Technical Exchange on the new
templates of the Delegation
Agreement
Thursday, 21th of March 2013
Practitioners’ Network – Brussels
SUMMARY
• SOME BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON COFINANCING AND DELEGATED COOPERATION
• THE NEW TEMPLATE OF DELEGATION AGREEMENT
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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
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WHAT is co-financing and delegated
cooperation?
• General Budget & EDF: The Commission may finance
an EU external action with other donors (Cofinancing) 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).
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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
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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
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-
Commission retains control
BRAINSTORMING
1. What is the difference between sub-delegation and
subcontracting in the delegation agreement?
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THE DELEGATION
AGREEMENT
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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
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N+1 and D+3
Rules
N+1:
contracting deadline for signing the Delegation Agreement
Delegation
Agreement
BUDGET
EDF
N+1
N+1
What is N?
D+3:
contracting deadline for the individual contracts (exceptions)
inside the Delegation Agreement
What is D? (change with 2013)
Delegation
Agreement
BUDGET
EDF
D+3
except for Multi-donor
action
D+3
except for Multi-donor
action
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
Companion
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
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
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