Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

CHAPTER 2 Principles

Article 125 General principles applicable to grants

1. Grants shall be subject to the principles of transparency and equal treatment.

2. Without prejudice to Article 130, grants shall not be cumulative or awarded retrospectively.

3. Grants shall involve co-financing without prejudice to the specific rules laid down in Title IV of Part Two.

Unless otherwise specified in this Regulation, the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding are laid down in Regulation (EC) No 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding(1).

4. Grants shall not have the purpose or effect of producing a profit within the framework of the action or the work programme of the beneficiary (‘no-profit principle’).

The first subparagraph shall not apply to:

(a) actions the objective of which is the reinforcement of the financial capacity of a beneficiary, or actions which generate an income to ensure their continuity after the period of Union financing provided for in the grant decision or agreement;

(b) study, research or training scholarships paid to natural persons;

(c) other direct support paid to natural persons most in need, such as unemployed persons and refugees;

(d) grants based on flat rates and/or lump sums and/or unit costs where these comply with the conditions set out in Article 124(2);

(e) low value grants.

Where a profit is made, the Commission shall be entitled to recover the percentage of the profit corresponding to the Union contribution to the eligible costs actually incurred by the beneficiary to carry out the action or work programme.

5. For the purpose of this Title, profit shall be defined as a surplus of the receipts over the eligible costs incurred by the beneficiary, when the request is made for payment of the balance.

The receipts referred to in the first subparagraph shall be limited to income generated by the action or work programme, as well as financial contributions specifically assigned by donors to the financing of the eligible costs.

In the case of an operating grant, amounts dedicated to the building up of reserves shall not be taken into account for the purpose of verifying compliance with the no-profit principle.

6. If a political party at Union level realises a surplus of income over expenditure at the end of a financial year in which it received an operating grant, the part of that surplus corresponding to up to 25 % of the total income for that year may, by derogation from the no-profit principle laid down in paragraph 4, be carried over to the following year provided that it is used before the end of the first quarter of that following year.

For the purpose of verifying compliance with the no-profit principle, the own resources, in particular donations and membership fees, aggregated in the annual operations of a political party at Union level, which exceed 15 % of the eligible costs to be borne by the beneficiary, shall not be taken into account.

The second subparagraph shall not apply if the financial reserves of a political party at Union level exceed 100 % of its average annual income.

7. Grants may be awarded without a call for proposals to the EIB or the European Investment Fund for actions of technical assistance. In such cases Articles 131(2) to (5) and 132(1) shall not apply.

8. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 complementing the general principles applicable to grants, including the no-profit principle and the co-financing principle. Furthermore, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning the definition of technical assistance.

Article 126 Eligible costs

1. Grants shall not exceed an overall ceiling expressed in terms of an absolute value which shall be established on the basis of estimated eligible costs.

Grants shall not exceed the eligible costs.

2. Eligible costs are costs actually incurred by the beneficiary of a grant which meet all of the following criteria:

(a) they are incurred during the duration of the action or of the work programme, with the exception of costs relating to final reports and audit certificates;

(b) they are indicated in the estimated overall budget of the action or work programme;

(c) they are necessary for the implementation of the action or of the work programme which is the subject of the grant;

(d) 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 according to the usual cost accounting practices of the beneficiary;

(e) they comply with the requirements of applicable tax and social legislation;

(f) they are reasonable, justified, and comply with the principle of sound financial management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency.

3. Calls for proposals shall specify the categories of costs considered as eligible for Union funding.

Without prejudice to the basic act and in addition to paragraph 2, the following categories of costs shall be eligible where the authorising officer responsible has declared them as such under the call for proposals:

(a) costs relating to a pre-financing guarantee lodged by the beneficiary of the grant, where that guarantee is required by the authorising officer responsible pursuant to Article 134(1);

(b) costs relating to external audits where such audits are required in support of the requests for payments by the authorising officer responsible;

(c) value added tax ("VAT") where it is not recoverable under the applicable national VAT legislation and is paid by a beneficiary other than a non-taxable person as defined in the first subparagraph of Article 13(1) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax(2);

(d) depreciation costs, provided they are actually incurred by the beneficiary;

(e) salary costs of the personnel of national administrations to the extent that they relate to the cost of activities which the relevant public authority would not carry out if the project concerned were not undertaken.

