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European funding recommendations released
13 October 2009
EN has released ten key recommendations on how to improve the financial regulation and implementation rules. These are the stringent codes which governs all grants and contracts awarded by the European Union worldwide.
The recommendations are the outcomes of the suggestions and evidence sent to us from civil society across Europe. Further information on the process can be found here.
In the recommendations, the following areas were raised:
- Administrative burden
- Application procedure
- Co-financing and contributions in kind
- Non-profit constraints
- Language
- Indirect costs
- Bank guarantees
- Auditing
- Exchange rates
- Transparency
Results presented
The recommendations have resulted in increased levels of debate on the issues with new contributions to the consultation being submitted.
The recommendations will be pivotal to the final report to be submitted in November to DG Budget, which has committed itself to consider all recommendations and introduce them in the new text of the financial review as appropriate.
The results were presented to working group on EU financial support (WGFS) at the European Commission. Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) hosted the meeting and included participants from the Directorate-General for Budget (DG Budget) who lead the process.
It was decided that the review of the financial regulation was to be prioritised due to the window for contributions closing in November, and the resulting review of the FR being presented in May 2010.
Next steps
After gathering and presenting the recommendations, EN continues to collect responses from civil society and will be developing and producing more documentation of the issues raised in the paper. With the consultation paper now being circulated, we now have the opportunity to produce greater evidence on the key points, strengthening the issues raised and the need for change.
Filippo Addarii, Executive Director of EN, is working with Roshan Di Puppo, Director of Social Platform, to facilitate the work WGFS hosted by DG EAC. The objective is to prepare a report that will be discussed and finalized at the next meeting of WGFS on the 16th of November.
Interested parties can contribute, and comment on the text by emailing Daniel Hooper.
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