1. e-Cohesion Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary Programme 1 ST MONITORING COMMITTEE MEETING Békéscsaba, 26 th of May 2016

2. What is e-Cohesion all about? "e-Cohesion" is a new European initiative intended to support the reduction of administrative burden for beneficiaries. In practice, e-Cohesion requires Member States to implement e- government services allowing beneficiaries of the Funds to exchange information with programme bodies through the use of electronic portals accessible through the web.

3. The concept of e-Cohesion, as outlined in Article 122(3) of Regulation 1303/2013 (Common Provisions Regulation, CPR), concerns the electronic exchange of information between beneficiaries and programme bodies during the 2014-2020 programming period. What is e-Cohesion?

4. Legal background: Article 122(3) of Regulation 1303/2013 (Common Provisions Regulation, CPR) establishes the minimum requirements regarding e- Cohesion: “3. Member States shall ensure that no later than 31 December 2015, all exchanges of information between beneficiaries and a managing authority, a certifying authority, an audit authority and intermediate bodies can be carried out by means of electronic data exchange systems...”

5. e-Cohesion means that:  the 'only once' encoding principle is applied (i.e. beneficiaries should not need to enter the same data more than once in the system). This principle should apply at a minimum, in the framework of the same operational programme.  the concept of interoperability is guaranteed (data encoded by beneficiaries needs to be shared between different bodies within the same operational programme).  the electronic audit trail complies with relevant articles of the CPR (Articles 112 and 132) as well as with any national requirements on the availability of documents.

6. e-Cohesion means that:  the system for electronic data exchange guarantees: - data integrity + confidentiality - authentication of the sender (Directive 1999/93/EC), - storage in compliance with defined retention rules (relevant articles of the CPR, 72, 106)

7. In other words, there are several reasons for using the electronic data exchange system: -the data is already safe from the moment of encoding it in the system. This is not the case when sending data per regular e-mail or post; -the sender of information can be easily identified in the system and therefore data provided by the beneficiary is valid without written signature; -elimination of parallel paper flow reduces storage space and often costs; -providing the data only once saves time for beneficiaries and programme managers and information is stored in one place; -also, authorized institutions can access necessary pieces of information without the necessity of sending the paper documents.

8. To fulfill the e-Cohesion requirements, the INTERREG V-A Romania-Hungary Programme is implementing the electronic Monitoring System (eMS).

9. eMS is a web application built by the Interact Programme for the benefit of all Interreg Programmes. According to the Audit Report of the Ernst & Young, the eMS is fulfilling all requirements of the art. 122(3) of the Regulation 1303/2013 and in particular the requirements set out in EU Regulations 821/2014, 1011/2014 and 480/2014.

10. BENEFICIARIES APPLICANTS Electronic exchange of information in 2014-2020 period

11. The eMS is a monitoring system with communication portal to support submission, evaluation, approval, contracting, monitoring, management and administration of projects in the context of Interreg programmes. The system supports collection of all information on submitted and approved projects, their implementation and achievements, modifications and closure.

12. Additionally aggregated data on the progress of projects and the programme level are recorded in the system. All programme bodies are able to communicate with beneficiaries via the system and re-use the data already collected. The eMS is built to support programme authorities in day-to-day programme management and should fulfil all legal requirements of the regulations.

13. Data in eMS are structured in several layers of information and follows a strict workflow. The following elements are part of the standard workflow: 1.Enter programme data (information from the Cooperation Programme) This section contains the basic information of the Interreg programme recorded in the system. It is the information from the document called “Cooperation Programme”, which is approved by the European Commission.

14. 2. Management of calls Interreg programmes finance projects based on application forms submitted within a defined timeslot and conditions. These timeslots are calls for proposal. 3. Application Form Any applicant intending to submit an application within an open call for proposals can register a user and fill out the application form directly in the eMS. It is possible to submit applications only within the timeslot and conditions (opened calls for proposal).

15. 4. Assessment All submitted applications need to go through a two-step assessment. 5. Recommendation The outcome of the assessment is a recommendation by the assessors to the Monitoring Committee. 6. Funding decision (Monitoring Committee) The Monitoring Committee decides which projects are approved by the programme or approved under conditions.

16. 7. Handover and supplementary information After the project is approved and before it can be contracted, the lead applicant needs to appoint an eMS user who will be the lead beneficiary for the project. Additionally, some important information on project management structure (e.g. bank account, state aid, public procurement) are ready to be filled out at this stage in the section entitled ‘supplementary information’. 8. Subsidy contract The system supports the generation of a Subsidy Contract. It is template- based and uses data from the approved application form.

