Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on financial instruments, including the selection of entities entrusted with the implementation of financial instruments, the content of delegation agreements, management costs and fees, the specific rules for fiduciary accounts, the direct implementation of the financial instruments and the selection of managers, of financial intermediaries and of final recipients.

Financial instruments shall be used in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination, equal treatment and subsidiarity, and in accordance with their objectives and, where applicable, the duration established in the basic act for those financial instruments.

Financial instruments shall comply with the following:

The budgetary expenditure linked to a financial instrument and the financial liability of the Union shall in no case exceed the amount of the relevant budgetary commitment made for it, thus excluding contingent liabilities for the budget.

The entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) and all financial intermediaries selected to participate in the execution of financial operations under a financial instrument shall comply with relevant standards and applicable legislation on the prevention of money laundering, the fight against terrorism and tax fraud. For the implementation of financial instruments in accordance with this Title, the entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) shall not be established, and shall not maintain business relations with entities incorporated, in territories whose jurisdictions do not co-operate with the Union in relation to the application of the internationally agreed tax standard and shall transpose such requirements in their contracts with the selected financial intermediaries.

Entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c), financial intermediaries as referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article involved in managing Union financial instruments, and final recipients of Union support under this Title shall afford the Court of Auditors all the facilities and give it all the information which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for the performance of its task, pursuant to Article 161.

Amounts corresponding at least to the Union contribution, or, where applicable, multiples thereof shall be used for the attainment of the specific policy objectives pursued through the financial instrument and shall not generate undue advantages, in particular in the form of undue dividends or profits for third parties.

Payments to fiduciary accounts shall be made by the Commission on the basis of payment requests that are duly substantiated with disbursement forecasts, taking into account the balances available on the fiduciary accounts and the need to avoid excessive balances on such amounts. In the event of the amounts on the fiduciary accounts being sufficient to cover the contractually stipulated minimum reserve on the fiduciary accounts, as increased by the disbursement forecasts for the current financial year, and to cover the amounts needed to exclude contingent liabilities in relation to payment obligations in currencies other than euro, no further payment to the fiduciary accounts shall be made. Disbursement forecasts are to be provided on an annual or, where appropriate, on a semi-annual basis.

The Commission shall report annually to the European Parliament and the Council on the activities relating to financial instruments. The report shall include, for each financial instrument supported:

Where the European Parliament or the Council consider that a financial instrument has not achieved its objectives effectively, they may request that the Commission submit a proposal for a revised basic act with a view to the winding down of the instrument. In the event of the winding down of the financial instrument, any new repayments of that instrument pursuant to the third subparagraph of paragraph 6 shall be considered as general revenue.

The purpose of the financial instruments and, where applicable, their specific legal form and legal place of registration shall be published on the Commission website.

For financial instruments the authorising officer responsible shall ensure that financial statements, covering the period 1 January to 31 December and in compliance with the accounting rules referred to in Article 143 and the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), as well as any information necessary to produce financial statements in accordance with Article 68(3), will be provided by the entities entrusted pursuant to points (ii), (iii), (v) and (vi) of Article 58(1)(c) by 15 February of the following year. The authorising officer responsible shall also ensure that audited financial statements for financial instruments are provided by those entities by 15 May of the following year.

The Commission shall ensure a harmonised management of financial instruments in particular in the area of accounting, reporting, monitoring and financial risk management.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the implementation of financial instruments, including the conditions for their use, the leverage effect, the ex-ante evaluation, the monitoring and the treatment of contributions from the Funds referred to in Article 175.

Each institution and body referred to in Article 141 shall prepare a report on budgetary and financial management for the financial year.

The report referred to in paragraph 1 shall give an account, both in absolute terms and expressed as a percentage, at least, of the rate of implementation of appropriations together with summary information on the transfers of appropriations among the various budget items.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the report on budgetary and financial management.

