GUIDE FOR APPLICANTS Call for proposals 2013 PPVOT - Pilot project "Funding for Victims of torture" PPUAM - Pilot project "Analysis of reception, protection and integration policies for unaccompanied minors in the EU" PARS - Preparatory action "Network of contacts and discussion between targeted municipalities and local authorities on experiences and best practices in the resettlement and integration of refugees" DISCLAIMER The purpose of this Guide is to assist organisations interested to submit a grant application or participate in projects in preparing a successful application and help them to understand administrative and financial rules governing EU grants provided under the above financial instruments. This Guide should also provide operational, administrative and financial management guidelines to organisations whose projects have been awarded a grant. Interested organisations are therefore requested to read this Guide carefully before they start preparing the Application Package. The information provided in this Guide is supplementary to the rules published in the PPVOT/PPUAM/PARS calls for proposals and should always be read together with these calls. In case of discrepancy between the provisions of the text of this Guide and those of the 2013 PPVOT/PPUAM/PARS Annual Work Programmes and calls for proposals, and the Grant Agreement, it is the three last-named documents that Applicants/Beneficiaries should follow. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf can be held responsible for the use made of these guidelines.
Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION... 3 1.1 BACKGROUND... 3 1.2 WHO MANAGES THE PILOT PROJECTS AND THE PREPARATORY ACTION?... 4 1.3 HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE?... 5 2. DEFINITION OF FREQUENTLY USED TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS... 5 3. HOW TO PREPARE AN APPLICATION?... 9 3.1 SUBMISSION MODE - PRIAMOS... 9 3.2 MODIFYING OR WITHDRAWING A PROPOSAL DURING APPLICATION PHASE... 9 3.3 LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS... 10 THE APPLICATION PACKAGE... 10 3.4 GRANT APPLICATION FORM... 10 Guidance on the specific sections of the Grant Application Form... 11 3.5 ANNEX 1 - DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION... 15 3.6 ANNEX 2 BUDGET FORM... 15 FUNCTIONS INSERTED IN THE SHEET... 16 SHEET 1 IDENTIFICATION FORM - ID FORM... 17 SHEET 2 "PARTNERSHIP"... 17 SHEET 3 "FORECAST BUDGET CALCULATION"... 18 SHEET 4 "BUDGET & EXECUTION SUMMARY"... 20 SHEET 5 "DETAILED BUDGET EXECUTION" & SHEET 6 "COST CLAIM"... 21 3.7 RULES CONCERNING ELIGIBILITY OF COSTS AND ACCEPTABLE INCOME... 21 EXPENDITURE HEADINGS... 22 ELIGIBLE DIRECT COSTS... 22 3.7.1 Heading A - Staff costs... 22 3.7.2 Heading B - Travel staff... 23 3.7.3 Heading C - Equipment... 26 3.7.4 Heading D Consumables... 28 3.7.5 Heading E - Other direct costs... 28 3.7.6 Heading F Eligible Indirect costs... 33 3.7.7 Ineligible costs... 33 3.7.8 Eligibility of VAT for beneficiaries acting as public authorities... 34 INCOME HEADINGS... 35 3.7.9 Heading I Financial contributions specifically assigned by donors to the financing of the eligible costs & Income generated by the financed activities 35 3.7.10 Heading K Other income, including own contribution from the beneficiary/co-beneficiaries... 35 3.8 ANNEXES 3A AND 3B - OFFICIAL ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SIMPLIFIED FINANCIAL SHEETS... 37 3.9 ANNEX 4 - INFORMATION ON PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS (COORDINATOR AND CO-BENEFICIARY PARTNERS)... 37 3.10 ANNEXES 5A & 5B - DECLARATIONS BY CO-BENEFICIARY PARTNER/ASSOCIATE PARTNER ORGANISATIONS... 37 2
3.11 ANNEX 6 - CURRICULUM VITAE (CV) OF KEY STAFF PERFORMING THE WORK IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROJECT... 38 4. EVALUATION... 39 4.1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES... 39 4.2 AWARD DECISION... 39 4.3 PUBLICATION OF THE RESULTS AND NOTIFICATION TO THE COORDINATORS... 39 4.4 RESERVE LIST... 39 5. CONCLUSION OF THE GRANT AGREEMENT... 40 6. PAYMENT OF THE GRANT... 41 7. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION... 42 7.1 GENERAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK... 43 7.2 GENERAL REMARKS ON OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT... 43 7.3 CHECKS, AUDITS AND EVALUATION... 44 7.3.1 By the Beneficiaries... 44 7.3.2 By the Commission... 44 7.3.3 Audits by the Commission... 44 7.4 VISIBILITY OF EU FUNDING... 45 7.5 ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT MODIFICATION/AMENDMENTS TO THE GRANT AGREEMENT... 47 7.6 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT... 49 7.6.1 Bank Account... 49 7.6.2 Accounting system/internal control... 50 7.7 PAYMENT OF THE GRANT... 50 8. REPORTING OBLIGATIONS... 51 8.1 FINAL REPORTING PACKAGE... 51 8.2 FINAL AMOUNT OF THE GRANT... 53 8.2.1 Analysis of the Final Reporting Package... 53 1. Introduction 1.1 Background On 3 May 2013 the European Commission adopted 1 the Annual Work Programmes (hereinafter referred to as the AWPs) of the Pilot Projects "Funding for victims of torture" and "Analysis of reception, protection and integration policies for unaccompanied minors in the EU" and the Preparatory Action "Network of contacts and discussions between targeted municipalities and local authorities on experiences and best practices in the resettlement and integration of refugees" that serve as the financing decision in the meaning Article 84 of the Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (hereinafter referred to as the 'Financial Regulation') 2 and Article 94(1) of the Commission Delegated 1 C(2013) 2447 final 2 (OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1). 3
Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012 of 29 October 2012 on the rules of application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (hereinafter referred to as the Rules of Application') 3. The AWPs describe the priorities set for 2013 and contain details of the financial appropriations earmarked for the grant schemes. These grant schemes are implemented through calls for proposals (hereinafter referred to as the CFPs). The financing decision containing the AWPs in annex is available on the Europa website: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/migration-asylum-borders/otherprogrammes/docs/awp_2013_ppvot_ppr_ppum_en.pdf The CFPs are published on the respective websites indicated under section 1.3 of this Guide. 1.2 Who manages the Pilot Projects and the Preparatory Action? The PPVOT/PPUAM/PARS are implemented by the European Commission, Directorate- General for Home Affairs (hereinafter referred to as DG HOME) based in Brussels Belgium. The operational tasks related to their implementation are assigned to: DG HOME, Directorate B Migration, Asylum. Postal address for communication European Commission Directorate-General for Home Affairs Directorate B Migration, Asylum Unit B.3: Asylum and Migration Fund Office LX46 02/114 B-1049 Brussels 4 The team managing the Pilot Projects and the Preparatory Action can be directly contacted via their functional mailboxes: PPVOT - Pilot Project "Funding for Victims of torture": HOME-VOT-PP@ec.europa.eu PPUAM - Pilot Project "Analysis of reception, protection and integration policies for unaccompanied minors in the EU": HOME-UAM-PP@ec.europa.eu PARS Preparatory Action "Network of contacts and discussion between targeted municipalities and local authorities on experiences and best practices in the resettlement and integration of refugees" HOME-RESETTLEMENT-PP@ec.europa.eu Websites of the Pilot Projects and the Preparatory Action Information relating to the Programmes is published at the following addresses: PPVOT - Pilot Project "Funding for Victims of torture": http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/migration-asylum-borders/otherprogrammes/pilot-project-victims-torture/index_en.htm PPUAM - Pilot project "Analysis of reception, protection and integration policies for unaccompanied minors in the EU": http://ec.europa.eu/budget/biblio/documents/regulations/regulations_en.cfm#rf_modex 3 (OJ L 362, 31.12.2012, p. 1). http://ec.europa.eu/budget/biblio/documents/regulations/regulations_en.cfm#rf_modex 4 How to send a mail to the Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/contact/mailing_en.htm 4
PARS Preparatory action "Network of contacts and discussion between targeted municipalities and local authorities on experiences and best practices in the resettlement and integration of refugees" http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/migration-asylum-borders/otherprogrammes/pilot-project-unaccompanied-minors/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/migration-asylum-borders/otherprogrammes/pilot-project-resettlement/index_en.htm In addition to this Guide, it is strongly recommended that interested organisations consult the above websites regularly as the Commission reserves the right to publish additional information related to the CFPs not later than 11 calendar days prior to the deadline for submission. The information published this way is considered to be integral part of the CFP and should be taken into account by the organisations interested to submit an application. 1.3 How to use this Guide? Before you start, please read the 2013 AWPs and CFPs carefully to find out which actions may be funded, the priorities set out for 2013, the conditions under which you can apply and the exclusion, eligibility, selection and award criteria. Each CFP contains specific information on how to submit your proposal. The structure of this Guide reflects the various stages in the life cycle of the proposal: Preparation and submission of the proposal; Selection, evaluation and award procedures; Conclusion of the Grant Agreement; Implementation - request for amendments in the project and/or its budget; Evaluation of the Final report and determination of the final grant amount; This Guide has been prepared specifically for the 2013 PPVOT/PPUAM/PARS calls for proposals with due care. 2. Definition of frequently used terms and abbreviations Applicant/Coordinator: body or organisation with legal personality submitting a proposal for a project within the scope of PPVOT/PPUAM/PARS. The Coordinator organisation (also referred to as the Applicant) becomes the Beneficiary/Coordinator once the proposal is awarded a grant and a written Grant Agreement is signed on behalf and with the authorisation of the entire Partnership. The Coordinator is responsible for the project conception and development. It takes the lead and submits the grant Application Package for the Commission s appraisal. Moreover, if awarded a grant and once a Grant Agreement is signed, the Coordinator will be legally responsible for the overall management of the project, coordination of tasks, liaison with the Commission, management of the budget and final statements, as well as payments to its Co-beneficiary Partners. The Coordinator will be the only point of contact for the Commission and will be responsible for all the communication between the Commission and the Partnership. Associate Partner: organisations that may participate in a project on a non EU-funded basis. They will not be co-beneficiaries of the EU grant. None of their costs incurred for the project activities will receive EU co-financing. This type of partnership is first and foremost to be used by entities established in non-eu countries, those international organisations that 5
