European funds monitoring committee: Saint-Martin good student on the consumption of FEDER funds

A delegation from the European Commission, led by Mr. Pierre Dirlewanger, has been in Saint-Martin since Monday. The objective of this trip is to provide an exhaustive update on the consumption of European funds and on the next European programming which will begin in 2021.

With regard to FEDER funds, the community has initiated a consumption rate of 72% which represents a very good return, which was also underlined by the representative of the union who congratulated the efforts of Saint-Martin. In his opening speech to the monitoring committee, Monday, November 25, President Daniel Gibbs recalled the considerable efforts made by the Community of Saint-Martin to fulfill the legal obligations for the allocation of FSUE funds for reconstruction . In fact, the invoices had to be raised over just a few months.

With regard to the other appropriations of the European operational program, the president recalled the need to have to redouble efforts between now and the end of the programming to avoid the risk of losing credits from the global grant. "An increased effort will be made to realize the numerous projects already identified and which will be the subject of co-financing by the ESF," he indicated.

Among the areas highlighted by the president under the ESF:

- Actions to bring young people closer to the world of work: holiday jobs for high school students and students, summer jobs for NEET young people , that is to say young people without diplomas, training or employment whose acronym means: Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training.

- Driving license financing schemes for young people in particular, always for NEETs, in order to increase their employability.

The President also specified: "on the implementation of the EAFRD through our LAG Leader, we have was able to note, from the start, a strong mobilization of project leaders. More than 60 applications were submitted, which confirms the existence of development potential in the agricultural sector. However, this enthusiasm could not be translated into a concrete programming of operations, for technical, administrative and application reasons of the Osiris software.

Tuesday November 26, the delegation visited the Orleans district college, led by vice-president Yawo Nyuiadzi. The opportunity to make a presentation of the construction project for the 600-place college in the Orléans district for the start of the 2021 school year, a project supported by Europe and FEDER funds.

Please find attached the speech by President Daniel Gibbs, delivered at the opening of the plenary meeting of the European funds monitoring committee, which was held on Monday November 25 at the community hotel.