1. PURPOSE: This dataset provides, in a single source, regionalised (NUTS-2) annual EU expenditure data for specific EU funds - ERDF, Cohesion Fund, EAFRD/EAGGF and ESF. This data can be used, among other purposes, to facilitate analysis on the effects of the EU funds.

In terms of the regionalisation of EU payments made, this work expands and replaces datasets previous published on the ERDF and Cohesion fund with additional years and additional EU funds.
The following studies on ERDF and Cohesion fund expenditure are to a large extent now superseded:
- "Geography of expenditure" Work Package 13 of the ERDF and CF ex-post evaluation 2007-2013 - http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/evaluations/ec/2007-2013/#13
- "Final Report - ERDF and CF Regional Expenditure" (2000-2006) - SWECo 2008 - http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/pdf/expost2006/expenditure_final.pdf
- "The Territorial Effects of the Structural Funds" (1994-1999) - ESPON 2005, study 2.2.1 - http://www.espon.eu/main/Menu_Projects/Menu_ESPON2006Projects/Menu_PolicyImpactProjects/structuralfundsimpact.html

The dataset does not contain any identification of the thematic nature of the investments made. This is because there was no harmonised system or information available across funds and across programme periods to estimate the thematic composition of the investments. For the ERDF and Cohesion Fund the studies cited above provided some thematic information for specific programme periods.

2. SCOPE

2.1 REGIONALISATION: This dataset provides the most complete historic picture available to date on the annual EU payments made under different shared management funds mapped to or estimated by NUTS-2 regions;
=> presented in the column "EU_payment_annual".

The work undertaken to regionalise the payment data is predominantly based on the NUTS-2013 version as described in the final report of the 2016 WIIW study (link below). In case the EU funded programmes covered more than one NUTS-2 region the regionalisation of the payments was carried out using either (1) regionalised data provided by the managing authorities or (2) the application of certain apportioning rules to the payments in order to estimate the share of the payment by NUTS-2 region.

In regionalising the data, information on the specific national or regional funding programme, which were the source of the payments, was not retained in the processing of the dataset.

2.2 MODELLING OF “REAL” EXPENDITURE: The yearly breakdown of the dataset follows the cycle of the European Commission payments to the Member States and not the date on which real expenditures took place on the ground. This characteristic may negatively affect any subsequent analytic work to carry out policy assessments.

In order to develop a more realistic estimate of the annual profile of real expenditure, the Commission tasked BERGEN to undertake work to develop a modelling of the “real” annual expenditure on the ground, and to test the robustness and sensitivity of assumptions used (see link to final report below).
=> the modelled real expenditure is presented in the column "Modelled_annual_EU_payments" and it represents the mean of 100 000 simulations on the annual EU payments to estimate real expenditure.
=> The column "Standard_Deviation" provides the standard deviation of the “modelled_annual_EU_payments" which is the root mean square of the

This file contains "categorisation data" from the ERDF/ESF/Cohesion Fund programmes as adopted (including modifications). The data is in current prices. It is regularly updated to reflect reprogramming notified by the programmes.

The data is provided in tables, one for each priority axis (investment pillar), for each specific programme. The categorisation system is defined in Implementing Regulation 215/2014 with 8 dimensions - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0215.
These dimension represent different ways of categorising the nature of the EU support (i.e. the intervention (activity) field, the form of finance, the territorial context, etc.).
In the programme documents only 4 dimensions were encoded for ERDF/ Cohesion Fund while 5 dimensions were encoded for ESF and can be found in the dataset. In analysing the content of the dataset the different dimension should be analysed separately - **NEVER AGGREGATE VALUES ACROSS DIMENSIONS** as otherwise double counting of the financial amounts will occur.

A second dataset found here - https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/EU-Level/ESIF-2014-2020-Categorisation-Crosscutting-Themes-/xns4-t7ym - provides a lookup table for understanding how the Commission uses the intervention field codes to look at cross cutting issues such as investments in "innovation", "enterprise support", etc. That lookup dataset also has the "climate change tracking" weightings and a similar weighting system for "biodiversity tracking".

The Intervention field dimension is the most complete of the the different dimensions in terms of financial coverage. (NB although the SME initiative programmes were not asked to provide categorisation tables, because of simplified programming requirements, they have been manually added by DG REGIO.)

The total investments under other dimension may vary for different reasons (i.e. Technical assistance priority axes are not encoded in all dimensions, etc.)

If downloading, check the format of financial amounts and where necessary change your regional settings and default formatting in your chosen software. You can check the results of your aggregation of the financial data by comparing results with the pre-formatted charts profiled on this metadata page under “featured content”.

