Cross-border cooperation

Functioning of cross-border cooperation programmes

Competent authorities


In the 2007-2013 programming period, the operational programmes set out an intervention strategy for each cooperation territory. In particular, they contain a territorial analysis, key priorities and a simplified financing plan. They also set out the competent authorities that are responsible for the programmes’ implementation:

  • The managing authority, which is responsible for the management and implementation of the operational programme. Every year, it submits an annual implementation report to the Commission.

  • The certifying authority, which replaced the payment authority of the previous period, draws up and submits to the commission certified statements of expenditure and payment claims. It keeps the accounts and must also certify expenditure and validate its compliance with domestic and Community rules.

  • The follow-up committee, which monitors the effectiveness of the operational programme’s implementation and periodically assesses the progress made and results achieved.

  • The selection committee, which is responsible for the selection of projects.

  • The joint technical secretariat, which is set up by the managing authority and is charged with processing applications and assisting the managing authority and follow-up committee.

  • The national authority, which is in charge of the procedure for implementing funds on its country’s behalf in the cases where the managing authority is not in the country concerned.

Procedures

In order to be eligible for financing under Objective 3 – cross-border cooperation – the project must involve at least two countries, one of which must be in the European Union, and the project sponsors and their partners must be located in the same programming area. The beneficiaries can be any operator, organisation or firm, whether public or private, in the European Union. Operations must comply with at least two of the following criteria: having joint development, joint implementation, joint staffing and joint financing. For any EU fund applied to, the project’s sponsor must provide a contribution whether financial or in kind.

A project’s lead beneficiary (the concept replacing that of project leader) is designated by the partners in the project and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the entire operation, verifying that the expenditure presented has been validated by the relevant controllers, receiving funds from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and transferring them to the other partners.

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