CHAPTER 1

The subscriptions referred to in Article 121(2)(d) of the Financial Regulation shall be sums paid to bodies of which the Union is member, in accordance with the budgetary decisions and the conditions of payment established by the body concerned. Grants shall be covered by a decision or by a written agreement. To determine the instrument to be used, the following elements shall be taken into account: location of the beneficiary, within or outside the Union; complexity and standardisation of the content of the actions or work programmes funded. Expenditure on the members of the institutions as referred to in Article 121(2)(a) of the Financial Regulation shall include contributions to associations of current and former members of the European Parliament. These contributions shall be implemented in accordance with the internal administrative rules of the European Parliament. An action which may receive a grant within the meaning of Article 121 of the Financial Regulation must be clearly defined. No action may be split in different actions for the purpose of evading the financing rules laid down in this Regulation. A body pursuing an aim of general Union interest is: a body involved in education, training, information, innovation or research and study in European policies, any activities contributing to the promotion of citizenship or human rights, or an European standards body; an entity representing non-profit bodies active in the Member States, in the candidate countries or in the potential candidate countries and promoting principles and policies consistent with the objectives of the Treaties. Specific grants for actions and operating grants may form part of a framework partnership. A framework partnership may be established as a long-term cooperation mechanism between the Commission and the beneficiaries of grants. It may take the form of a framework partnership agreement or a framework partnership decision. The framework partnership agreement or decision shall specify the common objectives, the nature of actions planned on a one-off basis or as part of an approved annual work programme, the procedure for awarding specific grants, in compliance with the principles and procedural rules in this Title, and the general rights and obligations of each party under the specific agreements or decisions. The duration of the partnership may not exceed four years, save in exceptional cases, justified in particular by the subject of the framework partnership. Authorising officers may not make undue use of framework partnership agreements or decisions or use them in such a way that the purpose or effect is contrary to the principles of transparency or equal treatment of applicants. Framework partnerships shall be treated as grants with regard to programming, ex ante publication and award. Specific grants based on framework partnership agreements or decisions shall be awarded in accordance with the procedures laid down in those agreements or decisions, and in compliance with this Title. They shall be subject to the ex post publication procedures laid down in Article 191. All exchanges with beneficiaries, including the conclusion of grant agreements, the notification of grant decisions and any amendments thereto, may be done through electronic exchange systems set up by the Commission. These systems shall meet the following requirements: only authorised persons may have access to the system and to documents transmitted through it; only authorised persons may electronically sign or transmit a document through the system; authorised persons must be identified through the system by established means; the time and date of the electronic transaction must be determined precisely; the integrity of documents must be preserved; the availability of documents must be preserved; where appropriate, the confidentiality of documents must be preserved; the protection of personal data in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 must be ensured. Data sent or received through such a system shall enjoy legal presumption of the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the date and time of sending or receiving the data indicated by the system. A document sent or notified through such a system shall be considered as equivalent to a paper document, shall be admissible as evidence in legal proceedings, shall be deemed original and shall enjoy legal presumption of its authenticity and integrity, provided it does not contain any dynamic features capable of automatically changing it. The electronic signatures referred to in point (b) of paragraph 2 shall have the equivalent legal effect of handwritten signatures. The grant agreement shall at least lay down the following: the subject; the beneficiary; the duration, namely: the date of its entry into force; the starting date and the duration of the action or financial year being funded; the maximum amount of Union funding expressed in euro and the form of the grant supplemented, as appropriate, by: the total estimated eligible costs of the action or work programme and the financing rate of the eligible costs; the unit cost, lump sum or flat rate referred to in points (b), (c) and (d) of Article 123 of the Financial Regulation where determined; a combination of the elements set out in points (i) and (ii) of this point; a description of the action or, for an operating grant, of the work programme approved for that financial year by the authorising officer together with a description of the results expected from the implementation of the