WPMC (17) M16 WALES PROGRAMME MONITORING COMMITTEE EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS 2014-2020 Date: 1 December 2017 Time: 9.30am Venue: Welsh Government Offices, Merthyr Tydfil AGENDA 1. Welcome and apologies 09:30 - 09:35 2. Minutes of September meeting, actions and other 09:35 – 09:45 WPMC(17)M15 matters arising 3. Update on ESI Funds Progress, including portfolio 09:45 – 10:00 WPMC(17)113 development To include: (a) ERDF Programmes 10:00 – 10:15 WPMC(17)114 (b) ESF Programmes 10:15 – 10:30 WPMC(17)115 (c) Welsh Government Rural Development 10:30 – 10:45 WPMC(17)116 Programmes (d) Structural Funds: Approved Operations List WPMC(17)117 (e) WGRC-RDP 2014 – 2020: Socio-economic WPMC(17)118 Approved Project List (f) Performance Framework 10:45 – 11:00 WPMC(17)119 4. ERDF Programme Modifications 11:00 – 11:40 WPMC(17)120 ESF Programme Modifications WPMC(17)121 5. Proposals to the 2nd Modification Amendments to the 11:40 – 12:00 WPMC(17)122 Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 **Break 12:00 – 12:15** 6. Cross Cutting Themes: Tackling Poverty 12:15 – 12:35 WPMC(17)123 7. Amendments to the Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy 12:35 – 12:55 WPMC(17)124 8. Presentation: Development Bank of Wales 12:55 – 13:25 9. Future of Regional Policy Update 13:25 – 13:45 10. AOB 13:45 – 14:00 **Lunch 13:40 – 14:00** WPMC(17)M15 EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS 2014-2020 WALES PROGRAMME MONITORING COMMITTEE Friday 15 September 2017 Welsh Government, Merthyr Tydfil Meeting Notes ITEM 1: Welcome, introductions and apologies 1. The Chair welcomed members to the meeting of the Wales Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC). A special welcome was extended to Mr Alexander Bartovič, the new Head of Unit at DG Agri. Attendees and apologies are listed at Annex A. The Chair reminded members that the June PMC meeting was Damien O’Brien’s last meeting as Chief Executive of WEFO and welcomed Sioned Evans to her first PMC meeting as Chief Executive of WEFO. ITEM 2: Minutes of June meeting, actions and other matters arising 2. Members were advised that amendments received from DG Agri had been included in the minutes circulated to members. No further comments were received, therefore, taking those amendments into account; the minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record of the meeting. ITEM 3: Update on ESI Funds Progress, including portfolio development Overview 3. Sioned Evans provided an overview of programme progress since the 16 June 2017 meeting: • Overall 66% (61 % ERDF, 74% ESF) of Structural Funds (£1.4 billion) resources have been committed this is an increase from 65% reported at the last meeting and represents total investment of £2.6 billion. All of the EC’s expenditure (N+3) targets for 2017 have been met for Structural Funds • The Rural Development Programme is currently fully committed at 102%, following approval of the modification in June. Since the last PMC meeting an additional £20m has been spent. • Comparison with a recent EC paper, benchmarking delivery across the 28 EU member states, reflects that Wales would rank second in terms of commitment and seventh in terms of declared expenditure. • A competition has been launched to celebrate 60 years of the European Social Fund. Members were encouraged to provide nominations for projects/operations in their area by the deadline of 20th October. • The Wales Rural Network is jointly facilitating the UK National Rural Network Event to be held in Belfast during October 2017. WPMC(17)M15 Action: Secretariat to circulate WEFO website link on the ESF 60 Competition to members. 4. Sioned Evans also advised that a paper on Regional Investment in Wales outside of the EU is due to be published shortly. Two consultation events are planned in the autumn in order to stimulate discussion about how best to shape future arrangements. 5. In response to a member’s question on exchanges rates used for the RDP, David McNeill advised that due to the requirement for a fixed level of domestic funding, budget restrictions may constrain the Welsh Government’s ability to commit more funds to the RDP Programmes. The RDP team are currently working closely on this with a possibility that a modification may be brought to the PMC in December. 6. Following a comment from the chair on the reported low levels of expenditure, Peter Ryland responded that current concerns are being actively addressed with more training being made available to beneficiaries where needed. Although the exchange rate situation for the Structural Fund Programmes is slightly less complex than RDP the availability of match funding remains a challenge. Furthermore, as the date of EU exit draws closer, HMT are requesting more information on operations in line with the funding guarantee and a common planning rate across all UK Managing Authorities is yet to be agreed. 