Disclaimer This guide aims to facilitate potential applicants. It is provided for information purposes only and is not intended to replace consultation of any applicable legal sources. Neither the European Commission nor the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency - CHAFEA (or any person acting on their behalf) can be held responsible for the use made of this guidance document.

Consumer Programme

Guide for applicants

Financial contributions for cooperation between national authorities

responsible for the enforcement of the consumer protection

CONS-CPC-2019

Version 1.0 7 May 2019

Call for proposals N° CONS-CPC-2019 – Guide for applicants

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HISTORY OF CHANGES

Version Publication

Date Change Page

1.0 07.05.2019 Initial version

Objective IV of Regulation (EU) No 254/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council

on a multiannual consumer programme for the years 2014-2020.

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Table of Contents

GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................................ 4

1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 5

2. LEGAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................. 5

3. PARTICIPANTS: ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES .................................................. 5

4. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL ................................................................... 6

4.1. Create a user account ......................................................................................... 6

4.2. Register your organisation in the Participant Register ...................................... 6

4.3. Submission and acknowledgement of receipt ................................................... 7

4.4. Rejection of proposals ....................................................................................... 7

4.5. Information on the evaluation results - Complaints .......................................... 7

4.6. Language ........................................................................................................... 8

4.7. Data protection .................................................................................................. 8

5. APPLICATION ........................................................................................................... 9

5.1. Part A — Administrative forms ........................................................................ 9

5.2. Part B – Description of work ........................................................................... 11

5.3. Estimated budget ............................................................................................. 11

5.3.1. A. Direct personnel costs................................................................... 12

5.3.2. B. Direct costs of subcontracting ...................................................... 12

5.3.3. C. Other direct costs .......................................................................... 13

5.3.4. D. Indirect costs ................................................................................. 13

5.4. Annexes to the proposal .................................................................................. 14

6. FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF THE GRANT AGREEMENT

IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................... 14

6.1. Eligible costs ................................................................................................... 14

6.2. Ineligible costs ................................................................................................. 16

7. HELPDESK .............................................................................................................. 18

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GLOSSARY

The Work Programme is the annual work programme adopted by the European

Commission to implement the programme of the Union action in the field of consumer

policy (2014-2020). ('the Programme'), European Commission Implementation

Decision C (2018) 8074 final of 06/12/2018.

The Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (Chafea),

manages the technical and financial implementation of the EU Health Programme, the

Consumer Programme, the Better Training for Safer Food initiative and the AGRI

promotion actions provided for in Regulation.

A beneficiary is an organisation that receives EU co-funding following successful

application in one of the EU's funding programmes and the signature of the related

grant agreement (during the application process reference is made to the "applicant(s))".

A mono-beneficiary and a multi-beneficiary grant agreement (GA) are a binding

written agreement signed by the parties: Chafea (acting under powers delegated to it by

the European Commission) and the beneficiary organisations, i.e. the recipients of the

EU co-funding. By signing the agreement, the beneficiary organisations accept the

grant and agree to implement the action under their responsibility and in accordance

with the agreement with all the obligations and conditions that the latter sets out.

The Funding & Tender Portal (PP) is the website hosting the information about

funding for several EU programmes including the Health, Agriculture and Consumer

Programmes.

The EU Login is the European Commission's Authentication Service. It is the system

for logging on to a whole range of websites and online services run by the Commission.

The Participant Register is the European Commission's online register of the

beneficiaries participating in the Health, Agriculture and Consumers Programmes and

in other Union programmes. This allows consistent handling of the beneficiaries'

official data and avoids multiple requests for the same information.

The Participant Identification Code (PIC number) is a 9-digit participant

identification code, received upon completing the registration of the entity online.

The LEAR (Legal Entity Appointed Representative) is the appointed representative

within the beneficiary organisation. He/she is authorized to sign the grant agreement

and action's documents on behalf of the organisation.

