Article 25 of Regulation EC 1260/1999 (pdf, 224 kb) defines "major projects" as those "which comprise an economically indivisible series of works fulfilling a precise technical function and which have clearly identified aims; and whose total cost … exceeds €50 million".
These initiatives play an especially large role in the implementation of the 2000-2006 Community Support Framework: in May 2006 the CSF Managing Authorities submitted 38 major projects to the European Commission, with a total estimated cost of about €5 billion. The majority of projects regard transportation infrastructure (roads and, to a lesser extent, railways), mainly in the South of Italy.
The admission of major projects to financing under the Structural Funds depends on the preparation of documentation specifying the economic benefits and any financial returns of the project. In order to resolve a number of problems that emerged during the approval process, UVAL, in concert with the Structural Funds Service, worked to remove these difficulties, partly with a view to accelerating the approval of upcoming project proposals.
Technical discussions with the Commission made it possible to develop a shared methodological approach to especially complex aspects of the evaluation of the net benefits of major projects, whose specialised literature and evaluation practices do not provide unambiguous guidance at either the national or Community levels (e.g. the measurement of environmental externalities and the employment impact of infrastructure projects).
As an initial contribution, UVAL prepared a calculation methodology for the employment impacts of major projects (zip, 79 kb - in italian) that the Managing Authorities can use in preparing documentation for major projects.
This note will be updated, in agreement with the Commission and the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport, for the 2007-2013 planning cycle, ensuring that it is consistent with the new Community regulation on the Structural Funds, which is currently being finalised.
The update of the methodological note will also include the findings of an ad hoc survey of a subset of major projects for the periods 1994-1999 and 2000-2006 at an advanced stage of completion.
Major projects
