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

"European offices", for the purposes of this Title, are the administrative structures set up by one or more institutions to perform specific cross-cutting tasks.

This Title shall apply to the operation of OLAF, with the exception of Articles 198, 199 and 200.

Parts One and Three shall apply to the operation of the European offices, except as otherwise provided in this Title.

The appropriations for each European office, the total amount of which shall be entered in a specific budget line within the section of the budget relating to the Commission, shall be set out in detail in an Annex to that section.

Each European office's establishment plan shall be annexed to that of the Commission.

The Director of each European office shall take decisions on transfers within the Annex provided for in paragraph 1. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of such transfers.

Each European office's accounts shall form an integral part of the Union's accounts referred to in Article 141.

Each interinstitutional European office shall draw up analytical accounts of its expenditure, enabling the proportion of its services supplied to each of the institutions to be determined. The Director of the European office concerned shall adopt, after approval by its Management Committee, the criteria on which the accounting system shall be based.

The remarks concerning the specific budget line in which the total appropriation for each interinstitutional European office is entered shall show an estimate of the cost of services supplied by that office to each of the institutions. This shall be based on the analytical accounts provided for in paragraph 1.

Each interinstitutional European office shall notify the institutions concerned of the results of the analytical accounts.

Each institution may delegate authorising officer powers to the director of an interinstitutional European office for the management of appropriations entered in its section and shall set the limits and conditions for this delegation of powers.

The internal auditor of the Commission shall exercise all responsibilities laid down in Chapter 9 of Title IV of Part One.

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

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on the scope of administrative appropriations and rent guarantees.

As from 15 October of each year, routine administrative expenditure may be committed in advance against the appropriations provided for the following financial year. Such commitments shall not, however, exceed one quarter of the appropriations decided by the European Parliament and the Council on the corresponding budget line for the current financial year. They shall not apply to new expenditure of a kind not yet approved in principle in the last budget duly adopted.

Expenditure which shall be paid in advance pursuant to legal or contractual provisions, for example rents, may give rise to payments from 1 December onwards to be charged to the appropriations for the following financial year. In this case, the limit referred to in paragraph 1 shall not apply.

Administrative appropriations shall be non-differentiated appropriations.

Administrative expenditure arising from contracts covering periods that extend beyond the financial year, either in accordance with local practice or relating to the supply of equipment, shall be charged to the budget of the financial year in which it is effected.

Each institution shall provide the European Parliament and the Council, by 1 June each year, with a working document on its building policy, which shall incorporate the following information:

For any building project likely to have significant financial implications for the budget, the institution shall inform the European Parliament and the Council as early as possible about the building surface area required and provisional planning before any prospecting of the local market takes place, in the case of building contracts, or before invitations to tender are issued, in the case of building works.

For any building project likely to have significant financial implications for the budget, the institution shall present the building project, including its detailed estimated costs and its financing, as well as a list of draft contracts intended to be used, and shall request the approval of the European Parliament and the Council before contracts are concluded. At the request of the institution, documents submitted relating to the building project shall be treated confidentially.

In cases of force majeure, the information provided for in paragraph 4 may be submitted jointly with the building project. The European Parliament and the Council shall deliberate upon the building project within 2 weeks of its receipt by both institutions. The building project shall be deemed to be approved at the expiry of this two-week period, unless the European Parliament and/or the Council take a decision contrary to the proposal within this period of time.

The following shall be considered as building projects likely to have significant financial implications for the budget:

Without prejudice to Article 17, a building acquisition project may be financed through a loan, subject to prior approval by the European Parliament and the Council.

For the purposes of this Regulation, European political parties shall mean the entities registered as such in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Direct financial contributions from the budget may be awarded to European political parties in view of their contribution to forming European political awareness and to expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Contributions shall only be used to reimburse the percentage set out in Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 of the operating costs of European political parties directly linked to objectives of those parties, as specified in Article 17(5) and Article 21 of that Regulation.

Contributions may be used to reimburse expenditure relating to contracts concluded by European political parties, provided that there were no conflicts of interest when they were awarded.

Contributions shall not be used to directly or indirectly grant any personal advantage, in cash or in kind, to any individual member or member of staff of a European political party. Contributions shall not be used to directly or indirectly finance activities of third parties, in particular national political parties or political foundations at European or national level, whether in the form of grants, donations, loans or any other similar agreements. Contributions shall not be used for any of the purposes excluded by Article 22 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Contributions shall be subject to the principles of transparency and equal treatment, in accordance with the criteria laid down in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Contributions shall be awarded by the European Parliament on an annual basis and shall be published in accordance with Article 35(2) of this Regulation and with Article 32(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

European political parties receiving a contribution shall not directly or indirectly receive other funding from the budget. In particular, donations from the budgets of political groups in the European Parliament shall be prohibited. In no circumstances may an item of expenditure be financed twice by the budget.