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1. INTRODUCTION

The Guide for Applicants is a general user guide that aims to explain to applicants and

beneficiaries the main rules that apply to the evaluation of their proposals and management

of their EU grants awarded under the Consumer Programme.

It is designed to be your main practical reference for preparing and submitting your proposal

and — if successful — for managing your grant.

All terms are explained in the detailed Glossary on the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Details on processes and procedures are described in the Online Manual. The Online Manual

also contains FAQs and detailed instructions for the Electronic Exchange System .

A complete list of reference documents (including legislation, work programme and

templates) can be found on Funding & Tenders Reference Documents.

If necessary, you can also contact us (via the Consumer Programme Helpdesk or, for IT

questions, the IT Helpdesk).

2. LEGAL FRAMEWORK

If you are in any doubt about any issues mentioned in this guide, the legally binding rules and

conditions for the calls are in the following documents:

Regulation 2018/1046 (EU Financial Regulation)

the basic act (Regulation (EU) 254/2014 on a multiannual consumer programme 2014 -

2020)

the Consumer work programme 2019

the call documents (published on the Funding & Tenders)

the model grant agreements (MGAs published on the Funding & Tenders).

3. PARTICIPANTS: ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Applicants are jointly responsible for their proposal. Each organisation is responsible for

submitting correct information in the proposal.

For consortia, the coordinator submits the proposal on behalf of (and in the name of) all

applicants. After grant signature, they become jointly responsible for implementing the

project activities (in accordance with part B of the proposal which becomes an annex to the

grant agreement if the project is selected for funding). If a project is not finished, the grant

may have to be reduced for everyone.

The coordinator is responsible for managing the project, submitting reports and deliverables

and acting as intermediary for all contacts with Chafea. The other beneficiaries in the

consortium must implement their part of the project and contribute to the formal and

administrative grant obligations (e.g. reporting, etc).

Beneficiaries can use subcontractors to implement certain parts of the project (and charge the

price paid to the subcontractor to the grant).

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4. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL

All proposals must be submitted directly online via the Funding and Tenders Portal.

Paper applications are no longer accepted.

The fact that the whole process is done through an online system, requires a better level of

preparation from the potential applicants before embarking on submitting the application

itself. Even though the online system enables you to save successive versions of your

application, Chafea strongly recommends you to have fully prepared the proposal before

starting the online submission process and not view it as a "do-it-as-you-go" process.

The submission process is explained in the Participant Portal Online Manual (together with

detailed instructions for the IT tool).

Submission is a 2-step process:

a) register your organisation

b) submit the proposal - in 3 parts, as follows:

Part A includes administrative information about the applicant organisations

(future coordinator and beneficiaries) and the summarised budget for the proposal

Fill in directly online.

Part B (description of the action) covers the technical content of the proposal.

Fill in the word template provided by Chafea and upload it as PDF file.

Annexes (please refer to section 5.4 of this Guide).

Fill in the annexes (if applicable) which template is included in Part B and upload

them as PDF files.

The proposal must be submitted before the call deadline (specified in the call document). If

you miss the deadline, your proposal will be automatically disregarded by the system and

considered not to have been submitted.

Documents must be uploaded to the right category (otherwise your proposal might be

incomplete and so inadmissible).

4.1. Create a user account

To use the Funding & Tenders electronic submission system, all participants need to sign up

to their existing EU Login account (for registered users) or create a new EU Login user

account (for new users).

4.2. Register your organisation in the Participant Register

Once you have an EU Login account, you can register your organisation in the Participant

Register. This allows consistent handling of different organisations’ official data and avoids

multiple requests of the same information. However, check first on the Participant Register if

your organisation is already registered:

If you do not find your organisation there, and only in this case, you should start the

registration process by clicking on 'Register your organisation'.

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To complete this registration process, you will need to provide information about your

entity legal status and its finances.

Applicants do not need to complete the registration process in a single session.

Applicants can enter some information, save it and continue later on 'My

Organisations' in 'My Area' section. Incomplete draft registrations are automatically

deleted after one year.

