The Agreement is a document, composed by 6 Articles, to be duly signed by both parties. The language of the Agreement can be either English or French, in principle, depending on the language of the Single Form.
The language of the SGA determines the language to be used for the other Single Form documents.
By signing the Specific Grant Agreement, the Partner agrees to carry out the Action acting on its own responsibility and in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in the Framework Partnership Agreement, including its Annexes (these documents are not attached to the SGA but are nevertheless an integral part of it).
Together with the Specific Grant Agreement, a cover letter will be sent. The text of the letter may contain important information for the implementation of the action, for instance, reminder to send TOR for evaluation or specific request for information on the Action.
AGREEMENT REFERENCE NUMBER
The reference number given to a Specific Grant Agreement (e.g ECHO/AFG/BUD/2014/9101) must be mentioned by the partner in all communications and gives the following information:
1) Financing Decision is always from ECHO
2) Region-Country code can be:
3) Budget line can be:
4) Budget year of the financing decision
5) Decision and agreement number where:
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9 or 0 = 9 for HIP or 0 for emergency/ad-hoc decision respectively
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1= number of decision for the country concerned
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01= reference number of the agreement.
Art 1. Subject matter of the Agreement
1.1 This Agreement is concluded in the context of the partnership established between the Parties. It is drawn up in accordance with the relevant terms of the Framework Partnership Agreement No […] signed between the Commission and the Humanitarian Organisation on [date on which the last Party signed the Framework Partnership Agreement] (hereinafter referred to as 'the Framework Partnership Agreement'). The terms and conditions of the Framework Partnership Agreement and its Annexes are fully applicable to this Agreement, except where explicitly provided otherwise.
The terms of the FPA and its annexes (the General Conditions and Annex III) are applicable to the SGA. However, where Article 6 of the SGA (see tab below) foresees conditions derogating or supplementing the General Conditions, these shall have precedence over all other applicable rules.
1.2 The Commission has decided to award a grant (hereinafter referred to as 'grant'), under the terms and conditions set out in this Agreement and the Framework Partnership Agreement, including its Annexes, for the Action entitled [insert title of the Action in bold] (hereinafter referred to as 'the Action') as described in the Single Form […], which forms an integral part of this Agreement.
The title of the Action is retrieved from the section 1.2 of the Single Form. Where the title of the Action does not indicate the country of operation, this will also be included, where relevant
The reference number of the Single Form is the number notified automatically to the partner at the time of the submission of the last version of the proposal via APPEL. The system will automatically identify the last version of the SF (approved version) and will insert the relevant reference number in the Agreement.
1.3 With the signature of this Agreement, the Humanitarian Organisation accepts the grant and agrees to implement the Action in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement and of the Framework Partnership Agreement, including its Annexes, acting on its own responsibility.
The text of the General Conditions and Annex III are not annexed to individual Agreements, but by signing the Agreement the partner acknowledges that they will apply to the Action.
The full text of the proposal (i.e. the last version of the Single Form sent by the partner and accepted by ECHO) is also an integral part of the Agreement.
REFERENCES:
FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
ARTICLE 2 ENTRY INTO FORCE OF THE AGREEMENT AND THE IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD OF THE ACTION
2.1 The Agreement shall enter into force on the date provided for in Article 2 of the General Conditions applicable to Humanitarian Aid Actions financed by the European Union annexed to the Framework Partnership Agreement (hereinafter referred to as 'the General Conditions').
The Agreement can produce effects only once it has entered into force. The article 2 of the General Conditions states that the Agreement enters into force on the date of receipt by the Commission of:
2.2 The implementation period of the Action shall run for [months/days] months from [insert date] (hereinafter referred to as 'the start date of the Action').
The implementation period of the Action represents the duration of the Action in the field from the start date. The HIP or the relevant Finanicing decisions mention the expected duration of the Actions
The duration of the implementation period is reported in the section 1.5 of the Single Form and can be equal or shorter than the period of eligibility of expenditure (see below, Article 2.3); in any case the implementation period can never start before the eligibility period.
2.3 The eligibility period of the Action shall be from [insert date] until the end of the implementation period of the Action specified in Article 2(2) herein.
The eligibility period of the Agreement is the period during which the expenditures of the Action can be incurred.
It covers the period between the start date indicated in the section 1.5 of the Single Form up to the end of the implementation period.
In principle, the eligibility period starts on the same date of implementation period, however, when it is necessary, partners may ask for an earlier starting date; in this case a justification have to be provided in the section 1.5 of the Single Form. Under no circumstances the eligibility period of the Action may begin before the eligibility start date set out in Article 4.3.1 of the HIP.
