For the first time, Article 11 of the Structural Funds regulation explicitly recognizes the principle of partnership with civil society organisations, which “shall cover the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of operational programmes”.
Implementing partnership across the whole Structural Funds process is an obligation upon Member States, but the quality partnership takes various faces across the EU.
Interesting links:
- EAPN Presentation on partnership in structural funds (February 2008)
- EAPN Manual on the Management of the EU Structural Funds, a useful tool for NGOs to best influence the management of SF (2006)
- Report of EAPN seminar on social NGOs’ access to structural funds (Porto, September 2007)
- 10 Golden rules of NGO participation, published by environmental NGOs
- The principle of partnership in the new ESF programming – report from group of EQUAL managing authorities (2006)
- Partnership in the 2000-2006 period, discussion paper by DG Regio (2005)