Once your registration is finalised, you will receive a 9-digit Participant Identification

Code (PIC number). You will need the PIC numbers of the coordinator and all other

beneficiaries (i.e. not for subcontractors and collaborating stakeholders) in order to

complete part A of the application.

The person who registers the organisation, called 'self-registrant', can submit updates and

corrections (with corresponding supporting documents) on 'My Organisations' in 'My

Area' section.

Please note that in case the registered organisation receives EU funding, the 'self-

registrant' will be replaced by the appointed representative Legal entity appointed

representative (LEAR). This person will then be the only person able to provide further

updates.

4.3. Submission and acknowledgement of receipt

Once the proposal is submitted, you will receive a confirmation e-mail (with date and time of

your application). If you do not receive this email, it means your proposal has NOT been

submitted.

If you believe this is due to a fault in the Electronic Submission System, you should

immediately file a complaint via the Funding & Tenders, explaining the circumstances and

attaching a copy of the proposal (and, if possible, screenshots to show what happened).

4.4. Rejection of proposals

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: it is very important that applicants upload a proper document

(in PDF) under the corresponding heading, otherwise the entire application may be

jeopardised and considered as inadmissible!

Hence, before closing the application procedure or logging of, applicants should double-check

if the content of the PDF documents corresponds to the given headings in the online

submission tool.

4.5. Information on the evaluation results - Complaints

Once the proposal is submitted, the applicant will not hear from Chafea until the proposal is

evaluated, unless:

- Chafea needs to contact the applicant to clarify matters such as eligibility or to request

additional information;

- More information or supporting documents are needed to establish the legal entity

- The applicant made a complaint.

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We will check eligibility and admissibility and evaluate your proposal against the award

criteria set out in the call document.

All applicants, whether successful or not, will receive a letter at the end of evaluation.

To ensure equal treatment for all applicants, we can NOT answer any questions on the

outcome of the call before the evaluation is completed.

If you believe that the evaluation procedure was flawed you will be able to submit a

complaint (following the deadlines and procedures set out in the evaluation result letter).

4.6. Language

In principle, proposals may be submitted in any official language of the European Union.

However, in order to facilitate the evaluation process, you are strongly encouraged to

provide an English translation of the proposal. The English version should be at the

beginning of the proposal, followed by the other language version.

4.7. Data protection

The submission of an application under this call involves the collection, use and processing of

personal data (such as name, address and CV). This data will be processed in accordance with

Regulation No 2018/17251. It will be processed solely for the purpose of evaluating your

proposal (and subsequent management of your grant and, if needed, programme monitoring,

evaluation and communication). Details are available in the Participant Portal Privacy

Statement.

Personal data may be registered in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) by the

Commission, should the beneficiary be in one of the situations mentioned in Articles 136 and

141 of the Financial Regulation.

Applicants are invited to check this website at regular intervals so as to be duly informed on

possible updates that may occur by the deadline for submission of their proposals. The EDES

is managed by the European Commission and its purpose is the protection of the Union's

financial interests against unreliable economic operators. This is ensured via the following

two components:

Early detection of risks threatening the Union Financial Interests via the inclusion of

relevant markings (in case of suspicion or presumption);

Exclusion of entities/ natural persons, imposition of financial penalties (administrative

sanctions) in case of situations provided for by the law.

Privacy statement for the EDES database is available under the following link:

http://ec.europa.eu/budget/library/explained/management/protecting/privacy_statement_edes_

en.pdf

1 Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the

protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies,

offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and

Decision No 1247/2002/EC (Text with EEA relevance.)

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5. APPLICATION

5.1. Part A — Administrative forms

Part A comprises fields of required information, checklists and declarations to be filled and

must be completed directly via the online submission tool; it is structured in three sections, as

follows:

Section 1: General information

Section 2: Administrative data of the organisation

Section 3: Budget

Section 1: General information

In this section, applicants should provide the Acronym, Proposal Title, Duration (in months),

Free Keywords and an Abstract (max. 2000 characters) explaining the key objectives and

benefits of the proposal, how these will be achieved, and their relevance to the Work

Programme 2019.