The eligibility period expires at the end of the implementation period. This means that within this moment all the expenditures of the Action have to have incurred by the partner.
As an exception to this rule, the expenditures related to the following activities may be considered eligible even if incurred after the end of the implementation:
REFERENCES:
GENERAL CONDITIONS, Article 2 and 8; SINGLE FORM GUIDELINES, Section 1.5; FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
ARTICLE 3: MAXIMUM AMOUNT AND FORM OF THE GRANT
3.1 The direct costs of the Action eligible for financing by the Union are estimated at EUR […].Indirect costs are estimated at EUR […] and shall be declared as eligible on the basis of a flat-rate of […] % of the total eligible direct costs. The total eligible costs of the Action are estimated at EUR […], as set out in the Financial Overview of the Action in the Single Form.
Here are reported the total amount of direct and indirect costs of the Action as indicated in the Session 10.1 of the Single Form.
The indirect costs can never exceed 7% of the direct costs.
The figure for the total eligible costs results from the sum of direct costs + indirect costs of the Action and should result in the Section 10.1 of the Single Form and in the Financial Statement annexed to it.
3.2 The European Union undertakes to finance a maximum of EUR […], equivalent to […]% of the estimated total eligible costs specified in Article 3(1) herein.
The EC financial contribution is expressed as a maximum amount, and as a percentage of the estimation of total eligible costs indicated in the Article 3.1.
The percentage varies according to the financing modalities (full or partial financing ) applicable to the action.
3.3 The final amount of the Union contribution shall be determined in accordance with Article 18.8 of the General Conditions.
Article 18.8 of the General Conditions states that the final amount of the grant shall be determined taking into consideration the situation of:
These rules have to be applied following the application of the no-profit rule and without prejudice of the right of the Commission to reduce the amount of the grant.
REFERENCES:
GENERAL CONDITIONS, Article 8 and 18; SINGLE FORM GUIDELINES, Section 10; FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
ARTICLE 4: SUBMISSION OF REPORTS AND FINAL PAYMENT REQUEST
4.1 Either [”[…] months before the end of the implementation period of the Action, the Humanitarian Organisation shall submit an Interim Report on the Action’s implementation, covering the implementation up to one month before the reporting date.”] or [“Not applicable.”].
The reporting deadline is usually 3 months before the end of the Action.
The Interim Report is not required for every action: No interim report requested in the case of:
When the Interim Report is not required, Article 4(1) shall indicate ‘Not applicable.’
When operationally justified, ECHO may:
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set a different deadline (e.g. in case of long actions – 24 months – the IR could be requested 6/9 months before the end of the action.)
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request an IR also for urgent/short actions e.g. particularly difficult context or when ECHO does not have the possibility to do a monitoring of the action.
4.2 The Humanitarian Organisation shall submit the final payment request and the Final Report within […] months after the end of the implementation period of the Action.
The Partner shall submit, together with the final payment request a Final Report on both the implementation of the Action, i.e. 'Narrative Report', and on the use of the estimated budget, i.e. 'Financial Report'.
Default reporting deadline is 3 months after the end of the implementation period of the Action however:
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If the partner anticipates delays in the submission of the Final Report, it can request at any time a different deadline. The request should be made through a Modification Request, in Section 13 of the Single Form.
REFERENCES:
GENERAL CONDITIONS, Article 16.2 and 16.3; SINGLE FORM GUIDELINES, Section 10; FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
ARTICLE 5: PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS
5.1 In accordance with Article 18(2) of the General Conditions, the Commission shall make a pre-financing payment equivalent to […%]of the amount specified in Article 3(2) herein.
The pre-financing is up to the 80% of the total amount of EU financing.
The level of pre-financing shall be established taking into account
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the duration of the action;
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the difficult operating contexts, where there is a risk that the Action can be suspended or terminated (in order to allow the re-allocation of the un-spent amounts);
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the past performance of the partner in similar contexts;
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in case of partners with a financial threshold to limit the risks incurred by ECHO.
In these cases, ECHO may provide 50% (followed by a second pre-financing payment amounting to 30%) or a different configuration,
In general, the partner is informed of the level of pre-financing directly with the SGA.
The process for the initial pre-financing payment will be launched automatically by the Commission upon receipt of the signed Specific Grant Agreement without the Partner need to submit any request for this pre-financing payment. The Commission shall make the pre-financing payment to the Partner within 30 calendar days following receipt of the signed Agreement. In case of delay, the rule concerning the late payment interest will apply.
