Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 is hereby amended as follows:
in Article 44, the second paragraph shall be amended as follows:
point (b) shall be replaced by the following:
when the agreement is not a public service contract within the meaning of applicable public procurement law, the award of a grant, defined for this purpose as a direct financial contribution by way of donation to a financial institution without a call for proposals, if this is in accordance with a national law compatible with the Treaty;’;
the following point (c) shall be added:
the award of a contract directly to the EIB or the EIF.’;
in Article 46(1), the following second subparagraph shall be added:
‘The EIB or the EIF may, upon request of the Member States, take part in technical assistance activities referred to in the first subparagraph.’;
Article 56(2) shall be replaced by the following:
‘2.By way of derogation from paragraph 1, contributions in kind, depreciation costs and overheads may be considered as incurred expenditure by beneficiaries for the implementation of operations under the conditions laid down in the third subparagraph of this paragraph.
By way of derogation from paragraph 1, contributions in kind, as regards financial engineering instruments as defined in Article 78(6), first subparagraph, can be treated as expenditure paid at the constitution of the funds or holding funds or contributing to those funds or holding funds, under the conditions established in the third subparagraph of this paragraph.
Expenditure mentioned in the first and second subparagraphs must fulfil the following conditions:
(a)the eligibility rules drawn up on the basis of paragraph 4 foresee the eligibility of such expenditure;
(b)the amount of the expenditure is duly justified by supporting documents having equivalent probative value to invoices, without prejudice to provisions set out in specific Regulations;
(c)in the case of contributions in kind, the co-financing from the Funds does not exceed the total of eligible expenditure, excluding the value of such contributions.’;
Article 78 shall be amended as follows:
the last sentence of the first subparagraph of Article 78(1) shall be replaced by the following:
‘Expenditure paid by beneficiaries shall be supported by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent probative value, unless otherwise provided in specific Regulations for each Fund.’;
in Article 78(2) point (b) shall be deleted;
Article 78(4) shall be replaced by the following:
‘4.When, in application of Article 41(3), the Commission refuses to make a financial contribution to a major project, the expenditure declaration following the adoption of the Commission decision must be rectified accordingly.’;
in Article 82(1), second subparagraph, points (a), (b) and (c) shall be replaced by the following:
for Member States of the European Union as constituted before 1 May 2004: in 2007 2 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme, in 2008 3 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme, and in 2009 2,5 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme;
for Member States that acceded to the European Union on or after 1 May 2004: in 2007 2 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme, in 2008 3 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme and in 2009 4 % of the contribution from the Structural Funds to the operational programme;
if the operational programme falls under the European territorial cooperation objective and at least one of the participants is a Member State that acceded to the European Union on or after 1 May 2004, in 2007 2 % of the contribution from the ERDF to the operational programme, in 2008 3 % of the contribution from the ERDF to the operational programme and in 2009 4 % of the contribution from the ERDF to the operational programme.’.