The accounting officer of the Commission shall adopt rules based on internationally accepted accounting standards for the public sector. The accounting officer may diverge from those standards if he or she considers this necessary in order to give a true and fair view of the assets and liabilities, charges, income and cash flow. Where an accounting rule diverges materially from those standards, the notes to the financial statements shall disclose this fact and the reasons for it.

The budgetary accounts referred to in Article 141 shall respect the budgetary principles laid down in this Regulation. They shall present a true and fair view of the budgetary revenue and expenditure operations.

The financial statements referred to in Article 141 shall present information, including information on accounting policies, in a manner that ensures it is relevant, reliable, comparable and understandable. The financial statements shall be drawn up in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles as outlined in the accounting rules referred to in Article 143.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts concerning the establishment of the framework for the implementation by the accounting officer of his or her tasks under this Article and Articles 145, 146, 148, 151, 154, 156 and 157.

The financial statements shall be presented in millions of euro and shall comprise:

The notes to the financial statements shall supplement and comment on the information presented in the statements referred to in paragraph 1 and shall supply all the additional information prescribed by internationally accepted accounting practice where such information is relevant to the activities of the Union.

The budgetary implementation reports shall be presented in millions of euro. They shall consist of:

The structure of the budgetary implementation reports shall be the same as that of the budget itself.

The accounting officers of the other institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 shall send their provisional accounts to the accounting officer of the Commission and to the Court of Auditors by 1 March of the following year.

The accounting officers of the other institutions and bodies referred to in Article 141 shall also send by 1 March of the following year a reporting package to the accounting officer of the Commission, in a standardised format as laid down by the accounting officer of the Commission for consolidation purposes.

The accounting officer of the Commission shall consolidate those provisional accounts with the Commission's provisional accounts and shall send to the Court of Auditors, by 31 March of the following year, the provisional accounts of the Commission and the consolidated provisional accounts of the Union.

The Court of Auditors shall, by 1 June, make its observations on the provisional accounts of the institutions other than the Commission and each body referred to in Article 141, and by 15 June, make its observations on the provisional accounts of the Commission and the consolidated provisional accounts of the Union.

The institutions other than the Commission, and each of the bodies referred to in Article 141, shall draw up their final accounts and send them to the accounting officer of the Commission, the Court of Auditors, the European Parliament and the Council by 1 July with a view to drawing up the final consolidated accounts.

The accounting officer of each institution and body referred to in Article 141 shall also send to the Court of Auditors, with a copy to the accounting officer of the Commission, at the same date as the transmission of his or her final accounts, a representation letter covering those final accounts.

The accounting officer of the Commission shall draw up the final consolidated accounts on the basis of the information presented pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article by the institutions other than the Commission and by bodies referred to in Article 141. The final consolidated accounts shall be accompanied by a note drawn up by the accounting officer of the Commission, in which the latter declares that the final consolidated accounts were prepared in accordance with this Title and with the accounting principles, rules and methods set out in the notes to the financial statements.

After approving the final consolidated accounts and its own final accounts, the Commission shall send them both to the European Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors by 31 July.

The final consolidated accounts shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union together with the statement of assurance given by the Court of Auditors in accordance with Article 287 TFEU and Article 106a of the Euratom Treaty by 15 November.

In addition to the statements and reports provided for in Articles 145 and 146, the Commission's accounting officer shall send once a month to the European Parliament and to the Council figures, aggregated at chapter level at least, on the implementation of the budget, both for revenue and for expenditure against all appropriations.

Three times a year, within 30 working days of 31 May, 31 August and 31 December, the Commission's accounting officer shall send to the European Parliament and to the Council a report on the implementation of the budget, covering both revenue and expenditure broken down by chapter, article and item.

The figures and the report on implementation of the budget shall at the same time be sent to the Court of Auditors and published on the Commission's website.

By 15 September of each year, the accounting officer shall send to the European Parliament and to the Council a report containing information on current risks noted, general trends observed, new accounting issues encountered, progress on accounting matters, including those raised by the Court of Auditors, and information on recoveries.

