EC Gives Green Light to Enterprise Estonia
The European Commission has reinstated funding for major national support agency for entrepreneurship, Enterprise Estonia, that had been cut off after an audit in 2010.
In November, 2010, the European Court of Auditors audited eight projects implemented by Enterprise Estonia that received funding from the European Regional Development Fund.
The audit raised a number of questions concerning the eligibility of some of the expenditures for co-financing and the efficiency of the standard operating procedures of Enterprise Estonia.
In response to the suggestions made by the European Commission, Enterprise Estonia improved its management and control systems, according to agency spokesman Jürg Samel, and provided additional explanations to the questions raised, which made it possible to reinstate the funding for the measures implemented by EAS starting from August 8, 2011.
During the period when the funding was temporarily cut off, the projects continued receiving financing from the structural instruments planned into the state budget and from bridge financing.
Now that regular funding has been reinstated, the Ministry of Finance can request reimbursement for these expenditures from the European Commission.
In 2010, Enterprise Estonia implemented a number of projects for the total amount of 200 million euros. More than 3,300 projects received funding. 70 audits were carried out in 2010, which found 0.3 percent of the expenditures to be ineligible for co-financing.
Sigrid Maasen