Contributions shall be awarded through a call for contributions published each year, at least on the website of the European Parliament.

A European political party may be awarded only one contribution per year.

A European political party may receive a contribution only if it applies for funding on the terms and conditions laid down in the call for contributions.

The call for contributions shall determine the eligibility criteria to be met by the applicant as well as the exclusion criteria.

The call for contributions shall determine, at least, the nature of the expenditure that may be reimbursed by the contribution.

The call for contributions shall require an estimated budget.

Applications for contributions shall be duly submitted within the time limit applicable in writing, including, where appropriate, in a secure electronic format.

Contributions shall not be awarded to applicants who are, at the time of a contribution award procedure, in one of the situations referred to in Articles 106(1) and 107 and point (a) of Article 109(1) and those who are registered in the central exclusion database referred to in Article 108.

Applicants shall be required to certify that they are not in one of the situations referred to in paragraph 2.

Contributions shall be awarded through a contribution agreement or decision as specified in the call for contributions.

The authorising officer responsible may be assisted by a committee to evaluate and establish the contribution agreement or decision. The authorising officer responsible shall specify, with due regard to the principles of transparency and equal treatment, the rules regarding the composition, appointment and functioning of such committee, and the rules to prevent any conflict of interests.

Applications shall be selected on the basis of the award criteria set out in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 from applications that comply with the eligibility and exclusion criteria.

The eligibility criteria shall determine the conditions for an applicant to be able to receive a contribution in accordance with the rules laid down in Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

The decision of the authorising officer responsible on the applications shall state at least:

The authorising officer responsible shall inform applicants in writing of the decision on their applications. If the application for funding is rejected or the amounts requested are not awarded in part or in full, the authorising officer responsible shall give the reasons for either the rejection of the application or the non-award of the amounts requested, with reference in particular to the eligibility and award criteria referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2. If the application is rejected, the authorising officer responsible shall inform the applicant of the available means of administrative and/or judicial redress as provided for by Article 97 of this Regulation.

Contributions may take any of the following forms:

Only expenditure which meets the criteria established in the calls for contributions and which has not been incurred prior to the date of submission of the application may be reimbursed.

Unit cost shall cover all or certain specific categories of reimbursable expenditure which are clearly identified in advance by reference to an amount per unit.

Lump sums shall cover, in global terms, certain expenditure necessary for carrying out a specific activity of the European political party. Lump sums shall be used only in combination with other forms of contributions.

Flat-rate financing shall cover specific categories of reimbursable expenditure which are clearly identified in advance by applying a percentage.

Where lump sums, flat-rate financing or unit costs are used, they shall be defined in the call for contributions with their respective amounts and rates, where applicable. The call for contributions shall also contain a description of the methods for determining lump sums, flat-rate financing or unit costs, which shall be based on objective means such as statistical data, certified or auditable historical data of the European political parties or their usual cost accounting practices. The contribution agreement or decision shall include provisions that allow verifying that the conditions for the award of lump sums, flat-rate financing or unit costs have been complied with.

Contributions shall be spent in accordance with Article 204b.

Any part of the contribution not spent within the financial year covered by that contribution (year n) shall be spent on any reimbursable expenditure incurred by 31 December of year n+1. Any remaining part of the contribution that is not spent within that time limit shall be recovered in accordance with Chapter 5 of Title IV of Part One.

European political parties shall respect the maximum co-financing rate laid down in Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014. Remaining amounts of the previous year’s contributions may not be used to finance the part which European political parties must provide from their own resources. Contributions by third parties to joint events shall not be considered to be part of the own resources of a European political party.

European political parties shall use the part of the contribution that has not been used within the financial year covered by that contribution before using contributions awarded after that year.

Any interest yielded by the prefinancing payments shall be considered as part of the contribution.

The European political party shall, in accordance with Article 23 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014, submit its annual report on the use of the contribution and its annual financial statements for approval to the authorising officer responsible.

The annual activity report referred to in Article 66(9) of this Regulation shall be drafted by the authorising officer responsible on the basis of the annual report and the annual financial statements referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article. Other supporting documents may be used for the purposes of drafting that report.

The amount of the contribution shall not become final until the approval of the annual report and the annual financial statements referred to in Article 204l(1) by the authorising officer responsible. Approval of the annual report and the annual financial statements shall be without prejudice to subsequent checks by the Authority.