17. 9. Partner reporting Once the project is contracted, it enters the reporting phase, which will last until the project is finalised. Each project partner needs to report its activities and expenditure in a partner report. 10. FLC First level Controllers are national controllers who need to check every partner’s report and expenditures. They have access to the eMS and see the relevant information. They have their working documents available in the system and can do the verification work online. As a result of the FLC check, an FLC certificate is generated and approved by the controller.

18. 11. Project reporting The Lead Partner collects all FLC certified partner reports (including its own) and creates a project report. The Lead Partner decides on which FLC certificates to include in the project report. 12. JS verification The JS receives a project report and verifies it accordingly; It has the possibility to make positive or negative corrections to individual expenditure items. Once approved, the report is submitted to the MA..

19. 13. MA verification MA receives a project report and verifies it accordingly; Once approved, the report is then submitted to the Authorization Unit. 14. MA Authorization MA verifies the report. MA can deduct some expenditure or exclude temporarily for further verification and includes the report in the MA certificate. Once included in the certificate, the report may be paid.

20. 15. Payment MA performs the payment to the Lead Partner outside of the system and records date and amount paid for every partners. The payment can be done in full or in instalments. 16. Reporting MA with certification function, is responsible for generating several reports and submitting them to the European Commission.

21. The eMS system generates different reports which allow to extract the desired data from different sections as well: ► Financial data is exportable to Microsoft Excel data format ► Overview tables – like list of application forms waiting for the Monitoring Committee decision, including the ranking – can be exported to Microsoft Excel data format. ► Overview tables on financial data are exportable on various levels (e.g. partner report, FLC certificate, project report, programme)

22. ► Custom reports needed by specific ETC Programmes based on application form or project report information can be added in a special section; export of custom reports to PDF is possible ► An integrated OLAP (online analytical processing) cube reporting tool allows for generation of statistics/calculations based on selected information. Results can be exported to Microsoft Excel, PDF. Generated charts can be saved as image (PNG). ► Programme annual implementation reports as specified in Regulation 1303/2013, Art. 50(2) are pre-defined in the system and exportable to PDF.

23. The up-to-date state of facts, regarding the implementation of the eMS system, is as follows: the eMS license for the Interreg V-A Romania-Hungary Programme was signed in September 2015 (by City of Vienna, MRDAP and BRECO); The protocol for hosting the eMS server, was signed in November 2015 with STS the server acquisition (for real database) is in progress;

24. meantime, a test base is available for users, at programme bodies level: http://ems-rohu.mdrap.ro/app/main?execution=e1s1 for potential applicants, a test base is available on the Interact website: http://ems.interact-eu.net/demo/app/main?execution=e1s1

25. trainings for eMS users were developed by Interact and/or programme bodies and there are also planned in the future, for projects' beneficiaries and programme bodies; 19-20.11.2015 - eMS training for advanced users; Viena - Austria - held by Interact Vienna and PL.O.T. (with the participation of over 10 cooperation programs in Europe including ROHU, RORS, BSB).

26. 18 - 22.01.2016 –Interreg V-A Romania Hungary- Working meeting at MRDAP Bucharest – calls testing - (various configurations for calls were tested - with the participations of ROHU and ROBG members) 06 - 08.04.2016 - technical meeting between representatives programs, ROHU, ROBG, RORS and BSB and the company PL.O.T. Vienna, a company that developed e-MS system, in order to ensure installation, configuration, use and operation of the eMS at MDRAP Bucharest

27. Future actions: The first eMS training for programme bodies will take place in Oradea at BRECO premises during 31.05 - 01.06.2016; Trainings for project applicants/beneficiaries will be held in the future, according to programme necessities; An “eMS Application Instructions” will be available for applicants, on ROHU website after the approval of the Programme’s visual identity when the website will became functional An “eMS Manual 3_0.10” will be available for users, on ROHU website after the approval of the Programme’s visual identity when the website will became functional

28. Joint Secretariat - BRECO Tel: +40 259 473 174 +40 256 406 478 Fax: +40 259 473 175 E-mail: joint.secretariat@brecoradea.ro Thank you for your attention! Managing Authority Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration Romania Tel: + 40 372 11 13 26 Fax: + 40 372 11 16 13 E-mail: rohu@mdrap.ro