Implementation of the Technical Assistance measure Brussels, 14 December 2018

Transcription

1 Implementation of the Technical Assistance measure Brussels, 14 December 2018 Agriculture and Rural Development

2 Agenda for today Introduction Flowchart of the Technical Assistance measure Discuss the annex 2 of the invitation letter State of play in the respective countries Lunchbreak Presentation of some successful TA projects Discuss Technical Assistance issues Discuss IPARD II issues Conclusions by you

3 Introduction Introduction by Mario MILOUCHEV director AGRI.E

4 entrustment of budget implementation tasks upcoming entrustment request number indicates the number of calls No Measures AL ME MK RS TR 1 Investments in physical assets of agricultural holdings Investments in physical assets concerning processing and marketing of agricultural and fishery products Agri-environment- climate and organic farming measure Implementation of local development strategies LEADER approach received 6 Investments in Rural Public Infrastructure r eceived 7 Farm diversification and business development Technical assistance

5 How to find the way? DG AGRI building floor 5 = DG MARE building floor 3 Take always the right corridor. Left corridor from AGRI > MARE Right corridor from MARE > AGRI Follow the signs.

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7 8. Eligible expenditure Under this measure, the following actions are eligible provided they are covered by the provisional indicative technical assistance action plan: a) Expenditures on meetings of the Monitoring Committee, including cost of all experts and other participants, where their presence is considered to be necessary to ensure the effective work of the committee. b) Other expenditure necessary to discharge responsibilities of the Monitoring Committee which falls under the following categories: expert assistance to consider and review programme baselines and indicators; experts to assist or advise the Monitoring Committee concerning implementation and functioning of the monitoring arrangements; expenditure associated with meetings and ancillary tasks of working groups; seminars. c) Expenditure on information and publicity campaigns, including costs of printing and distribution. d) Cost of translation and interpretation provided in response to requests by the Commission, not including those required pursuant to application of the framework, sectoral and financing agreements. e) Expenditure associated with visits and seminars. Each visit and seminar shall require the submission of a timely written report to the Monitoring Committee. f) Expenditure associated with "acquisition of skills" to prepare potential LAGs for the implementation of the measure "Preparation and implementation of local rural development strategies Leader approach". g) Expenditure associated with the preparation, or streamlining of implementation, of measures in the programme to ensure their effectiveness including those measures where application is foreseen at a later stage. h) Expenditure for evaluations of the programme. i) Expenditure associated with the establishment and operation of a national network supporting the coordination of activities preparing and implementing local rural development strategies. This can also cover expenditure associated with the future establishment of a national rural development network in line with the EU rules for Member States as well as the expenditure linked to participation in the European Network for Rural Development. j) A level of salary support which takes into account remuneration levels on the labour market in order to retain staff and build/keep know-how in the administration. Introduction of this expenditure can only be done after prior approval of the Commission and may be limited in time. <link> The eligible expenditure shall be further detailed in the 'list of eligible expenditure'.

8 Dates Category Title City Country Beneficiary/Partner TAIEX Multi-country Workshop on the Use of IPARD May 2017 Workshop Troyan,Pravetz BG AL, ME, MK, RS and TR Measure Technical Assistance Nov 2016 Workshop TAIEX Multi-country Workshop on Using Measure Technical Assistance to Prepare for Implementing LEADER Zagreb HR AL, KOS, ME, MK, RS and TR 07 Jun 2016 Workshop Sep 2017 Study Visit Apr May 2018 Expert Mission Expert Mission Feb 2016 Study Visit May 2015 Expert Mission TAIEX Multi-Country Workshop on the Use of PRAG for IPARD Measures on Technical Assistance and Rural Infrastructure TAIEX Study Visit on Internal Procedures for Implementing the Measure "Technical Assistance" under IPARD II Programme TAIEX Expert Mission on the Implementation of the Technical Assistance Measure of IPARD II TAIEX Expert Mission on the Implementation of Technical Assistance Measure under the IPARD II Programme Study Visit on Implementation of Instrument for Pre- Accession Assistance in Rural Development (IPARD) Measure 501 'Technical Assistance' Expert Mission on the implementation of the Technical Assistance measure of IPARD Zagreb HR AL, ME, MK, RS and TR Zagreb HR ME Podgorica ME ME Skopje MK MK Zagreb HR MK Belgrade RS RS Jun 2013 Expert Expert mission on rural development (IPARD) focusing on Ankara Mission the technical assistance measure TR TR Jan 2013 Study visit on examination and analysis of on the spot Study Visit control practices over the Technical Assistance Measure Zagreb HR TR Apr 2012 Study Visit Study visit on technical assistance measure - monitoring Budapest HU TR 28 Nov - 01 Dec 2011 Expert Mission Expert mission on Technical assistance procedures for IPARD Ankara TR TR

