Implementation and forms of Union funding
1. The financial contribution from the Reserve to a Member State shall be implemented within the framework of shared management in accordance with Article 63 of the Financial Regulation.
2. Member States shall use the financial contribution from the Reserve to implement the measures referred to in Article 5 to provide non-repayable forms of support. The Union contribution shall take the form of reimbursement of eligible costs actually incurred and paid by public authorities in Member States, including payments to public or private entities, for measures carried out, and of flat-rate financing for technical assistance.
3. Commitments and payments under this Regulation shall be made subject to the availability of funding.
4. By way of derogation from Article 63(5), (6) and (7) of the Financial Regulation, the documents referred to in those provisions shall be submitted once, pursuant to Article 10 of this Regulation.
5. By way of derogation from Article 12 of the Financial Regulation, unused commitment and payment appropriations under this Regulation shall be automatically carried over and may be used until 31 December 2026. The appropriations carried over shall be consumed first in the following financial year.
Pre-financing
1. Subject to receipt of the information required under Article 14(1), point (d), of this Regulation, the Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, set out the breakdown of the resources referred to in Article 4(3), point (a), of this Regulation per Member State. That implementing act shall constitute a financing decision within the meaning of Article 110(1) of the Financial Regulation and the legal commitment within the meaning of that Regulation. By way of derogation from Article 110(2) of the Financial Regulation, that financing decision shall not contain a description of the actions to be financed.
2. The budgetary commitments of the Union in respect of each Member State shall be made by the Commission in annual instalments during the period between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023.
By way of derogation from Article 111(2) of the Financial Regulation, the budgetary commitments for the first instalment shall follow the adoption of the implementing act constituting the legal commitment by the Commission.
3. The Commission shall pay the 2021 instalment of the pre-financing within 30 days of the date of the adoption of the implementing act referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. The instalments of the pre-financing for 2022 and 2023 shall be paid by the Commission by 30 April 2022 and 30 April 2023, respectively. The pre-financing shall be cleared in accordance with Article 12.
4. Amounts allocated but not paid as pre-financing shall be carried over and shall be used for additional payments pursuant to Article 12(6).
Submission of applications for a financial contribution from the Reserve
1. Each Member State shall submit to the Commission an application for a financial contribution from the Reserve by 30 September 2024. The Commission shall assess those applications and establish whether the remaining provisional allocation and additional amounts are due to Member States or if any amounts are to be recovered from Member States in accordance with Article 12.
2. Where a Member State does not submit an application for a financial contribution from the Reserve by 30 September 2024, the Commission shall recover the total amount paid as pre-financing to that Member State.
Content of the application for a financial contribution from the Reserve
1. The application for a financial contribution from the Reserve shall be based on the template set out in Annex II. The application shall include information on the total expenditure incurred and paid by public authorities in Member States at national, regional or local levels, including the territorial distribution of the expenditure at NUTS level 2 regions, where relevant, and the values of output indicators for the measures carried out. It shall be accompanied by the documents referred to in Article 63(5), (6) and (7) of the Financial Regulation and by an implementation report.
2. The implementation report for the Reserve shall include:
(a)
a description of the negative impact of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union in economic, social, territorial and, where appropriate, environmental terms, including an identification of the sectors, regions, areas and, where relevant, local communities most adversely affected by the withdrawal;
(b)
a description of the measures carried out to counter the adverse consequences of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union, of the extent to which those measures alleviated the regional and sectoral impact referred to in point (a), and how they were implemented;
(c)
a justification of the eligibility of the expenditure incurred and paid, and its direct link to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union;
(d)
a description of the arrangements put in place to avoid double funding and to ensure complementarity with other Union instruments and national funding;
(e)
a description of the contribution of the measures to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
3. The summary referred to in Article 63(5), point (b), of the Financial Regulation shall set out the total error rate and residual error rate for the expenditure entered in the application for a financial contribution from the Reserve submitted to the Commission, as a result of the corrective actions taken.
Clearance of the pre-financing of the remaining provisional allocation and calculation of the additional amounts due to Member States
1. The Commission shall assess the application referred to in Article 11 and shall satisfy itself that the application is complete, accurate and true. When calculating the financial contribution from the Reserve due to the Member State, the Commission shall exclude from Union financing expenditure for measures which were implemented or for which disbursements have been made in breach of applicable law.
2. Based on its assessment, the Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, establish the following:
(a)
the amount of eligible expenditure accepted;
(b)
the amount of technical assistance calculated in accordance with Article 6(2);
(c)
the sum of the amounts referred to in points (a) and (b) (‘total accepted amount’);
(d)
whether the amount provisionally allocated in accordance with the implementing act under Article 4(5) (‘provisional allocation’) is due to the Member State in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article, or whether amounts need to be recovered pursuant to paragraph 6 of this Article.
3. Where the total accepted amount exceeds the amount of pre-financing paid, an amount shall be due to that Member State from the allocation referred to in Article 4(3), point (b), up to the amount of the provisional allocation for that Member State.
4. With regard to the amounts due pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article, the implementing act referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article shall constitute a financing decision within the meaning of Article 110(1) of the Financial Regulation and the legal commitment within the meaning of that Regulation.
5. The Commission shall clear the pre-financing and pay any amount due to Member States within 30 days of adoption of the implementing act referred to in paragraph 2.
6. The Commission shall make any unused resources from the provisional allocations available as additional payments by increasing proportionately the financial contribution from the Reserve to Member States whose total accepted amount exceeds their provisional allocation. The unused resources shall consist of amounts carried over pursuant to Article 9(4), the remaining part of the provisional allocation of a Member State whose total accepted amount is lower than its provisional allocation and amounts resulting from recoveries carried out pursuant to the second subparagraph of this paragraph.
Where the total accepted amount is lower than the pre-financing paid to the Member State concerned, the difference shall be recovered in accordance with the Financial Regulation. The recovered amounts shall be treated as internal assigned revenue in accordance with Article 21(3), point (b), of the Financial Regulation.
Where the sum of the additional amounts calculated for all Member States whose total accepted amount exceeds their provisional allocation is higher than the resources available according to the first subparagraph, the financial contributions from the Reserve for the amounts exceeding the provisional allocations shall be reduced proportionately.
Where the additional payments to Member States whose total accepted amount exceeds their provisional allocation have been made at a rate of 100 %, any remaining amount shall be returned to the Union budget.
7. The Commission shall, by means of an implementing act, set out the additional amounts due pursuant to the first subparagraph of paragraph 6 of this Article. That implementing act shall constitute a financing decision within the meaning of Article 110(1) of the Financial Regulation and the legal commitment within the meaning of that Regulation. The Commission shall pay any additional amount due within 30 days of adoption of that implementing act.
8. Prior to the adoption of the implementing acts referred to in paragraphs 2 and 7, the Commission shall inform the Member State concerned of its assessment and invite that Member State to submit its observations within 2 months of informing the Member State of its assessment.
Use of the euro
Any amounts declared to the Commission by Member States in the application for a financial contribution from the Reserve shall be denominated in euro. Member States whose currency is not the euro shall convert the amounts in the application for a financial contribution from the Reserve into euro using the monthly accounting exchange rate established by the Commission, in the month during which the expenditure is registered in the accounting systems of the body or bodies responsible for the management of the financial contribution from the Reserve.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
