A study on “co-financing salaries, bonuses, top-ups” from structural funds during the 2007-2013 period” carried out on behalf of the European Commission has compared how Member States use Technical Assistance to co-finance the costs of staff responsible for themanagement of EU Structural Funds

Link: Final Report of the study

To improve the administrative capacity, this study is identifying the extent and modalities of the use of Technical Assitance funds.

Idea : the resources made available to Member States under Technical Assistance  (TA) can also be used for financing salaries, bonuses or top-ups of the employees directly involved in the implementation of the European Regional Development (ERDF) and Cohesion Fund (CF).

During previous progamming period, all Member States have used TA to co-finance staff. The study concludes, that the majority of the Member States uses TA to co-finance mainly salaries and attribute the costs to the TA Code of Expenditure 85.

In 28 Member States, around 24,000 people are involved in the implementation of the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund.  

Source: EC Website