An institution's accounting system shall serve to organise the budgetary and financial information in such a way that figures can be entered, filed and registered.

The accounting system shall consist of general accounts and budgetary accounts. The accounts shall be kept in euro and on the basis of the calendar year.

The authorising officer by delegation may also keep analytical accounts.

Balances and movements in the general accounts shall be entered in the accounting ledgers.

All accounting entries, including adjustments to the accounts, shall be based on supporting documents, to which the entries shall refer.

The accounting system shall be such as to leave a clear audit trail for all accounting entries.

The budgetary accounts shall provide a detailed record of the implementation of the budget.

For the purposes of paragraph 1, the budgetary accounts shall record all budgetary revenue and expenditure operations provided for in Title IV of Part One.

Each institution and body referred to in Article 141 shall keep inventories showing the quantity and value of all the Union's tangible, intangible and financial assets in accordance with a model drawn up by the accounting officer of the Commission.

The sale of the Union's tangible assets shall be suitably advertised.

The examination by the Court of Auditors of whether all revenue has been received and all expenditure incurred in a lawful and proper manner shall have regard to the Treaties, the budget, this Regulation, the delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Regulation and all other acts adopted pursuant to the Treaties.

In the performance of its task, the Court of Auditors shall be entitled to consult, in the manner provided for in Article 161, all documents and information relating to the financial management of departments or bodies with regard to operations financed or co-financed by the Union. It shall have the power to hear any official responsible for a revenue or expenditure operation and to use any of the auditing procedures appropriate to the aforementioned departments or bodies. The audit in the Member States shall be carried out in liaison with the national audit institutions or, where they do not have the necessary powers, with the competent national departments. The Court of Auditors and the national audit institutions of the Member States shall cooperate in a spirit of trust while maintaining their independence.

In order to perform its task, the Court of Auditors shall notify the institutions and authorities to which this Regulation applies of the names of the members of its staff who are empowered to audit them.

The Commission, the other institutions, the bodies administering revenue or expenditure on the Union's behalf and recipients shall afford the Court of Auditors all the facilities and give it all the information which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for the performance of its task. They shall place at the disposal of the Court of Auditors all documents concerning the award and performance of contracts financed by the budget and all accounts of cash or materials, all accounting records or supporting documents, and also administrative documents relating thereto, all documents relating to revenue and expenditure, all inventories, all organisation charts of departments, which the Court of Auditors considers necessary for auditing the budgetary and financial outturn report on the basis of records or on the spot auditing and, for the same purposes, all documents and data created or stored electronically.

The officials whose operations are checked by the Court of Auditors shall:

The Court of Auditors shall be empowered to audit the documents in respect of the revenue and expenditure of the Union which are held by the departments of the institutions and, in particular, by the departments responsible for decisions in respect of such revenue and expenditure, the bodies administering revenue or expenditure on the Union's behalf and the natural or legal persons receiving payments from the budget.

The task of establishing that the revenue has been received and the expenditure incurred in a lawful and proper manner and that the financial management has been sound shall extend to the utilisation, by bodies outside the institutions, of Union funds received by way of contributions.

Union financing paid to recipients outside the institutions shall be subject to the agreement in writing by those recipients or, failing agreement on their part, by contractors or subcontractors, to an audit by the Court of Auditors into the use made of the financing granted.

The Commission shall provide the Court of Auditors, at its request, with any information on borrowing-and-lending operations.

Use of integrated computer systems shall not have the effect of reducing access by the Court of Auditors to the supporting documents.

The Court of Auditors shall transmit to the Commission and the institutions concerned by 30 June, any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in the annual report. Those observations shall remain confidential and shall be subject to an adversarial procedure. Each institution shall address its reply to the Court of Auditors by 15 October. The replies of institutions other than the Commission shall be sent to the Commission at the same time.

The annual report shall contain an assessment of the soundness of financial management.

The annual report shall contain a section for each institution. The Court of Auditors may add any summary report or general observations which it sees fit to make.

