1. Mid-2023 update on expenditure under cohesion policy

• At the end of September an estimated total of EUR 465 billion (87%) of the total planned EUR 532 billion of EU and national expenditure under Cohesion Policy for 2014-2020 was incurred on the ground as investment spending, compared to EUR 406 billion investment spending at the end 2022;
  
• The national and regional programmes have until the end of 2023 to deliver the remaining investment planned.
  
• These figures provide an approximation of the progress over time in investment effort. The data has limitations that are explained in Section 4 below. 
  

TIPS:
Use the filters to the top right of the chart to filter by country and programme. 
Click on a set of bars to expand the chart and compare countries for a specific year (use the buttons on the top left to reset / navigate)    

2. Progress by fund 

• European Regional Development fund - ERDF
  
• European Social Fund - ESF 
  
• Cohesion Fund - CF (with restricted eligibility by country)
  
• Youth Employment Initiative - YEI (co-funded by the ESF)  
  

Use the filters to explore the progress by fund in each country and programme. 

• Planned: Total budget of the programme, of the fund of for the theme. It represents the total planned investment volume including EU and national financing. The total can change over time within the rules on "reprogramming".
  
  For instance, in 2020 there were some important transfers of EU planned amounts between fund, in particular EU funds were transferred from the Cohesion Fund to the ERDF and the ESF.  
  
• Decided: total financial resources allocated to decided (selected) projects (the value of the project pipeline decided at a specific date). 
  
• Spending: total investment expenditure reported to the national and regional programme managers by the selected / decided projects.
  

3. Response to the coronavirus pandemic

4. How to interpret the data

4.1 What is over programming? 

4.2 Accuracy of the planned and reported financial data and percentage rates of spending  

1. The financial implementation data above are calculated as mathematical aggregates of the raw data reported by programmes at MS and EU level. That aggregation does not take account of the limits on EU financing set a priori in the financial plan of each programme by EU fund, by category of region and by priority axis.  While there are important flexibilities in the use of EU Funds there are also limits.  Within each Member State, it is possible to transfer MFF resources after 2020 (until 2023), but only between priority axes as long as these transfers concern the same programme, the same EU Fund and the same category of region. In practice, the amounts over-programmed, or over-spent, in one programme cannot be used by another programme.
   

   In additional, at the closure of the programmes, there is flexibility to allow some excess expenditure in one priority to compensate underspending in another priority within the same programme, within the same EU Fund and the same category of region, but not between MFF and REACT-EU resources. Therefore, aggregating the over-programmed and over-spent amounts by programme or by country, as well as MFF and REACT resources by EU Fund, does not provide the most accurate picture. The impact of the raw aggregation leads to the overstatement of the rate of decided investment and spending for some programmes and at EU level.
   
2. The data on this page is built using the planned funding from the latest adopted financial plans reflecting the last decided co-financing rates.  These planned amounts do not reflect the fact that the overall EU Fund contribution is an aggregate of EU Fund contributions calculated annuallyusing the co-financing rates applicable in the specific accounting years. The EU Fund contribution paid in previously closed or submitted accounting years is not re-calculated at the new co-financing rates. Therefore, in case of increased co-financing rates, the MS needs to submit higher national financing to receive the full EU amount. (The only exceptions from this rule are CRII and CARE 100% EU co-financing, the increase of which do not need to be compensated by national overbooking - see point 3.) As a result, the selection rates and rates of spending are overstated for those countries that increased EU co-financing rates throughout the programme implementation period.
   
3. The provisions to allow temporary 100% EU co-financing under (1) the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRII/CRII+) in the accounting year 2020/2021, (2) the initiative Cohesion's Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) in accounting year 2021-2022 and (3) the proposals under the Strategic Technologies for Europe (STEP) proposal in accounting year 2023-2024, have the effect of increasing EU co-financing and EU payments.  This implicitly reduced the national co-financing and therefore the total financing.  However, the data published is based on the formally adopted financial tables with planned national funding, which do not take the "ex post" increases in EU co-financing into account. As a result, the selection rates and rates of spending are understated for those countries that use 100% EU temporary co-financing flexibility.
   
4. The addition of the extra REACT-EU resources in 2021 and 2022 under the ERDF and ESF programmes had the initial effect of increasing the planned funding without contributing significantly to total expenditure in 2021-2022. For instance, the whole amount available of  EUR 50 billion was committed by mid-2023 to ERDF/ESF programmes, while only EUR 21 billion (42%) was reported as being spent by the middle of 2023. This additional financing had the effect of slowing the % rate of growth in the rates of spending between 2020 and 2022.  It should also be noted that REACT-EU does not have the same impact on the total planned budget in each MS (see the ERDF/ESF REACT-EU allocations by country on this page).
   

5. More information