When a partner country signs a financing agreement with the EU, this country agrees to take ownership of the development programmes funded through this agreement. A financing agreement allows a direct involvement of the partner country. In certain cases, the EU also signs financing agreements with regional organisations of partner countries. Based on the financing agreement, the partner country may also become a direct recipient of funds (budget support) or it (or the regional organisation) may be involved in the implementation of the funds (indirect management).
A financing agreement includes:
- Special conditions (Annex E1a1 of the INTPA Companion).
- Annex I: technical administrative provisions for the implementation of the action, which describe the activities, the implementation modalities and the budget of the action
- Annex II (Annex E1a2 of the INTPA Companion): general conditions setting out the reciprocal obligations of the parties
Programme estimates allow projects and programmes to be fulfilled through indirect management with the partner country or regional organisation or through partially decentralised financial management.
This toolkit aims to help recipients of EU funds for external actions to comply with the conditions for financial management set out in contracts for EU-financed external actions.