Draft_31.03.2009 Rules of Procedure of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007-13 Preamble The EU Member State Poland and the Partner States Belarus and Ukraine, on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1638/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 2006 laying down general provisions establishing a European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (hereinafter referred to as the General Regulation) Commission Regulation (EC) No 951/2007 of 9 August 2007 laying down implementing rules for cross-border cooperation programmes financed under Regulation (EC) No 1638/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down general provisions establishing a European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (hereinafter referred to as the Implementing Rules) Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007-2013 approved by the Commission Decision (C(2008) 6411 final) of 6 November 2008 on the joint operational programme "Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2007-2013" for the ENPI Cross-Border Co-operation 2007-2013 to be financed under Article 19 08 02 01 and 19 08 02 02 of the general budget of the European Communities, hereinafter referred to as the programme) have set up the Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007-13 (hereinafter referred to as the Joint Monitoring Committee or the Committee). These Rules of Procedure have been adopted by the Joint Monitoring Committee in agreement with the Joint Managing Authority of the programme. Article 1 Tasks 1. The Joint Monitoring Committee is responsible for the quality and efficiency of the implementation of the programme. Thus it takes in particular the following decisions concerning the programme: a) it approves the work programme of the Joint Managing Authority and the Joint Technical Secretariat and reviews the management decisions taken by the Joint Managing Authority, b) it appoints the members of the evaluation committees, c) it decides the selection criteria to be applied and the final choice of the projects and grant amounts, d) it decides on the amounts and on the allocation of funds and resources for technical assistance including human resources, e) it reviews all the reports submitted by the Joint Managing Authority and takes the appropriate measures if necessary, f) at each of its meetings and on the basis of the documents submitted by the Joint Managing Authority, it evaluates and monitors accomplished progress to achieve the objectives of the programme, g) it examines the contentious cases of recovery notified by the Joint Managing Authority. 2. Furthermore the Joint Monitoring Committee shall: a) approve adjustments to the programme financial table as defined in Article 7 (1) of the Implementing Rules,
b) check that funds are used in accordance with the rules and principles governing programme management (Article 14 (2) of the Implementing Rules), c) approve calls for tenders and calls for proposals for the selection of projects, d) provide a forum for discussion and information exchange of issues relating to the implementation of the programme, its evaluation and adaptation with the aim of ensuring high quality of the implementation process. Article 2 Composition 1. The Joint Monitoring Committee shall include representatives of the cooperation areas involved (one regional representative per region), representatives of the national authorities responsible for the programme (two national representatives per country), and other representatives appointed by each participating country. Maximum number of members per country is 8. Members of the Joint Monitoring Committee shall be appointed by participating countries within 3 months from the adoption of the programme by the European Commission. 2. The following institutions from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine shall nominate in writing a voting representative for the Joint Monitoring Committee, in accordance with Article 2 (1) of these Rules of Procedure: relevant institutions from Poland: Ministry of Regional Development of Poland Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland Marshal Office of Podlaskie Voivodship Marshal Office of Mazowieckie Voivodship Marshal Office of Lubelskie Voivodship Marshal Office of Podkarpackie Voivodship Relevant euroregions, ie. Niemen, Puszcza Bialowieska, Bug, Karpacki (one representative of all euroregions on a rotation basis) relevant institutions from Belarus: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Co-ordinating Unit of Belarus for the European Union s TACIS Programme Brest Regional Executive Committee Grodno Regional Executive Committee Minsk Regional Executive Committee Gomel Regional Executive Committee Relevant euroregions, ie. Niemen, Puszcza Bialowieska, Bug (one representative of all euroregions on a rotation basis) relevant institutions from Ukraine: Ministry of Economy of Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Volynska Oblast State Administration Lvivska Oblast State Administration Zakarpatska Oblast State Administration Rivnenska Oblast State Administration Ternopilska Oblast State Administration Ivano-Frankivska Oblast State Administration 3. The representatives of the participating states shall be appointed on a functional basis and not on a personal basis. 4. Institutions which have appointed representatives as members of the Joint Monitoring Committee are entitled to nominate a regular deputy of each member of the Committee or to send ad hoc a deputy to a meeting in case a member of the Committee is personally prevented to attend a meeting. Any appointment of a member of the Committee shall be reported in writing to the Joint Managing Authority without delay; the same applies with regard to the nomination of regular deputies. 2