In very exceptional situations, the SGA may indicate that the pre-financing payment will be transferred within 30 calendar days from the Action start date. This is a non-recurrent situation, and it applies solely when the Action start date is foreseen after entry into force of the SGA in order to respect the principle of sound financial management.
5.2 Either [“In accordance with Article 18(3) of the General Conditions, a further pre-financing instalment, equivalent to […%] of the amount specified in Article 3(2) herein shall be made by the Commission, subject to the Humanitarian Organisation’s declaration that at least 70% of the first pre-financing instalment paid has been consumed.”] or [“Not applicable.”].
Where the Agreement provides for the payment of pre-financing in more than one instalment, and unless that Article provides for other arrangements, the Partner shall submit a request for any further pre-financing instalment stating that at least 70% of the first pre-financing instalment has been consumed namely, the partner has legal commitments amounting to 70% of the first instalment.
To this end, the partner does not have to submit an interim report nor a financial report but it can ask for a second-prefinanicing at any time using the dedicated form in APPEL and sign the declaration to be attached as an annex in APPEL (no additional information needed).
The Commission shall execute the new pre-financing instalment within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the request for further pre-financing instalment.
If there is a single pre-financing, Article 5(2) shall indicate ‘Not applicable.’
REFERENCES:
GENERAL CONDITIONS, Article 16.3 and 18.2; RULES OF APPLICATION OF THE FINANCIAL REGULATION, Article 207; FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
ARTICLE 6: SPECIFIC CONDITIONS APPLYING TO THE ACTION
Article 6 clarifies the specific conditions that are used either to supplement (i.e. add something to) or to derogate from (i.e. remove something from) the Agreement and the rules applicable to it.
Specific Conditions should be included when the Agreement is initially set up. By way of exception, specific conditions may also be agreed upon between the Partner and DG ECHO after the signature of the Agreement, depending on the circumstances.
If a Specific Grant Agreement sets out specific conditions supplementing or explicitly derogating from the provisions of the Framework Partnership Agreement and its Annexes, those specific conditions shall take precedence over the provisions of the Framework Agreement for the purposes of that Specific Grant Agreement.
Both parties may request the Agreement to be supplemented or the General Conditions or the procurement rules (“Annex III” in case of signatories of the FPA) to be derogated from. At proposal stage such a request must always be explicit and well justified in the Section 11 of the Single Form.
6.1 Either “The following specific conditions shall supplement and have precedence over all other provisions of the Framework Partnership Agreement and its annexes: […].” or “Not applicable.”
Specific conditions supplementing the Agreement refer to cases where one of the Parties wants to add provisions to the Agreement not foreseen in the existing clauses, such as: specific reporting requirements, additional interim reports, additional pre-financing payments, etcetera.
If not relevant, the Article shall indicate “Not applicable”.
6.2 Either “The following specific conditions shall derogate from and have precedence over all other provisions of the Framework Partnership Agreement and its annexes: […] .” or “Not applicable.”
Derogations refer to cases where, for well-founded reasons, a clause forming part of an Agreement or of the rules applicable to the Agreement, such as the General Conditions, should not apply to the particular Agreement, and another rule is to be applied instead.
The need for derogation would normally be known in advance and, therefore, should be requested by the Partner in session 11 of the Single Form and in case granted by DG ECHO when drafting of the initial Agreement.
Examples of derogations to be included in Article 6.2 of the Agreement include: a different exchange rate (in derogation to article 18.5 of the General Conditions);
derogations to the rule of Nationality and Origin (for Actions financed through the European Development Fund).
The Partner can derogate from its own rules provided it follows its own internal derogation/waiver process, without needed to seek DG ECHO’s permission/approval.
If not relevant, the Article shall indicate “Not applicable”.
6.3 Either [“The rules applicable to urgent actions provided for in Article 3(5)(g) of Annex III of the Framework Partnership Agreement shall apply to this Agreement.”] or [“Not applicable.”]
According to the modular approach, in case of Urgent Action the Partners are invited to use a simplified Single Form available through a function in APPEL.
On the basis of this article, the nature of Urgent Action will allow the Partners to apply, in addition to their internal procedures on exceptions, procurement procedures based on a single offer.
If not relevant, the Article shall indicate “Not applicable”.
REFERENCES:
ANNEX III, Article 3.5.g and 18.2; FPA GUIDELINES, Section 8.4
