Preparation of the company project for financing by help of Structural funds EU One of a few centrally administrated possibilities of how to help a domestic company stand very tough fight on the market is to make use of financial resources provided by EU budget as a help in development of the entering members. These are variant sources that can be obtained despite the very complicated system of administration and that can be used to replace (or to replenish) primary financing e.g. loans or one’s own resources. Within the framework of published appeals for bringing forward the projects, conditions related to supplying these financial means and according to the purpose of these supporting programmes there are several possibilities of financing of our company. This thesis concerns the financial preparation of a project of a small company based on EU structural funds and their proclaimed appeals of Ministry of Industry and Trade. A detailed analysis of the company’s situation as a general base for entrepreneurial projects is accomplished. This analysis is followed by the project appropriate for the application to the administrator.

Lietuvai tapus Europos Sąjungos nare, vienas iš uždavinių kuo geriau įsisavinti ES struktūrinių fondų finansinės paramos lėšas. ES struktūrinių fondų lėšos Lietuvoje pradėtos įsisavinti vadovaujantis 2004-2006 m. Bendruoju programavimo dokumentu (BPD). Todėl 2004-2006 m. Bendrojo programavimo laikotarpiui einant į pabaigą ir prieš prasidedant 2007-2013 m. finansinės paramos etapui būtina identifikuoti ne tik sėkmes, bet ir problemas, su kuriomis susidūrė fondų paramą administruojančios institucijos, mokėjimo institucijos bei patys pareiškėjai 2004-2006 metų finansavimo etape. / When Lithuania became a member of European Union, one of goals was to assimilate recourses of financial assistance of European Union (EU) Structural Funds. In Lithuania recourses of EU Structural Funds were proceeded to assimilate, following by 2004 – 2006 the Single Programming Document (SPD) of Lithuania. That’s why, when 2004 – 2006 SPD’s implementation is going to the end and starting 2007 – 2013 a stage of financial assistance, before that it’s necessary to identify not only success, but and problems, with which institutions, managing financial assistance, science institutions and applicants conflicted in sponsorship’s stage of 2004 - 2006. There are raised necessary goals for the system of implementation of Structural Funds: A goal of the work: 1) To find out problems of assimilation of Structural Funds in municipalities of Plunge’s district and Lithuania, estimating quality and efficiency of 2004 – 2006 SPD’s implementation, management and supervision; 2) To submit recommendations and suggestions, how to solve these problems.

Lietuvai tapus ES nare, atsivėrė galimybės pasinaudoti ES struktūriniais fondais. Būtent pasinaudojus šia finansine parama, galėtų būti išspręstos daugelis Lietuvos socialinių ir ekonominių problemų. Siekiant įsisavinti paskirtą ES finansinę paramą, turėjo būti priimtas BPD. Būtent šiame dokumente nurodomos pagrindinės priemonės, pagal kurias turi būti ruošiami projektai, kuriais norima gauti ES finansavimą. Darbe analizuojami ES struktūriniai fondai. Bendrijos iniciatyvos, jų bendrieji reikalavimai ES finansinei paramai gauti. Kadangi BPD yra labai svarbus dokumentas, magistro darbe analizuojami teisiniai aktai, reglamentuojantys BPD įgyvendinimą. Norint labiau įsigilinti į ES struktūrinių fondų įsisavinimo tendencijas, pasirinkau išnagrinėti kai kurių šalies savivaldybių administracijų vykdomus projektus, finansuojamus iš ES. Analizuojamas kiekvienos pasirinktos savivaldybės sugebėjimas pasinaudoti ES struktūriniais fondais. Pateikiamos lentelės bei diagramos, apibendrinančios analizuotų projektų duomenis, savivaldybių administracijų pateiktas paraiškas, įgyvendintus bei šiuo metu įgyvendinamus projektus, finansuojamus iš ES struktūrinių fondų. Darbe analizuojamos problemos, kurios riboja ES finansinės paramos įsisavinimą. / As our country became one of European Union member, we can use the Structural Funds, The Cohesion fund and other funds financial support. If we want to get financial support from the Structural Funds, we should prepare projects according all rules and laws, especially The General Program document. This document is very important, because according priorities from the General program document are distributing European Union financial support. My work aim is to try to analyze European Union financial support and utilization of it in Lithuania’s municipalities. I set these tasks: to analyze The Structural Funds and their administration; to look round the institutions, which are administrating European Union financial supports; to analyze the laws which present the projects planning; to explain the requirements to get European Union financial support; to analyze projects, which are realizing in municipalities of Lithuania, to indicate main problems, which are associated with European Union financial support. My work consists of five chapters, which I could divide in two big parts: theoretical part and practical part. The first three chapters are just theoretical part. The first one is about the Structural Funds. In the second chapter I am analyzing the laws which present the projects planning. The third chapter is about requirements to get European Union financial support. The other two chapters are practical part. In the fourth chapter I am analyzing projects, which are... [to full text]