The Court of Auditors shall transmit to the authorities responsible for giving discharge and to the other institutions, by 15 November, its annual report accompanied by the replies of the institutions and shall ensure publication thereof in the Official Journal of the European Union.

As soon as the Court of Auditors has transmitted the annual report, the Commission shall immediately inform the Member States concerned of the details of that report which relate to management of the funds for which they are responsible under the applicable rules.

The Court of Auditors shall transmit to the institution or the body concerned any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in a special report. Those observations shall remain confidential and shall be subject to an adversarial procedure.

The opinions referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 287(4), TFEU which do not relate to proposals or drafts covered by the legislative consultation procedure may be published by the Court of Auditors in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Court of Auditors shall take its decision on publication after consulting the institution which requested the opinion or which is concerned by it. Opinions published shall be accompanied by any remarks by the institutions concerned.

The European Parliament, upon a recommendation from the Council acting by qualified majority, shall, before 15 May of year n + 2 give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget for year n.

If the date provided for in paragraph 1 cannot be met, the European Parliament or the Council shall inform the Commission of the reasons for the postponement.

If the European Parliament postpones the decision giving a discharge, the Commission shall make every effort to take measures, as soon as possible, to remove or facilitate removal of the obstacles to that decision.

The discharge decision shall cover the accounts of all the Union's revenue and expenditure, the resulting balance and the assets and liabilities of the Union shown in the balance sheet.

With a view to granting the discharge, the European Parliament shall, after the Council has done so, examine the accounts, financial statements and the evaluation report referred to in Article 318 TFEU. It shall also examine the annual report made by the Court of Auditors together with the replies of the institutions under audit, and any relevant special reports by the Court of Auditors in respect of the financial year concerned and the Court of Auditors' statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions.

The Commission shall submit to the European Parliament, at the latter's request, any information required for the smooth application of the discharge procedure for the financial year concerned, in accordance with Article 319 TFEU.

In accordance with Article 319 TFEU and Article 106a of the Euratom Treaty, the Commission, the other institutions and the bodies referred to in Articles 208 and 209 of this Regulation shall take all appropriate steps to act on the observations accompanying the European Parliament's discharge decision and on the comments accompanying the recommendation for discharge adopted by the Council.

At the request of the European Parliament or the Council, the institutions and bodies referred to in paragraph 1 shall report on the measures taken in the light of those observations and comments, and, in particular, on the instructions they have given to any of their departments which are responsible for the implementation of the budget. The Member States shall cooperate with the Commission by informing it of the measures they have taken to act on those observations so that the Commission may take them into account when drawing up its own report. The reports from the institutions shall also be transmitted to the Court of Auditors.

Parts One and Three shall, except as otherwise provided in this Title, apply to expenditure effected by the authorities and bodies referred to in the rules relating to the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), and to revenue,.

Operations managed directly by the Commission shall be implemented in accordance with the rules laid down in Parts One and Three.

For each financial year, the EAGF appropriations shall include non-differentiated appropriations, with the exception of the expenditure related to the measures referred to in Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005, which shall be covered by differentiated appropriations.

Payment appropriations which have been carried over but which have not been used by the end of the financial year shall be cancelled.

Non-committed appropriations relating to the actions referred to in Article 3(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 may be carried over to the following financial year only.

The Commission shall reimburse the EAGF expenditure incurred by the Member States.

The Commission decisions fixing the amount of reimbursement of such expenditure shall constitute global provisional commitments, which may not exceed the total appropriations entered for the EAGF.

As of 15 November of the financial year, routine management expenditure for the EAGF may be committed in advance against the appropriations provided for the following financial year. Such commitments shall not, however, exceed three quarters of the total corresponding appropriations for the financial year. They shall apply only to expenditure for which the principle is laid down in an existing basic act.

