Technical Exchange on the new templates of the Delegation Agreement Thursday, 21 th of March 2013 Practitioners’ Network – Brussels

2 SUMMARY SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON CO- FINANCING AND DELEGATED COOPERATION THE NEW TEMPLATE OF DELEGATION AGREEMENT

What is a management mode? European Commission: responsible for execution of EU Budget/EDF BUT because of… international context (external aid) more and better aid: international commitments steady expansion of EU fields of activity …the European Commission can delegate budget execution tasks to third parties 3

WHAT is co-financing and delegated cooperation? General Budget & EDF: The Commission may finance an EU external action with other donors (Co- financing) to: Manage the action itself (direct management) or choose a partner to manage the action, such as one of the donors or the beneficiary country (Delegated Cooperation or indirect management). 4

Co-financing and Delegated Cooperation: WHO? WHO can manage the (jointly co-financed) funds? International Organisation A public or private entity with a public service mission from a Member State or other country Beneficiary country European Commission What does it mean? The entity becomes Contracting authority  award and signature of contracts,  possibility to carry out payments 5

Delegated Cooperation: WHAT does the EC delegate? a)What does « Delegation » imply? The delegatee body becomes Contracting Authority instead of Commission -What is delegated: power to launch procedures & sign contracts, and, depending on the degree, manage payments to contractors/grant beneficiaries -Control remains always « centralised » (e.g. follow-up on the basis of reports, possible audits/verifications). b) What is the European Commission’s role? -Different role than Contracting Authority -Commission retains control 6

BRAINSTORMING 1.What is the difference between sub-delegation and subcontracting in the delegation agreement? 7

8 THE DELEGATION AGREEMENT

STRUCTURE OF THE DELEGATION AGREEMENT Structure of the Delegation Agreement: Special Conditions Description of the Action General Conditions Budget of the Action Central Exclusion Database annexes Financial Identification form Payment request 9

N+1: contracting deadline for signing the Delegation Agreement N+1 and D+3 Rules BUDGETEDF Delegation Agreement N+1 BUDGETEDF Delegation Agreement D+3 except for Multi-donor action D+3 except for Multi-donor action D+3: contracting deadline for the individual contracts (exceptions) inside the Delegation Agreement What is N? What is D? (change with 2013)

Subdelegation Article 1.4 (new additions):  Nature of the sub-delegated entity  Ex-ante assessment of the sub-delegatee by the Delegatee Body  Necessary ex-ante and ex-post controls are in place

Eligibility of Costs Article on eligibility of costs (art. 14) redrafted Costs relating to activities performed during the implementation period. Cash transfers between the Delegatee body and its Implementing partner(s), "per se" not an eligible cost. Except for multi-donor actions, costs incurred should be paid before the submission of the final reports. They may be paid afterwards, provided they are listed in the final report together with the estimated date of payment. An exception is made for costs relating to final reports, including expenditure verification, audit and final evaluation of the Action, which may be incurred after the implementation period of the Action. Companion

Eligibility of Costs (cont) Procedures to award contracts, as referred to in Article 10, may have been initiated and contracts may be concluded by the Delegatee body and its Implementing partner(s) before the start of the implementation period of the Action. Taxes and VAT accepted (if reimbursement not possible) Companion

Interests on pre-financing Article 15.6 redrafted: Where the Delegatee body is established in a State member of the European Union, the Delegatee body's rules and procedures pertaining to bank interest or equivalent benefits shall apply, and an equal treatment among donors shall be ensured. For non EU MS, instead the former rules will apply Companion

SPECIAL CONDITIONS Article 7: Notional approach Additions to the General Conditions Derogations to the General Conditions: Provisions mandated by Financial Regulation cannot be derogated Derogations require an internal approval procedure 15