In profile: Counting thematic allocations to cohesion policy projects
Publication Date/Time
2024-10-18T16:00:00+00:00
1. HOW MANY PROJECTS ARE SUPPORTED BY THE EU'S COHESION POLICY?

In the context of the EU's cohesion policy – funded by the European
Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, and the European Social
Fund – hundreds of thousand projects are funded in each 7-year
financing period. In this article we look at how we count thematic
allocations reported to projects (operations) based on the detailed
Intervention field data and we provide interactive charts to explore
the data and themes.

We also look at some other methods to count projects, operations, and
beneficiaries.

2. COUNTING ERDF/CF ALLOCATIONS BY DETAILED THEME

The number of detailed thematic allocations to projects/operations are
reported once a year on 31 January to the Commission. The focus of the
charts below is on counting the number of specific thematic
allocations.

As projects sometimes involve multiple thematic allocations, the data
includes some double counting of projects/operations. Other approaches
to counting projects are discussed in section 5 below.

2.1 PROGRESS OVER TIME ... INCREASING ERDF/CF THEMATIC ALLOCATIONS TO
PROJECTS

The interactive chart below presents the development over time of in
the number of thematic allocations to projects under the ERDF and
Cohesion Fund. The filters provided allow you to explore the values by
country, thematic objective, and fund.

2.2 COUNTING ERDF/CF PROJECTS BY HIGH LEVEL THEME

The interactive chart below presents the cumulative number of thematic
allocations to projects under the ERDF and Cohesion Fund thematic
objectives for a specific year (check filter). The filters provided
allow you to explore the values by year and country and fund.

3. ESF/YEI THEMATIC ALLOCATIONS TO PROJECTS

The interactive chart below presents the cumulative number of thematic
allocations to projects under the ESF/YEI for a specific year. The
filters provided allow you to explore the values by year and country.

4. COUNTING ALLOCATIONS BY DETAILED THEMATIC INTERVENTIONS

The interactive chart below presents the cumulative number of thematic
allocations to projects for the selected "intervention fields"
(detailed thematic priorities) for a specific year. The filters
provided at the top right allow you to explore the values by fund,
year, country, and intervention field.

Check the filters to see the specific selection presented.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/Screenshot%202024-10-21%20135947.png]

5. OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON OPERATIONS AND BENEFICIARIES

The national and regional programmes funded by cohesion policy funds
collect and report three types of information on both "operations" and
"beneficiaries". There are important differences in the nature and the
level of information made available. Apart from the detailed thematic
allocations (set out above) there are two other sources of data on
operations and beneficiaries:

	* NUMBER OF OPERATIONS SUPPORTED BY EACH PRIORITY (investment
envelopes) in each national, regional, or interregional programme,
reported 3 times a year on 31 January, 31 July and 31 October to the
Commission. The number of operations reported through this format is
lower that presented above as it excludes double counting at priority
level.
	* THE NUMBER OF OPERATIONS REPORTED ON NATIONAL WEBSITES with EU
financial support (and detailed theme specified). The lists of
operations are not reported to the Commission but are made public. In
many Member States the number of beneficiaries is also provided in the
list of Operations.

5.1 CLARIFYING TERMS

We tend to use the terms "project" and "operations" interchangeably.
In fact, the concept of "operation" covers a variety of different
situations:

	* A specific project promoted by a project manager (i.e. an
investment in a research faculty in a university);
	* A stage (or phase) of a long-term project (i.e. building a section
of high-speed rail as part of a master project);
	* A scheme supporting multiple beneficiaries (i.e. an energy
efficiency scheme supporting 1 000 householders);
	* A financial instrument fund (loan, equity, etc.) run by a financial
intermediary, financing multiple enterprises (or other beneficiaries).

5.2 CONTACT

REGIO-EVAL@ec.europa.eu
