Editor's note

The new Council’s regulation adopted on 3 June (Council of the European Union, Regulation 1054/10, 3 June 2010) aims to guarantee the liquidity of the worst affected EU member states by the crisis to improve the absorption of the funds with regard to certain operational programmes and to simplify the EU structural funds' management rules.

Members of the European Parliament's Regional Development Committee, in a declaration of support, acknowledged that more flexible access to the EU's regional and structural funds should help the regions that have been hit by the economic crisis to recover more quickly.

In addition, the new financial resources will help SMEs, professional training programs, research and development initiatives, companies in industrial and rural modernisation to move forward towards sustainable growth and employment.

According to the Regulation, Latvia, for example, will receive additional advance payments of € 52,8 mln, which is 4 per cent increase in ESF fund and 2 per cent in Cohesion Fund. Lithuania will get 87,2 mln and Estonia 38,7 mln euro, correspondingly.

Total for the three Baltic States additional advance payments will account to € 178,7 mln out of total 775,2 mln for 5 states, including also Hungary and Romania. 

Now it is the turn of the Baltic States’ authorities to streamline the procedures for SMEs in acquiring financial resource from the EU additional Structural Funds.