Any unspent amount of prefinancing shall not become final until it has been used by the European political party to pay reimbursable expenditure which meets the criteria defined in the call for contributions.

Where the European political party fails to comply with its obligations related to the use of contributions, the contributions shall be suspended, reduced or terminated after the European political party has been given the opportunity to present its observations.

The authorising officer responsible shall verify before making the payment of the balance that the European political party is still registered in the Register referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 and has not been the subject of any of the penalties provided for in Article 27 of that Regulation between the date of its application and the end of the financial year covered by the contribution.

Where the European political party is no longer registered in the Register referred to in Article 7 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 or has been the subject of any of the penalties provided for in Article 27 of that Regulation, the authorising officer responsible may suspend, reduce or terminate the contribution and recover amounts unduly paid under the contribution agreement or decision, in proportion to the seriousness of the errors, irregularities, fraud or other breach of obligations related to the use of contribution, after the European political party has been given the opportunity to present its observations.

Each contribution agreement or decision shall provide expressly for the European Parliament, European Anti-Fraud Office and the Court of Auditors to exercise their powers of control, on documents and on the premises, over all European political parties, contractors and subcontractors who have received Union funding.

Administrative and financial penalties which are effective, proportionate and dissuasive may be imposed on applicants by the authorising officer responsible, in accordance with Article 109 of this Regulation and with Article 27 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014.

Penalties referred to in paragraph 2 may also be imposed on European political parties which, at the moment of the submission of the application for contribution or after having received the contribution, made false declarations in supplying the information requested by the authorising officer responsible or failed to supply such information.

European political parties shall keep all records and supporting documents pertaining to the contribution for five years following the submission of the annual report and the annual financial statements referred to in Article 204l(1).

Records related to audits, appeals, litigation or the settlement of claims arising out of the use of the contribution shall be retained until the end of such audits, appeals, litigation or settlement of claims.

With regard to the Funds referred to in Article 175(1) for which the basic acts are repealed before 1 January 2013, appropriations which were decommitted in application of Article 178 may be made available again in the case of a manifest error attributable solely to the Commission or in the case of force majeure which has serious repercussions for the implementation of operations supported by those Funds.

For transfers of appropriations concerning operational expenditure referred to in Regulations (EC) No 1260/1999, (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 1080/2006, (EC) No 1081/2006, (EC) No 1083/2006, Regulation (EC) No 1084/2006, and (EC) No 1198/2006, for which Union payments still have to be made for the financial settlement of outstanding Union commitments until the closure of the assistance, the Commission may make transfers from one title to another, provided that the appropriations concerned are for the same objective or relate to Union initiatives or to technical assistance and innovative measures and are transferred to measures of the same nature.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 210 concerning detailed rules on transitional provisions.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt a framework financial Regulation by means of a delegated act in accordance with Article 210 for bodies which are set up under the TFEU and the Euratom Treaty and which have legal personality and receive contributions charged to the budget.

Discharge for the implementation of the budgets of the bodies referred to in paragraph 1, shall be given by the European Parliament on the recommendation of the Council. The bodies referred to in paragraph 1 shall fully cooperate with the institutions involved in the discharge procedure and provide, as appropriate, any additional necessary information, including through attendance at meetings of the relevant bodies.

The Commission's internal auditor shall exercise the same powers over the bodies referred to in paragraph 1 as those exercised in respect of the Commission.

An independent external auditor shall verify that the annual accounts of each of the bodies referred to in paragraph 1 properly present the income, expenditure and financial position of the relevant body prior to the consolidation in the Commission's final accounts. Unless otherwise provided in the basic act referred to in paragraph 1, the Court of Auditors shall prepare a Specific Annual Report on each body in line with the requirements of Article 287(1) TFEU. In preparing this report, the Court shall consider the audit work performed by the independent external auditor and the action taken in response to the auditor's findings.

The bodies having legal personality set up by a basic act and entrusted with the implementation of a public-private partnership shall adopt their financial rules.

Paragraphs 2 to 4 of Article 208 shall apply.

The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.

The delegation of power referred to in Articles 8, 11, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41, 44, 49, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 144, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 199, 201, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208 and 209 shall be conferred on the Commission up to the end of the first post-2013 multiannual financial framework referred to in Article 312 TFEU. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than two years before the end of the first post-2013 multiannual financial framework. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods corresponding to subsequent multiannual financial frameworks, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period of validity of the corresponding multiannual financial framework.

The delegation of power referred to in Articles 8, 11, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41, 44, 49, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 144, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 199, 201, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208 and 209 may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision of revocation shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.

A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 8, 11, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41, 44, 49, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 144, 181, 183, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 199, 201, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208 and 209 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or the Council.