Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

TITLE VIII FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS

Article 139 Scope

1. Financial instruments shall be authorised by means of a basic act.

Notwithstanding the first subparagraph, financial instruments may be established, in duly justified cases, without being authorised by means of a basic act, provided that such instruments are included in the budget in accordance with point (e) of Article 49(1).

2. Where Union support is provided by means of financial instruments and combined in a single measure with elements directly related to financial instruments targeting the same final recipients, including technical assistance, interest rate rebates and guarantee fee subsidies, this Title shall apply to all elements of that measure.

3. Where financial instruments are combined with grants funded from the budget under Title VI of Part One for elements not directly related to financial instruments, separate records shall be maintained for each source of financing.

4. The Commission may implement financial instruments under direct management, or under indirect management, as set out in the basic act, by entrusting tasks to entities pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c).

The entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c), when implementing financial instruments, may further entrust, under their responsibility, part of that implementation to financial intermediaries provided that those entities ensure that the financial intermediaries satisfy the criteria laid down in Article 140(1), (3) and (5). Financial intermediaries shall be selected on the basis of open, transparent, proportionate and non-discriminatory procedures, avoiding conflicts of interests.

The Commission shall remain responsible for ensuring that the implementation framework for financial instruments complies with the principle of sound financial management and supports the attainment of defined and timed policy objectives, measurable in terms of outputs and results. The Commission shall be accountable for the implementation of financial instruments without prejudice to the entrusted entities' legal and contractual responsibility in accordance with the applicable law.

5. Where financial instruments are implemented under shared management with Member States, the provisions applying to those instruments, including rules for contributions to financial instruments managed directly or indirectly in accordance with this Title, shall be laid down in the Regulations referred to in Article 175.

6. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on financial instruments, including the selection of entities entrusted with the implementation of financial instruments, the content of delegation agreements, management costs and fees, the specific rules for fiduciary accounts, the direct implementation of the financial instruments and the selection of managers, of financial intermediaries and of final recipients.

Article 140 Principles and conditions applicable to financial instruments

1. Financial instruments shall be used in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination, equal treatment and subsidiarity, and in accordance with their objectives and, where applicable, the duration established in the basic act for those financial instruments.

2. Financial instruments shall comply with the following:

(a) addressing market failures or sub-optimal investment situations, which have proven to be financially viable but do not give rise to sufficient funding from market sources;

(b) additionality: financial instruments shall not be aimed at replacing those of a Member State, private funding or another Union financial intervention;

(c) non-distortion of competition in the internal market and consistency with State aid rules;

(d) leverage effect: the Union contribution to a financial instrument shall aim at mobilising a global investment exceeding the size of the Union contribution according to the indicators defined in advance;

(e) alignment of interest: when implementing financial instruments, the Commission shall ensure that there is a common interest in achieving the policy objectives defined for a financial instrument, possibly fostered by provisions such as co-investment, risk-sharing requirements or financial incentives, while preventing a conflict of interests with other activities of the entrusted entity;

(f) financial instruments shall be established on the basis of on an ex ante evaluation, including an evaluation of the possible re-use of additional resources referred to in point (f) of paragraph 8.

3. The budgetary expenditure linked to a financial instrument and the financial liability of the Union shall in no case exceed the amount of the relevant budgetary commitment made for it, thus excluding contingent liabilities for the budget.

4. The entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) and all financial intermediaries selected to participate in the execution of financial operations under a financial instrument shall comply with relevant standards and applicable legislation on the prevention of money laundering, the fight against terrorism and tax fraud. For the implementation of financial instruments in accordance with this Title, the entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) shall not be established, and shall not maintain business relations with entities incorporated, in territories whose jurisdictions do not co-operate with the Union in relation to the application of the internationally agreed tax standard and shall transpose such requirements in their contracts with the selected financial intermediaries.

5. Entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c), financial intermediaries as referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article involved in managing Union financial instruments, and final recipients of Union support under this Title shall afford the Court of Auditors all the facilities and give it all the information which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for the performance of its task, pursuant to Article 161.