are not eligible for funding (please consult the CFP to find out which IOs are eligible) and EU Agencies. An Associate Partner may also be any otherwise eligible organisation that undertakes or participates in activities directly linked to a project but does not request any EU co-financing. At application phase Associate Partners will sign the Associate Partnership Declaration Form to be attached to the Application Package, but will not be a party to the Grant Agreement concluded with the European Commission. As such, their obligations towards the Commission are not of a contractual nature. Nevertheless, the Coordinator and the Cobeneficiary Partners shall ensure that the activities of Associate Partners are adequately implemented, since their involvement forms part of the proposal for which the grant is awarded. Authorised signatory: the authorised signatory is the person allowed to enter into legally binding commitment on behalf of an organisation. Bank Account File (BAF): is a descriptive file containing bank details for all companies, organisations and individuals with which the Commission has financial dealings. Use of the BAF is mandatory for the purposes of making automated payments. In order to create a BAF, the Coordinator has to submit a duly completed and signed Financial Identification Form when requested. More information on BAF is available on the website of Directorate-General Budget: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/financial_id/financial_id_en.cfm Beneficiaries of the grant: any body or organisation receiving co-financing of its costs under a Grant Agreement. The Coordinator and Co-beneficiary Partner organisations are collectively referred to as Beneficiaries once the Grant Agreement is signed. Beneficiaries of the activities: persons or organisations that will directly or indirectly benefit from the activities. This is not limited to the direct participants of the activities. Call for Proposals (CFP): in order to receive applications, the European Commission publishes calls for proposals which describe the rules and conditions to be observed by Applicants when seeking EU co-financing for an action. Candidate Countries: candidate countries to the European Union. Further information is available on the website of Directorate-General Enlargement: http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/. Entities from candidate countries can only be Associate Partners (with no EU co-financing). Co-financing third parties: any donor organisation financing the project and not in receipt of the EU contribution. Co-financing third parties are not required to be directly involved in the technical implementation of the project; their contribution is solely financial. Co-beneficiary Partner: any organisation participating in the implementation of the project activities that are eligible for EU co-financing and declaring costs to be co-financed by the EU. To prove its involvement in the project, the Co-beneficiary Partner has to sign a Partnership Declaration Form. This Form must be attached to the Application Package. If the proposal is awarded and a Grant Agreement is signed, the partner organisation will be considered as a Co-beneficiary of the EU grant as it will receive co-financing for its part in the project. The Coordinator will receive funds from the Commission and will distribute them amongst the Co-beneficiary Partners. Costs incurred by a Co-beneficiary unless otherwise stipulated in the Grant Agreement are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the Coordinator. Both the Coordinator and the Co-beneficiary Partners form parties to the multi-beneficiary Grant Agreement and share contractual and financial responsibility towards the Commission for the proper and timely implementation of the project. Notwithstanding this, the Coordinator remains the sole point of contact for the Commission and, as stated above, is responsible for the reporting and for providing the necessary information regarding the project. 6
The shared contractual and financial responsibility for the project also means that the organisations will have to agree on the contractual relation among themselves. This is usually done in the form of a Partnership/consortium agreement for a specific project. The Commission does not intervene in the content of this agreement between Partners and respects different management styles of organisations as long as the provisions are not discriminatory and comply with national legal requirements. It must be noted that in case of discrepancy, the provisions of the Grant Agreement take precedence over any other agreement between the Co-beneficiary Partners and the Coordinator. Coordinator: Applicant/Coordinator Date of establishment of an organisation: the date of the incorporation of the legal entity. Dependent entities: two organisations (legal entities) are dependent on each other when there is a controlling relationship between them. In order to be regarded as independent, a legal entity must not be in a controlling relationship with another legal entity. A controlling relationship shall exist where one legal entity directly or indirectly controls the other, or when one legal entity is under the same direct or indirect control as the other. Legal entity A controls legal entity B if: A, directly or indirectly, holds more than 50% of the share capital or a majority of voting rights of the shareholders or associates of B, or A, directly or indirectly, holds in fact or in law the decision-making power in B. Ownership or supervision of legal entities by the same public body shall not in itself give rise to a controlling relationship between them. DG HOME: the abbreviation used to identify the Directorate-General for Home Affairs of the European Commission. Financial Regulation (FR): Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union. Rules of Application (RAP): Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012 of 29 October 2012 on the rules of application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union. International Organisation (IO): An international organisation can only be considered as such under the Financial Regulation if the following criteria are met: it is international; it is a public sector organisation; it is set up by intergovernmental agreements. The specialised agencies set up by these organisations will also be considered international organisations. The following entities are assimilated to international organisations: the International Committee of the Red Cross; the International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; the European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund. Legal Entity File (LEF): records all third parties with which the European Commission conducts revenue and expenditure transactions. No transaction may be made for the purposes of implementing the EU budget unless it involves a legal entity that has been validated beforehand. It follows that, before a bank account can be recorded in the BAF, a legal entity must be recorded in the LEF: the bank account will be linked to that legal entity. 7
In order to create a LEF the legal entity should provide a duly completed and signed Legal Entities Form together with the documents listed on the form itself. The mandatory template of this form and also further information on this available on the website of Directorate- General Budget: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/legal_entities/legal_entities_en.cf m Legal Address of an organisation is the address of the head office. The head office is the seat of the organisation indicated in its official documents incorporating the organisation under the national law. Member State (MS): a member state of the European Union. Further information is available on the website of the European Commission: http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm Partnership Declaration for Co-beneficiary Partners: a legally binding document duly signed and dated by the Authorised Signatory of the Co-beneficiary authorised to enter into legal and financial commitment on behalf of the Co-beneficiary. for Associate Partners: a legally binding document duly signed and dated by the Authorised Signatory of the Associate Partner organisation which shall not receive any EU co-financing. PRIAMOS: PRogramme Information and Activity Management Operational System, the electronic information system used for the direct management of grant schemes by DG HOME. Please note that in this Guide there is only limited information concerning the use of PRIAMOS. Detailed information on how to use the system including a periodically updated FAQ and a detailed technical Guide is published on the PRIAMOS website of DG HOME: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm Project/Action: At the stage of the application the terms "Project or Action" refer to the proposed action described in the Application Package. If the proposals gets selected and is awarded EU financial support in the form of an action grant the terms refer to the project described in the Annex I and Annex III of the Grant Agreement. Public body: for the purposes of this Guide public body means any legal entity established as such by national law, and international organisations. Established as public body by national law means that the entity is (1) incorporated as a public body in the formal act of creation or recognised as public body by the national law and (2) governed by public law. However, public bodies may act and be subject to private law for some or most of their activities. A legal entity established under private law with a public service mission is not considered as a public body. Non-profit public body means any legal entity which cumulatively meets the conditions of being a public body and of being a non-profit organisation (see definition under Non-profit organisation). Non-profit organisation means a legal entity which by its legal form is non-profit-making and/or which has a legal or statutory obligation not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members. The absence of a lucrative aim does not necessarily imply the absence of profit. The decisions of the managing board, associates, stakeholders, members or representatives of an organisation not to distribute profits to its shareholders or individual members are not considered as sufficient elements to prove the non-profit nature of an entity. Subcontractor(s): providers of services to the Coordinator and/or Co-beneficiary Partners who fully fund (100%) their activity. As a basic requirement, the Coordinator and Co-beneficiary Partners are expected to have the resources necessary to carry out the work required by the project. Nevertheless, in 8
certain circumstances, subcontracting some aspects of the work may be more cost effective and efficient. This has to be duly justified in the Application Package. Subcontracting costs shall be clearly listed in the Budget Form submitted as part of the Grant Application package. Under no circumstances are Coordinator and/or Co-beneficiary and/or Associate Partners and their staff members allowed to be subcontractors. Subcontractors do not contribute financially to the project and therefore do not benefit from any intellectual property rights arising from the achievements of the project. 3. How to prepare an application? 3.1 Submission mode - PRIAMOS The CFPs are implemented via the PRIAMOS system ONLY. For further detailed information on PRIAMOS, please read the PRIAMOS Guide for Applicants and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) available at: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm Application Packages must be submitted, in their entirety, via PRIAMOS. Application Packages submitted by any other method than the PRIAMOS system will not be considered. The receipt of such submissions will not be acknowledged and not processed. It is each Coordinator's responsibility to upload its Application Package before the deadline set out in the CFP. When the deadline is set at 12:00 CET on a given day it means that the Application Packages should be uploaded until midday Central European Time. Regarding the date of submission, no exception will be granted. In order to be eligible, applications must respect the deadline stated in the relevant CFP, even if the submission deadline falls on a non-working day in the country of the Applicant. The PRIAMOS system will not accept any application after the deadline set in the respective CFP. Please note that although the PRIAMOS system is able to deal with many applications at the same time, it is advisable not to wait until the last moment to register in the system and submit your application. Registration and receipt of a password is not an automatic process and may take up to 15 working days. Heavy Internet traffic or a problem with the Internet connection could lead to your on-line session being interrupted before you complete your application, thereby obliging you to repeat the whole process and you may miss the deadline for submission. Applicants must also make sure that all electronic files are readable and are not corrupted and that their applications are complete. 3.2 Modifying or withdrawing a proposal during application phase Up until the deadline set out in the relevant CFP, it is possible to modify a proposal simply by uploading a new complete version via PRIAMOS system under the same application number. In that case, the version(s) received previously will automatically be disregarded. The previous version(s) will not be processed at all; therefore, the new version must include again all the supporting documents. Once the deadline has passed, the Commission cannot accept further modifications, corrections or re-submissions. The last eligible version of the proposal received before the deadline is the one which will be evaluated. Proposals may be withdrawn before and after the CFP's deadline. Please inform the Commission through the functional mailboxes indicated under section 1.2 of this Guide if you 9
