Performance-Based Delivery and Administrative Burden: Preparing Albania for EU Cohesion Policy

Abstract

The European Commission’s proposed 2028–2034 architecture would achieve agreed milestones and targets, rather than certification of incurred expenditure, the principal trigger for payments under National and Regional Partnership Plans. The model is presented as a route to simplification and stronger performance orientation. This paper examines whether it is also likely to reduce administrative burden. Using qualitative document analysis and conceptual synthesis of recent academic and institutional literature on Cohesion Policy, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and performance budgeting, the paper develops a Performance-Delivery Burden Framework. It identifies eight interrelated burden categories: performance design, data production, coordination, verification, adaptation, financial risk, accountability and capability transition. The analysis shows that the proposed model may simplify part of the Commission–Member State reimbursement relationship while relocating administrative effort towards strategic specification, evidence production, cross-government coordination and risk management. For Albania, these requirements are likely to be particularly demanding because accession would require simultaneous development of data systems, specialized expertise and inter-institutional routines. The paper concludes that the new model represents a transformation rather than a straightforward reduction in administrative effort.