Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008

1. Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008 Financial Guidelines to the Framework Partnership Agreement & the Specific Grant Agreement for co-ordinators and co-partners

2. EligibleCosts • Eligible Direct Costs • Eligible Indirect Costs

3. What are eligible costs? To be eligible for Community funding, costs must satisfy the following criteria: related and connected to the subject of the SGA included in the estimated budget necessary for the fulfillment of the action generated during the duration of the action reasonable, justified, consistent with your usual internal rules identifiable, verifiable and determined in accordance with the relevant accounting principles actually incurred by the beneficiary and recorded in the accounts be substantiated by proper evidence Eligible Costs

4. Categories Eligible Costs

5. IneligibleCosts

6. What are ineligible costs? • Any costs that do not satisfy one of the criteria of eligibility: • Examples - • value of contributions in kind; • "return on capital employed", including dividends and other distributions of profits; • interest owed; • costs declared in another Community-funded grant; • Value Added Tax (VAT) cannot be claimed unless the partner can show that he is unable to recover it. More specifically, the partner must obtain from their local tax authority a document justifying why the partner cannot claim the reimbursement of the VAT. Ineligible Costs

7. Ineligible Costs Indirect costs which are not eligible • when beneficiary is in receipt of an operating grant financed from the Community budget during the duration of the action mentioned in the SGA. • Any amount that exceeds the flat rate of maximum 30% for the total eligible personnel costs.

8. Cost categories in detail

9. Cost categories in detail

10. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Personnel • Permanent and temporary staff that are registered under a payroll system of the partner in question and are charged to its employment costs • Such persons must be: • directly employed by the co-ordinator or co-partner in accordance with his/her national law; • under the partner’s sole technical supervision; • remunerated in accordance with the normal practices of the partner provided these are acceptable to the EACI • Type of staff not included in the category “Personnel” • consultants including in-house consultants • Persons, employed under a temporary staffing agreement

11. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Personnel • Personnel costs include: • remuneration; • social charges (pensions, health insurance and other employment costs); • by the persons directly carrying out the work under the action • The number of hours worked must be recorded in “timesheets” throughout the duration of the action • Timesheets: • personnel's time spent on the action and all other time • on a daily basis • signed and verified by the staff member • signed by superior staff member as authorisation on a regular basis

12. Cost categories in detail

13. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Travel and Subsistence • Should be in line with the partner’s usual practices on travel costs • Or should not exceed the scales of daily subsistence allowances approved annually by the European Commission • Must be foreseen in the partner’s budget table (Annex II of SGA) • Travel costs of sub-contractors, if applicable, should be included in the sub-contracting

14. Cost categories in detail

15. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Sub-contracting • May only cover the execution of a limited part of the action • Awarded with the conditions set out in Article II.10 of the FPA • Must be identified in the Work Programme of the SGA : • if not foreseen and exceeding EUR 25,000 : subject to prior written authorisation of EACI • Copies of the invoices, certified by the partner, are to be submitted to the EACI with the corresponding financial statement (cost statements) • Supporting documentation should be kept in the partner’s files and provided at the EACI’s request

16. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Sub-contracting • Costs entailed by sub-contracts awarded by a partner are : • Cost (in-house) consultants, the consultants costs may not exceed 20 % of the sum of all other eligible costs • Cost of communication and promotion of the action • Costs of events, organised by partners in the context of the action and costs for participation to events organised by third parties.

17. Cost categories in detail

18. Cost categories in detail Eligible direct costs Other specific costs • cost of the financial guarantee • cost of the audit cerficate • Any other costs may be considered eligible provided that they are strictly necessary for carrying out the action and subject to prior written approval of the EACI.

19. Cost categories in detail

20. Cost categories in detail Eligible indirect costs Definition Costs considered un-identifiable as specific costs directly linked to the implementation of the action Model • is a flat rate of maximum 30 % of the total eligible personnel costs. • Example: Partner A • Total eligible personnel costs = 2.6M€ • Indirect cost = 23% of the total eligible personnel costs • If Partner A declares more than 23% for indirect costs, • the difference is considered as ineligible costs

21. Contractors’ Day, 16-17 June 2008 That concludes the financial guidelines presentation Thank you for your attention