Budget
1. The resources to be made available through the Facility, pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3, shall not exceed EUR 6 000 000 000 for the period from 2024 to 2027.
2. The financial envelope for the implementation of the Facility shall be EUR 2 000 000 000 for the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2027, with the following distribution:
(a)
98,5 % in the form of non-repayable financial support to the beneficiaries for the implementation of the Reform Agendas;
(b)
1,5 % for expenditure pursuant to paragraph 6.
3. Support in the form of loans shall be available for an amount of up to EUR 4 000 000 000 for the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2027. That amount shall not constitute part of the amount of the External Action Guarantee within the meaning of Article 31(4) of Regulation (EU) 2021/947.
4. The Commission shall set out the initial indicative amount of financing available for each beneficiary, in accordance with the methodology set out in the Annex, in the corresponding implementing decision referred to in Article 15, calculated on the basis of the latest available data on the day of the entry into force of this Regulation in accordance with Article 33. Indicative amounts may change during the implementation of the Facility in accordance with the principles laid out in Article 21.
5. Pursuant to Article 19 of this Regulation, the amount of funds made available under the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) referred to in Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1529 shall be at least 50 % of the overall amount set out in paragraph 1 of this Article. That contribution shall include the entire amount of non-repayable financial support as referred to in paragraph 2, point (a) of this Article after deducting the amount of provisioning.
6. The resources referred to in paragraph 2, point (b), may be used for technical and administrative assistance for the implementation of the Facility, such as preparatory actions, monitoring, control, audit and evaluation activities, which are required for the management of the Facility and the achievement of its objectives, in particular studies, meetings of experts, training consultations with the beneficiaries’ authorities, conferences, consultation of stakeholders, including local and regional authorities and civil society organisations, information and communication activities, including inclusive outreach actions, and the corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union, insofar as they are related to the objectives of this Regulation, expenses linked to IT networks focusing on information processing and exchange, corporate information technology tools, as well as all other expenditure at headquarters and Union delegations for the administrative and coordination support required for the Facility. Expenses may also cover the costs of activities supporting transparency and of other activities such as quality control and monitoring of projects or programmes on the ground and the costs of peer counselling and experts for the assessment and implementation of reforms and investments.
Implementation and forms of Union funding
1. The Facility shall be implemented in accordance with the Financial Regulation, either under direct management or under indirect management with any of the entities referred to in Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point (c), of that Regulation.
2. Union funding may be provided in any of the forms laid down in the Financial Regulation, in particular financial assistance, grants, procurement and blending operations.
3. Depending on the required operational and financial capacity, the entrusted entity implementing blending operations may be the European Investment Bank Group, multilateral European financial institutions, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or bilateral European financial institutions, such as development banks, or the World Bank Group. Where possible, other non-European multilateral finance institutions may participate in the Facility through joint operations with European financial institutions. The implementation of blending operations under the Facility shall be complemented by additional forms of financial support from Member States or third parties.
Rules on the eligibility of persons and entities, on the origin of supply and materials and on restrictions under the Facility
1. Participation in procurement and in grant award procedures for activities financed under the Facility shall be open to international and regional organisations and to all natural persons who are nationals of, or legal persons effectively established in:
(a)
Member States, beneficiaries, candidate countries and contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area;
(b)
countries which provide a level of support to beneficiaries comparable to that provided by the Union, taking into account the size of their economy, and for which reciprocal access to external assistance in the beneficiaries is established by the Commission.
2. The reciprocal access referred to in paragraph 1, point (b), may be granted for a limited period of at least one year where a country grants eligibility on equal terms to entities from the Union and from countries eligible under the Facility.
The Commission shall decide on the reciprocal access after consulting the beneficiary concerned.
3. All supplies and materials financed and procured under this Facility shall originate from any country referred to in paragraph 1, points (a) and (b), unless those supplies and materials cannot be sourced under reasonable conditions in any of those countries. In addition, the rules on restrictions laid down in paragraph 6 shall apply.
4. The eligibility rules under this Article shall not apply to, and shall not create nationality restrictions for, natural persons employed or otherwise legally contracted by an eligible contractor or, where applicable, subcontractor except where the nationality restrictions are based on the rules provided for in paragraph 6.
5. For activities jointly co-financed by an entity or implemented under direct management or indirect management with entities referred to in Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point(c) of the Financial Regulation, the rules applicable to those entities shall also apply. This is without prejudice to the restrictions under paragraph 6 of this Article, which shall be duly reflected in the agreements concluded with those entities.
