7.4. Managing Authorities Insights
The survey was also conducted among the Managing Authorities across the EU. While the survey report is more extensive, we provide you with a high level summary of the findings.
Across countries, the readiness to write and implement EU projects varies. However, these variations emphasise a shared need for
- better access to training,
- improved personnel capacity,
- streamlined administrative processes,
- and ongoing support to mitigate sector-specific challenges and enhance overall project implementation success.
Across the EU, recurring issues encountered by project applicants and managers include:
Administrative Burden: The complexity of European procedures compared to national ones, excessive administrative burdens, ambiguity in project forms, and cumbersome monitoring of audits are common issues. There’s also a general struggle with understanding EU regulations and adhering to them.
Financial Challenges: Issues around co-financing rates, insufficient financial liquidity, provision of national co-financing, and ensuring transferability and sustainability are prevalent.
Reporting and Documentation: Insufficient or complex documentation is a recurring problem. This also extends to irregularities in reporting and rigidity of rules around reporting.
Personnel and Resource Limitations: Difficulties in recruiting experienced and skilled staff for project management and a lack of qualified personnel are common problems. There are also issues related to staff changes and maintaining sustainability in projects.
Project Implementation and Management: Issues around project implementation, such as inappropriate timeframes set in the project applications for the activities planned, delays in starting new schedules, complexities of the procedures, and non-existence of preliminary eligibility checks of applications are common.
Knowledge and Training: Insufficient knowledge of the basic programme documents, lack of substantive and often highly specialised knowledge required to write, implement and settle the project, and a lack of awareness of cooperation within the project team are reported as common problems.
In summary, the most significant issues can be grouped into administrative and financial burdens, difficulties in reporting and documentation, limitations in human resources, challenges in project implementation and management, and a need for better knowledge and training.