4. Costs incurred by entities affiliated to a beneficiary as described in Article 122 may be accepted as eligible by the authorising officer responsible under the call for proposals. In such a case, the following conditions shall apply cumulatively:

(a) the entities concerned are identified in the grant agreement or decision;

(b) the entities concerned abide by the rules applicable to the beneficiary under the grant agreement or decision with regard to eligibility of costs and rights of checks and audits by the Commission, OLAF and the Court of Auditors.

5. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning further specifications on eligible costs.

Article 127 Co-financing in kind

1. For the purpose of calculating the profit generated by the grant, co-financing in the form of contributions in kind shall not be taken into account.

2. The authorising officer responsible may accept contributions in kind as co-financing, if considered necessary or appropriate. Where co-financing inkind is offered in support of low value grants and the authorising officer responsible has decided to refuse this, he or she shall justify why it is unnecessary or inappropriate.

Such contributions shall not exceed:

(a) either the costs actually incurred by third parties and duly supported by accounting documents;

(b) or, in the absence of such documents, the costs that correspond to those generally accepted on the market in question.

Contributions in kind shall be presented separately in the estimated budget to reflect the total resources allocated to the action. Their unit value shall be evaluated in the provisional budget and shall not be subject to subsequent changes.

Contributions in kind shall comply with national tax and social security rules.

Article 128 Transparency

1. Grants shall be subject to a work programme, to be published prior to its implementation.

That work programme shall be implemented through the publication of calls for proposals, except in duly justified exceptional cases of urgency or where the characteristics of the beneficiary or of the action leave no other choice for a given action, or where the beneficiary is identified in a basic act.

The first subparagraph shall not apply to crisis management aid, civil protection operations or humanitarian aid operations.

2. Calls for proposals shall specify the planned date by which all applicants shall have been informed of the outcome of the evaluation of their application and the indicative date for the signature of grant agreements or notification of grant decisions.

Those dates shall be fixed on the basis of the following periods:

(a) for informing all applicants of the outcome of the evaluation of their application, a maximum of six months from the final date for submission of complete proposals;

(b) for signing grant agreements with applicants or notifying grant decisions to them, a maximum of three months from the date of informing applicants they have been successful.

Those periods may be adjusted in order to take into account any time needed to comply with specific procedures that may be required by the basic act in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3) and may be exceeded in exceptional, duly justified cases, in particular for complex actions, where there is a large number of proposals or delays attributable to the applicants.

The authorising officer by delegation shall report in his or her annual activity report on the average time taken to inform applicants, sign grant agreements or notify grant decisions. In the event of the periods referred to in the second subparagraph being exceeded, the authorising officer by delegation shall give reasons and, where not duly justified in accordance with the third subparagraph, shall propose remedial action.

3. All grants awarded in the course of a financial year shall be published annually in accordance with Article 35(2) and (3).

4. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the requirements regarding the work programme, the content of calls for proposals, the exceptions to calls for proposals, information for applicants and ex post publication.

Article 129 Principle of non-cumulative award

1. Each action may give rise to the award of only one grant from the budget to any one beneficiary, except where otherwise authorised in the relevant basic acts.

A beneficiary may be awarded only one operating grant from the budget per financial year.

The applicant shall immediately inform the authorising officers of any multiple applications and multiple grants relating to the same action or to the same work programme.

In no circumstances shall the same costs be financed twice by the budget.

2. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the principle of the non-cumulative award of grants.

Article 130 Principle of non-retroactivity

1. A grant may be awarded for an action which has already begun provided that the applicant can demonstrate the need for starting the action priorto signature of the grant agreement or notification of the grant decision.

In such cases, costs eligible for financing shall not have been incurred prior to the date of submission of the grant application, except in duly justified exceptional cases as provided for in the basic act or in the event of extreme urgency for crisis management aid, civil protection operations and humanitarian aid operations, or in situations of imminent or immediate danger threatening to escalate into armed conflict or to destabilise a country, whereby an early engagement by the Union would be of major importance in promoting conflict prevention.

No grant may be awarded retroactively for actions already completed.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the principle of non-retroactivity.

2. In the case of operating grants, the grant agreement shall be signed or notification of the grant decision given within six months of the start of the beneficiary's financial year. Costs eligible for financing may neither have been incurred before the grant application was submitted nor before the start of the beneficiary's financial year.

(1)

OJ L 297, 15.11.2003, p. 1.

(2)

OJ L 347, 11.12.2006, p. 1.

(3)

OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13.