9 Flowchart of the Technical Assistance measure See separate document at your desk <link> Small excursion to PRAG

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11 Discuss the annex 2 of the invitation letter xxxxx

12 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure How detailed should the list of eligible expenditure (LEE) be for measure 9 Technical Assistance? This is up to the national authorities. The LEE should be detailed/clear enough to avoid any misinterpretation and any abuse of public funds. The proposed list of eligible expenditure (LEE) needs to be forwarded to DG AGRI which will notify its acceptance or will provide comments (See Article 33(2) SA) MK LEE is available as an example TR LEE is available as an example

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15 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure The recipient under measure 9 Technical Assistance (TA) is the Managing Authority (MA), but other IPARD entities can benefit as well. How can the IPARD Agency and NAO services benefit from the TA measure? The measure 9 Technical Assistance supports costs associated with the implementation of the programme. As the Managing Authority is responsible for implementing the IPARD II programme it is logical that the MA is the recipient for this measure. Other IPARD entities and stakeholders can benefit from activities under the TA measure which the MA considers necessary for the proper implementation of the IPARD II programme. For example: - Specific trainings for staff of IPARD entities and other stakeholders - Hiring of specific expertise for IPARD entities Also the purchase of data or a data base license, to be used by the IPARD Agency, for performing checks on the SME status of an applicant, is considered eligible under measure 9 'Technical Assistance'.

16 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure How detailed should the annual action plan be for the intended operations in accordance with Article 8(5) SA be? This is up to the national authorities. It should contain the foreseen TA activities including an indicative budget. It needs to be approved annually by the IPARD II monitoring committee. (see article 52(10) SA) MK plan is available as an example TR plan is available as an example

17 List of eligible expenditure (LEE)

18 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure As a contracting authority the MA must draft the 'term(s) of reference' for the contract(s) The MA needs to have or to develop the necessary skills for drafting terms of reference, or reviewing skills in case external expertise is hired for this. Support may be provided by the EU Delegation. As a contracting authority the MA must monitor the implementation of the contract(s)/project(s) The MA needs to develop the necessary skills for monitoring the implementation of the contract(s). Support may be provided by the EU Delegation.

19 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure How and when to perform on-the-spotverifications for the projects under the TA measure? Based on Article 12(1) SA on-the-spot verifications shall be carried out on all applications for support (so at the application stage) and on all payment requests (so at the payment stage). The added value of on-the-spot verifications at the application stage could be considered questionable for the majority of the TA projects, therefore is there an exception in Article 12(1): "However in exceptional circumstances, duly recorded and explained, [IPA II beneficiary] can decide that an on-the-spot verification is not necessary." The IPA II beneficiary should use that exception if applicable (duly recorded and explained!!). Is the possibility of 'an exception' covered in the IPARD Agency's 'on-the-spot-verifications' procedure? Develop a standard form for 'recording and explaining'? Not each individual activity of a (bigger) TA project needs to be checked. <link>

20 Question/issue Answer/approach Requirements according to the regulatory framework for the Technical Assistance measure What would the principle of proportionality (Article 41(10) SA /Article 50(4) SA) mean for TA projects? The principle of proportionality would mean that some deviations from the (original) project application should be possible given the circumstances under which the project is/has been implemented. Such deviations should be granted on exceptional basis due to circumstances outside the control of the recipient, based on a motivated decision.

21 Question/issue Answer/approach Procurement And Grants for EU external actions_prag practical guide PRAG annexes should not be put in the entrustment package. PRAG is regularly updated and each update would trigger an approval procedure for the NAO services, to assess the update of the manual. The valid version of PRAG at the moment of publication of the call for tender is the version of PRAG to be used throughout the full public procurement procedure. In the entrustment package a simple reference made in the procedures that 'the PRAG version valid at the moment of publication of the call for tender' should be sufficient.