7. Sioned Evans also advised that, whilst good progress has been made on commitment and with spend starting to improve, the deadline of 30 March 2019 for planning approvals does significantly reduce the timetable. Additionally the fall in Sterling had increased the funding available, making the goal of delivering a full programme an even greater challenge. Members agreed on the importance of working together to achieve this goal but noted some of the challenges involved in declaring project spend. 8. The chair advised that she intends to write to the Welsh Government, in her role as Chair of the WPMC, in order to highlight the challenges discussed and the importance of achieving more progress on the issue of low levels of spend. Member agreed that this would be a helpful action to take. ERDF Programmes 9. Sue Price, Head of ERDF Programmes, WEFO, advised that both ERDF programmes continue to make good progress, with a commitment level of 60% for the West Wales and the Valleys programme and 62% for the East Wales programme, meaning that overall commitment is up at 61 %. A further 8 operations, totalling £29 million have been approved since the June PMC WPMC(17)M15 meeting and there are currently 34 operations in business planning stage for Priorities 1, 3 and 4 (£70 million WWV, £10 million EW). Sue Price also highlighted that planning rates are discussed and reviewed very frequently with a focus on meeting targets set. 10. Sue Price updated members on activity within each priority, highlighting the following: • Priority 1 : Research and Innovation - The Centre for Environmental Biotechnology operation was approved this week and good progress is being made with the 17 operations that were progressed to business planning stage following the recent call. Following on from the success of the call held in early 2017 WEFO are considering a further call in early 2018, with a possibility for wider scope of activity. Pre-call conversations will be held towards the end of this year and a maximum of 8 weeks will be allocated for applications due to the need to approve operations in time for the March 2019 HMT deadline. • Priority 2: SME Competitiveness - The Priority is settled with high commitment levels across both programmes. There is no apparent gap in provision therefore the current focus is very much on delivery for the portfolio of operations making up the ‘Business Wales Family’. • Priority 3: Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency - Whilst progress is proving to be more challenging than anticipated, progress is being made particularly in working with developers keen to make use of the waters around Wales to deploy their wave and tidal energy devices. Two Marine Energy operations have been approved; META - a nursery site for short stay testing of wave devices and approval to support the consenting process of the Morlais Demonstration Zone. The recently closed Community Energy call was well received with a total of 43 proposals submitted. A number of these have moved into the Business Planning stage with approvals likely to come through next year. The results of the call will now provide the evidence needed for the preparation of the forthcoming Programme modification. • Priority 4: Connectivity and Urban Development - Four regionally prioritised local authority Sites and Premises operations have been approved this week, including the Lime Avenue Business Park. The Tourism Attractor Destinations and Building for the Future operations continue to make good progress with a further six individual projects agreed by WEFO. Discussions are ongoing to identify ways to improve on monitoring delivery and speed up submission of claims. Discussions also WPMC(17)M15 continue on the Next Generation Broadband operation, with the possibility of an approval by the end of 2017. The Welsh Government Transport Department continues to make steady progress on the Metro and discussions on this are continuing with Transport for Wales, the European Commission and JASPERS. 11. Sue Price also commented that ERDF outputs are often achieved later in the Programme period, in part due to the nature of infrastructure activities. Work is ongoing to address progress on the numbers of enterprises assisted and WEFO is working closely with European Commission colleagues on how to better reflect the medium to long term impact of Research and Innovation operations. 12. Members were reminded of the need to spend and deliver to profile and the opportunity to discuss further options with beneficiaries in more detail was welcomed. 13. A PMC member thanked Sue Price for her update and commented that when the Programme was first developed there had been low expectation for take under Priority 1, which has not now proven to be the case. The member questioned whether, given this rapidly changing environment, more could be done to increase related funding opportunities in Wales, and specifically around the impact and opportunities of the City Deals.