wish to do so. In such a case, the Commission ends the evaluation of the proposal and acknowledges its withdrawal. 3.3 Language requirements The Grant Application Form and all annexes may be submitted in the language used for communication among the members of the Partnership the Coordinator represents, provided it is an official EU language 5. For reasons of efficiency the Commission would advise using English when filling in the Grant Application Form, Annex 1 Description of the action, Annex 2 Budget Form, Annex 3a and 3b Partner declaration, Annex 4 Description of the Partners. Supporting documents are accepted in all the official EU languages. Applicants may submit a free translation of these documents but it is not mandatory to submit the translation of these documents. Documents submitted in a non- EU official language may be refused if not accompanied by a certified/official/legal translation by an accredited body or translator. The Application Package The Application Package is composed of the Grant Application Form and its annexes. For the full list of annexes that must be submitted, please refer to the relevant CFP. The Applicant should make sure that all required annexes are attached to the Grant Application Form, before it is uploaded in PRIAMOS. Please note that PRIAMOS limits the size of the Application Package that can be uploaded to 100 MB. If your Application Package is larger than that you will not be able to upload it. For easier reference, before attaching an annex to the Grant Application Form, please always name the document using the number of the annex and its name. 3.4 Grant Application Form The Grant Application Form is an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) document where the basic data about the Coordinator and the project can be included. Before you start filling in the Grant Application Form, please verify: that your data entered when registering for PRIAMOS is up-to-date, as this data is downloaded automatically onto the Grant Application Form and later used in the evaluation and, if successful, in the Grant Agreement; that you have downloaded the correct Grant Application Form set for the CFP under which you intend to submit your application. Please note that each Grant Application Form is technically connected to the call. This means that even if there is no substantial difference between them (the questions are the same for example) you will not be able to upload a Grant Application Form under a specific CFP if it is calibrated for a different CFP.You can do that by verifying the Programme Reference code which is specific for each CFP and is clearly indicated in the text of the call. The Application Form is only accepted for evaluation if: the specific Form provided for the CFP under which you intend to apply is used; all the sections are completed and all the pages are submitted regardless of their content. Since all the information requested in the Grant Application Form is 5 http://ec.europa.eu/languages/languages-of-europe/eu-languages_en.htm 10
necessary for the evaluation of the proposal, Applicants must justify why a certain section is not applicable in their case. Guidance on the specific sections of the Grant Application Form 1. INFORMATION CONCERNING THE APPLICANT AND PARTNERS The fields with grey background are filled in automatically based on the information stored in the profile of the organisation on behalf of which the application is submitted. Please always verify the data stored in your profile in PRIAMOS before downloading the Grant Application Form. For further information on the update of the PRIAMOS profile, please consult the PRIAMOS GUIDE: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm This information will be used when verifying the eligibility of the Coordinator and concluding the Grant Agreement if the proposal is awarded a grant. It is therefore very important to provide the official legal name of the Coordinator. This shall be the same name as in the official document describing the legal status of the organisation. Only the names of organisations with legal personality can be indicated here. For example, an initiative or a network, which is run by the Coordinator but has no legal personality, is not acceptable. Natural persons are not eligible for submitting grant applications. Consequently, data entered in this field should refer to the Coordinator as an organisation and not to the Authorised representative of the project manager or the contact person (natural persons). At the stage of registering in PRIAMOS the data is not verified therefore it is considered as a declaration of the organisation. The verification of eligibility is done based on the supporting documents provided at the application phase. 1.2. Bank details The fields with grey background are filled in automatically based on the information stored in the profile of the organisation on behalf of which the application is submitted. Please always verify the data stored in your profile in PRIAMOS before downloading the Grant Application Form. For further information on the update of the PRIAMOS profile, please consult the PRIAMOS GUIDE: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm Please provide the details of the bank account that should be used for this grant, in case it is awarded. Please note that the same information should be stated also in the Sheet Identification Form of the Budget Form. The bank account details should be provided in the form of the IBAN number. The IBAN numbers are not always presented on bank statements as a continuous number but sometimes the sequence of the letters and numbers includes separators (spaces, hyphens etc.).when entering the IBAN number in the field 1.2.2. please: always enter at the beginning the two-letter country code, and do not leave spaces and do not use hyphens or separators between the letters and digits. Please note that an incorrect IBAN form will prevent you from successfully uploading your Grant Application Form. 1.3. Authorised signatory legally representing the applicant 11
The name and the title of the legal representative are stored in the profile of the organisation on behalf of which the application is submitted. Please always verify the data stored in your profile in PRIAMOS before downloading the Grant Application Form. For further information on the update of the PRIAMOS profile, please consult the PRIAMOS GUIDE: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm In the Grant Application Form the full name and position of the legal representative can be filled out with the help of a drop-down menu. This drop-down menu will include the names of the/all legal representative(s) of your organisation registered in PRIAMOS for your organisation. If in the profile of your organisation multiple authorised signatories have been registered, please select the name and the title of the person who is authorised for this application. This person should be authorised to enter into financially and legally binding commitments on behalf of the Coordinator. Please note that the Commission may request a copy of the authorising decision. If the proposal is awarded a grant, the Commission services will automatically prepare the Grant Agreement for the signature of the person named under this section, unless otherwise notified. 1.4. Contact person responsible for the application The fields with grey background are filled in automatically based on the information stored in the profile of the organisation. It is the contact information of the person who downloads the Grant Application Form from PRIAMOS. Please always verify the data stored in your profile in PRIAMOS before downloading the Grant Application Form. For further information on the update of the PRIAMOS profile, please consult the PRIAMOS GUIDE http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/priamos-section/index_en.htm All communication related to the project will be sent to the person whose name appears in this section of the Grant Application Form, and the contact details indicated here will be also entered in the Grant Agreement. The Commission may contact the Applicant should a need for clarification or information arise during the evaluation of the project. Such contact will be initiated per e-mail via the contact person's e-mail address indicated in this section of the Grant Application Form. The Applicant may be imposed a short deadline to provide the information requested. Therefore, please make sure that the e-mail address of the contact person is correct and checked regularly. The Commission would appreciate that all communication between the Commission and the contact person is carried out in English, for the sake of efficiency. 1.5. Information about the Co-beneficiaries Under this section of the Grant Application Form you should provide the basic information concerning the composition of the Partnership implementing the project. The list of Cobeneficiary Partners should also be included in Sheet Partnership of the Budget Form. Please make sure that you list them in the same order. In Column Value of EU Contribution Expected of the table you should present the estimated share of the grant per Co-beneficiary Partner. How to calculate the amount to be indicated? Total cost to be incurred by the Co-beneficiary - Own contribution of Co-beneficiary = Value of EU Contribution Expected 12
Partner (Total of A+B+C+D+E+F for the Cobeneficiary Partner) Partner (Total of K for the Cobeneficiary Partner) estimated share of the grant 1.6. Information about the Associate Partners Under this section of the Grant Application Form you should provide the basic information concerning the Associate Partners participating in the implementation of the project. 2. INFORMATION CONCERNING OTHER EU GRANT/PROCUREMENT 2.1. Grant applications or offers submitted under other grant/procurement procedures by applicant to EU institutions for which the evaluation process is not yet finalised Please list all the EU grant applications (both operating and action grants) and procurement offers submitted or expected to be submitted to EU institutions and agencies by the Applicant organisation in 2013, which have not yet been awarded or rejected at the time of submission of your application. The Applicant organisation is required to inform without any delay DG HOME of any further application for funding made to other EU institutions or agencies, and/or any funding approved by the Commission, other EU institutions or agencies, after the submission of this application. When filling in the table please indicate your role in the grant application/procurement offer. If your organisation submitted the offer as applicant or Coordinator/consortium leader etc. please select "A" from the drop down menu. If your organisation was participating as a member of a partnership/consortium select "P". When entering the amount, indicate only the amount of the EU contribution your organisation is likely to receive if the grant application/procurement offer is accepted and not the entire budget of the project/contract in question. There are 10 lines provided in the Grant Application Form. If the provided space is not sufficient, please list the first 9 in the table and attach the remaining information as an additional annex to the Grant Application Form and indicate that in the last row of the table. 2.2. EU projects of the Applicant Please list the EU grants (both operating and/or action grants) and/or procurement contracts obtained in the last 4 years by the Coordinator organisation where the organisation, either as Applicant or Partner, received co-financing from EU programmes/initiatives. To respect the principle of non-cumulative grants for the same Applicant, the Commission may verify if financial support has already been obtained, in the last four years, for a project directly linked to this application, under EU funding schemes. When entering the amounts, indicate only the actual amount specific for your organisation, similarly to the table in section 2.1. There are 9 lines provided in the Grant Application Form. If the provided space is not sufficient, please list the first 8 in the table and attach the remaining information as an additional annex to the Grant Application Form and indicate that in the last row of the table. 13