The abstract will be used as a short description of the proposal in the evaluation process and

in communication with the programme management committee and other interested parties.

Therefore, do not include any confidential information and use plain typed text, avoiding

formulae and other special characters.

In the "Declarations" section, there are also a number of self-declarations to be made by

coordinator by clicking the corresponding boxes. We recommend that the

applicant/coordinator checks with all the partners before clicking the boxes.

Section 2: Participants and contacts

The applicant/coordinator will encode the PIC code of his/her organisation and of every other

applicant (see section 6.3 of this guide). Part of the administrative data will be filled in

automatically after encoding the PIC code. Then, the applicant/coordinator will be required to

fill in the contact details for every participant. Hence, it is recommended to have this

information at hand when completing part A.

Section 3: Budget

In this section, the applicants are required to provide a budget overview stemming from the

detailed budget that you will include in your proposal (Part B).

The coordinator must fill in the budget table as presented below.

Figure 1: The Budget Overview Table in part A

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Only the white cells of the budget table in Submission System need to be filled in (the grey

cells are not applicable or automatically filled by the system.

Each row of the budget table represents the estimated expenditure and income for one

applicant.

Column Budget category

A Direct personnel costs

Indicate costs for personnel. Include only persons working on the action

(and only for their estimated time of work on the action).

B Direct costs of Subcontracting

Indicate costs for subcontracted action tasks.

C Other direct costs

Please indicate costs for travel and subsistence allowance; depreciation

cost or renting / leasing equipment; costs for other goods and services

D Indirect costs (Automatically calculated at the indirect cost flat-rate of

7%, however, it is also possible to insert lower amount)

E Total Costs

F Reimbursement rate

It corresponds to the maximum reimbursement rate of 50% or 70% of

eligible costs in case of actions of exceptional utility.

G Maximum EU contribution

Automatically calculated (E*F)

H Requested EU contribution

Indicate the amount of EU funding you would like to have for the project.

The total amount in this column should be equal to or less than the total

amount of column (G). At the proposal stage, we recommend to each

participant to have the requested grant amount (H) to be equal to the

maximum EU contribution amount (G).

I Income generated by the action

J Financial contributions given by third parties to the beneficiaries (to

cover eligible costs of the action)

K

Action's total receipts

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The costs inserted in the Part A budget need to be consistent with those in the Estimated

Budget under the Part B of the application.

Therefore, it is recommended to first develop your budget within the “Estimated Budget”

table incorporated into the Part B Description of the Action template. The Detailed

estimated budget table (Part B) template is available already at step 1, before starting to edit

the part A.

Once the the “Estimated budget within the Part B” completed, applicants can go to Part A

and fill in the figures for the Budget overview table. It will be necessary to provide

information on the eligible costs; maximum reimbursement rate, maximum grant; and

receipts. It is very important that applicants complete the budget table!

5.2. Part B – Description of work

The Part B concerns the technical content of the proposal. Applicants shall use the proposal

template provided by Chafea. Within the description of the action, the applicants are expected

to clearly describe the planned activities and link them to the priorities and objectives

mentioned in the Call text.

The instructions on completing the Part B (the work plan) are present in the template itself.

Therefore, only information on the Estimated budget are provided in this Guide.

5.3. Estimated budget

The applicants should estimate their budget needed for the action and must fill in the

Estimated budget included in the Part B.

Note:

In case of multi-beneficiary grants (more than one eligible applicant in the same action), each

beneficiary has to prepare a detailed budget table.

The detailed budget table per applicant should be consistent with the Budget Overview Table

of the Administrative Form (Part A) of the application. The Electronic Submission System

does not provide a reconciliation function among the different budget tables of the

application form; it is the consortium responsibility to ensure consistency of the information

provided throughout the application.

