsberman:

“We don’t have to wait until after 2020 to deal with the control pressures on European structural and investment funds. The administrative burdens in applying for and spending of European structural and investment funds are unnecessarily high and cause a lot of legal uncertainties; funds also reach the beneficiaries too slowly because of these burdens. We shouldn’t forget that we want to simplify things for the applicants, and within the existing system we can already achieve a lot”.

The main objective of this event was to offer input and recommendations to the High Level Group monitoring simplification for beneficiaries of European Structural and Investment Funds. As a result of this event, both European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu and Iskra Mihaylova MEP have invited Michiel Rijsberman for follow-up discussions on the issue of simplifying administrative burdens.