3. BUDGET Under this section of the Grant Application Form you should present the budget estimate of the project per category of costs and incomes. The amounts indicated here should be identical to the ones indicated in the Sheet Forecast Budget Calculation of the Budget Form Annex 2. Therefore, we suggest that you fill in these fields only after you have completed and finalised the Budget Form. Please note that the fields with grey background are calculated automatically on the basis of the information that you put in the rest of the fields. All amounts should have only two decimals. 4. INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT 4.1.1. 2 Project Title and Acronym Please give the project a specific title in English that describes your action and create an acronym. The field is limited to 200 characters with spaces. 4.1.3. 5 Duration and planned start/end dates of the project Only the fields marked with an * can be filled in in this specific section. The planned end date of the project is calculated automatically. Please indicate when you intend to start the proposed project and give the duration in months. When entering the date please use the following format: day/month/year or chose the date from the calendar that appears once you click on the arrow on the right hand side of the cell. In the project duration field you have to indicate whole month. - Duration Please note that the maximum duration of a project is specified in the relevant call notice. When you plan your project you should take into account that as a general rule during the project implementation the projects cannot be extended beyond the time limit originally agreed in the Grant Agreement, unless in exceptional duly justified cases, for reasons outside the control of the beneficiary. The requests for extension are reviewed on a case by case basis and are subject to the Commission's approval via an amendment to the Grant Agreement. - Start date Proposals that started prior to the submission of the application cannot be accepted for funding. When planning the projects applicants should consult the indicative planning of the respective call notice, which specifies the indicative date when the project activities could start. Therefore, they should avoid setting a start date of a project before that date. The starting date indicated in the Grant Application Form is indicative and the actual starting date of the project should be agreed with the Commission. The agreed date will then be included in the Grant Agreement. In case the proposal is awarded a grant the project officer responsible for the preparation of the Grant Agreement will contact the Coordinator to confirm the starting date. As a general rule awarded projects will start after the signature of the Grant Agreement by both parties. In duly justified cases and if it can be established that this was necessary for the project the Commission may agree that a projects starts earlier than that. In that case the starting date indicated in the Grant Agreement may be set before the date of the actual signature by both parties. But even in this exceptional case the starting date cannot be 14
prior to the date on which the original application was submitted. The start and end dates of the project set out the eligibility period for project related expenditure. Any costs incurred before the agreed start or after the agreed end dates will not be eligible. 4.3. Summary of the project (max 4000 characters) The summary must provide the reader with a clear understanding of the proposal's objectives and its compliance with the priorities of the relevant call, as well as of the content and activities to be carried out to achieve those objectives. It must also provide information about the target groups and beneficiaries of these activities, the methodology, the expected results, the concrete outputs and deliverables, as well as the dissemination strategy. This section will be your project's "business card" and will be used for publication/dissemination purposes, if your project is awarded a grant. The number of characters is limited in this field. You cannot write more than 4000 characters with spaces. 5. DECLARATION BY THE APPLICANT The Declaration by the Applicant is an integral part of the Grant Application Form. This declaration is a binding commitment on behalf of the Coordinator organisation. The name and the title of the legal representative are filled in automatically based on the information stored in the profile of the organisation on behalf of which the application is submitted. Please always verify the data stored in your profile in PRIAMOS before downloading the Grant Application Form. NO blue ink signature is required! There is no need to print and sign a paper copy of the Grant Application Form. You may do so for your own records, but the Commission does not require that you attach a scanned copy of any section of the Grant Application Form to the electronic version. 3.5 Annex 1 - Description of the Action Annex 1 Description of the Action is a Word document that is partially write protected. There is a specific template set for each CFP. You must use this specific template to present the proposed action. The form is composed of 16 sections with specific instructions under each section. This Annex is a crucial part of an application as it gives a comprehensive overview of the different elements of the project and it contains concise information on results and activities. The Annex 1 Description of the Action will be used as a main document in the evaluation of proposals, therefore it should be filled out with particular care answering all the questions. In case a proposal is awarded funding, the Annex 1 Description of the Action will be used to monitor progress made in the implementation of the action, and it will form integral part of the Grant Agreement. Please attach this Annex in Word format. Please do not change the format and do not print and scan this document for the purpose of submitting it. 3.6 Annex 2 Budget Form The Budget Form is the second compulsory Annex that has to be submitted attached to the Grant Application Form. Annex 2 must be submitted using the mandatory template. This template is attached to the blank Grant Application Form that you will download from 15
PRIAMOS. You will need to fill out and attach this Excel Workbook to the Grant Application Form in its original format. Please do not change the format and do not print and scan this document for the purpose of submitting it. The Budget Form should include specific and clear financial information which will facilitate the evaluation of the proposal. It will be read together with the Grant Application Form and its other annexes. The Budget Form is an Excel Workbook document that must be used through the entire life cycle of a project (application, evaluation, selection for funding, implementation, final reporting). The Budget Form consists of six worksheets (hereinafter referred to as Sheet 1,2,3,4,5 and 6): 1) Identification Form (ID Form) 2) Partnership 3) Forecast Budget Calculation 4) Budget & Execution Summary 5) Detailed Budget Execution 6) Cost Claim Sheets 1, 2 and 3 (green sheets) must be used in the application phase, whereas Sheets 4, 5 and 6 (blue sheets) will be used in the final reporting phase. The Budget Form is only accepted for evaluation if: the standard Budget Form template set for the CFP is used; Sheets 1, 2 and 3 'ID Form', 'Partnership' and 'Forecast Budget Calculation' are filled in providing a detailed breakdown in euros of the project's estimated expenditure and revenue. Functions inserted in the sheet - Protected fields: Where necessary, the fields on a worksheet are or the entire sheet is write-protected. You may enter data only in the fields that you are supposed to fill in. If you try to modify a locked cell you will receive a request for a password. Please note that the locking is intentional and you do not need to unlock the template and insert a password to fill in the table properly. As a general rule, only the fields with a white background are to be filled in. As the Form is based upon an Excel workbook, all the functionalities and constraints related to this type of document are applicable. Sheet 4 "Budget & Execution summary" is protected as a whole to ensure the integrity of the data and formulae, i.e. it is inaccessible for editing. The other sheets are not fully protected and therefore Applicants are urged not to remove or modify the formulas, especially in the yellow areas as this can impact the final calculation! You should be very careful not to delete the formula in the column H on Sheet 3 while encoding your data into the table. - Use of filters: Each column has a filter, which allows you to filter the entries (using the relevant arrow inserted in the title line). Filtering under multiple parameters is possible by using the filter- 16
buttons of more than one column. Please note that the box Subtotal of selected entries on the top of the page is activated only if you use the filter and it indicates each time the total amount of the filtered/selected entries. - Use of sorting from A-to Z or Z to A: The locking parameters of Sheets 3 and 5 prevent the use of the sorting function. - Use of functions: Copy-paste, Cut-paste, Insert line, delete line Only the upper part of the Sheet is locked and this allows you to copy, cut, insert and delete lines and cells. While using these functions (especially the cut-paste and insert), please note that the formula in the column Total EURO is not reproduced in the new line. It is your responsibility to ensure that the calculation remains correct. - Printing of the Budget: For submitting the Application Package you do not need to print the Budget Form (only the electronic version should be attached to the Grant Application Form). However, if - for your personal use - you need to print the form, please note that the print area for Sheet 3 "Forecast Budget Calculation" is pre-set covering only lines 1-500. If you need to print a larger part of the sheet, you may reset the print area. - Pivot tables: The locking parameters of Sheet 3 prevent the table from generating a Pivot Table directly from this Sheet. However, if for your personal use you wish to create a Pivot Table on the basis of this data, you may insert an additional sheet and generate the Pivot Table there. Generating Pivot tables is not mandatory! Sheet 1 Identification Form - ID form This Sheet serves to summarise the basic information on the Coordinator's identity and the project. You are invited to introduce the requested information in the white cells. The yellow cell (I27) is write-protected and will be automatically filled in from the Forecast Budget Calculation sheet once all the required information has been introduced. Please fill out: the title of the project (please state the full title of the project as indicated in the Grant Application Form and in Annex 1); the legal name of the beneficiary/coordinator (this information should be the same as in field 1.1.1 of the Grant Application Form); the legal address of the Applicant organisation which will be implementing the project (this information should be the identical to the information provided when registering the Applicant organisation in PRIAMOS system); the eligibility period of the costs incurred by the project, i.e. the duration of the project and its activities (this information should be the same as in fields 4.1.4-5 of the Grant Application Form); the banking details of the Applicant organisation which will be coordinating the project (this information should be the same as in section 1.2 of the Grant Application Form); the summary of activities (this information should be the same as in field 4.2 of the Grant Application Form). Sheet 2 "Partnership" 17
The legal name of beneficiary/coordinator, i.e. of the Coordinator organisation which will be coordinating the project, is automatically filled out on the basis of the information provided in the relevant cell of Sheet 1 "ID form". Please indicate the country where the Coordinator organisation is legally established. Please fill out the legal name of Co-beneficiary Partners, i.e. of the organisations which participate as Partners and receive a share of EU funding (this information should be the same as in section 1.5 of the Grant Application Form and the organisations should appear in the same order). Please indicate the country where each Partner is legally established. The Associate Partners should not appear in this list. Sheet 3 "Forecast Budget Calculation" This sheet should include all specific costs that are necessary for the implementation of the project and meet the eligibility criteria described below. It should also include all sources of income, both the amounts contributed by the Coordinator and Co-beneficiary Partners and the funds contributed by any other third party (Co-financer and Associate partners). Expenditure headings Eligible direct costs A = Staff B = Travel (Staff's) C = Equipment D = Consumables E = Other direct costs Eligible indirect costs F = Indirect costs Income headings I = "Financial contributions specifically assigned by donors to the financing of the eligible costs & Income generated by the financed activities." K= Other income, including own contribution from the beneficiary/-ies You should fill out the information both for costs and for income in the same table. Please try to be as precise and detailed as possible the quality of the information provided in this Sheet is crucial in assessing your application. Overview tables: Estimated Expenditure and Estimated Income The cells in lines 1-19 are write-protected and will be filled in automatically once you entered all the necessary information in the white part of the Sheet from line 20 onwards. These tables present the total sum of the costs and income to be introduced below. Please note no Budget heading letter is indicated for the amount of EU contribution; you cannot specify yourself the amount of EU contribution that you request. The table calculates it automatically on the basis of the estimated costs and estimated income that you present in the table. The box Subtotal of selected entries (row 18; Column H) does not show the total cost of the project. It is activated only if you use the filter under a column and it indicates each time the total amount of the filtered/selected entries. 18