The detailed budget table has 4 parts representing the 4 cost categories (as per Article 6.2

MGA):

A. direct personnel costs

B. direct costs of subcontracting

C. other direct costs

D. indirect costs

The applicants should estimate the direct costs of the action (categories A – C) including

related duties, taxes and charges such as non-deductible value added tax (VAT) paid by the

beneficiary, if it is not a public body acting as a public authority.

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5.3.1. A. Direct personnel costs

The personnel costs should correspond to the adequate human resources needed to ensure the

successful implementation of the project and should correspond to the actual time worked on

the project by the staff concerned.

They are related to personnel working for the beneficiary under an employment contract (or

equivalent) and assigned to the action.

In addition, the following costs can also be recognised as personnel costs:

The costs for natural persons working under a direct contract with the beneficiary other

than an employment contract or cost of personnel seconded by a third party against

payment.

For public organisations (i.e. public bodies, with the exception of universities), the salary

costs of permanent staff can be claimed only if they relate to the costs of project activities

which the organisation would not have carried out if the project had not been undertaken.

The personnel costs however do NOT cover staff provided by a temporary work agency

(because in this case there is no direct contract between the person and the beneficiary; the

contract is not with the beneficiary but with the entity hiring the person). Such staff therefore

qualifies typically as purchase of services. Thus, although NOT eligible as ‘personnel costs’

(category A.2), the costs can normally be charged under budget category E.2 ‘other goods and

services’, if they comply with the eligibility conditions (see Article 9 MGA).

The personnel costs are calculated on the basis of actual gross salary or wages plus social

security contributions, taxes and other costs included in the remuneration if they arise from

national law or the employment contract (or equivalent appointing act).

For persons allocated exclusively to the project, the time worked on the project will be

calculated in months. For all other persons, the time worked for the project must be calculated

in days.

Example: if a person working for the applying organisation (applicant) will work 10% of his monthly

engagement on the action - the estimation of the costs will be 10% of this person's monthly gross salary. Hence,

if this person has a monthly gross of 2000 EUR the estimation of costs for this person will be 200 EUR per

month. If this person will work 6 months on the project, the full estimation will be 6x200 EUR = 1200 EUR.

You should continue by analogy for all the personnel working on your action. As the values presented as

estimation, please round them up (for example 346,23 EUR to 350 EUR).

5.3.2. B. Direct costs of subcontracting

The subcontracting involves the outsourcing of parts of the project (project tasks or project

activities described in the description of the action). These costs are eligible if the conditions

of Article 10.1 MGA are met.

Example: if within the action envisaged by the applicant, a new website is to be developed, the applicant my

subcontract this to a service provider and insert the cost estimation in the budget.

In line with Article 8 MGA, applicants shall include in their proposal a description of the

procurement procedures, if the value of the service is above EUR 60 000 threshold for private

bodies and above EUR 144 000 threshold for public bodies. In particular, if the selection

procedure was already carried out, applicants shall fill in the template report (one per

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applicant) – Annex II to the Part B – Description of work. If the subcontractors have not been

selected yet, the template describing the selection procedure will be included in the grant

agreement preparation phase as a mandatory deliverable.

5.3.3. C. Other direct costs

Purchases cover the procurement of ordinary services, goods or equipment needed to carry

out the project and unlike subcontracting they do not involve the outsourcing of parts of the

action.

Examples of purchases: Dissemination of information, evaluation, audits, translations, reproduction, purchase

of tickets, renting of rooms and accommodation, purchase of consumables and supplies, website development.

C.1 Travel costs and respective subsistence allowances relating to specific and clearly

identifiable activities are eligible for EU funding and must have been incurred by people

directly involved in or contracted for such activities.

Travel and subsistence costs of participants in conferences and seminars should also be

included under this category.

Travel and subsistence costs must be reasonable and in line with beneficiary's usual practices

on travel.

