European Funds Monitoring Committee

Two days dedicated to regional projects

Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February 2023, the Community of Saint-Martin received a delegation from the European Commission, who came to see how well the projects financed by European funds.

The first monitoring committee for European funds for the year 2023 in Saint Martin was held in the presence of an impressive delegation from the European Commission led by Mrs. Loredana VON-BUTTLAR, head of general regional and urban policy unit (DG REGIO), representatives of the services of the Ministry of Labor, Full Employment and Integration, and the Ministry of Overseas Territories.

Under the co-chairmanship of the President Louis MUSSINGTON and Prefect Vincent BERTON and in the presence of Mr. Régis ELBEZ, Secretary General for Regional Affairs, representing for the occasion the Prefect of the Guadeloupe region in his capacity as management authority for European funds in Saint Martin, the committee of monitoring took place over two full days, with field visits on Thursday February 9, 2023 and plenary and technical meetings at the Secrets Hôtel on February 10.

This monitoring committee is part of a very special period which is at the crossroads between the closing of the 2014-2020 programs and the launch of the 2021-2027 programming.

This was the opportunity for President Louis MUSSINGTON to recall “How valuable the support of the European Union through its cohesion policy is to us in responding to the challenges of tomorrow and the catching-up challenges that still face us today.”

These exchanges above all made it possible to draw up an initial assessment of the consumption of European funds in Saint-Martin over the period 2014-2020 and in particular the use of additional FEDER and FSE credits, from which the territory benefited in 2021 and 2022 under the REACT EU initiative of the European Union Recovery Plan. Saint-Martin was, in fact, allocated an additional envelope of €42M to respond to the devastating consequences of the health crisis and to support the recovery of the economy.

The €34M of credits FEDER REACT EU have notably made it possible to finance 100% of large-scale investment projects carried out by the Community, local public establishments and the Saint Martin hospital center.

The €8M of FSE credits REACT EU allocated to the territory made it possible to finance a dozen measures to strengthen the level of qualification and employability of young people and job seekers in the territory.

From an overall point of view, Saint-Martin displays on the 2014-2020 operational program an ERDF programming rate of more than 111% on the total envelope of €71.7M (credits REACT EU included), while the ESF displays a programming rate of around 99% on the total envelope of €16.6 million.

In the context of closing the programming, the representatives of the European Commission have nevertheless alerted the local authorities to the accumulated delay in certification and the efforts to be deployed by the managing services by December 31, 2023.

For its part, the Collectivity of Saint Martin was congratulated on the successful management of the FSE global grant of €12.2M managed directly over the 2014-2020 programming period. The FSE priority axes managed by the Community on the OP display a programming rate of 102% and a certification and payment level of nearly 65% ​​as of December 31, 2022. Total consumption on the global grant should be established at more than of 90% by the end of the period according to the forecasts presented by the services of the Community.

Finally, at the time of the launch of the 2021-2027 programming of European funds, the President MUSSINGTON and Prefect BERTON both focused, during their introductory remarks, on the colossal challenges to be met in order to create the conditions for harmonious and sustainable development of the territory.

L The FEDER envelope of €58.8 million allocated to Saint-Martin over the period 2021-2027 should make it possible to continue the catch-up effort in basic infrastructure and to strengthen support measures for the local economic fabric.

Finally, the €20M envelope from which the territory benefits under the National FSE+ OP should make it possible to continue strengthening education, training and employment support systems to promote the employability of remote populations. employment and reduce the high unemployment rate in the territory, particularly among young people.

The next FEDER and FSE+ operational programs will be officially launched in Saint Martin in June 2023 .

President Louis MUSSINGTON and his teams have set up a program of visits with the Directorate of European Funds and Contractual Policies of the Community, in order to present to the Brussels delegation the projects financed by the Union.

The visit began on the Marigot seafront, where the transformation site of the ferry terminal and the new information kiosk of the tourist office were presented. These two public projects with a tourism vocation are supported by the Community of Saint-Martin and its satellites, the Port of Galisbay and the Tourist Office. They were financed thanks to European recovery funds, the FEDER REACT EU.

The delegation then went to Colombier, to meet Mr. Emmanuel Gimenez, manager of the company Carib Gènes , specialized in livestock reproduction, then at the 978 Sanctorum restaurant, two private projects financed with help from European EAFRD funds.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited a project financed by the European Social Fund (ESF), regarding the p