Column A Budget heading Each cost or income item should be introduced in a new line. When introducing a new cost or income item first you need to identify the appropriate Budget Heading. A drop-down menu helps you to fill out this Column A - Budget heading (letters A-F for costs and I-K for income, as indicated in the overview section above). Each cost or income should be classified under one of these categories. The Column A Budget heading has an inbuilt reminder to ensure that it is filled out: if an amount is foreseen in the Column H Total EURO, the relevant cell in the Column A Budget heading will turn red and it will remain red until the relevant letter (A, B, C, D, E, F, I, K) is filled out in the Column A Budget heading. Please note once more that you cannot specify yourself the amount of EU contribution that you request. The table calculates automatically the EU Contribution on the basis of the estimated costs and estimated income that you present in the table. Column B Name of Beneficiary In the Column B Name of Beneficiary you should allocate each item (i.e. each line, i.e. each cost or income) to one organisation. Cost: Income: Each cost may be allocated to only one organisation, the one that will incur this cost. It should be the organisation that will pay for this cost and will include this cost in its official accounts. It may be either the Applicant/Coordinator or one of the Co-beneficiary Partners. For each source of income, the relevant organisation should be indicated. It may be either the Coordinator or one of the Co-beneficiary Partners. If the income originates from an Associate Partner or a third party donor organisation, please indicate the name of this organisation in Column D only and under Column B Name of Beneficiary indicate the name of the organisation who will actually book the income. Please make sure that every time you refer to an organisation you use the same name/same spelling/same abbreviation) throughout the document (for every cost or income item that you allocate to it). If you are consistent in this reference, then you will be able to benefit from the filter in this column and you will be able to select and review easily all entries that refer to this organisation. Column C Activity 19
Costs: Income: The column Activity should indicate the relevant Activity to which the cost is linked. You should provide a brief description of each activity as mentioned in the Application Form and in Annex 1. Coordination and management costs, as well as costs that are linked to the general implementation of the project (rather than to a specific activity) and indirect costs (F - overheads) should be labelled "Horizontal". When entering an item (i.e. line) referring to an income (Budget headings I or K), you should NOT indicate any activity. Incomes should be labelled "Income". Column D Description of item i.e. Who? What?" Costs: Income: In the column Description of item you should provide a concrete description of each cost item. The estimated budget aims at providing clear financial information, and this column should therefore not be filled out referring vaguely to activities (e.g. Training, Website, Leaflet etc), but each entry should be a very specific cost (e.g. Salary for X trainers for X days, lay-out of website, airplane ticket for X persons from X place to X place, accommodation of X people for X days in place X, maintenance of website, lay-out of leaflet of X pages, printing of leaflet in X copies in X languages, translation of X document from X language to X language etc.). If depreciation applies, in this column you should also provide the total value of an item so that the calculation of the depreciated value can be verified. Please give additional information on the sources of income. Especially in case that you foresee under I income to be generated by the project activities, you should provide details on the type of income and the way of calculation of the total amount. If Column D does not provide sufficiently detailed justifications, the Commission may reject or reduce the foreseen costs. Column E "Unit (days, persons, DSA, etc.)" Please provide here the actual unit. Column F "Amount per unit in EURO" Please note that all amounts should be indicated with maximum two decimals: 1.235,56. Column G Number of units In these columns, you should present a detailed calculation of the cost with reference to the appropriate unit. As a general rule, lump sums should be avoided. Column H Total EURO In order to facilitate your work, this cell contains a formula for the calculation of the total amount (Amount per unit in EURO x Number of units). Please note that this formula is not protected and it may be deleted. In this case please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that the total amount per item (i.e. line) as stated in this cell is calculated correctly. Column I Additional information You may provide here any necessary additional information in order to provide more clarifications. Detailed information on the classification and the description of direct costs (A, B, C, D, E) you may find below under section 3.7 on detailed rules concerning eligible costs of this Guide. Sheet 4 "Budget & Execution Summary" 20
This sheet is write-protected and you cannot enter data directly. This is a multipurpose sheet. It is used at the application and project closure stage as well. In this overview, the amounts are automatically calculated and consolidated by budget heading/item. It provides the amounts of the estimated, declared, eligible and accepted expenditure. It also enlists the estimated and declared income. It further shows the final calculation of the amount of the grant and the final payment or reimbursement. Only the part of the table coloured green is relevant for the application stage. This part is a mirror of the summary table on top of Sheet 3 "Forecast Budget Calculation". Sheet 5 "Detailed Budget Execution" & Sheet 6 "Cost Claim" These Sheets (coloured blue) are not relevant at the stage of application. You should not fill out these Sheets at the stage of application, but please remember that these sheets will be used for reporting and the final calculation of the grant, if your proposal gets awarded a grant. 3.7 Rules concerning eligibility of costs and acceptable income For a full understanding of the financial concepts of a grant application and of the eligible categories of expenditure, please consult: the Draft Model Grant Agreement that is is published together with the call for proposals; the section on Grants of the Financial Regulation and the Rules of Application available from Directorate-General Budget's webpage at http://ec.europa.eu/budget/biblio/documents/regulations/regulations_en.cfm#rf_modex. In the Budget Form the Commission will only accept costs that can be accepted as eligible at the end of the project. The EU grant can co-finance only those costs which are eligible according to the Grant Agreement signed between the Commission and the Coordinator (also on behalf of the Cobeneficiary Partners). Eligible costs of the action are costs which meet the following criteria: they actually incurred by the Coordinator and the Co-beneficiary Partners. Costs incurred by Associate Partners, third party organisations are no eligible for cofunding; they are incurred during the agreed project implementation period (the period set out in Article I.2.2 of the Grant Agreement); they are indicated in the estimated budget of the action annexed to the Grant Agreement ( Annex III); they are incurred in connection with the action as described in Annex I of the Grant Agreement and are necessary for its implementation; they are identifiable and verifiable, in particular being recorded in the accounting records of the beneficiary and determined according to the applicable accounting standards of the country where the beneficiary is established and with the usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiary; they comply with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation; and 21
they are reasonable, justified, and comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency. The Beneficiaries accounting and internal auditing procedures must permit a direct reconciliation of the costs and revenue declared in respect of the action with the corresponding accounting statements and supporting documents. As mentioned previously, EU funding may not in any circumstances produce a profit for the Beneficiaries. Profit shall mean any surplus of total actual receipts attributable to the action over the total actual costs of the action (see Article II.25.3 of the Grant Agreement). As a rule the expenditure must also relate to activities taking place in an eligible country. Any costs relating to activities undertaken outside of the eligible countries will normally be considered as out of scope and thus as non-eligible. Only where the Coordinator can adequately justify that these activities are vital for the implementation of the action, and where they contribute to achieving the objectives of the funding programme, could such costs be accepted as eligible. Expenditure headings Eligible direct costs "Direct costs" of the action are those specific costs which are directly linked to the implementation of the action and can therefore be attributed directly to it. They may not include any indirect costs. In particular, the following categories of costs are eligible direct costs, provided that they satisfy the conditions of eligibility set out under section 3.7 above as well as the following conditions: 3.7.1 Heading A - Staff costs To ensure the successful implementation of the tasks related to the project activities, appropriate human resources should be allocated to the project. Eligible costs are the costs of personnel working under an employment contract with the Coordinator or the Co-beneficiary Partner or an equivalent appointing act (typically in case of public authorities) and are assigned via duly documented decision to the project. The costs of natural persons working under a contract with the Coordinator or the Cobeneficiary Partner other than an employment contract may be assimilated to such costs of personnel, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled: the natural person works under the instructions of the Coordinator or the Cobeneficiary Partner and, unless otherwise agreed with the Coordinator or the Cobeneficiary Partner, in the premises of the Coordinator or the Co-beneficiary Partner; the result of the work belongs to the Coordinator or the Co-beneficiary Partner; and the costs are not significantly different from the costs of staff performing similar tasks under an employment contract with the Coordinator or the Co-beneficiary Partner. If a person is remunerated on the basis of invoices, his/her costs must be listed under Heading E - Other direct costs as subcontractors. All members of the project staff with a key and direct role in the project, which are indicated in the Annex 1 - Description of the Action must be listed under Heading A, even if their "staff costs" cannot be charged to the project. In such a case, their costs must be "0". "Budget Heading" (column A) should be encoded as A for all entries for staff members. Project staff consists of the personnel of the Coordinator and Co-beneficiary Partners. These 22