C.2 The depreciation costs of equipment, infrastructure or other assets (new or second-

hand) as recorded in the beneficiary’s accounts are eligible, if they were purchased in

accordance with Article 9.1.1 and written off in accordance with international accounting

standards and the beneficiary’s usual accounting practices.

The costs of renting or leasing equipment, infrastructure or other assets are also eligible, if

they do not exceed the depreciation costs of similar equipment, infrastructure or assets and do

not include any financing fees.

The only portion of the costs that will be taken into account is that which corresponds to the

duration of the action and rate of actual use for the purposes of the action.

Example (depreciation):

Total value of equipment purchased: EUR 1,000

Service life: 3 years (36 months)

Monthly depreciation = EUR 1,000/36 = EUR 27.78

Duration of eligibility for cost in Grant Agreement: 01/10/2014 to 30/09/2016 (24 months).

Date of purchase (= date of invoice): 30/04/2015.

Period of use = maximum 17 months.

Usage rate (if equipment used on a half-time basis for the project) = 50%.

Total amount payable for depreciation = EUR 27.78 x 17 months x 0.5 = EUR 236.13.

C.3 Costs of other goods and services cover for instance consumables and supplies,

dissemination, protection of results, certificates on the financial statements (if they are

required by the grant agreement), translations and publications.

5.3.4. D. Indirect costs

Indirect costs are commonly known as overheads. These are costs that cannot be identified as

specific costs directly linked to the performance of the action – typically:

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• general rental costs or depreciation of buildings and equipment

• maintenance costs

• telecommunication and postal fees

• water, gas, electricity, heating, etc.

• office furniture

• supplies and petty office equipment

• insurance

• costs connected with support services, such as administrative and financial

management, human resources, training, documentation, IT, etc.

Indirect costs are eligible if they are declared on the basis of the flat-rate up to 7% of the

eligible direct costs.

If the beneficiary receives an operating grant financed by the EU or Euratom budget, it cannot

declare indirect costs for the period covered by the operating grant.

5.4. Annexes to the proposal

Annexes are necessary documents to support evidence for checking the applicant

organisation's compliance with the criteria specified in the call for proposals. Annexes must

be uploaded directly into the Electronic Submission system.

The following annexes need to be provided with the application:

Annex I – Audit report (free template): Not applicable for public bodies.

Any applicants requesting EU co-finding of 750 000 € or higher must submit an audit report

produced by an approved external auditor certifying the accounts for the last financial year

available.

Annex II – Template report on subcontracting

Applicants shall include in their proposal a description of the procurement procedures, if the

value of the service is above EUR 60 000 threshold for private bodies and above

EUR 144 000 threshold for public bodies.

If the subcontractors have not been selected at the time of application, the template describing

the selection procedure will be included in the grant agreement preparation phase as a

mandatory deliverable.

6. FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF THE GRANT AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION

6.1. Eligible costs

Only eligible costs may be entered into the estimated budget for the action (see Article 6

MGA) and declared in the financial statements together with the Interim or Final report (see

Article 15 MGA). If a beneficiary declares ineligible costs, the ineligible costs will be rejected

and, if needed, other measures (such as suspension, termination, grant reduction, etc.) may be

taken.

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The burden of proof for eligibility is on the beneficiaries. They must keep sufficient

supporting documents (see Article 13 MGA) to show that the costs they declare are eligible.

Compliance with eligibility rules may be subject to a check or audit by Chafea. Any ineligible

costs found will be rejected (see Article 28 MGA).

In order to be eligible, actual costs must be:

actually incurred by the beneficiary (i.e.:

o real and not estimated, budgeted or imputed and

o definitively and genuinely borne by the beneficiary (not by any other entity)).

incurred during the action duration2 (i.e. the generating event that triggers the costs

must take place during the action duration)

If costs are invoiced or paid later than the end date, they are eligible only if the debt

existed already during the action duration (supported by documentary evidence) and the

final cost was known at the moment of the financial report.