This dataset provides time series information on the financial implementation on the ground of the 530+ ESI Funded programmes. The data is cumulative, i.e. 2016 values included the finances implemented for 2015. Therefore the value for different years **MUST NOT BE AGGREGATED**

The financial implementation data is disaggregated by fund, programme, priority axis, thematic objective and category of regions (where available). The data is provided by the managing authorities of the 530+ programmes on at least an annual basis. For some funds the data is provided more regularly:

- ERDF/ESF/CF/YEI: financial data on select operations and expenditure declared by them is provided to the Commission 3 times a year on 31/1, 31/7 and 31/10 with data up until 31/12, 30/6 and 30/9 respectively;
- EAFRD: Financial data on selected projects is provided to the Commission annually (the EAFRD data on spending is derived from certified expenditure reported);
- EMFF: data is provided to the Commission annually up until 31/12.

A detailed description of all the variables in the dataset is provided in the metadata file ESIF_Implemented Finance_Data_Description_of_Dataset_20161219.xlsx (in Attachments below).

Further details on the "finances implemented" data and the other forms of are provided also in the "About" section (FAQs) accessible from the platform - http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/faq/about_open_data/#8

This dataset presents information on EU payments to the Regional Policy supported programmes.
Annual snapshots are provided in the data and therefore the data must be filtered by year to have an accurate view of the total EU planned amount and payments made.
Data is reported on cumulative basis, i.e. the amounts shown in 2017 represent the cumulative payments made from the beginning of the programming period (2014-2017 up to date).
The dataset is updated on a daily basis.

This file contains categorisation data from the ERDF/ESF/Cohesion Fund programmes and in particular it **COMPARES PLANNED AMOUNTS TO IMPLEMENTED INVESTMENTS**.
The data will be updated regularly to reflect updated information transmitted. The implementation values are reported once a year by the 350+ programmes at end January. This dataset contains data to end-2016 and end 2017. As the data is cumulative the **ANNUAL VALUES SHOULD NOT BE AGGREGATED *** but may be compared to see progress.

The planned data is provided in tables one for each priority axis (investment pillar) of each programme. The categorisation systems is defined in Implementing Regulation 215/2014 with 8 dimensions in total - http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0215.
These dimension represent different ways of categorising the nature of the EU support (i.e. the intervention (activity) field, the form of finance, the territorial context, etc.).
In the programme documents only 4 dimensions were encoded for ERDF/ Cohesion Fund while 5 dimensions were encoded for ESF and can be found in the dataset. Data on 3 other dimensions is only provided in the implementation reports - Location, Economic Dimension, ERDF/CF Thematic Objective - and therefore there is no planned amount to compare. In analysing the content of the dataset **THE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS SHOULD BE ANALYSED SEPARATELY AS OTHERWISE DOUBLE COUNTING OF FINANCIAL AMOUNTS WILL OCCUR**.
This information note provides more detail on the categorisation system 2014-2020: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/informat/2014/guidance_categorisation_climate_en.pdf

A second dataset found here - https://cohesiondata.ec.europa.eu/EU-Level/ESIF-2014-2020-Categorisation-Crosscutting-Themes-/xns4-t7ym - provides a lookup table for understanding how the Commission uses the intervention field codes to look at cross cutting issues such as investments in "innovation", "enterprise support", etc. That lookup dataset also has the "climate change tracking" weightings and a similar weighting system for "biodiversity tracking".

This dataset presents information on EU payments to the Regional Policy supported programmes.
Annual snapshots are provided in the data and therefore the data must be filtered by year to have an accurate view of the total EU planned amount and payments made.
Data is reported on cumulative basis, i.e. the amounts shown in 2017 represent the cumulative payments made from the beginning of the programming period (2014-2017 up to date).
The dataset is updated on a daily basis.

This dataset provides information on planned (planned) financing under the different ESI Funds (2014-2020). The data is taken from the adopted financial table and is broken down by fund, programme, priority axis, thematic objective and category of region (more developed, less developed, etc. where available).
For ERDF, ESF and CF the "priority" columns relate to the priority axis (financing blocks) in the programmes; the "investment priority" related to the fixed lists of defined investment objectives set in the three specific fund Regulations.
For the European Agricultural fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) detail is also provided by EAFRD "Focus areas" and "Measures" (the EAFRD Focus Areas are detailed in the EAFRD fund Regulation - Article 5 and the EAFRD measures in Article 13-40 of the relevant Implementing Regulation ).
The data now covers 531 programmes available (adopted and draft) as at the beginning of November 2015 and includes the EU and national co-financing covered by the adoption decision. Financial allocations in the programme financial table may change over time (i.e. transfers between themes, between funds) and as a result the dataset will be updated regularly.

This dataset presents information on EU payments to the Regional Policy supported programmes.
Annual snapshots are provided in the data and therefore the data must be filtered by year to have an accurate view of the total EU planned amount and payments made.
Data is reported on cumulative basis, i.e. the amounts shown in 2017 represent the cumulative payments made from the beginning of the programming period (2014-2017 up to date).
The dataset is updated on a daily basis.