Eligible beneficiaries and eligible actions What is a cross-border project?
Each proposal must always have two cross-border applicants acting in partnership – one from Serbia and one from Montenegro. Applicants appoint between themselves lead partner functional lead applicant. Functional lead applicant is responsible for:
• The overall coordination of the project activities on both sides of the border;
• Organizing joint meetings of project partners, regular information exchange and correspondence;
• Reporting to the Joint Technical Secretariat on the overall project progress.
To be eligible for financing proposal must:
• take place in the programme area of Serbia and/or Montenegro
• have effect both in the Serbian and Montenegrin parts of the programming area
• foresee cooperation of the cross-border applicants/partners in the following ways:
Joint project development: applicants cooperate in designing the action, filling in a joint application form and drawing up their respective budget;
Joint financing: activities are financed by both applicants’ own budget;
Joint staffing: staff on both sides of the border act as one project team;
Joint implementation: grant beneficiaries coordinate their activities across the border.
Definition of lead beneficiaries and other beneficiaries
According to Article 96 (3) of the IPA Implementing Regulation, if there are several final beneficiaries of an operation in each participating country, they shall appoint a lead beneficiary among themselves prior to the submission of the proposal for an operation. The lead beneficiary shall assume the responsibilities set out below regarding the implementation of the operation. Responsibilities of Lead Beneficiaries and other Beneficiaries Responsibilities of lead beneficiaries According to the provisions of Article 96 (3) of the IPA Implementing Regulation, the lead beneficiary shall assume the following responsibilities for the part of the operation taking place in the respective country
• It shall lay down the arrangements for its relations with the final beneficiaries participating in the part of the operation taking place in the respective country in an agreement comprising, , provisions guaranteeing the sound financial management of the funds allocated to the operation, including the arrangements for recovering amounts unduly paid;
• It shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the part of operation taking place in the respective country;
• It shall be responsible for transferring the Community contribution to the final beneficiaries participating in the part of operation taking place in the respective country;It shall ensure that the expenditure presented by the final beneficiaries participating in the part of operation taking place in the respective country has been paid for the purpose of implementing the operation and corresponds to the activities agreed between the final beneficiaries participating in the operation. lead beneficiaries from the participating countries shall ensure a close co-ordination among them in the implementation of the operation.
Responsibilities of other beneficiaries
Each beneficiary participating in the operation shall:
• Participate in the operation;
• Be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the operations under its responsibility according to the project plan and the agreement signed with the lead beneficiary;
• Co-operate with the other partner beneficiaries in the implementation of the operation, the reporting for monitoring;• Provide the information requested for audit by the audit bodies responsible for it;
• Assume responsibility in the event of any irregularity in the expenditure which was declared, including eventual repayment to the Commission;
• Be responsible for information and communication measures for the public.
The Joint Technical Secretariat will proactively support the Lead Beneficiaries and other beneficiaries throughout the life cycle of operations, i. e. during preparation starting from development of applications, and implementation of operations until complete finalization of the respective operation. A comprehensive schedule of general info days will be organised to promote the Cross-border programme, followed by more focused info days, workshops and partner search events in the context of calls for proposals. This will be supported by appropriate publicity material, a regularly updated programme website and other events to ensure a stakeholder network is built and good practice experiences are shared. Operations selected shall include final beneficiaries from both countries which shall co-operate in at least one of the following ways: joint development, joint implementation, joint staffing and joint financing.
