Commission clarifies FP6 funding for future Member States prior to accession
Following some confusion over funding for the EU's acceding countries in early Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) projects, the European Commission has published a memo clarifying the situation. Misunderstandings have arisen on account of Article 32 of the accession treaty, which states that no financial commitment can be concluded to the benefit of the ten future Member States between 1 January and 30 April 2004. However, the Commission is keen to emphasise that this does not affect the participation of organisations from these countries in FP6. Administrative arrangements for contracts to be signed and projects to begin during this period are as follows: - Multipartner actions in which the coordinator is not from one of the acceding countries. Commission funding may be used to cover the estimated costs of any partners from the ten future Member States. The contract will include a clause stating that the accession of contractors from these countries will enter into force on 1 May 2004, but any costs incurred by these contractors are eligible from the start date of the project, even if this is before 1 May. - Multipartner actions in which the coordinator is from one of the ten future Member States. The project consortium must choose between two options - to delay the conclusion of the contract until 1 May 2004 (this will not affect the finalisation of partner contributions, which can be done before this date), or to temporarily replace the coordinator with someone from an EU Member State for the period between contract signature and 1 May 2004. - Single partner actions where the contractor is from one of the ten acceding countries. Again there are two solutions. The contractor may either delay the conclusion of the contract until 1 May 2004, or the inclusion of a clause stipulating that the contract enters into force on 1 May 2004. This will not affect the eligibility of costs incurred before that date if the project start date is fixed at before 1 May 2004 in the contract. Article 32 does not affect contracts for evaluators or other experts.
Kraje
Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia