Coordination and complementarity
The Commission and the Member States concerned shall, in a manner commensurate to their respective responsibilities, foster synergies and ensure effective coordination between the Fund and the Union programmes and instruments referred to in Article 6(3) of this Regulation, and the Modernisation Fund under Article 10d of Directive 2003/87/EC. For that purpose, they shall:
(a)
ensure complementarity, synergy, coherence and consistency among different instruments at Union, national and, where appropriate, local or regional levels, both in the planning phase and during implementation;
(b)
optimise mechanisms for coordination to avoid duplication of effort; and
(c)
ensure close cooperation between those responsible for implementation and control at Union, national and, where appropriate, local or regional levels to achieve the objectives of the Fund.
Information, communication and visibility
1. Member States shall make the data referred to in Article 21(2), point (d)(i), (ii) and (iv), of this Regulation publicly available and keep them up to date on a single website in open, machine-readable formats, as set out in Article 5(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 35 ) , which shall allow data to be sorted, searched, extracted, compared and reused. The information referred to in Article 21(2), points (d)(i) and (ii), of this Regulation shall not be published in the cases referred to in Article 38(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 or in the case of temporary direct income support to vulnerable households.
2. The recipients of support from the Fund shall be informed of the origin of those funds, including where they benefit from those funds through intermediaries. That information shall include the emblem of the Union and an appropriate funding statement that reads ‘funded by the European Union – Social Climate Fund’ on documents and communication material relating to the implementation of the measure intended for the recipients. The recipients of support from the Fund, except the support for natural persons or where there is risk of commercially sensitive information being made public, shall ensure the visibility of the Union funding, in particular when promoting the actions and their results, by providing coherent, effective and proportionate targeted information to multiple audiences, including the media and the public.
3. The Commission shall implement information and communication actions relating to the Fund, to actions taken pursuant to this Regulation and to the results obtained, including, where appropriate and with the agreement of the national authorities, through joint communication activities with the national authorities and the representation offices of the European Parliament and of the Commission in the Member State concerned.
Monitoring of implementation
1. Each Member State shall, on a biennial basis, report to the Commission on the implementation of its Plan together with its integrated national energy and climate progress report pursuant to Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 and in accordance with Article 28 thereof. The monitoring of implementation shall be targeted and proportionate to the activities carried out in the Plan. The Member States shall include the indicators set out in Annex IV to this Regulation in their progress report.
2. The Commission shall monitor the implementation of the Fund and measure the achievement of its objectives. The monitoring of implementation shall be targeted and proportionate to the activities carried out under the Fund.
3. The performance reporting system of the Commission shall ensure that data for monitoring the implementation of the activities and results are collected efficiently, effectively and in a timely manner. To that end, proportionate reporting requirements shall be imposed on recipients of support from the Fund.
4. The Commission shall use the common indicators set out in Annex IV for reporting on the progress and for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the Fund towards the achievement of the objectives set out in Article 3.
Transparency
1. The Commission shall transmit the Plans submitted by Member States and the decisions, as made public by the Commission, simultaneously and on equal terms to the European Parliament and the Council without undue delay.
2. Information transmitted by the Commission to the Council in the context of this Regulation or its implementation shall simultaneously be made available to the European Parliament, subject to confidentiality arrangements if necessary.
3. The competent committees of the European Parliament may invite the Commission to provide information on the state of play of the assessment by the Commission of the Plans.
Social climate dialogue
1. In order to enhance the dialogue between the Union institutions, in particular the European Parliament and the Commission, and to ensure greater transparency and accountability, the competent committees of the European Parliament may invite the Commission twice a year to discuss the following matters:
(a)
the Plans submitted by Member States;
(b)
the assessment by the Commission of the Plans submitted by Member States;
(c)
the status of achievement of the milestones and targets set out in the Plans submitted by Member States;
(d)
payment, suspension and termination procedures, including any observation presented and remedial measures taken by Member States to ensure the satisfactory achievement of the milestones and targets set out in the Plans submitted by them.
2. The Commission shall take account of any elements arising from the views expressed through the social climate dialogue, including the resolutions of the European Parliament if provided.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
