Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2014)9 - Amendment of Council Regulation 215/2008 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the 10th European Development Fund for the implementation of the Bridging Facility

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dossier COM(2014)9 - Amendment of Council Regulation 215/2008 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the 10th European Development Fund for the ...
source COM(2014)9 EN
date 17-01-2014
The Internal Agreement establishing the eleventh European Development Fund (11th EDF) was signed by the Member States, meeting within the Council, in June 2013. This Internal Agreement will only enter into force after ratification by all the Member States. This process will probably not be concluded before January 2014.

The Commission has proposed transitional measures (‘Bridging Facility’) to ensure the availability of funds for cooperation with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and with Overseas Countries and Territories, as well as for support expenditure, between January 2014 and the entry into force of the Internal Agreement establishing the 11th EDF. This facility shall be financed from balances and decommitted funds of the 10th and previous EDFs. The funds under this Bridging Facility shall be accounted for under the 11th EDF.

The Commission has also adopted a proposal for a Regulation providing financial rules applicable to the 11th EDF. This Regulation cannot be adopted by the Council before the entry into force of the 11th EDF Internal Agreement or before the adoption by the Council of a Decision allowing for a provisional application of some of its provisions. In the light of the latest discussions in the Council, it is not expected that any of these processes will be concluded before January 2014.

It is appropriate that actions supported under the Bridging Facility are as soon as possible implemented using the same rules as those foreseen for the 11th EDF. Therefore, the Commission proposes that the Council Regulation on the Financial Regulation applicable to the 10th EDF be modified in such a way that the financial rules which will apply to the 11th EDF also apply for the financial management of the Bridging Facility.

The Commission therefore proposes to the Council to adopt the attached Regulation in due course, when it can be complemented by the inclusion in its annex of the substantive provisions of the draft 11th EDF Financial Regulation, their content having been approved and fixed by the Council in the meantime.