Costs of services or equipment supplied to a beneficiary may be invoiced and paid after

the end date of the action if the services or equipment were used by the beneficiary

during the action duration. By contrast, costs of services or equipment supplied after the

end of the action (or after grant agreement termination) are not eligible.

Example: A conference for which costs are claimed must take place during the action duration; a

publication for which costs are claimed must have been completed during the action.

entered as eligible costs in the estimated budget of the action, under the relevant

budget category

When the final amount of the grant is calculated, the eligible costs cannot include costs

under budget categories that did not appear in the action estimated budget, unless the

initial estimated budget was amended or, for subcontracts, if these additional costs were

approved in accordance with Article 10 MGA.

Costs included in the estimated budget may be transferred between beneficiaries and

budget categories without amending the grant agreement under the conditions set out in

Article 4.2 MGA.

Please also note that we do require a formal amendment of the estimated budget (Annex

2 to the grant agreement), if the transfer of budget between beneficiaries is linked to a

change in the distribution of action tasks (and in this case also the description of the

action (Annex 1 to the grant agreement) needs to be amended).

connected to the action as described in Annex 1 to the grant agreement (i.e.

necessary to achieve the action’s objectives)

The EU grant cannot be used to finance activities other than those approved by Chafea.

Coordination and administration of the action are considered action tasks.

2 The ‘action duration’ is the period running from the action starting date to the end date of the action (see Article 3

MGA).

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identifiable and verifiable (i.e. come directly from the beneficiary’s accounts (be

directly reconcilable with them and supported by documentation)

The beneficiaries must be able to show (with records and supporting documents; see

Article 18 MGA) the actual costs of the work, i.e. what was actually paid for the work

(and for depreciation costs: what is actually recorded in the beneficiary’s profit and loss

accounts).

Costs must be calculated according to the applicable accounting rules of the country in

which the beneficiary is established and according to the beneficiary’s usual cost

accounting practices.

This may NOT be used as an excuse for non-compliance with other grant agreement

provisions. A beneficiary must make any changes needed to bring its usual cost

accounting practices in line with all grant agreement provisions.

Examples: conditions for calculation of productive hours; conditions for the eligibility of depreciation

costs (in line with the international accounting standards, which may deviate from the accounting rules of

the country)

Where national taxation and accounting rules do not require an invoice, an accounting

document of equivalent value must be supplied (i.e. a document that (i) is produced to

prove that the accounting entry is accurate and (ii) complies with the applicable

accounting law).

in compliance with applicable national laws on taxes, labour and social security

AND

reasonable, justified and must comply with the principles of sound financial

management, in particular regarding economy and efficiency (i.e. be in line with

good housekeeping practice when spending public money and not be excessive)

‘Economy’ means minimising the costs of resources used for an activity (input), while

maximising quality; ‘efficiency’ is the relationship between outputs and the resources

used to produce them.

Examples:

1. The beneficiary may NOT increase the remuneration of its personnel, upgrade its travel policy or its

purchasing rules because of the EU grant.

2. Entertainment or luxurious expenses (including gifts, special meals and gastronomic dinners) are

generally not eligible.

6.2. Ineligible costs

Costs are ineligible, if one of the following applies:

they do not meet the general and specific eligibility conditions set out in Articles 6.1

to 6.3

Examples: costs incurred in relation to activities not indicated in Annex 1 to the grant agreement

(description of the action); subcontracting costs do not comply with Article 10; taxes for which you are

liable in your capacity as a business (e.g. IRAP in Italy, Gewerbesteuer in Germany); gifts and presents;

recreational/tourism/cultural activities; costs not entailing a cash flow for you; costs incurred by a third

party to the grant agreement.

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they are listed in Article 6.4, in particular:

costs related to return on capital or return generated by an investment

Examples: dividends paid as remuneration for investing in the action; remuneration paid as a share

in the company’s equity.

debt and debt service charges

‘Debt service’ is the amount paid on a loan in principal and interest over a period of

time.

