The COVID-19 pandemic, which leaves the whole world faced with unprecedented challenges, calls for a rapid and efficient response in all spheres of life. Thus, the National Control, which is responsible for carrying out first level control for the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Programmes, has adjusted its work process and procedures and put in place several measures to ensure successful reporting and see to it that spending of EU funding continues uninterrupted.
To this end, the National Control will take into due account the developments surrounding the COVID-19 crisis and its impact as well as the recommendations made by the government in relation to the crisis, and will verify any expenditure incurred during this particular period in compliance with the rules of each individual ETC Programme.
In addition to the programme rules for Interreg Europe 2014-2020 Programme, we would like to bring to your attention the following:
- should you, as a result of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, fail to provide or supply the relevant required documentation or supply documentation that has not been appropriately signed (timesheets, statements, periodic reports, work assignments, letters etc.), we ask you to send the documentation unsigned or enclose a letter explaining that all or part of the documentation could not be supplied due to circumstances;
- any expenditure that the National Control fails to verify and validate due to circumstances, will not be included in the current report and will be subject to verification and validation, along with the supporting and missing documentation, during the next review of the project progress report. The abovementioned expenditure will have to be reported again, both in the system and in the paper form;
- the expenditure for the public employees working on EU projects from home will be considered eligible equally to the expenditure for the work done on the official premises of an organization should they incur in relation to the implementation of project activities and achievement of project results;
- should you fail to prepare the documents in the paper form, the documentation can be saved and submitted in an electronic format on a data carrier (USB stick, secondary storage device etc.) as for the time being the iOLF system does not allow for the documentation to be entered. Should you switch to submitting electronic versions of documents, we ask you to submit the documentation in the paper form including all the relevant signatures once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
Because there are so many different scenarios and situations for all of you, there can be no one-size-fits-all solution to address the situation. Thus, we invite you to reach us by sending an e-mail to [email protected] should you have any further questions regarding the eligibility of expenditure and reporting.
We would also like to inform you that on-the-spot checks have been suspended until further notice. On-the-spot verification, particularly for certain projects, will be top priority for the National Control once the situation gets back to normal.
Our website will be regularly updated with any further information and potential additional recommendations so stay tuned