6. The eligibility rules and rules on the origin of supplies and materials set out in paragraphs 1 and 3 and rules on the nationality of the natural persons as set out in paragraph 4 may be restricted with regard to the nationality, geographical location or nature of the legal entities participating in award procedures, as well as with regard to the geographical origin of supplies and materials where:
(a)
such restrictions are required on account of the specific nature or objectives of the activity or specific award procedure or where those restrictions are necessary for the effective implementation of the activity;
(b)
the activity or specific award procedures affect security or public order, in particular concerning strategic assets and interests of the Union, of Member States, or of any of the beneficiaries, including the security, resilience and protection of integrity of digital infrastructure, including 5G network infrastructure,, communication and information systems, and related supply chains.
7. Tender applicants and candidates from non-eligible countries may be accepted as eligible in cases of urgency or where services are unavailable in the markets of the countries or territories concerned, or in other duly substantiated cases where the application of the eligibility rules would make the realisation of an activity impossible or exceedingly difficult.
Facility Agreement
1. The Commission shall conclude a Facility Agreement with each beneficiary for the implementation of the Facility setting out the obligations and payment conditions of the beneficiaries for the disbursement of Facility funding.
2. The Facility Agreement shall be complemented by loan agreements in accordance with Article 17, setting out specific provisions for the management and implementation of funding provided in the forms of loans. Facility Agreements, including any related documentation, shall be made available, upon request, to the European Parliament and the Council simultaneously and without delay.
3. Funding shall be granted to the beneficiaries only after the respective Facility Agreements and the applicable loan agreements have entered into force.
4. The Facility Agreement and the loan agreements concluded with each of the beneficiaries, and agreements concluded with person or entities receiving Union funds, shall ensure that the obligations set out in Article 129 of the Financial Regulation are fulfilled.
5. The Facility Agreement shall lay down the necessary detailed provisions concerning:
(a)
the commitment of the beneficiary to make decisive progress towards a robust legal framework to fight fraud, and establish more efficient and effective control systems, including appropriate mechanisms for the protection of whistleblowers as well as appropriate mechanisms and measures to effectively prevent, detect and correct irregularities, fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest as well as to strengthen the fight against money laundering, organised crime, misuse of public funds, terrorism financing, tax avoidance, tax fraud or tax evasion, and other illegal activities affecting the funds provided under the Facility;
(b)
the rules on the release, withholding, reduction and redistribution of funds in accordance with Article 21;
(c)
the activities related to management, control, supervision, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and audit under the Facility, as well as system reviews, investigations, anti-fraud measures and cooperation;
(d)
the rules on reporting to the Commission on whether and how the payment conditions referred to in Article 12 are fulfilled;
(e)
the rules on taxes, duties and charges in accordance with Article 27(9) and (10) of Regulation (EU) 2021/947;
(f)
the measures to effectively prevent, detect and correct irregularities, fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest, and the obligation for persons or entities implementing Union funds under the Facility to notify the Commission, OLAF and, where applicable, EPPO, without delay, of suspected or actual cases of irregularities, fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest and other illegal activities affecting the funds provided under the Facility and their follow-up;
(g)
the obligations referred to in Articles 23 and 24, including the precise rules and a timeframe on collection of data by the beneficiary and access to it for the Commission, OLAF, the Court of Auditors and, where applicable, EPPO;
(h)
a procedure to ensure that disbursement requests for loan support fall within the available loan amount, in accordance with Article 6(3);
(i)
the right of the Commission to reduce proportionately the support provided under the Facility and to recover any amount spent to achieve the objectives of the Facility or to ask for early repayment of the loan, in cases of irregularities, fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest affecting the financial interests of the Union that have not been corrected by the beneficiary, or of a serious breach of an obligation provided for in the Facility Agreement;
(j)
rules and modalities for the beneficiaries to report for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the Facility and assessing the achievement of the objectives set out in Article 3.
(k)
the obligation for beneficiaries to transmit electronically to the Commission the data referred to in Article 22.
Carry-overs, annual instalments, commitment appropriations
1. By way of derogation from Article 12(4) of the Financial Regulation, unused commitment and payment appropriations under the Facility shall be automatically carried over and may be committed and used, respectively, up to 31 December of the following financial year. The amount carried over shall be used first in the following financial year.
2. The Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council information on commitment appropriations carried over, including the amounts involved, in accordance with Article 12(6) of the Financial Regulation.
3. In addition to the rules laid down in Article 15 of the Financial Regulation on making appropriations available again, commitment appropriations corresponding to the amount of decommitments made as a result of total or partial non-implementation of an action under the Facility shall be made available again to the benefit of the budget line of origin.
4. Budgetary commitments for actions extending over more than one financial year may be broken down over several years into annual instalments, in accordance with Article 112(2) of the Financial Regulation.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
