Section 2

Payments by the Commission of the contribution from the Funds shall be made in accordance with the budget appropriations. Each payment shall be posted to the earliest open budget commitments of the Fund concerned. Payments shall take the form of pre-financing, interim payments and payment of the final balance. They shall be made to the body designated by the Member State. At the latest by 30 April each year, Member States shall send the Commission a provisional forecast of their likely applications for payment for the current financial year and the subsequent financial year. All exchanges concerning financial transactions between the Commission and the authorities and bodies designated by the Member States shall be made by electronic means, in accordance with the implementing rules of this Regulation adopted by the Commission in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 103(3). In cases of force majeure, and in particular of malfunction of the common computerised system or a lack of a lasting connection, Member States may forward statements of expenditure and applications for payment in hard copy. Interim payments and payments of the final balance shall be calculated by applying the co-financing rate laid down in the decision on the operational programme concerned for each priority axis to the eligible expenditure mentioned under that priority axis in each statement of expenditure certified by the certifying authority. However the Community contribution through the interim payments and payments of the final balance shall not be higher than the public contribution and the maximum amount of assistance from the Funds for each priority axis as laid down in the decision of the Commission approving the operational programme. All statements of expenditure shall include, for each priority axis, the total amount of eligible expenditure, in accordance with Article 56, paid by beneficiaries in implementing the operations and the corresponding public contribution paid or due to be paid to the beneficiaries according to the conditions governing the public contribution. Expenditure paid by beneficiaries shall be supported by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent probative value. However, as regards aid schemes within the meaning of Article 87 of the Treaty only, in addition to the conditions set out in the previous subparagraph, the public contribution corresponding to the expenditure included in a statement of expenditure shall have been paid to the beneficiaries by the body granting the aid. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, as regards State aid within the meaning of Article 87 of the Treaty, the statement of expenditure may include advances paid to the beneficiaries by the body granting the aid, under the following cumulative conditions: they shall be subject to a bank guarantee or a financial public facility having an equivalent effect; they shall not exceed 35 % of the total amount of the aid to be granted to a beneficiary for a given project; they shall be covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries in implementing the project and supported by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent probative value at the latest three years after the year of the payment of the advance or on 31 December 2015, whichever earlier; if they are not, the next statement of expenditure shall be corrected accordingly. Statements of expenditure shall identify, for each operational programme, the elements referred to in paragraph 1 relating to regions receiving transitional assistance. In the case of major projects as defined in Article 39, only expenditure related to major projects already adopted by the Commission may be included in statements of expenditure. Where the contribution from the Funds is calculated with reference to public expenditure as provided for in Article 53(1), any information on expenditure other than public expenditure shall not affect the amount due as calculated on the basis of the payment request. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, as regards financial engineering instruments as defined in Article 44, the statement of expenditure shall include the total expenditure paid in establishing or contributing to such funds or holding funds. However, at the partial or final closure of the operational programme, eligible expenditure shall be the total of: any payments from urban development funds for investment in public private partnerships or other projects included in an integrated plan for urban development; or any payments for investment in enterprises from each of the abovementioned funds; or any guarantees provided including amounts committed as guarantees by guarantee funds; and eligible management costs. The co-financing rate shall be applied to the eligible expenditure paid by the beneficiary. The corresponding statement of expenditure shall be corrected accordingly. Interest generated by payments from operational programmes to funds as defined in Article 44, shall be used to finance urban development projects in the case of urban development funds or financial engineering instruments for small and medium-sized enterprises in other cases. Resources returned to the operation from investments undertaken by funds as defined in Article 44 or left over after all guarantees have been honoured shall be reused by the competent authorities of the Member States concerned for the benefit of urban development projects or of small and medium-sized enterprises. The cumulative total of pre-financing and interim payments made shall not exceed 95 % of the contribution from the Funds to the operational programme. When this ceiling is reached, the certifying authority shall continue transmitting to the Commission any certified statement of expenditure on 31 December of year n, as well as the amounts recovered during the year for each Fund, at the latest by the end of February of year n+1. Member States shall satisfy themselves that the bodies responsible for making the payments ensure that the beneficiaries receive the total amount of the public contribution as quickly as possible and in full. No amount shall be deducted or withheld and no specific charge or other charge with equivalent effect shall be levied that would reduce these amounts for the beneficiaries. Amounts set out in operational programmes submitted by Member States, certified statements of expenditure, applications for payment and expenditure mentioned in the annual and final report of implementation shall be denominated in euro. Commission decisions on operational programmes and Commission commitments and payments, shall be denominated and carried out in euro. Member States which have not adopted the euro as their currency on the date of an application for payment shall convert into euro the amounts of expenditure incurred in national currency. This amount shall be converted into euro using the monthly accounting exchange rate of the Commission in the month during which the expenditure was registered in the accounts of the certifying authority of the operational programme concerned. This rate shall be published electronically by the Commission each month. 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.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-01 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.