Procedures for partner countries

When a partner country signs a financing agreement with the EU, this country agrees to take ownership of the programmes funded through this agreement. 

A financing agreement allows a direct involvement of the partner country. In certain cases, the EU may also sign financing agreements with regional organisations designated by partner countries. Based on the financing agreement, the partner country may also become a direct recipient of funds (budget support) or it (or an entity designated by the partner country) may be involved in the implementation of the funds (indirect management).

To reflect the different purpose of the financing agreement, there are two types of financing agreement templates available, the “regular financing agreement” and a “simplified financing agreement”:

The “regular financing agreement” includes:

• Special conditions 
• Annex I: Technical and Administrative Provisions (TAPs) for the implementation of the action, which describe the activities, the implementation modalities and the budget of the action
• Annex II: General Conditions setting out the reciprocal obligations of the parties
• Annex III: Reporting to be used by the partner country when the action is implemented in indirect management outside of programme estimate (partial delegation)
• Annex IV: Management declaration to be used by the partner country when the action is implemented in indirect management

The “simplified financing agreement” may be used only in cases where there are no activities implemented in indirect management by the partner country or budget support involved.

The “simplified financing agreement” includes:

• Special conditions.
• Its Annex, containing the TAPs for the implementation of the action. In this case, the TAPs will usually include only the summary of the action to be implemented. On a case-by-case basis, additional information/annexes may be added if deemed appropriate