Council Decision of 25 June 2007 establishing the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals for the period 2007 to 2013 as part of the General programme ‘Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows’ (2007/435/EC) (repealed)

CHAPTER VII FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Article 33 Eligibility — declarations of expenditure

1. All declarations of expenditure shall include the amount of expenditure incurred by final beneficiaries in implementing the actions and the corresponding contribution from public or private funds.

2. Expenditure shall correspond to the payments effected by the final beneficiaries. It shall be justified by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent evidential value.

3. Expenditure may be considered eligible for support from the Fund only if it is actually paid no earlier than 1 January of the year referred to in the financing decision, approving the annual programme referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 19(4). The co-financed actions must not have been completed before the starting date for eligibility.

By way of exception, the period for which the expenditure is eligible shall be fixed at three years for the expenditure implementing the actions supported under the 2007 annual programmes.

4. The rules governing eligibility of expenditure within the framework of implemented actions co-financed by the Fund in the Member States under Article 4 shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 52(2).

Article 34 Completeness of payment to final beneficiaries

Member States shall satisfy themselves that the responsible authority ensures that the final beneficiaries receive the total amount of the contribution from public funds as quickly as possible. No amounts shall be deducted or withheld, nor shall any further specific charge or other charge with equivalent effect be levied that would reduce these amounts for the final beneficiaries provided that the final beneficiaries meet all the requirements regarding the eligibility of actions and expenses.

Article 35 Use of the euro

1. Amounts set out in the draft multi-annual and annual programmes of the Member States referred to in Articles 17 and 19 respectively, certified declarations of expenditure, requests for payments referred to in Article 25(1)(o) and expenditure mentioned in the progress report on the implementation of the annual programme referred to in Article 37(4) and the final report on the implementation of the annual programme referred to in Article 49 shall be denominated in euros.

2. Commission financing decisions, approving the annual programmes of Member States referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 19(4), Commission commitments and Commission payments shall be denominated and carried out in euros.

3. Member States which have not adopted the euro as their currency on the date of the request for payment shall convert into euros the amounts of expenditure incurred in national currency. This amount shall be converted in euros using the monthly accounting exchange rate of the Commission in the month during which the expenditure was entered in the accounts of the responsible authority of the programme concerned. This rate shall be published electronically by the Commission each month.

4. When the euro becomes the currency of a Member State, the conversion procedure set out in paragraph 3 shall continue to apply to all expenditure recorded in the accounts by the certifying authority before the date of entry into force of the fixed conversion rate between the national currency and the euro.

Article 36 Commitments

Community budgetary commitments shall be made annually on the basis of the Commission financing decision, approving the annual programme referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 19(4).

Article 37 Payments — Pre-financing

1. Payments by the Commission of the contribution from the Fund shall be made in accordance with the budget commitments.

2. Payments shall take the form of pre-financing and payment of the balance. They shall be made to the responsible authority designated by the Member State.

3. A first pre-financing payment representing 50 % of the amount allocated in the financing decision approving the annual programme shall be made to the Member State within 60 days following the adoption of that decision.

4. A second pre-financing payment shall be made no more than three months after the Commission has approved, within two months of the formal submission of a request of payment by a Member State, a progress report on the implementation of the annual programme and a certified declaration of expenditure drawn up in accordance with Article 27(1)(a) and Article 33 accounting for at least 60 % of the amount of the initial payment.

The amount of the second pre-financing payment made by the Commission shall not exceed 50 % of the total amount allocated by the financing decision, approving the annual programme and, in any event, where a Member State has committed nationally an amount less the amount indicated in the financing decision, approving the annual programme, the balance of the amount of Community funds actually committed by the Member State for selected projects under the annual programme minus the first pre-financing payment.

5. Any interest generated by pre-financing payments shall be posted to the annual programme concerned, being regarded as a resource for the Member State as national public contribution and shall be declared to the Commission at the time of the declaration of expenditure relating to the final report on the implementation of the annual programme concerned.