personnel must be remunerated on the basis of an employment contract and monthly salary slips. Each staff member listed must be identified with one organisation (Coordinator or Co- Beneficiary Partner) (column B) which will book and incur the expenditure. For each staff member, column C must indicate a clear reference to each activity listed in the Annex 1 - Description of the Action and column D must specify his/her name, specific function/specific tasks in the project and "working status". "Days" must be encoded in column E. His/her daily rate must be entered in column F and the number of days foreseen for the project in column G. If you have not decided on a certain staff member yet, please indicate in column D TBA ("to be appointed"), his/her envisaged function/tasks in the project, foreseen working status, as well as daily rates and number of days (columns F and G). If EU co-financing is sought for staff members' costs, the following conditions on "working status" eligibility have to be respected: Staff costs are not eligible if they relate to periods when the personnel concerned are doing their "normal routine", i.e. work which they would be doing whether or not the project had been implemented. Such work shall be considered as in-kind contribution and therefore not eligible. These persons must nevertheless be listed under Budget Heading A of the estimated budget with zero costs. The Coordinator and the Co-beneficiary Partners must be ready to provide documents to support any entries under this Heading (employment contract with staff members, payrolls, ledgers, official document on employer's charges), to prove that there is indeed an additional cost for them. Staff costs must be calculated on the basis of the actual yearly salary of the employee, divided by workable days in a year (i.e. in principle 220) and multiplied by the number of days worked on the project. The employee's yearly salary include his/her gross remuneration, plus all usual contributions paid by the employer such as social security contributions and other statutory costs, but must exclude any bonuses, incentive payments or profit-sharing schemes. In some cases the tasks foreseen in the project do not require actual recruitment of new staff; instead, the delivery of tasks is purchased as a service on the basis of an invoice. In that case, subcontracting costs must be indicated under Heading E - Other direct costs. The service contract must include the compensation paid to the service provider in relation to travel costs, attendance at meetings and participation in activities, etc., and the exact number of days the person should work for the project. Project management cannot be subcontracted and staff members of the Coordinator and Co-beneficiary organisations cannot be remunerated as subcontractors (service providers, consultants, etc.). Staff costs cannot include expenditure for translation/interpretation, which must be included in Heading E - Other direct costs. Costs for individual experts/consultants connected to the project via a service contract must also be listed under Heading E Other direct costs. Timesheets All staff members shall be allocated to the project on the basis of a clear and verifiable method. They must fill in timesheets showing the hours worked for the tasks related to the project. The timesheets must allow adequate verification by the Commission. For further guidance on how to fill in timesheets and present them at project closure (if specifically required by the Commission), please see section 8. of the Guide. 3.7.2 Heading B - Travel staff 23
This Heading concerns costs charged for all project staff declared under Heading A. If the project staff member is not listed under Heading A, his/her cost under this Heading will not be considered eligible. Travel costs of subcontractors/service providers or of non-staff members related to conferences and seminars are excluded from Heading B and must be accounted for under Heading E Other direct costs. "Budget Heading" (column A) should be encoded as B for staff members' travel and subsistence costs only directly linked to the project and relating to specific and clearly identifiable activities. Activities must be indicated in chronological order according to Annex 1 - Description of the Action. Detailed information on each cost must be given in columns C and D (for which activity; name and organisation of the person travelling; estimated origin and destination for each trip). Means of transport (flight/train, etc.) or Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) must be indicated in column E. Travel to places other than those where the members of the Partnership are located must be shown to be relevant to the project and duly justified. It is required to use the cheapest means of travel and to make every effort to obtain the most economical solution. The use of video and telephone conferences/calls should be first considered for before deciding on any travelling. Repartition of costs between the Coordinator and the Co-beneficiary Partners must be clear. Travel costs and subsistence allowances are not taken into account as lump sum funding. Travel costs will be reimbursed on the basis of the actual costs and subsistence costs on the basis of actual costs or on the basis of a paid DSA (up to the maxima listed per country in the table below). The following thresholds must be applied when planning the estimated cost: The maximum amount allowed for return flights between EU Member States is 450 EUR; only economy class travel is allowed. For travelling within a Member State, air travel is only allowed if the use of a different means of transport would be more expensive or result in unnecessary additional expenses due to the length of the journey (for example, additional hotel costs). The maximum amount allowed for a return flight between overseas destinations and EU Member States is 1200 EUR. Expenses for travel by train shall be reimbursed, on the basis of actual costs, at the rate equivalent to a 1st class ticket, except for high-speed train connections, where only travel in economy class must be charged to the project, unless it can be demonstrated that the flight costs for the same journey in economy class would be equal or higher to the costs of the 1st class ticket. Expenses for travel by car, where substantiated and where the price is not excessive, may be refunded as follows: For the private vehicle of the project staff member and for service vehicles owned by the Coordinator or Co-beneficiary organisation: on the basis of the declaration, with the maximum amount of refund being the 1st class rail fare (the price of one ticket only will be reimbursed, regardless of the number of people travelling in the same vehicle). Applicants may opt to reimburse the costs on the basis of the beneficiary's internal rules on reimbursement per km. In that case, these internal rules must be presented. For hired cars (maximum category B or equivalent): the actual cost, when this is not excessive by comparison with other means of transportation. Expenses for travel by bus are eligible; rental or hire of a bus should be encouraged, if it is a more economical option than individual travelling arrangements of the project staff members. For example, a large number of persons needing to move from one location to another together, or the location of an activity cannot be at reached using regular public 24
transportation, etc. If the bus is used for transporting participants to and from the airport the daily subsistence has to be deducted accordingly. Please bear in mind that receipts, invoices, boarding passes and used tickets must always be kept as supporting evidence of paid travel costs. Daily subsistence allowances - DSA Daily subsistence allowances (DSA) under this Heading, are intended to cover the expenses of project staff members that relate to their stay at a location of a project activity which is not in their home town. The reimbursement of subsistence costs shall be calculated on the basis of daily allowances or real costs, and cannot exceed the maxima amounts listed below. They should be in line with the beneficiary's usual practices on travel costs. The DSA for project staff should be considered eligible, provided: they are reasonable in the light of local prices; they are calculated in accordance with the internal rules of the Coordinator or Cobeneficiary organisations, which may be based on the real cost or the daily allowance. The DSA should cover: costs for accommodation all meals: breakfasts, lunches, coffee breaks, dinners, refreshments local transportation (costs of travel by taxi and local public transport) other expenses, especially telecommunication charges (internet, telephone, fax, etc.) and costs of travel from/to the airport/train station. If there is no overnight stay, the amounts must be reduced by 50%. Local transport, including taxi, will not be reimbursed separately, when a DSA is paid. If meals or other expenses are provided for, the DSA must be reduced accordingly. EU Member States EUR Austria 225 Italy 230 Belgium 232 Latvia 211 Bulgaria 227 Lithuania 183 Croatia 180 Luxembourg 237 Czech Republic 230 Malta 205 Cyprus 238 Netherlands 263 Denmark 270 Poland 217 Estonia 181 Portugal 204 Finland 244 Romania 222 France 245 Slovak Republic 205 Germany 208 Slovenia 180 Greece 222 Spain 212 25
Hungary 222 Sweden 257 Ireland 254 United Kingdom 276 For countries not mentioned in the above table, the maximum DSA are available on the website of Directorate-General EuropeAid Development and Cooperation at: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/per_diems/index_en.htm In order to avoid possible abuses, reimbursement in cash of the subsistence costs is to be avoided and bank transfer must be favoured. 3.7.3 Heading C - Equipment Column A "Budget Heading" of the Worksheet should be encoded as C for costs for equipment only directly linked to the project and relating to specific and clearly identifiable activities. Under this section only the equipment (new or second-hand) necessary for activities that are directly linked to the project should be indicated. Costs relating to the acquisition of equipment, whether by purchase, leasing or rental, shall only be eligible if such acquisition is strictly necessary for the performance of the project activities. Applicants must clearly demonstrate why equipment has to be purchased, rented or leased to carry out the project activities. Furthermore, they have to compare prices of different suppliers to see who offers the best value for money (taking both price and quality into account). Applicants can only charge against the project costs for equipment purchased or/and rented during the contractual project period, at a rate that reflects the degree and duration of use within that period. Please note that Coordinator and or the Co-beneficiary Partners should be ready to provide prior to the conclusion of the Grant Agreement at least one offer and/or quote per listed equipment item upon request of the Commission to justify each price estimate listed under this Heading. If this is not provided, the Commission reserves the right to reduce and/or remove any costs from the estimated budget. Expenditure for installation, maintenance, update of software and hardware if performed by a subcontractor must be indicated under Heading E Other direct costs. If on the other hand these tasks are performed by project staff members of the Coordinator or Co-beneficiary organisations, this should be included in Heading A. Purchase If leasing or renting is not possible, purchase is acceptable subject to the following conditions: a) if the equipment's value is equal or more than 2.000 EUR: only costs related to depreciation of the equipment can be taken into account when calculating the total eligible costs of the project; depreciation costs are calculated as described below, unless the national rules and regulations in the country of origin of the organisation which is to purchase the equipment require a different method or allow a more favourable option; all costs must be without VAT, unless the Beneficiaries can prove that the organisation is unable to recover it under national legislation applicable, and a comparison of the prices of different suppliers to see who offers the best value for money (taking into account price and quality) has been made. b) if the equipment's value is less than 2.000 EUR: 26
Equipment worth less than 2.000 EUR may be fully charged or at depreciation rates in accordance with the accounting rules of the organisation. The period of depreciation is usually considered to be 3 years for IT equipment. Calculation of depreciation The unit costs in case of depreciation must be the eligible depreciation costs/month. Depreciation must be calculated in accordance with the tax and accounting rules applicable to the beneficiary and generally accepted for items of the same kind. Depreciation can be calculated in 2 ways: taking into account the rate and the duration of usage during the project period at 100% in specific cases (e.g. if the equipment will be fully destroyed during the project.) For example, if the life expectancy of the equipment is considered to be three years, the depreciation costs/month shall be calculated by dividing the acquisition cost of the equipment by 36 months and then adjusted by the rate of usage for the purposes of the project. Please indicate in column F the price of purchase and the details on "with/without VAT" and for depreciation calculation in column H. Examples 1. The project duration is the maximum allowed: 18 months. The equipment is used 50 % for the project for 3 months. Purchase price excl. VAT Costs/ month Use for project purposes Eligible amount of depreciation for the project 10.000,00 10.000,00/ 36 months= 277,77 277,77* 50%= 138,88 138,88 * 3 months= 416,65 2. The project duration is the maximum allowed: 18 months. The equipment is used 100 % for the project for less than 18 months, for example 15 months. Purchase price excl. VAT Costs/ month Use for project purposes Eligible amount of depreciation for the project 10.000,00 10.000,00/ 36 months= 277,77 277,77 * 100%= 277,77 277,77 * 15 Months= 4166,55 Costs will not be eligible if the equipment was purchased prior to the start of the period of eligible expenditure indicated in the Grant Agreement. The equipment purchased must be itemised in the organisation in which it is installed and bear an inventory number. Office equipment The costs of office equipment necessary for the management of the project can only be taken into account as part of the overhead costs. Therefore, the costs of furniture, standard office IT equipment (printers, laptops, PCs together with the standard operating systems and normal office software, software for telecommunication), photocopiers, fax machines, cameras, video cameras, telephones, mobile phones and phone accessories are covered under Heading F - Indirect costs. Equipment related to conferences/workshops Standard equipment necessary for conferences/workshops: i.e. equipment for interpretation, microphones, audio-visual equipment (especially beamers, projectors), etc. must be listed under Heading E - Other direct costs and included in the conference package. Rental/lease 27