Example: If a beneficiary takes a loan used to acquire equipment or consumables for the project of

EUR 100 000 at 9 percent interest for 10 years, the debt service for the first year (principal and

interest) is EUR 15 582.

provisions for future losses or debts

‘Provision’ means an amount set aside in an organisation’s accounts, to cover for a

known liability of uncertain timing or amount. This includes allowances for doubtful

or bad debts.

interest owed (i.e. interest on a loan to borrow capital)

excessive or reckless expenditure

‘Excessive’ means paying significantly more for products, services or personnel than

the prevailing market rates or the usual practices of the beneficiary (and thus

resulting in an avoidable financial loss to the action).

‘Reckless’ means failing to exercise care in the selection of products, services or

personnel (and thus resulting in an avoidable financial loss to the action).

currency exchange losses (i.e. for beneficiaries using currencies other than euros or

being invoiced in a currency other than the currency they use: any loss due to

exchange rate fluctuations (e.g. between the date of invoicing and the date of

payment))

This includes insurance premiums against risk of exchange rate losses.

bank costs charged by the beneficiary’s bank for transfers from us.

Conversely, bank charges for the distribution of the EU funding may constitute an

eligible cost for the coordinator (if the eligibility conditions of Article 6.1 and Article

6.2.E.2 are met).

deductible VAT

‘Deductible VAT’ means VAT that is recoverable under the national ‘VAT system’

(i.e. the system of collection and deduction under the national VAT legislation). Such

VAT is not a genuine and definitive cost and, according to accounting standards,

should not be recorded as such. Therefore, it is not actually incurred by the

beneficiary.

VAT incurred by a public body acting ‘as public authority’ — VAT incurred by

a public body acting as public authority is ALWAYS ineligible.

These are activities which can only be exercised by public bodies under their special

legal framework, under different legal conditions to those covering private bodies.

They may or may not be linked to ‘imperium’.

Examples: Policing, the justice system, combating counterfeiting of banknotes and coins, national

statistics, determination and enforcement of public policies

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costs incurred during the suspension of the implementation of the action

Example: Action is suspended and one of the beneficiaries continues working on it after the date of the

suspension

costs declared under another EU grant (i.e. double funding). This includes:

o costs funded directly by other EU programmes managed by the European

Commission or its executive agencies or funding bodies (e.g. H2020 grants,

Euratom grants)

o costs managed/funded/awarded by Member States but co-funded with EU

funds (e.g. European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF))

costs for staff of a national (or local) administration, for activities that are part of the

administration’s normal activities (i.e. not undertaken only because of the grant)

For public organisations (i.e. public bodies, with the exception of universities), the

salary costs of permanent staff be claimed only if they relate to the costs of project

activities which the organisation would not have carried out if the project not been

undertaken.

travel, subsistence and any other costs for EU staff (or elected representatives of the

EU Parliament)

cost categories explicitly excluded in the call (if option applies).

7. HELPDESK

For problems with the Electronic Submission System please contact the IT helpdesk set-up

for this purpose via the Participant Portal website. Once the electronic exchange system

allocated a proposal ID, the applicant must use this number in all subsequent correspondence.

For other questions concerning the content of the call and the application, Chafea can be

contacted via e-mail: CHAFEA-CP-CALLS@ec.europa.eu. Please indicate clearly the

reference of the call for proposals and the topic to which the question relates (see call

document cover page).

The deadline to submit questions is 2 July 2019, 17:00:00 (Central European Time). Answers

to relevant questions will be published on http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/consumers/funding/calls-

for-proposals/index_en.htm by 5 July 2019, 17:00:00 (Central European Time).

Frequently asked questions are published on the website of Chafea:

http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/consumers/funding/calls-for-proposals/index_en.htm

Please note that any replies from the help desk provided in the frame of the current procedure

can by no means be regarded as Chafea' s binding opinion producing any legal effect. All

aspects of the proposals to be submitted in response of the call (including the eligibility,

selection and award criteria) will be formally evaluated by the evaluation committee(s) that

will be set up on the basis of the applicable rules.