Payment of the final balance
Article 1
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 897/2014 is amended as follows: (1) in Article 12, the following paragraph 4 is added: ‘4. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, and in accordance with Article 6(1), no co-financing of the Union contribution shall be required for expenditure incurred and paid as included in the programme annual accounts for the accounting year from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021.’; (2) in Article 15, ‘31 December 2024’ is replaced by ‘31 December 2025’; (3) Article 18 is amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 2, ‘31 December 2021’ is replaced by ‘31 December 2022’; (b) in paragraph 3, ‘31 December 2022’ is replaced by ‘31 December 2023’; (4) in Article 19, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: ‘1. Only activities linked to the closure of projects by beneficiaries in accordance with point (a)(iii) of Article 48(2) or linked to the closure of programmes under technical assistance may be carried out between 1 January 2024 and 30 September 2024.’; (5) in Article 28, the following paragraph 1a is inserted: ‘1a. For the purposes of paragraph 1, the COVID-19 pandemic shall constitute a duly justified case that the audit authority may invoke based on their professional judgement to use a non-statistical sampling method for the accounting year from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.’; (6) Article 41 is amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 1, the following point (c) is inserted: ‘(c) the project is implemented in order to foster crisis response capacities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.’; (b) the following paragraph 4a is inserted: ‘4a. By way of derogation to the procedure set out in paragraph 4, projects proposed for selection without a call for proposals under point (c) of paragraph 1 shall be assessed by the Commission on the basis of a project summary. The Commission shall notify its assessment to the managing authority within two months of the document submission date. This deadline may be extended where necessary. In case of a negative assessment the Commission shall notify the managing authority of its reasons.’; (7) Article 48 is amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 2, points (ii) and (iii) are replaced by the following: ‘(ii) costs incurred should be paid before the submission of the final project reports. They may be paid afterwards, provided they are listed in the final report together with the estimated date of payment; (iii) an exception is made for costs relating to final project reports, including expenditure verification, audit and final evaluation of the project, which may be incurred after the implementation period of the project;’; (b) the following paragraph 2a is inserted: ‘2a. Notwithstanding Article 19(1), expenditure shall not be eligible for the Union contribution, where it is paid after 31 December 2023.’; (c) the following paragraph 3a is inserted: ‘3a. By way of derogation from paragraph 3, costs of projects fostering crisis response capacities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic shall be eligible as of 1 February 2020.’; (8) Article 64 is replaced by the following: ‘Article 64 Payment of the final balance 1. The managing authority shall submit the payment request of the final balance accompanied by the documents referred to in Article 68 and Article 77(5). 2. The final balance shall be paid no later than three months after the date of clearance of accounts of the final accounting year or one month after the date of acceptance of the final implementation report, whichever date is later. 3. Payment of the final balance for the programme in the final accounting year may exceed up to 10 % of the Union contribution for each thematic objective as laid down in the Commission implementing decision approving the programme. The Union contribution through payment of the final balance in the final accounting year shall not exceed the total Union contribution to each programme as laid down in the Commission implementing decision approving the programme.’; (9) Article 77 is amended as follows: (a) in paragraph 5, ‘30 September 2024’ is replaced by ‘15 February 2025’; (b) the following paragraph 6 is added: ‘6. The deadlines set out in paragraphs 1 and 5 may exceptionally be extended by the Commission to 1 March, upon communication by the managing authority concerned.’.