OpenCoesione and the EC Cohesion Open Data Platform

Since 2015 the European Commission (EC) has started publishing open data on the use of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for the 2014-2020 period in the 28 Member States (27 after Brexit), data which can be consulted and downloaded on the Cohesion Open Data platform. From september 2022 the data of the 2021-2027 programming period have been activated as well.

This is a major initiative in terms of the availability of data and information on EC cohesion policy and meets the growing need for policy transparency and accountability.

Hereinafter is provided a table of information to help better understand the data source on the EC Open data platform and OpenCoesione open data platforms:

 

Scope of the data

The data displayed refer to 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in the 27 Member States (27 after Brexit) with related national co-financing.

In the section Data Catalogue, certain datasets related to the 2007-2013 period (see here) and other context-related data (see here) can also be downloaded.

 The data displayed refer to all cohesion policy in Italy for the 2007-2013, 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 periods, for both ESI Funds with related national co-financing and national cohesion funding, including the Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC).
Source
The European common system of shared fund management for 2014-2020 (SFC2014) fed directly by each public body responsible for co-financed programmes National Single Monitoring System managed by Italian Ministry of Economy MEF-RGS-IGRUE (details here)
Unit of observation
Data aggregated data by country, programme, thematic objective, fund, axis, and category Data at the individual project level (details here)
Data format
csv, xml, rdf csv
Data access tools
API SODA API REST
Update frequency

Different frequencies for the various datasets published regarding implementation in line with the deadlines for submitting data to SFC2014 and to SFC2021.

Programming data and data related to payments made from EU budget are updated daily.		 Bimonthly update as required by MEF-RGS-IGRUE Note no. 33921 of 28 February 2017 (details here)

Alignment of data on the Cohesion Open Data platform and on OpenCoesione for the programming period 2014-2020 is taking place twice per each year (as at 30 June and 31 December).

If for the 2021-2027 are confirmed at the national level the bimonthly periods, the alignment of the data during the year will be set in four different moments (with the data as at 30th June, 31st August, 31st October and 31st December).

 

More about the Cohesion Open Data platform

From the main pages of the portal, it is possible to consult, by filtering per Thematic Objective, Country, Fund or Programme, the planned  funding (planned), funding allocated to projects (decided), and beneficiaries’ spending (spent). Data are also available on payments made by the Commission (from the EC budget) to the Member State (i.e. EU payments) and on common output implementation indicators selected within the Operational Programmes (i.e. achievements), and there is a section with information on some representative projects funded by ESIF (here).

From the Cohesion Open Data platform, it is also possible to download open data from the Data Catalogue. Hereinafter is available a summary of the characteristics of the main datasets that can be downloaded from the Cohesion Open Data platform, along with indications of links with OpenCoesione variables and data:

 

Dataset and links: Finance implementation and amount planned

Unit of observation:

Programme, Fund, Priority Axis, Thematic Objective (TO), Measure (for the EAFRD), Region category
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Three times each year at various levels of detail depending on the deadlines for recording data in SFC2014 set under Article 112 of Reg. 1303/2013 (i.e. by 31 January for data as at 31 December, 31 July for data as at 30 June, and 31 October for data as at 30 September)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
EU and national amounts planned Total amount planned: related to planned funding, (see here)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Total eligible cost decided (selected): funding allocated to projects, including the EU portion and the corresponding mandatory national co-financing COSTO_RENDICONTABILE_EU i.e. funds that can be considered for the purpose of the European Commission reimbursement requests. Includes the EU portion and corresponding mandatory national co-financing (see metadata).
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Total eligible spending by public bodies for EC reimbursement OC_TOT_PAGAMENTI_RENDICONTAB_UE  total payments net of recoveries, i.e. the repayment of amounts previously disbursed, that may be considered for European Commission reimbursement requests (see metadata)

Dataset and links: Amount planned and Finance implementation by dimension type

Unit of observation:

Programme, Fund, Priority Axis, Region category, Dimension type
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Annually, by 31 January for data as at 31 December
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables

EU and national amounts planned

N.B. The EU portion of planned amounts in this dataset is called “EU Amount (€)”.		 Total amount planned: related to planned funding (see here)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Total eligible cost decided (selected): funding allocated to projects, including the EU portion and the corresponding mandatory national co-financing COSTO_RENDICONTABILE_EU i.e. funds that can be considered for the purpose European Commission reimbursement requests. Includes the EU portion and corresponding mandatory national co-financing (see metadata).
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Total eligible spending by public bodies for EC reimbursement OC_TOT_PAGAMENTI_RENDICONTAB_UE  total payments net of recoveries, i.e. the repayment of amounts previously disbursed, that may be considered for European Commission reimbursement requests (see metadata)

Dataset and links: European Commission Payments

Unit of observation: Programme, Fund, Region category
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Daily
Main variables
Total net payments made by the Commission to Member States up to the last recorded payment. This figure is also available net of recovery of expenses.

Dataset and links: Indicators

Unit of observation: Programme, Fund, Region category
Source: SFC2014, for planned data RAA, for selected and implemented data
Aggiornamento: Annual (by 30 June for data as at 31 December)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables

For common result and output indicators:

total amounts indicated in the programmes (i.e. planned)

decided amounts based on projects selected

amounts for implemented (implemented) projects

Valore realizzato: for output indicators, this is comparable to implemented amount (see metadata)

Dataset and links: Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRII & (CRII+) indicators

Unit of observation: Programme, Region category Indicators
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Annually
Main variables

For all selected indicators:

Measurement unit

Baseline values

Targets		  

Dataset and links: Major Projects

Unit of observation: Individual Major Project
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Annual (2018 last updated 21 March 2019)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables

Project status

Total eligible amount, broken down by EU Financing and by individual fund (ERDF Amount and CF Amount)		 COD_GRANDE_PROGETTO and DESCRIZIONE_GRANDE_PROGETTO

Dataset and links: Financial Instruments

Unit of observation: Single financial instrument
Source: SFC2014
Updates: Annually
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables

Financial Instrument name (FI Name) and type (FI Type).

Financial instrument can be selected by means of the variable CUP_COD_NATURA==“08”. The CUP_COD_TIPOLOGIA variable indicates the Financial Instrument type.
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Total amount paid by the Programme to the Financial Instrument (Total amount paid to FI) OC_TOT_PAGAMENTI_RENDICONTAB_UE  total payments net of recoveries, i.e. the repayment of amounts previously disbursed, that may be considered for European Commission reimbursement requests (see metadata)

Dataset and links: Financial details for 2021-2027

Unit of observation:

Programme, Fund, Axis (priority), Policy  objective(policy_objective_code),  Specific objective, Category of region
Source: SFC2021
Updates:

Daily based (depending on the updates of the adopted Programmes)
Main variables Comparison with OpenCoesione variables
Funds planned, available also as separated variables - European financing (EU_amount_planned) and national financing (National_Amount_planned) Total resources: this variable refers to the total amount of the planned resources and it is not referred to the implementation, (see here)

 

Further information is also available in the Cohesion Open Data Platform FAQ.

Point of attention: In the files that can be downloaded from the Cohesion Open Data Platform portal, the single variables are available for each version of the  Programme (variable  ver o programme_version depending on the dataset) and the data are also cumulative - year by year (variable year). To have a correct representation of the financial data without duplication it is therefore necessary to select a version of the Programme and a reference year.

The portal catalog also offers charts and interactive stories, the latter consisting of analysis that combines descriptive texts with insights into the data.

All the charts available on the portal can be freely re-used on other websites quoting the source, thanks to the function that allows the export of the relative html code.

Finally, it is possible to register on the portal to save personalized visualizations and charts.