Expenditure effected by the authorities and bodies referred to in the rules relating to the EAGF shall, within two months of receipt of the statements sent in by Member States, be the subject of a commitment by chapter, article and item. Such commitments may be made after the lapse of that two-month period where a procedure for a transfer of appropriations concerning the relevant budget lines is necessary. Except where payment has not yet been made by the Member States or where eligibility is in doubt, the amounts shall be charged as payments within the same two-month period.

Global provisional commitments which have been made for a financial year and which have not given rise to a commitment on specific lines in the budget nomenclature by 1 February of the following financial year shall be cancelled in respect of the financial year concerned.

Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall apply subject to the examination and acceptance of accounts.

Where the Commission transfers appropriations pursuant to Article 26(1), it shall take its decision by 31 January of the following financial year and shall inform the European Parliament and the Council as provided for in Article 26(1).

In cases other than those referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall submit transfer proposals to the European Parliament and the Council by 10 January of the following financial year.

Assigned revenue under this Title shall be assigned according to the origin of the revenue in accordance with Article 21(3).

The result of decisions referred to in Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005, shall be entered in a single article.

Parts One and Three shall apply to expenditure effected by the authorities and bodies referred to in Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 of 20 September 2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) ([^E0027]), Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Regional Development Fund ([^E0028]), Regulation (EC) No 1081/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Social Fund ([^E0029]), Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund ([^E0030]), Council Regulation (EC) No 1084/2006 of11 July 2006 establishing a Cohesion Fund ([^E0031]), Council Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 of 27 July 2006 on the European Fisheries Fund ([^E0032]), and funds in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice including the Funds under the "Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows" Programme, managed in shared management pursuant to Article 59 (the "Funds"), and to their revenue, except as otherwise provided in this Title.

Operations managed directly by the Commission shall also be implemented in accordance with the rules laid down in Parts One and Three.

Payment by the Commission of financial contributions from the Funds shall be made in accordance with the Regulations referred to in Article 175.

The time limit for interim payments by the Commission shall be laid down in accordance with the Regulations referred to in Article 175.

In accordance with the Regulations referred to in Article 175, the repayment in full, or in part, of pre-financing payments in respect of a given operation shall not have the effect of reducing the contribution from the Funds to the operation concerned.

By way of derogation from Article 14, commitment appropriations available on 31 December arising from repayments of pre-financing payments may be carried over until the closure of the programme and used when necessary provided that other commitment appropriations are no longer available.

In budgetary accounting, expenditure shall be booked to the accounts for a financial year on the basis of reimbursements made by the Commission to the Member States by 31 December of that financial year, including the expenditure charged by 31 January of the following financial year, against the payment appropriations made available in the month following the transfers referred to in Article 179.

The Commission shall automatically decommit appropriations that have been committed as provided for in the Regulations referred to in Article 175.

The decommitted appropriations may be made available again in the event of a manifest error attributable solely to the Commission.

The decommitted appropriations shall be made available again in the event of:

For the financial years 2014, 2015 and 2016, commitment appropriations for projects financed under the Connecting Europe Facility established by Regulation (EU) No 1316/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0034]) not yet committed at the end of the financial year may be carried over to the next financial year only.

The Commission shall submit carry-over proposals in respect of the preceding financial year to the European Parliament and to the Council by 15 February of the current financial year.

The European Parliament and the Council, the latter acting by qualified majority, shall deliberate upon each carry-over proposal by 31 March of the current financial year.

The carry-over proposal shall be approved if, by the deadline set out in paragraph 3, any of the following occurs:

With regard to the operational expenditure referred to in this Title, the Commission may, except in the case of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, make transfers from one title to another, provided that the appropriations concerned are for the same objective within the meaning of the Regulations referred to in Article 175, or are Technical Assistance expenditure. The Commission shall take its decisions by 31 January of the following financial year.

In cases other than those referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission may submit proposals for transfers to the Funds of payment appropriations to the European Parliament and the Council by 10 January of the following financial year. The transfer of the payment appropriations may be made from any item of the budget. The European Parliament and the Council shall take decisions on such transfers in accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 27, but for the purposes of this Article the time limit applicable shall be three weeks.

