Commission Decision

Commission Decision

 

PURPOSE

This document describes the steps and action options at the level of the Commission related to the registration of Commission Decisions for Partnership Agreements, Programmes, Major projects, Accounts and any other Object Type that needs a Commission Decision and that will be managed in SFC2021.

 

REGULATIONS

More detail regarding the regulation of the Commission Decision can be found in the "About SFC2021" section of this portal.

 

ROLES

Roles involved in the Commission Decision at the Commission level:

EC Operational Agent (ECOA) EC Publishing Officer (ECPO)

Record the Commission Decision Upload the Commission Decision Documents Consult the Commission Decision Delete the Commission Decision

 

FUNDS

The procedure is the same for all Funds using SFC2021 as the default interface, depending on the internal procedures of your DG. If WAVE/RDIS should be used instead then the different actions should be carried out in the relevant application and not in SFC2021.

 

BEFORE YOU START, CHECK THAT…

The Object type has been sent to the Commission: The status is set to 'SENT'.

 

 

Create the Commission Decision

 

1. Login to https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sfc2021/sfc-fo/home

 

Remark

The User is an identified User and has the role of EC Operational Agent or EC Publishing Officer with Update access (ECOAu/ECPOu). The object must have been Sent to the Commission.

 

1. To access the Commission Decision section first click on the PROGRAMMING or on the STRATEGIC PLANNING menu (1) and then on the Commission Decision menu item (2):

 

 

3. Click on the Create button to create a new Commission Decision:

 

 

You are redirected to the Commission Decision creation screen:

 

 

1. Enter or select the following information:

(1) Enter the Decision number

A valid format for the Decision number should follow the rule 'C(YEAR)9999'.

(2) Enter a Decision type.

The “Decision type” is by default “Commission Decision”, but can be modified to one of the following: Commission decision, Corrigendum, Correcting act, Performance review decision, Suspension decision, Repealing decision.

(3) Enter a Procedure reference if documents need to be imported via DECIDE.

On Create, the system will retrieve and upload all original unstamped DECIDE documents in Ares via the Procedure Reference. Since the document model in Ares is slightly different from the SFC document model, the Ares attachment filename will be used as the SFC filename and the Ares externalReference as the SFC attachment title. See below how to find the Procedure reference.

(4) Select the Decision date.

(5) Enter a Title for the Decision

(6) Select the Original language.

(7) Enter a value in Is correcting decision if this Commission Decision is correctin another one.

The list contains all Commission Decisions available in SFC.

(8) Select the Covered CCIs and click on the right pointing arrow to transfer the selection.

The list contains all CCIs with a leading DG covered by the User’s profile. This means that if you have roles from more than one DG (so is the case of multi fund CCIs), therefore in edit covered CCIs page, you can now see the CCIs from all the DGs that you have a role from in the current profile.

(9) Enter Comments if necessary.

(10) Click on the Create button to confirm the creation of the Commission Decision.

 

Once the Decision is created the following screen will appear:

 

 

The Vista external link Go to Vista opens a new window and is constructed by using the Vista URL stored in FO setting “vistaUrl” and the EC Decision Number in a slightly different format:

 

 

Remark

The Procedure reference can be found in the Decision-making – Written Procedure section of the Vista page:

 

 

Record/Edit the Commission Decision

 

Remark

The User is an identified User and has the role of EC Operational Agent or EC Publishing Officer with Update access (ECOAu/ECPOu).

 

1. Click on the Edit button to modify the information of the Commission Decision.

 

 

The Edit details pop-up window appears:

 

 

2. The fields become editable.

If you have entered a new decision in the field Is correcting decision, then the new correcting decision will appear and you can click on the link to open the decision:

 

 

The correcting decision screen appears. You can also click on ‘Corrected by’ to come back to the previous page:

 

 

Remark

When a Decision has been corrected, the icon will be shown in the Search results screen. Clicking on it will show a popup with a hierarchical list of correcting Decisions. Clicking one of those decisions will open the detail page in the same way as clicking on a Decision is the search result list. The same icon and principle will be used on all General Version Information pages containing a Commission Decision column, like for Partnership Agreements, Programmes, Major Projects and Accounts. If you have roles from more than one DG (so is the case of multi fund CCIs), therefore in edit covered CCIs page, you can now see the CCIs from all the DGs that you have a role from in the current profile.