The decision on whether to opt for leasing, rental or purchasing of hardware or equipment must be based on the principle of best value for money. Applicant or Co-beneficiary organisations must contact several suppliers in order to obtain the most economical terms. If it is decided to opt for rental or leasing, the cost of any buy-out option at the end of the lease or rental period shall not be eligible, and costs are only eligible for the period of the project. Land and immovable property Costs of purchase of land and immovable property are not eligible. Renting of premises may only be included if it is directly linked to the implementation of the project (for example, renting of a room for an info-point), such a cost can be accepted as a direct cost. It will have to be documented by a specific rental contract/lease within the project duration. When filling out costs for land and immovable property in the Budget, you should indicate the duration of the rent (in months/days) and use the respective unit to calculate the cost. The direct link to the project implementation should also be presented. 3.7.4 Heading D Consumables Column A "Budget Heading" of the Worksheet should be encoded as D for costs for consumables only directly linked to the project and relating to specific and clearly identifiable activities. Any costs for consumables listed in the estimated budget should be calculated using the appropriate unit (lump sums are not allowed) and the direct link to the activities in the Annex 1 - Description of the Action must be presented. The costs of consumables and supplies are eligible, provided that they are identifiable and exclusively used for the purpose of the project and only where they involve unusually heavy costs because of a specific characteristic of the project for example, the cost of producing and distributing questionnaires, as part of a major survey, costs of explosive etc. They must be identifiable as such in the accounts of the Coordinator or Co-beneficiary organisations. Costs such as office stationery (pens, paper, folders, ink cartridges etc.), electricity supply, telephone and postal services, Internet connection time, office software, etc. are to be considered as indirect costs (see Heading F Indirect costs). Consumables related to conferences and seminars must not be included under this Heading. They have to be accounted for under Heading E - Other direct costs and included in the conference package. 3.7.5 Heading E - Other direct costs Column A "Budget Heading" of the Worksheet should be encoded as E for other direct costs only directly linked to the project and relating to specific and clearly identifiable activities. Costs charged to this Heading must meet the following criteria: they must not be covered by any other budget headings; they must be necessary for the proper performance of the tasks included in the project proposal; they must eligible under the Grant Agreement. They can be divided into 3 main categories: 1. conferences and seminars 2. publication and dissemination 3. other possible direct costs For any other direct costs deemed unreasonable, unjustified or contrary to sound financial management, the Commission reserves the right to reduce and/or remove them. 3.7.5.1 Conferences and seminars 28
Conference/workshop/seminar/training should be indicated under column D. All costs related to conferences, seminars, workshops and trainings, regardless of their nature (travel, subsistence, translation and interpretation costs, printing, photocopying, consumables and supplies related to the event, conference package, room rental, coffee breaks, etc.), must be included under this budget heading. This Heading should not include the travel expenses and subsistence allowances for project staff taking part in the event, which are to be indicated under Heading B. In the case of local staff, no hotel costs are eligible. Travel costs and seminar packages are not taken into account as lump sum funding, but will be reimbursed on the basis of the actual costs. The maximum amounts indicated in the table under Heading B above are also the maximum rates that may be claimed under this Heading. If meals or other expenses are provided for, the daily allowance has to be reduced accordingly. All entries must correspond to the activities indicated in chronological order according to Annex 1 - Description of the Action. Costs must be itemised by activity/event and indicated with the name of venue, expected duration, origin and destination of each trip. Please indicate also the expected number of participants (including local participants). Detailed information on each cost must be given in columns D E F G (for which activity; name and organisation of the person travelling; estimated origin and destination of each trip; for how many days; how many participants, etc.). Seminar packages, meeting costs, means of transport (flight/train, etc.) or DSA, etc. must be indicated in column E. Repartition of costs between Beneficiaries must be clear. Interpreters As a general rule, interpreters should be hired locally. For their travel costs and DSAs to be covered by the EU grant, it must be impossible to hire them locally and it must be explained why this is so. Interpreters as service providers must not be included in the number of participants; therefore DSA and hotel costs are not eligible costs for locally hired interpreters. Furthermore, if the interpreters are staff members of the Applicant or Co-beneficiary organisations, they should be treated as project staff members under Heading A and the conditions for staff members must be applied. Speakers' fees Only fees for external speakers should be listed here. If already known at the planning phase, the name of the speaker must be indicated and his/her CV must be attached and a short profile must be provided in order to assess whether the provisions for his/her costs are proportionate. At the stage of the final reporting, evidence that the speaker actually received the fee has to be presented (bank transfer, cash receipt, contract, etc). If the speakers are staff members of the Applicant or Co-beneficiary organisations, they cannot receive speaker's fees and should be treated as project staff members under Heading A and the conditions for staff members must be applied. Speaker's fees do not include DSAs that shall be provided separately. Indicative threshold prices for "Conferences and Seminars" items: Conference/Seminar package max EUR 100/person/day (8 hours) The seminar package is considered to include one meal and coffee breaks, room rental, badges, stationery, documents for the conference/seminar/workshop (such as brochures, programmes, posters, flyers, etc.), hostesses, registration charges, audiovisual, technical equipment/support, microphones, flip charts, rental stands, etc. Normal meal (dinner or lunch) Interpretation max EUR 35/person max EUR 750/day/interpreter 29
Speaker's fee number of interpreter days required (1 interpreter day = one 8-hour working day of an interpreter) languages concerned max EUR 350/person/day 3.7.5.2 Publications and dissemination In order to be eligible for EU funding, publications must be produced by, and for the use of the project. Any communication or publication by the Beneficiaries about the project, including at a conference or seminar, shall indicate that the project is co-financed by the European Union. This obligation forms also a part of the Grant Agreement (Annex X). Dissemination is a key element of all EU funded projects. It is the way a project can move beyond its own programmed scope into European policy and action. It is also the key to extending a project s results to other potential users, to those who stand to gain from knowing what the project has achieved or has not achieved and to the policy and decision makers within the Programmes on a long term perspective. Dissemination of results should therefore be a core element of the project proposal. It must be carefully planned and the appropriate resources should be allocated. Experience shows, however, that dissemination is often a weak element of project proposals, tagged on to the end of the project when the real work has been completed, and thus often budgeted unsatisfactorily and inadequately time-tabled. Please bear in mind whether to print reports and mail them out (expensive) or distribute them by e-mail; how do the users you have identified most often receive the materials they use, etc. Please note that if you are planning to print the report and send it out by mail, you need to include not only production costs but also postage costs in your budget. However, if you send it out, you will need to work on developing a very carefully targeted mailing list to make sure you reach your intended audience. Please consider all the ways you might get the results out: Printed Electronic (by e-mail, on USB, CD-Rom or DVD-Rom?) Video or other visual medium Through a personal meeting Via a conference or seminar presentation Via a third party, for example the media or a training institution. Publication/dissemination should be indicated under column D. Detailed information regarding these publication and dissemination costs must be indicated in columns D - E - F - G. In the case of printed material, describe the type of publication, the estimated numbers of pages and copies. The costs of the design and editing must be indicated separately from the cost of printing. Please consider also what languages you will produce the report in and aim, within the limits of the project budget, to produce materials in as many languages as possible - with an emphasis on the languages of countries in which the materials are most likely to be useful. If the publication is translated, the language(s) must be clearly indicated. Indicative threshold prices for ''Publications, Dissemination and Evaluation of the Results'' items: 30
Photocopies (black + white): Purchase of CDs: Translation: Design costs: Printing: max. EUR 0.10 per page max. EUR 5 each max. EUR 45 per page max. EUR 15-20 per page max. EUR 0.20 per page If the dissemination strategy includes dissemination of results via an Internet website, the costs of acquiring a domain may be considered eligible. If website developers are staff members of the Coordinator or Co-beneficiary organisations, they should be treated as project staff members under Heading A and the conditions for staff members must be applied. EU co-financing cannot be given for profit purposes. Should the results of the project be commercialised and should the project thereby generate income during the lifetime of the project, the amount of this expected income must be indicated in Heading I. 3.7.5.3 Other possible direct costs Costs charged to this category must: not be covered by any other budget heading; be necessary for the proper performance of the project activities; not involve any fundamental change in the scope and content of the work; be clearly identifiable - no lumps sumps; respect the eligibility conditions of the CFP and Guide for Applicants. Provided that they meet the above criteria, typical expenses under this category may include: charges for financial services in specific contexts (charges for bank guarantees and transfers). Cost relating to a pre-financing guarantee lodged by the beneficiary where the guarantee is required by the Grant Agreement. Interest charges and insurance against exchange losses, as well as exchange losses, are not eligible; other costs stemming from obligations under the Grant Agreement (reports, translations, certificates, specific evaluations of the project's implementation, if agreed or requested by the Commission, etc.); costs for the certificate(s) on the action's financial statements and underlying accounts to be submitted at the final reporting stage together with the request for payment, as set out in Article 23.2 (d) of the Grant Agreement. Each beneficiary (Coordinator and Co-beneficiary) with eligible direct costs exceeding 750.000 EUR should provide this external audit certificate. The auditing entity must be an approved auditor or, in case the beneficiary is a public body, a competent and independent public officer. Applicants should include in their estimated budget the costs for such certificates (model in Annex VII of the Grant Agreement); or the costs of subcontracting (service contracts, consultancy, fees, etc.); 3.7.5.4 Subcontracting Subcontracting should be indicated under column D. It is not permitted to subcontract the main activities of the project. Coordinator and Co-beneficiary Partners must have the 31