action or of the work programme; the general terms and conditions applicable to all agreements of this type, such as the acceptance by the beneficiary of checks and audits by the Commission, OLAF and the Court of Auditors; the estimated overall budget of the action or work programme; where implementation of the action involves procurement, the principles referred to in Article 209 or the procurement rules which the beneficiary must comply with; the responsibilities of the beneficiary, in particular: in terms of sound financial management and submission of activity and financial reports; whenever appropriate, intermediate targets shall be established, upon which those reports become due; in the case of an agreement between the Commission and a number of beneficiaries, the specific obligations of the coordinator, if any, and of the other beneficiaries towards the coordinator as well as the financial responsibility of the beneficiaries for amounts due to the Commission; the arrangements and time limits for approving those reports and for payment by the Commission; as appropriate, details of the eligible costs of the action or approved work programme, or of the unit costs, lump sums or flat rates referred to in Article 123 of the Financial Regulation; provisions governing the visibility of the Union financial support, except in duly justified cases, where public display is not possible or appropriate. The general terms and conditions referred to in point (f) of the first subparagraph shall at least: state that Union law is the law which applies to the grant agreement, complemented, where necessary, by national law as specified in the grant agreement. Derogation may be made in the agreements concluded with international organisations; specify the competent court or arbitration tribunal to hear disputes. The grant agreement may lay down the arrangements and time limits for suspension or termination in accordance with Article 135 of the Financial Regulation. In the cases referred to in Article 178, the framework partnership decision or framework partnership agreement shall specify the information referred to in points (a), (b), (c)(i), (f), and (h) to (j) and (l) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 of this Article. The specific grant decision or agreement shall contain the information referred to in points (a) to (e), (g) and (k) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 and, where necessary, point (i) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1. Grant agreements may be amended only in writing. Such amendments, including those aiming at adding or removing a beneficiary, shall not have the purpose or the effect of making such changes to agreements as would call into question the grant award decision or be contrary to the equal treatment of applicants. Paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 shall apply mutatis mutandis to grant decisions. Part of the information referred to in paragraph 1 may be provided in the call for proposals or any related document, instead of the grant decision. Grants in the form referred to in point (a) of Article 123(1) of the Financial Regulation shall be calculated on the basis of the eligible costs actually incurred by the beneficiary, subject to a preliminary budget estimate as submitted with the proposal and included in the grant decision or agreement. Unit costs as referred to in point (b) of Article 123(1) of the Financial Regulation shall cover all or certain specific categories of eligible costs which are clearly identified in advance by reference to an amount per unit. Lump sums as referred to in point (c) of Article 123(1) of the Financial Regulation shall cover in global terms all or certain specific categories of eligible costs which are clearly identified in advance. Flat-rate financing as referred to in point (d) of Article 123(1) of the Financial Regulation shall cover specific categories of eligible costs which are clearly identified in advance by applying a percentage. The authorisation to use lump sums, unit costs or flat-rate financing referred to in Article 124(1) of the Financial Regulation shall apply for the duration of the programme. This authorisation may be reviewed if substantial changes are needed. Data and amounts shall be assessed periodically and, where appropriate, lump sums, unit costs or flat-rate financing shall be adjusted. In the case of an agreement between the Commission and a number of beneficiaries, the ceiling referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 124(1) of the Financial Regulation shall apply to each beneficiary. The grant decision or agreement shall contain all necessary provisions in order to verify that the conditions for the payment of the grant on the basis of lump sums, unit costs or flat-rate financing have been respected. Payment of the grant on the basis of lump sums, unit costs or flat-rate financing shall be without prejudice to the right of access to the beneficiaries’ statutory records for the purposes intended by the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 and Article 137(2) of the Financial Regulation. Where an ex post control reveals that the generating event has not occurred and an undue payment has been made to the beneficiary on a grant based on lump sums, unit costs or flat-rate financing, the Commission shall be entitled to recover up to the amount of the grant without prejudice to the penalties referred to in Article 109 of the Financial Regulation.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.