If the transfer is not approved or only partially approved by the European Parliament and the Council, the corresponding part of the expenditure referred to in Article 177(5) shall be charged to the payment appropriations of the following financial year.

Parts One and Three shall apply to research and technological development appropriations, except as otherwise provided in this Title.

The appropriations relating to the revenue generated by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel established by Protocol No 37 on the financial consequences of the expiry of the ECSC Treaty and on the Research Fund for Coal and Steel annexed to the TEU and the TFEU shall be treated as assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 21. The commitment appropriations generated by such revenue shall be made available as soon as the amount receivable has been estimated and the payment appropriations as soon as the revenue has been received.

With regard to the operational expenditure referred to in this Title, the Commission may make transfers from one title to another, provided that the appropriations are used for the same purpose.

Experts paid from research and technological development appropriations shall be recruited in accordance with the procedures laid down by the European Parliament and the Council when they adopt each research framework programme or in accordance with the corresponding rules for the participation of undertakings, research centres and universities.

The commitment appropriations corresponding to the amount of the commitment decommitted as a result of total or partial non-implementation of the projects relating to research for which they were earmarked may, exceptionally and in duly justified cases, be made available again where it is essential to carry out the programme originally planned, unless the budget for the financial year concerned (year n) contains funds for this purpose.

For the purposes of paragraph 1, the Commission shall, at the beginning of each financial year, examine decommitments made during the preceding financial year (year n – 1) and assess, in the light of the requirements, the need to make the appropriations available again.

The European Parliament and the Council shall decide on the Commission's proposals within six weeks. Where no decision is taken within this time limit, the proposals shall be deemed to be approved.

Commitment appropriations made available again shall not be carried over.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) may receive funding charged to appropriations entered outside the titles and the chapters referred to in Article 181(1) in respect of its participation in procurement and grant procedures following Titles V and VI of Part One, and financed in whole or in part from the budget.

Appropriations relating to the following shall be treated as assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 21(2):

The use of appropriations shall be shown in a set of analytical accounts in the budgetary outturn account for each category of action to which it relates; it shall be separate from revenue originating from financing by third parties (public or private) and from revenue from other services carried out by the Commission for third parties.

When participating in grant or procurement procedures in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article, the JRC shall not be subject to the conditions laid down in Articles 105a, 106, points (a) and (b) of Article 107(1), Article 108 and Article 131(4) regarding provisions on exclusion and penalties in relation to procurement and grants.

The rules on procurement in Title V of Part One shall not apply to the activities of the JRC on behalf of third parties.

By way of derogation from Article 26, the Commission may, within the title of the budget relating to the "Direct research" policy area, make transfers between chapters of up to 15 % of the appropriation in the line from which the transfer is made.

Parts One and Three shall apply to external actions financed from the budget, except as otherwise provided in this Title.

The appropriations for the actions referred to in paragraph 1 shall be used by the Commission:

Where external actions are co-financed both from appropriations entered in the budget and from external assigned revenue referred to in point (b) of Article 21(2), the funds which are not committed after the end of the contracting period referred to in Article 189(2) for the relevant action shall be reimbursed on a pro rata basis after the deduction of a lump sum corresponding to audit, evaluation and contingencies which can be committed at a later time.

The second subparagraph of Article 90(4) shall not apply to the actions referred to in this Title.

Where provided for in the relevant basic acts, the Commission may provide budget support to a beneficiary third country if that country's management of public finances is sufficiently transparent, reliable and effective.

The financing decision referred to in Article 84 shall detail the objectives and the expected results of the provision of budget support to a beneficiary third country. The payment of the Union contribution shall be based on the fulfilment of conditions referred to in paragraph 1, including the improvement of the management of public finances, and on clear and objective performance indicators forming the basis for the measurement of progress over time in the respective sector.

