€93 billion of EU funding has been allocated to projects for investment in jobs and growth in Europe over the last three years, according to a report today into the EU's cohesion programmes for the 2007-2013 funding period. Presented by Commissioners Johannes Hahn (Regional Policy) and László Andor (Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion), the report assesses, for the first time, the rate of progress of each country towards delivering agreed objectives against the EU average.

Millions of Europeans and hundreds of thousands of enterprises benefit from the cohesion policy programmes. Based on national reports from the 27 Member States, the Commission's report highlights important and timely messages on the potential of the Structural Funds to accelerate the exit from the economic crisis. It serves as a monitoring instrument, identifying the investment areas where action must be taken to speed up the selection and execution of projects co-financed under the programming period 2007-2013.

The bulk of cohesion policy resources (around €230 billion) have been earmarked for investment in the key areas of the growth and jobs agenda. While the report suggests that progress has been positive in important areas such as Research & Development (R&D), innovation, lifelong learning and active labour market policies, it also indicates that more should be done to accelerate project implementation in the rail sector, in key energy and environment investments, in the digital economy, and in support of social inclusion. The Commission calls on the Member States to target these priority areas, if necessary, by putting in place action plans to overcome the delays.

Despite the sharp deterioration in the socio-economic landscape between 2007 and 2009, the report indicates a strong commitment to the implementation of the programme aims established at the outset. On average across the EU, more than 27% of funding for the 2007-2013 period has already been allocated to specific projects - amounting to an investment of more than € 93 billion.

The report also contains an indicative selection of 40 project examples to show the broad range of investment priorities. It makes a clear link between the implementation of the programmes, and the delivery of the Europe 2020 objectives to improve innovation performance and create a smarter, greener, more socially inclusive economy.

However the global economic crisis has obviously had an impact upon programme implementation. Many of the national reports cite this as a major factor complicating delivery. In response a number of changes were made to make programmes more responsive to the challenges created by the crisis. Many Member States have also opted to use the flexibility in their programmes to rebalance priorities where required, addressing new needs amongst businesses and the long-term and recently unemployed. As a result the flow of cohesion policy resources has remained broadly constant as Member States use the stability of EU resources to maintain and plan key investment, even during the economic crisis.