The NGO Coalition for Structural Funds

CeRe and the NGO Coalition for Structural Funds, together with over 100 non-governmental organizations, union structures and employers’ organizations, are bringing to the attention of the Prime Minister the fact that Romania stands to lose a large portion of the 30 billion Euro non-refundable funds because of the inefficiency of the Government and of the public authorities in charge of managing these funds. In an open letter addressed to prime minister Emil Boc on January 26 2010, the NGOs, together with several unions and employers, point out the serious problems that not only the solicitors of structural funds, but also those who have already received funds are currently confronted with. You can read the open letter addressed to prime minister Emil Boc here. The letter caused a stir in mass-media institutions and was largely covered by Realitatea TV, TVR, Antena 3, Money Channel, Hotnews, Romania Libera, Evenimentul Zilei, Curierul National, Realitatea FM,  Nine O'Clock and many others.

Starting with January 2006, the Coalition for Structural Funds has been fighting to have the NGOs’ requests taken into account in the planning, implementation and evaluation process of programs and projects run with European funds.

Goal

The main goal of the Coalition was to achieve:

û       The involvement of NGOs in developing Sectoral Operational Programs

û       Facilitating funding measures for NGOs and other beneficiaries

û       The inclusion of NGOs in monitoring committees.

Partners

Besides CeRe, the NGO Coalition for Structural Funds also includes: the Pro Democracy Association, the Media Monitoring Agency, CENTRAS - Assistance Center for NGOs, FDSC - Civil Society Development Foundation, ANBCC - National Association of Counselling Bureaus for Citizens, the Save the Children Organization, the Terra Mileniul III Foundation, the Roma Civic Alliance of Romania, the Save the Danube and the Delta Association, the Alaturi de Voi (Close to You) Foundation.

History

The Coalition began its activity with an open letter addressed to the ministries, to signal the importance of involving NGOs in the management of programs run with structural funds.

After a first phase of meetings with various ministries, the Coalition held a press conference during which a report was launched on their openness towards NGOs. Using the model of the European Commission, the Coalition awarded red, yellow or green flags to each ministry. Subsequently, the Coalition continued to work with the most relevant ministries, in small working groups. The Coalition had a different experience with each ministry.

For instance, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection proved to be very open and responsive to NGOs’ recommendations regarding the Sectoral Operational Program for Human Resources Development. Most of these recommendations were included in the final document and others will be included in the Framework Implementation Document.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Administration and Interior was less responsive. Only a few of the NGOs’ recommendations were included in the Sectoral Operational Plan for the Development of Administrative Capacity. The organizations were promised that a few other will be included in the Framework Implementation Document.

The Ministry of Finance agreed with the concerns raised by the NGOs, but disagreed with the solutions they suggested. A fact worth mentioning is that the most important of the NGOs’ requests were addressed to the Ministry of Finance, the least responsive of all ministries approached.

Results

û       The NGOs are now considered eligible beneficiaries in all relevant sectoral programs. However, applicant’s guides describing the application procedure for structural funds were only published this year. Some problems showed up in the Sectoral Operational Program for Human Resources Development – which is extremely important for the third sector – as the conditions to ensure pre-financing were very tough. New protests were staged and new debates ensued, mainly in small working groups.

û       Members of the third sector were included in all monitoring committees. In certain cases, the ministries requested the Coalition to appoint these members – a situation that the Coalition tried to avoid, as it was neither mandated to represent the entire associative sector, nor to appoint its representatives. As a result, public announcements were made on various e-groups (such as environmental ones) and public consultations were held, but with little time to prepare.

û       The changes within the government (for instance, the changing of a minister) led to a series of problems – the new decision makers did not continue the initiatives of their predecessors. Some members of the monitoring committees were removed without any explanation, which led to public protests and another series of meetings with the officials. The final result was that the NGO representatives managed to keep their positions within the monitoring committees, but as observers.

û       The results achieved by the NGO Coalition for Structural Funds are translated into improved access of Romanian NGOs to structural funds. Although the openness of the authorities was not always equal, NGOs are listed among the beneficiaries and mechanisms to make the funding of their projects more accessible are sometimes taken into consideration.

û       We believe that our most important achievement with this project is the fact that the authorities in charge of managing structural funds now regard as necessary the participation of NGOs in the planning and evaluation stage, and as beneficiaries of structural funds.

If you are interested to know who are the NGO representatives in the monitoring committees for structural funds, you can find the list here.

The Coalition benefited from the support of World Learning for International Development, through the Romania Civil Society Strengthening program (WL/RCSS).