The European Commission presented an outline of the principles that should guide EU countries when they organise the participation of the relevant partners in the different stages of the implementation of the EU Common Strategic Framework funds. In addition, it announced the preparation of a European Code of Conduct on partnership.

Partnership has been identified as key to delivering on the Europe 2020 Strategy. Recently, the European Commission launched three new Innovation Partnerships. Therefore, the European Commission presented the principles that should guide EU countries when they organise the participation of the relevant partners in the implementation of the European Funds. According to the Commission, partners – regional and local authorities, economic and social partners, and the multitude of organisations representing civil society – should be actively and closely involved throughout the whole programme cycle, i.e. in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The paper presented by the Commission will lead to facilitate the debate on the future content of the European Code of Conduct on partnership (ECCP), which will lay down minimum requirements for national authorities to ensure a high quality involvement of partners. Among other things, the document looks at the possible range of partners that should be selected. EU countries should identify, in the national context, the relevant stakeholders in the CSF Funds, the incentives and the legal and administrative barriers to partnership and possibly ways to address these obstacles.

In addition, the Commission also suggests approaches on how to involve the partners in the various stages of the Funds' management, and how the national authorities could contribute, where necessary, to the capacity-building of their partners, in particular smaller organisations, and how a continued exchange of experience and best practice in this field could be ensured.