2016 Strategic Report on the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism The Government Office of the Slovak Republic as the National Focal Point for the EEA FM and the NFM Version 1.0 Table of Contents 1 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ 4 2 IMPACT ASSESSMENT ....................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Cohesion ....................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Climate changes ....................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 NGO Fund ................................................................................................................................. 8 2.1.3 Local and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities and to Promote Social Inclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 10 2.1.4 Conservation and revitalisation of cultural heritage .............................................................. 13 2.1.5 Green Industry Innovation ..................................................................................................... 14 2.1.6 Cross-border cooperation with Ukraine ................................................................................. 16 2.1.7 Domestic and gender-based violence .................................................................................... 18 2.1.8 Horizontal issues..................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Bilateral relations ....................................................................................................................... 22 2.2.1 Slovak Presidency in the EU Council in the context of bilateral relationships ....................... 23 2.2.2 Student mobility as an important pillar of bilateral relationships ......................................... 24 2.2.3 Cooperation with donor programme partners (hereinafter referred to as DPP) .................. 25 2.2.4 A broader context of bilateral relations in 2016 .................................................................... 27 2.2.5 Evaluation of bilateral cooperation by four defined types of outcomes ............................... 29 3 PROGRAMME PROGRESS ............................................................................................................... 30 3.1 Overview of programme progress ............................................................................................. 30 3.2 Overview of individual programmes .......................................................................................... 34 3.2.1 SK02 Adaptation to Climate Change – Flood and Drought Prevention .................................. 34 3.2.2 SK03 and SK10 NGO Fund ...................................................................................................... 35 3.2.3 SK04 Local and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities and to Promote Social Inclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 35 3.2.4 SK05 Conservation and Revitalisation of Cultural and Natural Heritage & Promotion of Diversity in Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage .......................................................... 36 3.2.5 SK06 EEA Scholarship Fund Slovakia ...................................................................................... 37 3.2.6 SK07 Green Industry Innovation ............................................................................................ 38 3.2.7 SK08 Cross-border Cooperation ............................................................................................. 39 3.2.8 SK09 Domestic and Gender-based Violence .......................................................................... 40 3.3 Bilateral Fund at the national level ............................................................................................ 41 2 4 MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ....................................................................................... 42 4.1 Management and control systems ............................................................................................. 42 4.2 Compliance with Regulations ..................................................................................................... 45 4.3 Irregularities ............................................................................................................................... 45 4.4 Audit, Monitoring, Review and Evaluation................................................................................. 45 4.4.1 Audits ...................................................................................................................................... 45 4.4.2 Verifying of certification ......................................................................................................... 47 4.4.3 Monitoring .............................................................................................................................. 48 4.4.4 Monitoring Committee ........................................................................................................... 48 4.5 Information and Publicity ........................................................................................................... 48 4.5.1 Key Aspects of the Effective Communication of Grants......................................................... 49 4.5.2 Evaluation of the publicity measures ..................................................................................... 50 4.6 Work Plan ................................................................................................................................... 52 5 OVERVIEW OF PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................. 53 5.1 A Separate Chapter on Public Procurement .............................................................................. 53 6 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... 57 3 1 SUMMARY 2016 can be described as the most intense year in terms of implementing the EEA FM and NFM 2009 – 2014 programming period. The implementation period for almost all implemented programmes (except for SK04 “Local and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities and to Promote Social Inclusion”) were prolonged until 30 April 2017, which provided all beneficiaries with the opportunity to implement all contracted projects that were late due to complications related to public procurement, or those which were assigned additional financial means. Within the SK04 “Local and Regional Initiatives to Reduce National Inequalities and to Promote Social Inclusion” programme, whose implementation has been prolonged by 30 April 2017, substantive and financial completion was reached in almost all projects; the expected project outcome represented by the fact that “local and regional authorities, as well as private and civil society participants, are developing initiatives to strengthen anti-discriminatory measures for groups vulnerable to social and economic exclusion” was achieved. This Strategic Report covers the progress in the implementation of both the financial mechanisms in Slovakia in 2016. The report consists of five chapters. The second chapter covers the development of selected indicators relevant for the individual programmes. It is impossible to determine the exact impact of the financial mechanisms and the volume of financial means provided in the selected indicators; however, it can be assumed that they did indeed contribute to a positive development. The third chapter presents a brief summary on the current state of the individual programmes. Based on the available data, it is assumed that most expected outcomes will be successfully achieved. The only exception is represented by the SK09 “Domestic and Gender-based Violence” programme due to the fact that the number of contracted projects is lower than expected; therefore, it is not objectively possible to accomplish all outcomes. However, not all of them will be possible to accomplish due to overestimating certain indicators. The fourth chapter covers the most important information on audits, irregularities, monitoring and changes to the framework documents which took place at the national level in 2016. The fifth and final chapter includes a brief overview of summaries and future recommendations, mainly for the following programming period as well as a separate part dealing with public procurement. The Report also includes all obligatory appendices. In the reporting period, the calls focusing on strengthening bilateral relationships remained open. In summer of 2016, the Bilateral Fund on the national level was opened with an allocation of €105,000 and activities were performed also under Measure B of the Bilateral Fund on the programme level. The most important of them were the study trip of representatives of SK09 “Domestic and Gender-based Violence” to Norway and the study trip of the donor partners within the SK07 “Green Industry Innovation”