22 Question/issue Answer/approach Procurement And Grants for EU external actions_prag practical guide What if PRAG does not fit in the national context? The national authorities can ask the Commission for derogations and/or exceptions of PRAG. This could be done in the entrustment package for the Technical Assistance measure but also afterwards. Derogations are deviations from established processes and procedures which are explicitly allowed for by the applicable rules but nevertheless require adequate justification. Derogations are approved by the Commission before action is taken (ex-ante). Exceptions are deviations from established processes and procedures which are not specifically allowed for by the applicable rules. Exceptions are not a breach of rules or procedures. They are approved by the Commission before action is taken (ex-ante).

23 Question/issue Answer/approach Procurement And Grants for EU external actions_prag practical guide Yes, the respective EU delegation should assist in this process. Can the national authorities use the DEVCO FWC In TR, the national authorities decided not to use the Framework contract approach. In MK actually the MA's procedure for procurement was accepted and accredited including the Framework contract approach (see Section 4.1 of the MA's manual of implementation of TA.

24 Question/issue Answer/approach Procurement And Grants for EU external actions_prag practical guide The Early Warning System (EWS) is an EC Access to Early Warning System is a good example of an internal alert tool, containing restricted 'exception' under PRAG (see above). Usually this is done via information concerning third parties likely to the EU Delegation because the Managing Authority does not represent a threat to the EU financial interests have the access rights to this database and normally it is the EU in the form of warnings. How to consult this Delegation that runs the query for the bidders in the EWS and system? provides the output to the MA.

25 Question/issue Other Answer/approach The challenge of the cash flow.eligible costs are reimbursed, but need to be paid earlier to the contractor. In the Sectoral Agreement two possible (partly) solutions are provided: Prepayments at contract signature phase is covered via Article 11(3)(a) SA: " Contractual pre-financing by a contracting authority may qualify as eligible expenditure up to 10% of the amount of the contract." Advance payments are also possible, based on Sectoral Agreement, Annex 2, section 3, D: "Payments of advances qualify as eligible expenditure up to 10% of the public aid related to the project and shall be subject to the establishment of a bank guarantee or an equivalent guarantee corresponding to 110 % of the amount of the advance. Advances cannot be paid in combination with prefinancing as provided for in Article 11(3)(a)." Other 'bridge' financing should come from the national budget and needs to be agreed before starting the implementation of the TA measure!

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27 The challenge of the cash flow Question/issue Other Answer/approach The financial flow for the measure 9 Technical Assistance is a big challenge. The Managing Authority in fact needs to pre-finance the expenditure, but most often the Managing Authority lacks the financial means for this. In the Sectoral Agreement there is the possibility of advance payments in Annex 2 (3)(D): Payments of advances qualify as eligible expenditure up to 10% of the public aid related to the project and shall be subject to the establishment of a bank guarantee or an equivalent guarantee corresponding to 110 % of the amount of the advance. Could this provision be interpreted in a way that an advance payments of 10% of the public aid under the 'annual plan for TA activities' would be considered as eligible expenditure? It is legally acceptable that advances in the case of TA relate to the annual plan for TA activities.... allowing advances for the annual plan for TA activities cannot circumvent the requirement that a guarantee covering 110% of the advanced payment is to be obtained. Using the advance payment in this way is without a risk, because it is covered by a (bank) guarantee and on top, the recipient is a public institution the MA. It would enable the Managing Authority to improve the implementation of the Technical Assistance measure considerable! This ensures that the objective of protecting the financial interests of the Union is not jeopardised. In the TR example, 10% of the TA action plan 2018, would mean EUR In the MK example, 10% of the TA action plan 2018, would mean EUR

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29 State of play in the respective countries AL, ME, MK and RS TR will present after the lunch break

30 Lunchbreak

31 Presentation of some successful TA projects (and main difficulties encountered in the implementation) Burhan Aksu from the TR Managing Authority

32 Discussion of any issue raised by the participants concerning the measure Technical Assistance The floor is yours!

33 Discussion of any issue raised by the participants concerning IPARD II The floor is yours!

34 Conclusions and follow-up AL, ME and RS MK and TR