This study introduces a new firm-level dataset containing over two million projects co-funded by the European Union´s (EU) structural and Cohesion funds in 25 EU member states in the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions published by regional authorities is linked with business data from Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database. Moreover, we show how modern text mining techniques can be used to categorise EU funded projects into fifteen thematic categories proposed by the European Commission. A first analysis of the dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity of beneficiaries and projects across and within countries. While in the majority of lagging regions the largest project expenditure is dedicated to transportation and energy infrastructure, in most other regions the major part is assigned to innovation and technological development as well as business (including SME) support. In an econometric analysis we control for project and firm characteristics and find that the highest single project values are associated with older beneficiary firms that are larger in size. Furthermore, the projects with topmost expenditure are carried out in Dutch and British regions. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The thesis Italy: economy and regional differentiation deals in the first place with the current problem of the state of Italian economy influenced by the global economic crisis and secondly it looks at the underdevelopment of South Italian regions. In connection with the economic crisis the thesis describes measures adopted by the Italian government in order to reduce negative effects of the crisis on the economy and employment. These measures, especially the fiscal stimulus, belonged to the lowest in Europe also by reason of the huge general government gross debt. The second part of the thesis looks at the problem of the regional differentiation among the regions of the North and the South of Italy. South Italian regions suffer from underdevelopment, high rate of unemployment and low rate of employment and these problems haven't been successfully solved even after many years of their existence. The unfavourable situation in South Italian regions has moreover been worsened by the unstable political situation, corruption and activities of the organised crime. These obstacles are widely spread in Italy also according to the research of the World Economic Forum. It was supposed that the underdevelopment of South Italian regions would reduce as a result of the implementation of European Structural funds. The main part of the financial resources assigned to Italy goes to the South and so it was expected that the influence in southern regions would prove to be remarkable. Unfortunately, even after expiration of three programming periods just a little positive impact on the alleviation of regional disparities in Italy was proved. The quality of implementation especially in the South is affected by irregularities and frauds and the executed projects are often ineffective. This thesis comes to the conclusion that just a minimal convergence takes place among italian regions and the EU Structural funds failed to meet their main objective in Italy.

Aim of this work is to analyze the possibility of drawing funds from European Union funds to finance community development activities. Given that the Slovak Republic is an EU member, is also able to draw funds from these sources and improve the living standard of citizens. Based on previous development of public finances, reform of local government, the structure of income and expenditure of municipalities in Slovakia and analysis of the specific communities, work assesses the impact of actually drawn from EU funds on the municipal budget, a municipality to be self -- financing EU projects and predicts the development in the future.

This thesis analyses the EU budget in relation with the budgetary system in the Czech republic. The theoretical part deals with EU budgetary politics, the Czech state budget and the local budgets in the Czech republic in general. Both cooperation and effectivness of the structural funds are evaluated in the analytical part of the thesis on the basis of the project co-funded by the Regional Operating Program NUTS II North-East. The analytical part consists of the questionnaire survey too, whose results show the actual needs and problems of the inhabitants. All the text was filled in the graphs and tables.

The thesis is focused on an overall assessment of the appropriateness of the provision of public goods in the Czech Republic in the form of Public Private Partnership (PPP). The theoretical part of the thesis deals with the general issue of providing public goods and characteristics of PPP as an alternative to the institute of public contracts. This theme is further developed by analysis of the possible forms of PPP projects with financial assistance from the Structural Funds. The practical part is devoted to analysis of the implemented municipal PPP project of construction and operation of parking house. For the project effectiveness evaluation are used outputs from the calculated financial model which are supplemented by the application of theoretically possible co-financing from EU funds.

The thesis clarifies the role of tourism in regiona development. The first chapter deals with the characteristics of tourism in the Czech Republic and its economic importance. The second chapter presents the EU regional policy with a focus on tourism. The last chapter deals with a specific project, which was succesful in application for grant from the Regional Operational Programme NUTS II Severovýchod. The thesis should explain why tourism is supported by the EU as well as provide comprehensive information to persons interested in EU grants in the area of tourism.

This study presents a new firm- and project-level dataset containing data on over two million projects co-funded by the EU structural and cohesion funds in 25 EU member states during the programming period 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions is linked with business data of Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database. Moreover, text mining techniques are applied to categorise the EU cohesion policy projects into fifteen thematic categories. Stylised facts reveal substantial regional heterogeneity in the distribution of funds to certain projects and beneficiaries (with respect to their size or industry). Furthermore, regional funds distribution differs across less developed and higher-income as well as urban and rural regions. In an econometric analysis, we control for project and firm characteristics that we expect to determine the single project's value, which is confirmed by the results. Nevertheless, there remains unexplained variation in individual project volumes, which differs systematically across countries.