The Commission shall include in the corresponding financing agreement concluded in accordance with point (b) of Article 184(2), the appropriate provisions pursuant to which the beneficiary third country is to commit to immediately reimburse all or part of the relevant operation funding, in the event that it is established that the payment of the relevant Union funds has been vitiated by serious irregularities attributable to the that country.

The Commission shall support in beneficiary third countries the development of parliamentary control and audit capacities and increase transparency and public access to information.

For emergency, post-emergency or thematic actions, the Commission may create trust funds under an agreement concluded with other donors. The constitutive act of each trust fund shall define the objectives of the trust fund.

Union trust funds shall be implemented in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination and equal treatment, and in accordance with the specific objectives defined in each constitutive act.

Union trust funds shall comply with the following conditions:

A board chaired by the Commission shall be established for each Union trust fund to ensure the representation of the donors, and of the non-contributing Member States as observers, and to decide upon the use of the funds.

Union trust funds shall be created for a limited duration determined in their constitutive act. This duration may be extended by a decision of the Commission upon request of the board of the trust fund concerned.

The contributions of the Union and of the donors shall be lodged in a specific bank account. The contributions of the Union shall be transferred to this account on the basis of payment requests that are duly substantiated with disbursement forecasts, taking into account the balance available on the account and the resulting need for additional payments. Disbursement forecasts are to be provided on an annual, or where appropriate on a semi-annual, basis.

The Commission shall be authorised to withdraw a maximum of 5 % of the amounts pooled into the trust fund to cover its management costs from the years in which the contributions referred to in paragraph 6 have started to be used. For the duration of the trust fund, such management fees shall be assimilated to assigned revenue within the meaning of point (b) of Article 21(2).

The Commission shall submit its draft decisions concerning the creation, the extension and the liquidation of a Union trust fund to the competent committee provided for in the basic act under which the Union contribution to the Union trust fund is provided.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the management, reporting and governance of trust funds for external actions.

The Commission shall submit annually a comprehensive and detailed report to the European Parliament and the Council on the activities supported by Union trust funds, on their implementation and performance, as well as on their accounts. The Commission shall attach its report to the summary of the annual reports referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 66(9).

The implementation of actions implemented indirectly pursuant to point (c) of Article 58(1) shall be subject to scrutiny by the Commission and by Union Delegations in accordance with Article 56(2). Such scrutiny shall be exercised either by prior approval, by ex post checks or by a combined procedure.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the implementation of external actions through indirect management.

External actions carried out shall give rise to one or more of the following instruments:

Financing agreements with the entities referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1shall be concluded by 31 December of year n + 1, year n being the one in which the budgetary commitment was made.

Paragraph 2 shall not apply to the multiannual programmes that are implemented through split commitments in the following cases:

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on financing agreements concerning the implementation of external actions.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on external action procurement.

The provisions of Chapter 1 of Title V of Part One relating to the general provisions on procurement shall be applicable to contracts covered by this Title subject to the special provisions relating to thresholds and the arrangements for awarding external contracts to be laid down in the delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Regulation. Articles 117 and 120 shall not be applicable to the procurement set out in this Chapter.

The procurement procedures shall be laid down in the financing agreements provided for in Article 189.

This Chapter shall not apply to actions under sector-specific basic acts relating to humanitarian crisis management aid, civil protection operations and humanitarian aid operations.

Participation in procurement procedures shall be open on equal terms to all persons within the scope of the Treaties and to any other natural or legal person in accordance with the specific provisions in the basic instruments governing the cooperation sector concerned. It shall also be open to international organisations.

In the cases referred to in Article 54(2), it may be decided, under exceptional circumstances duly justified by the authorising officer responsible, to allow third-country nationals, other than those referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, to tender for contracts.

Where an agreement on widening the market for procurement of goods or services to which the Union is party applies, the procurement procedures for contracts financed by the budget shall also be open to natural and legal persons established in a third country other than those referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, under the conditions laid down in that agreement.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on access to procurement procedures.