Regulation (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96 and Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF)(1) shall apply to Union support under this Title.

6. Amounts corresponding at least to the Union contribution, or, where applicable, multiples thereof shall be used for the attainment of the specific policy objectives pursued through the financial instrument and shall not generate undue advantages, in particular in the form of undue dividends or profits for third parties.

Without prejudice to sector-specific rules for shared management, revenues, including dividends, capital gains, guarantee fees and interest on loans and on amounts on fiduciary accounts paid back to the Commission or fiduciary accounts opened for financial instruments and attributable to the support from the budget under a financial instrument, shall be entered in the budget after deduction of management costs and fees.

Annual repayments, including capital repayments, guarantees released, and repayments of the principal of loans, paid back to the Commission or fiduciary accounts opened for financial instruments and attributable to the support from the budget under a financial instrument, shall constitute internal assigned revenue in accordance with Article 21 and shall be used for the same financial instrument, without prejudice to paragraph 9 of this Article, for a period not exceeding the period for the commitment of appropriations plus two years, unless specified otherwise in a basic act.

7. Payments to fiduciary accounts shall be made by the Commission on the basis of payment requests that are duly substantiated with disbursement forecasts, taking into account the balances available on the fiduciary accounts and the need to avoid excessive balances on such amounts. In the event of the amounts on the fiduciary accounts being sufficient to cover the contractually stipulated minimum reserve on the fiduciary accounts, as increased by the disbursement forecasts for the current financial year, and to cover the amounts needed to exclude contingent liabilities in relation to payment obligations in currencies other than euro, no further payment to the fiduciary accounts shall be made. Disbursement forecasts are to be provided on an annual or, where appropriate, on a semi-annual basis.

8. The Commission shall report annually to the European Parliament and the Council on the activities relating to financial instruments. The report shall include, for each financial instrument supported:

(a) an identification of the financial instrument and the basic act;

(b) a description of the financial instrument, implementation arrangements and the added value of the Union contribution;

(c) the financial institutions involved in implementation, including any issues relating to the application of paragraph 5;

(d) the aggregate budgetary commitments and payments from the budget for each financial instrument;

(e) the performance of the financial instrument, including the investments realised;

(f) an evaluation of the use of any amounts returned to the instrument as internal assigned revenue under paragraph 6;

(g) the balance on the fiduciary account;

(h) revenues and repayments under paragraph 6;

(i) the value of equity investments, with respect to previous years;

(j) the accumulated figures for impairments of assets of equity or risk-sharing instruments, and for called guarantees for guarantee instruments;

(k) the target leverage effect, and the achieved leverage effect;

(l) itscontribution to the achievement of the objectives of the programme concerned as measured by the established indicators, including, where applicable, the geographical diversification.

9. Where the European Parliament or the Council consider that a financial instrument has not achieved its objectives effectively, they may request that the Commission submit a proposal for a revised basic act with a view to the winding down of the instrument. In the event of the winding down of the financial instrument, any new repayments of that instrument pursuant to the third subparagraph of paragraph 6 shall be considered as general revenue.

10. The purpose of the financial instruments and, where applicable, their specific legal form and legal place of registration shall be published on the Commission website.

11. For financial instruments the authorising officer responsible shall ensure that financial statements, covering the period 1 January to 31 December and in compliance with the accounting rules referred to in Article 143 and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), as well as any information necessary to produce financial statements in accordance with Article 68(3), will be provided by the entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) by 15 February of the following year. The authorising officer responsible shall also ensure that audited financial statements for financial instruments are provided by those entities by 15 May of the following year.

12. The Commission shall ensure a harmonised management of financial instruments in particular in the area of accounting, reporting, monitoring and financial risk management.

13. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the implementation of financial instruments, including the conditions for their use, the leverage effect, the ex-ante evaluation, the monitoring and the treatment of contributions from the Funds referred to in Article 175.

(1)

OJ L 136, 31.5.1999, p. 1.