EU Cohesion Policy funding invests in institutional capacity building and reforms under "Thematic Objective 11" (for the full list of the 11 thematic objectives for the 2014-2020 funding period, see here)and under Technical Assistance for strengthening the administrative capacity for the management of the funds.
The objective is to create institutions which are stable and predictable, but also flexible enough to react to the many societal challenges, open for dialogue with the public, able to introduce new policy solutions and deliver better services. The investment in the structures, human capital and systems and tools of the public sector is oriented towards more efficient organisational processes, modern management, motivated and skilled civil servants.
Support for public administration reforms through Cohesion Policy is linked to Country Specific Recommendations, Economic Adjustment Programmes (where applicable) and National Reform Programmes.
Investment in institutional capacity and in the efficiency of public administrations and public services (at all levels of government) with a view to reforms, better regulation and good governance:
Capacity building for stakeholders delivering employment, education, health and social policies, and sectoral and territorial pacts to mobilise for reform at national, regional and local level:
In addition to the investments in efficient public administration under Thematic Objective 11, technical assistance is made available to the authorities that administer and use ESI Funds to help them perform the tasks assigned to them under the various European Structural and Investment (ESI) Fund Regulations.
Technical assistance also supports actions designed to reduce the administrative burden for beneficiaries, actions to reinforce the capacity of beneficiaries to use the ESI Funds as well as actions to reinforce the capacity of relevant partners.
The Commission has launched several initiatives in order to support the implementation of the funds, including the TAIEX REGIO PEER 2 PEER exchange system and the provision of training for experts from Member States about ESI Funds rules and regulations and seminars on anti fraud and corruption measures linked to the management of the funds.
Technical Assistance interventions focus on the delivery of ESI Funds only (for example, by reinforcing the human resources necessary to manage the funds, hiring consultants for studies, project preparation or monitoring/evaluation activities, training, networking, etc.) and is therefore limited to the programme period. Thematic Objective 11 has a wider and longer term goal. The focus is on genuine reform and systemic change to improve intrinsic public administration performance independent of EU funds management.