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Easier access to EU funding with Welcomeurope

Knowing the trends in financial management

The EU's financial management rules are laid down in the Financial Regulation and its implementing rules, which together with sector-specific legal bases govern all transactions concerning EU funds.
In this section you will find examples of the main practical improvements to make access to EU funding easier. Less papers

• Lighter documentation requirements will apply to the newly defined grants of small amount (less than or equal to €25,000).

Valorise voluntary work

• Beneficiary organisations must partially finance their projects (so-called co-financing). Now, where justified, they will be able to replace this with co-financing in kind (for example through the work done by some of their staff ).

Less guarantees

• To obtain significant payments at the outset of their project (so-called prefinancing), beneficiary organisations such as NGOs need to provide financial guarantees, which often represent a substantial financial obstacle. With the new rules, after assessing the risks, this requirement for grant pre-financing below €60,000 may be waived.

Fewer external audits

• For organisations applying for EU funds, thresholds for which an external audit is required are increased from €300,000 to grants of €500,000 or more for specific projects, and from €75,000 to grants of €100,000 or more to finance operational costs of organisations.

Quicker selection and contracting procedures

• So that applicants can be informed quickly of the possibility of success of their applications, the submission procedure and the evaluation procedure can be divided into two separate stages, making it possible to reject at an early stage those proposals which have no prospect of being successful.

• The rules governing purchases made by beneficiaries to implement a grant have been simplified. For purchases below €60,000, the rules to be followed by the beneficiary will be limited to two basic principles: the principle of sound financial management and the absence of any conflict of interest.

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