5. The chairperson as well as each country may also nominate external observers, experts or advisors of the Committee with no right to participate in the decision making procedures. In compliance with art. 11 of the Implementing Rules, in addition to the duly appointed representatives, in order to ensure the close association of different local stakeholders in the implementation of the joint operational programme other participants will have the right to participate in the meetings of the Committee, subject to the approval of the chairperson of the Committee. 6. In order to ensure that environmental aspects are appropriately taken into account during the programme implementation process, environmental representative (from regional level) shall be invited to each meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee at the same time as the participants and shall be informed of the results of its deliberations. They may take part in all or part of each Committee meeting on its own initiative, as an observer. 7. Representatives of the European Commission shall be invited to each meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee at the same time as the participants and shall be informed of the results of its deliberations. They may take part in all or part of each Committee meeting on its own initiative, as an observer and without any decision-making power. 8. A representative of the Joint Technical Secretariat acts as the secretary of the Joint Monitoring Committee. Article 3 Chairmanship 1. The Joint Monitoring Committee shall be chaired by a representative of the Joint Managing Authority and may be co-chaired, on a rotation basis, by a representative of the country, in which the Committee meeting takes place. 2. The chairperson shall: a) convene the Committee meeting on its own initiative or, in justifiable cases, following the motion of one national delegation; the date of JMC meeting is set on the basis of the programme implementation progress and in consultation with national delegations; b) draw up draft agenda of a meeting, which shall be sent by the Joint Technical Secretariat electronically together with the invitation and necessary documents to the members of the Committee and their regular deputies at least 15 working days in advance. In exceptional cases the documents may be sent out shortly before the meeting; c) chair the meetings, e.g. declare the opening and closing of the meeting, lead discussion, accord the right to speak, put questions to the vote, announce the decisions, rule on points of order, and pursuant to these Rules of Procedures, have control of the proceedings; d) include extra points in the agenda in the course of the Committee meeting, if sufficient evidence of their urgency is provided; e) ensure that the decisions of the Committee are in compliance with regulations and provisions in force. Article 4 Meetings 1. The Joint Monitoring Committee shall meet as often as necessary and at least once a year. Meetings of the Joint Monitoring Committee shall be convened by its chairperson. 2. All members of the Committee, their deputies as well as observers, experts and advisors mentioned in Article 2 points 5-8 of these Rules of Procedure shall have the right to speak at meetings of Committee. 3. Organisation of the Committee meetings is the responsibility of the Joint Technical Secretariat and the Branch Offices. Expenses related to the organization of the Committee meetings shall be financed by the 3
Technical Assistance budget. The costs 1 of the Committee members participation will be covered from Technical Assistance budget. The Joint Managing Authority and National Bodies will support the members of the Joint Monitoring Committee in obtaining visas. 4. The Committee meetings are not held in public. The decisions of the Committee concerning the selection of the projects will be made available by the Joint Technical Secretariat. 5. The Joint Technical Secretariat shall draw up minutes after each meeting of the Committee. On behalf of the chairperson, the Joint Technical Secretariat shall send by electronic mail the draft minutes to the participants of the Committee meeting for comments within 10 working days following the meeting. If no objections are raised within 10 working days, they are considered as approved. If objections are raised, the Joint Technical Secretariat shall revise the minutes accordingly, agree on a final version in consultation with the chairperson and send it to the participants of the Committee meeting. 6. The final version of the minutes, signed by the chairperson and secretary of the Committee, shall be kept by the Joint Technical Secretariat in accordance with Article 45 of the Implementing Rules. Article 5 Decision-Making 1. The Joint Monitoring Committee shall take decisions by consensus among all the national delegations of the participating states. However, it may put certain decisions to a vote, particularly those relating to the final selection of projects and the grant amounts allocated to them. Decision rights may not be delegated to other countries, other Committee members or third parties. 2. The comments made by the advisors attending the meeting may be taken into account. 3. In case of opposition by one or more delegations, the chairperson shall decide whether a written procedure is going to be initiated or the decision shall be taken at the next meeting of the Committee. 4. Concerning the selection of projects, the following rules shall apply: - the Committee shall take decisions on the basis of recommendations of the evaluation committee, - the Committee shall either approve or reject an application or approve it under conditions, - the Committee shall in particular make sure that the applications selected correspond to objectives and published criteria of the programme, - no project failing to pass the quality assessment threshold may be approved. 5. In case of approval of a project with recommendations the following rules shall apply: - as a rule the Committee shall approve project applications with recommendations only if the recommendations have been set out in writing beforehand as part of the assessment report or if they can be clearly defined as a result of a meeting of the Committee, - recommendations shall be clearly defined and be recorded in the minutes of the Committee s meeting; they should not imply substantial changes to the project proposal; they shall be communicated to the applicant by the Joint Technical Secretariat, - the Joint Technical Secretariat, shall subsequently check whether the conditions have been fulfilled or not. If they detect that the conditions have not been fulfilled, the project has to be rejected. 6. If, when taking decisions referred to granting funds to projects, the Joint Monitoring Committee decides not to follow all or part of the recommendations of the evaluation committee, it shall explain its 1 The costs must not exceed those normally borne by the authorities appointed to manage the programme. Any flatrate reimbursement of the subsistence costs must not exceed the rates of the scales published by the European Commission at the time of the adoption of the joint operational programme (Commission Regulation (EC) No 951/2007, Section 4 Article 33.3(b)) The maximum amount of per diems is published on: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/work/procedures/implementation/per_diems/index_en.htm 4
