The INTERREG IPA Cross-Border Program was adopted on November 24th, 2015 and implemented through 24 First Call projects. 14 Montenegrin partners participate in 12 projects. Asked why Montenegro is running only one project and even that one gets the least amount of money, the EC said that a group of independent external experts rated all project proposals, and the Joint Monitoring Committee composed of representatives of all participating countries selected the 24 best after the first invite for submissions.
The EC encourages Montenegrin partners to submit more good proposals and more often assume the role of the lead partner on projects under the Cross-Border Cooperation Program Interreg IPA (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) Croatia - BiH - Montenegro 2014-2020, the source said.
He says the program will not be closed before the deadline, although the second invite for proposals has not yet been announced.
"The second invite for proposals within the project is being prepared. As soon as all the documents are ready, a second invite for proposals will be announced," the EC source said.
According to him, project proposals are evaluated according to publicly known criteria.
"The funds of the Program are a common fund, meaning that there is no redistribution among countries, but support is granted after an open and transparent competition among all applicants. The partnership, the choice of the lead partner and the project budget (there are at least 15% of the co-financing) are entirely dependent on the project partners," says the EC source.
For the Program, which aims to support the development of Montenegro and the region, and especially the least developed parts, the EU has predicted a total of 67 million euros. Croatia as a member of EU is in charge of the allocation of funds and implementation of the program.
The Croatian Ministry for Regional Development and EU Funds and Agency for Regional Development of the Republic of Croatia (ARR RH) said that out of the total of 164 project proposals submitted under the first invite, 24 contracts were contracted, 89 proposals were on the reserve list, 26 received less than a minimum of 70 points in the quality assessment, which was a condition for the reserve list, while 25 were rejected during the administrative check and verification of eligibility. Out of a total of 25 rejected project proposals, 13 of them are listed from Montenegro
Asked what had happened with the proposal of the former Montenegrin Ministry of European Affairs led by Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, that in the next invite every project should be represented by all three countries, which was not in the first one, and that the entire territory of Montenegro gets involved in the program, the Croatian Ministry and the ARR responded that a request from the National Authority of Montenegro was sent to the European Commission and a negative response was received.
PHOTO: Savo Prelević
They state that the process of the cross-border program for the financial period from 2014-2020 was carried out on the basis of the Delegated Commission Regulation (EU) no. 240/2014 dated January 7th, 2014 on the European Code for Conduct of Partnership within the European Structural and Investment Funds. The programming process included, as they say, all key and interested participants from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Regional Development and Funds of the EU has established a working group for the programming of the Interreg Croatia IPA Cross-Border Cooperation Program Croatia - BiH - Montenegro 2014 - 2020, in which national, regional and local representatives of the three countries participated. All drafted documents have been discussed in detail at numerous meetings of working groups for programming and on public consultation workshops in all countries. Also, all the documents were electronically accessible to the public within the programming process and later in the process of strategic environmental impact assessment process, they explained. They added that the entire documentation went through an ex-ante (before approval) evaluation, during which independent external experts evaluated the intervention logistic of the program, including, among other things, assessment whether the program can achieve the target values of the set indicators in accordance with the available resources. Following a positively evaluated ex-ante evaluation, the working group adopted the Cooperation Program and the accompanying documents, and, as it is stated, the Cooperation Program was submitted to the EC for approval.
Revised procedures and prices for existing indicators will take place
When asked where the expectation comes from that within the program of 3.2 million euros can build 32 MW capacity of renewable energy sources, Croatian institutions responded that during the planned evaluation of the program implemented in accordance with EU regulations, which will be implemented by the end of 2018 conducted by independent external experts, the entire management system will be assessed, program procedures and target values of program indicators.
"The task of the expert will, among other things, be the revision of the current market prices for the existing indicators, and will propose measures and steps which will become mandatory for the Program and its implementation by the end of the program deadline, i.e. within the next five years," said the Croatian Ministry and Agency.
The government claims that the proposals are not rejected on a national basis
The Office of the Chief Negotiator of Montenegro with the EU said the Program has been jointly implemented by all three participating countries, through cooperation between the Governing Body, the National Authorities in Croatia, BiH and MNE, the Joint Secretariat, the Certification and Audit Office and the Joint Committee for monitoring (represented by participants from all three countries) on which all issues are jointly decided and decisions are made by the consensus.
"In accordance with the implementation rules of the Program, the quality of project proposals is evaluated by the independent evaluators based on predefined criteria published in the Guidelines for Applicants. Thus, the best-rated projects selected for funding are in accordance with the available funds, and there is no talk of rejecting the proposal on a national basis," they replied to the question of why the Montenegrin proposals were rejected by the Program.
They added that key indicators, as well as identified needs that can be addressed within the Program, are defined in the process of defining the overall needs of the program area based on the analysis of the situation in different sectors, as well as the SWOT analysis, all in accordance with its cross-border character, budget, and capacities.
The chief negotiator with the EU is now Aleksandar Drljević, who was named at the end of May after Aleksandar Andrija Pejovic resigned in February after the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (ASK) found that by merging his functions, he violated the Constitution.
Text by Biljana Matijasevic, on July 9th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