6. The amounts paid as pre-financing shall be cleared from the accounts when the annual programme is closed.

Article 38 Payment of balance

1. The Commission shall pay the balance provided it has received the following documents no later than nine months after the eligibility deadline for expenditure laid down in the financing decision, approving the annual programme:

(a) a certified declaration of expenditure duly drawn up in accordance with Article 27(1)(a) and Article 33 and a request for payment of the balance or a statement of reimbursement;

(b) the final report on the implementation of the annual programme, as set out in Article 49;

(c) the annual audit report, opinion and declaration provided for in Article 28(3).

The payment of the balance shall be subject to the acceptance of the final report on the implementation of the annual programme and of the declaration assessing the validity of the request for payment of the balance.

2. If the responsible authority fails to provide the documents required in paragraph 1 by the due date and in an acceptable format, the Commission shall decommit any part of the budget commitment of the corresponding annual programme that has not been used for payment of the pre-financing.

3. The automatic cancellation procedure defined in paragraph 2 shall be suspended, for the amount of the projects concerned, where legal proceedings or administrative appeals having suspensive effects are under way at Member State level when the documents defined in paragraph 1 are submitted. The Member State shall, in the final report submitted, give detailed information on such projects, and send reports on progress made with regard to these projects every six months. Within three months of the conclusion of the legal proceedings or administrative appeal procedure, the Member State shall present the documents required in paragraph 1 for the projects concerned.

4. The nine months period referred to in paragraph 1 shall cease to run if the Commission has adopted a decision suspending payments of the co-financing for the relevant annual programme in accordance with Article 40. The period shall start to run again from the date when the Commission decision referred to in Article 40(3) has been notified to the Member State.

5. Without prejudice to Article 39, the Commission shall, within six months of receiving the documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, inform the Member State of the amount of expenditure recognised by the Commission as chargeable to the Fund, and of any financial corrections deriving from the difference between declared expenditure and the expenditure recognised. The Member State shall have three months to present its comments.

6. Within three months of receiving the Member State's comments, the Commission shall decide on the amount of expenditure recognised as chargeable to the Fund, and recover the balance arising from the difference between final recognised expenditure and the sums already paid to that Member State.

7. Subject to available funding, the Commission shall pay the balance within no more than 60 days from the date on which it accepts the documents referred to in paragraph 1. The balance of the budgetary commitment shall be decommitted six months following the payment.

Article 39 Withholding of payments

1. The payment shall be withheld by the authorising officer by delegation within the meaning of the Financial Regulation for a maximum period of six months if:

(a) in a report of a national or Community audit body there is evidence to suggest a significant deficiency in the functioning of the management and control systems;

(b) that officer has to carry out additional verifications following information coming to his notice which alerted him that expenditure in a certified declaration of expenditure is linked to a serious irregularity which has not been corrected.

2. The Member State and the responsible authority shall be informed immediately of the reasons for the payment being withheld. The payment shall be withheld until the necessary measures are taken by the Member State.

Article 40 Suspension of payments

1. All or part of the pre-financing and payments of the balance may be suspended by the Commission when:

(a) there is a serious deficiency in the management and control system of the programme which affects the reliability of the procedure for certification of payments and for which corrective measures have not been taken; or

(b) expenditure in a certified declaration of expenditure is linked to a serious irregularity which has not been corrected; or

(c) a Member State has not complied with its obligations under Articles 29 and 30.

2. The Commission may decide to suspend pre-financing and payments of the balance after having given the Member State the opportunity to present its observations within a period of three months.

3. The Commission shall end the suspension of pre-financing and payments of the balance when it considers that the Member State has taken the necessary measures to enable the suspension to be lifted.

4. If the necessary measures are not taken by the Member State, the Commission may adopt a decision to cancel all or part of the Community contribution to the annual programme in accordance with Article 44.

Article 41 Conservation of documents

Without prejudice to the rules governing State aid under Article 87 of the Treaty, the responsible authority shall ensure that all the supporting documents regarding expenditure and audits on the programmes concerned are kept available for the Commission and the Court of Auditors for a period of five years following the closure of the programmes in accordance with Article 38(1).

This period shall be interrupted either in the case of legal proceedings or at the duly substantiated request of the Commission.

The documents shall be kept either in the form of the originals or in versions certified to be in conformity with the originals on commonly accepted data carriers.