decision in writing. The decision shall then be sent via the Joint Managing Authority to the Commission for prior approval. The Commission communicates its opinion to the Joint Managing Authority within 15 working days. If no opinion of the Commission is communicated to the Joint Managing Authority within 15 working days, the Committee decision is deemed to be approved by the Commission. 7. The Committee may also take decisions through written procedure at the initiative of the Joint Managing Authority or one of the participating states. In this case the chairperson shall send the draft decision via the Joint Technical Secretariat to all members of the Committee and their deputies by electronic mail. Delegations of the participating states shall have 15 working days from dispatch of the proposal by the Joint Technical Secretariat to respond in writing. If no written objection to the procedure or to the draft decision has been received within 15 working days the decision is deemed to be taken by the Committee. In case of disagreement any member may request that the decision will be discussed at a meeting. In any case, after the 15 working day time limit has expired, the Joint Technical Secretariat shall inform all members on whether the decision is deemed to be taken or what objections have been raised. The 15 working day time limit may be shortened by the Joint Managing Authority in cases of emergency and the need to take a decision urgently. 8. In case the Joint Managing Authority has objections concerning the compliance of a decision taken by the Committee with regulations and provisions in force, the decision shall be taken with reservation until the Joint Managing Authority will have clarified the matter by communicating with the European Commission. In case that no compliance should be asserted or no clarification could be obtained, the respective decision will not come into force. The Joint Managing Authority will report the result of its communication with the European Commission to the members of the Committee. A new decision of the Committee shall take the report into consideration. Article 6 Impartiality and confidentiality With regard to the final choice of projects and grant amounts as well as examining the contentious cases of recovery notified by the JMA, it shall be ensured that any decision of the Committee is free from bias and not influenced by partial interest of any of the individual members of the Committee. According to this principle each Committee member is obliged to sign a declaration of impartiality and confidentiality, which is attached to these Rules of Procedure as a template. The chairperson shall ensure that all participating members of the Committee or their deputies have signed this declaration before every meeting. Article 7 Task Forces The chairperson may propose to the Joint Monitoring Committee to establish task forces in order to support the implementation of the programme. Article 8 Working language 1. The language of the meetings of the JMC are Polish and Russian, and, if necessary, the interpretation into English will be provided. Documents prepared for and discussed by the JMC, as well as minutes from its meetings are in English. The final version of the minutes will be translated into Ukrainian. 2. The language of the written procedure of the JMC is English. Article 9 Revision These Rules of Procedure may be amended by decision of the Joint Monitoring Committee according to Article 5 and in agreement with the Joint Managing Authority. 5
At the meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee in Lublin on March 18 th, 2009, these Rules of Procedure have been adopted by the members of the Joint Monitoring Committee unanimously. --------------------------------- Place and date -------------------------------- Name of the signatory ------------------------------------------------ Signature of the chairperson of the Joint Monitoring Committee Annex: Template of declaration of impartiality and confidentiality acc. to Article 6. 6
Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007-2013 - Declaration of Impartiality and Confidentiality - I, the signatory 2 have been appointed by 3 have been nominated/sent by have been nominated/sent by as member of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007 2013 as deputy of a member of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross- Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007 2013 as observer of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland Belarus Ukraine 2007 2013 I am aware of the provisions stipulated in Article 6 of the Rules of Procedure of the Joint Monitoring Committee, whereupon any assessment and/or decision of the Committee concerning the final choice of projects and grant amounts as well as examining the contentious cases of recovery notified by the JMA shall be free from bias and not be influenced by partial interest of any of the individual members of the Joint Monitoring Committee. According to Article 6 of the Rules of Procedure, I shall sign this declaration of impartiality and confidentiality. I declare that I shall execute my responsibilities impartially and objectively. Should one of the following circumstances come into being during the procedure of a funding decision (including the assessment) or when examining the contentious cases of recovery notified by the JMA, I will declare this immediately to the chairperson of the Joint Monitoring Committee and to the minutes of the Joint Monitoring Committee meeting: The above-named authority acts as lead partner or as project partner who have submitted an application to the programme; I have personal or professional or institutional involvement in one or more projects to be approved by the Joint Monitoring Committee; I am not independent of all parties which stand to gain from the outcome of the selection process; to the best of my knowledge and belief, there are facts or circumstances, past or present, or that could arise in the foreseeable future, which might call into question my independence in the eyes of one or more parties; I have been employed by an applicant, their consortium members or subcontractors within the previous 3 years. I will then leave the meeting room from the beginning of the consultation of the respective project until the decision on the project is made. I accept furthermore that, if I have neglected to give the necessary statement as mentioned above, the chairperson of the Joint Monitoring Committee has the right to demand my resignation of the Joint Monitoring Committee immediately. Finally I agree to hold in trust and confidence any information or documents ("confidential information") disclosed to me or discovered by me or prepared by me in the course of or as a result of the above mentioned procedures and agree that it shall be used only for the purposes of these procedures and shall not be disclosed to any third party. I also agree not to retain copies of any written information or prototypes supplied. Place and date: Signature: 2 Please insert your first name and last name. 3 Please mark the applicable section with a cross and name the appointing authority. 7