capacity to carry out the projects main activities themselves. Sub-contracting is a derogation to this general rule and is limited to specific cases: subcontracts may relate only to a limited part of the project; core elements of the project cannot be subcontracted the recourse to the award of contracts must be duly justified in section 10 of Annex 1 Description of the Action (having regard to the nature of the project and what is necessary for its implementation) and approved by the Commission; any recourse to the award of contracts while the project is under way, if not provided for in the initial grant application, shall require prior written authorisation by the Commission. The Coordinator may not subcontract the coordination, management and general administration of the project and the Co-beneficiary Partners may not subcontract all or most of the activities for which they are responsible. Furthermore, there shall be no statutory link between the subcontractor/service provider and the Coordinator or its Co-beneficiary/Associate Partners or members of their staff: any situation which could lead to conflicts of interest and circumvention of the non-profit principle must be avoided. In the latter case, the Commission must be informed and give its prior approval. When the Coordinator or any Co-beneficiary Partner chooses a subcontractor, the entity responsible for the acquisition must ensure a fair and transparent procedure and keep documentary evidence of the procedure. The contract shall be awarded to the bid offering best value for money. For public beneficiaries, the award of sub-contracts must comply with the applicable national rules on public tendering and be in conformity with EU Directives on public tendering procedures. The Commission reserves the right to ask for the documents proving that the relevant rules of public procurement 6 were applied. For private beneficiaries, the award of sub-contracts must be done to the bid offering best value for money, i.e. to the tender offering the best price-quality ratio, while taking care to avoid any conflict of interests. Typically, a subcontracting agreement should include the following terms: Service to be provided and its links with the project (it is advisable to include a reference to the project); Dates on which the agreement begins and ends; Price to be paid (breakdown and description of the costs); Work schedule/completion phases; Payment arrangements (one or more advance payments, staggered payments, etc.); Clauses in respect of non-performance or late completion. The Commission is not party to the subcontracting agreement between the Beneficiary and the subcontractor/service provider and is not liable towards any of the parties under such agreement. Thus, the Beneficiary will retain sole responsibility for the implementation of this 6 Directive 2004/17/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (30.04.2004) and Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts (30.04.2004) as implemented in national legislation of Member States. 32
agreement and for compliance with its provisions. The Beneficiary must undertake the necessary arrangements to ensure that the subcontractor/service provider waives all rights in respect of the Commission under such agreement. 3.7.6 Heading F Eligible Indirect costs Indirect costs (Overheads) relate to categories of expenditure that are not identifiable as specific costs directly linked to activities necessary for carrying out the project but are incurred in connection with the eligible direct costs for this project. They may not include any eligible direct costs. "Budget Heading" F should be encoded in column A. If the costs are split among the Partners a specific entry should be added for each organisation. Indirect costs include in particular the following costs: costs related to horizontal services, such as administrative and financial management and human resources; rents; communication costs (postage, fax, telephone, mailing, internet connection, telecommunication software, etc.); office supplies (stationery, photocopies, paper, ink, cartridge, etc.); office furniture; standard office IT equipment, (copy machine, projector, beamer, PC, laptop, normal office software, etc.), cameras, video cameras; maintenance costs; heating, water supply, electricity or other forms of energy and insurance policies. Flat-rate funding for indirect costs Within the limits permitted by the Grant Agreement (Article I.3), overhead costs can be financed by means of flat-rate financing. This means that costs under Heading F - Indirect costs do not have to be supported by accounting documents during the implementation phase and at the final closure of the project. The amount of eligible indirect costs must not exceed a maximum of 7% of the total eligible direct costs of the project (total of Headings A, B, C, D and E) for the entire project. Indirect costs should be proportionate to the workload due to the type and nature of activities, length of project, and number of Co-beneficiary Partners, etc. The percentage of EU co-funding mentioned in the Grant Agreement is calculated on the total eligible costs = direct costs (A+B+C+D+E) + indirect costs (F). If an organisation receives an operating grant from the EU budget for any given financial year, the organisation may not receive additional co-funding for overhead costs via an action grant during the year covered by the operating grant. This should be taken into account when calculating the amount of indirect costs for that organisation. Indirect costs for the period covered by an operating grant cannot be included in the estimated budget. 3.7.7 Ineligible costs In addition to any other costs which do not fulfil the conditions set out under point 3.7 above, the following costs shall not be considered eligible: 33
return on capital; debt and debt service charges; provisions for losses or debts; interest owed; doubtful debts; exchange losses; costs of transfers from the Commission charged by the bank of a Beneficiary; costs declared by a Beneficiary in the framework of another action receiving a grant financed from the Union budget (including grants awarded by a Member State and financed from the Union budget and grants awarded by other bodies than the Commission for the purpose of implementing the Union budget); in particular, indirect costs shall not be eligible under a grant for an action awarded to a beneficiary who already receives an operating grant financed from the Union budget during the period in question; contributions in kind from third parties; excessive or reckless expenditure; Value Added Tax VAT, when the activities to be supported through the grant fall within one of the following categories: o o taxed/exempt activities with right of deduction; activities engaged in by the Beneficiary, where it is a State, regional or local government; authority or another body governed by public law, acting as a public authority in the exercise of sovereign powers or prerogatives exercised by Member States, under thespecial legal regime applicable to them in line with Art. 13.1 of the Council Directive 2006/112/EC. 3.7.8 Eligibility of VAT for beneficiaries acting as public authorities As mentioned above, VAT is not eligible when the activities to be supported through the awarded grant are activities engaged in by a Beneficiary acting as a public authority in the exercise of sovereign powers or prerogatives exercised by Member States. Activities engaged in by the Beneficiary as a public authority are activities carried out by public bodies under the special legal regime applicable to them, thus not including activities pursued by them under the same legal conditions as those that apply to private economic operator. These activities may relate to the powers of police, customs, taxes, definition and enforcement of public policies etc. Examples of activities when VAT would likely be eligible: training activities of staff, unless the national legislation designates a public body as the sole entity having such a competence; awareness-raising activities, consultation and networking of civil society organisations, dissemination and communication activities about public policies, etc. Examples of activities when VAT would likely not be eligible: organisation of conference by national administrations or meeting of public policymakers designated by Member States with the aim of reviewing or harmonising legislations; 34
law enforcement services of Member States setting up cooperation mechanisms with police offices in third countries/other law enforcement agencies and carrying out investigative actions; development and operation of infrastructure and IT systems in the field of internal security and border surveillance by ministries of Member States or public agencies, protection of such critical infrastructure against attacks; a local government managing police services, etc. If the Coordinator or a Co-beneficiary is a public entity, you should identify in the Sheet 3 - Forecast Budget Calculation of the Budget Form any cost items you consider as incurred in the framework of activities engaged in as a public authority (with the consequence that VAT is ineligible and should not be included in the cost). This should be indicated in the column Additional information for the relevant cost items (with the mention: public authority ). Please note that, since only the supply of goods and services can be subject to VAT, this is only relevant for those cost categories which imply procurement from your side, e.g. costs of travel, of equipment, of consumables and supplies, etc. It should be noted that the Commission may request to be provided with the extract of the national legislation showing that the corresponding activities are not to be considered as activities of public authorities. Income headings 3.7.9 Heading I Financial contributions specifically assigned by donors to the financing of the eligible costs & Income generated by the financed activities Total income must be equal to total expenditure. While estimated expenses (eligible costs) must be listed under Headings A, B, C, D, E, and F, the different income must be listed under Headings I and K. The EC contribution (grant amount) may cover an amount not exceeding 90% of the total eligible costs of the project. Therefore, the remaining amount (a minimum of 10%) must be covered in cash by other sources and/or the contributions of the Coordinator, the Cobeneficiary or Associate Partners or a third party (sponsor organisation). The EU contribution (grant amount) is not a project-related income. The contribution requested from EC (i.e. grant amount) is calculated automatically on Sheet 4 "Budget & Execution Summary" and shall be NOT indicated under Headings I and K. "Budget Heading" I should be indicated in column A and you should include separate entries for each source of co-financing. Under Heading I you should include financial contributions from donors and Associate Partners, only if they are specifically assigned to cover eligible costs included in the Forecast Budget Calculation. You should also include under Heading I any income foreseen to be generated by the project activities, such as participation fees for a conference, revenue from commercialising a publication, etc. 3.7.10 Heading K Other income, including own contribution from the beneficiary/cobeneficiaries 35
Under Heading K, you should include the cash contributions that the Coordinator and the Cobeneficiary Partners decide to allocate to the project, in order to ensure that EU co-financing is not higher than 90% of the total eligible costs. Illustration 7 The parts of the table coloured blue and orange are not relevant at the application stage. They will be used for the final reporting and for the calculation of the final grant, only if your project will be awarded a grant. They should remain unchanged at the application stage. Please verify that this summary sheet is correctly filled in before attaching the Budget Form to the Grant Application Form. If you see any amounts other than "0,00" in the columns Declared Expenditure or Total eligible expenditure please go to Sheet 5 "Detailed Budget Execution" and delete the amounts you entered. on Sheet 3 "Forecast Budget Calculation". The calculations in Sheet 4 "Budget & Execution Summary" are made automatically on the basis of the entries in Sheet 3 "Forecast Budget Calculation". Therefore, it is very important to avoid errors when encoding the data. If you see the error message #VALUE! or #REF! in any of the cells please verify your entries 7 This table was introduced to explain the layout of the Worksheet Budget & Execution summary. Please refer to the relevant CFP for the minimum and maximum EU Contribution allowed. 36