 

 

Documents

 

Document types

The following document type will be foreseen:

 

Description	Internal Code	Direction	Integral	System	Required
Commission Decision	CD.D	EC2MS

 

 

Uploading documents using the ARES number

 

Note	As a Commission User you can import your document directly from ARES to be uploaded in SFC2021 by entering the ARES reference number in the Commission Reference field (in the documents section). The ARES number will be immediately validated.

 

Multiple documents can be uploaded in the Commission Decision:

 

• Clicking on the Add button will open a pop-up window allowing you to add a new document type with attachments.

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the View icon will allow you to view the document information.

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the Edit icon will allow you to modify the document information. If a document of type 'Other Member State Document' must be sent, you can select the edit icon in order to send the document.

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the Delete icon will allow you to delete the document and all attachements.

 

Remark

Integral Documents (EC Observations Letter etc) are only sent on the corresponding status change. Referential/non-integral Documents (ie. Informal Commission Observations) can be sent at any time independently of the status. A non-integral document is only visible to the Member State when the SENT DATE is visible.

 

1. Click on the Add button to add a new document:

 

 

The document detail pop-up window appears:

 

 

2. Enter or select the following information:

(1) Select the Commission Decision Document type for your document.

(2) Enter the Commission reference of the Ares document.

Only one Commission reference can be uploaded (with multiple attachments).

When entering the Commission reference (ARES reference) the attachments will automatically be imported from ARES. If you already uploaded attachments, they will be replaced by the ones from ARES. After the upload action you will be able to remove those attachments that you don't want to show to the Member State.

(3) Click on the Get button to retrieve the document information and the attachment(s) from Ares.

If an Ares number doesn’t exist, the system will display an error message.

 

Remark

If you get an "invalid ARES number" (the number cannot be found in ARES), check the ARES number has been entered correctly: Ares(2015)+digits with no space. If the ARES reference has been entered correctly, then check that the Document has been filed correctly in ARES. If the problem persists, please provide us with the document ARES number, the 'type' of document you are trying to upload in SFC2021, and the CCI of the Programme. We can then verify if there is a problem with the registration.

 

3. After the attachments are uploaded click on Save.

 

 

Remark

Non-integral document types (such as ‘Other Commission Documents’) will display the Save button and a Save & Send button.

 

 

Uploading documents using DECIDE

 

Note

As an alternative to Ares, Commission Users can use another Commission application, called DECIDE. This application automatically registers every Commission Decision document in Ares with a Procedure Reference (PH or DL/YYYY/NNNN). On create of a Commission Decision, SFC will automatically retrieve (via the Procedure Reference) and upload those Ares documents in SFC. Therefore, this process is only intended to upload Commission related documents, other than those already foreseen by DECIDE.

 

Click on Import from DECIDE to upload automatically DECIDE documents from Ares (via the Procedure Reference):

 

 

This action will add missing documents in SFC:

 

 

 

Hiding attachments uploaded from ARES

 

Remark

Attachments can also be hidden once the Commission Documents have been imported from ARES, so that the receiver will not be able to view them. If the ARES document has already been sent it cannot be deleted, but the sender can decide to hide the content for the Member State in case of an erroneous and/or accidental send. The ARES document must be a non-integral document.

 

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the View icon will allow you to view the document information.

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the Edit icon will allow you to modify the document information. If a non-integral document type must be sent, you can select the edit icon in order to send the document.

• Selecting a document row and clicking on the Delete icon will allow you to delete the document and all attachements.

 

1. In the documents section select the Edit icon:

 

 

The document details screen appaears:

 

2. Select the following information:

(1) Choose the attachment(s) you want to hide by clicking on the Hide switch.

(2) Click on the Save button to confirm the hide action.

 

After hiding the document the hidden files are no longer visible to the Member State.

 

Sending an unsent non-integral document

 

1. Once the document and attachment(s) have been uploaded select the document row in the list (1) and click on the Edit icon (2):

 

 

2. Click on Save & Send to send the document to the Member State.

 

 

Remark

The Save & Send button will only be shown for documents which are not integral with the Action and after at least one attachment was added.

 

 

Deletion of an unsent document

 

Remark

Only unsent documents can be deleted.

 

1. Select a row (1) of a previously uploaded document and click on the Delete icon (2) to delete the document and associated attachments.

 

 

A confirmation window appears:

 

 

2. Click on Yes to confirm deletion. Click on No to return to the document section.

 

Linking the Object type to the Commission Decision

 

1. To link the Object type, for example an OP to the Commission Decision first click on the Programming menu (1) and then choose the programme type (2) from the available menu items

 

 

2. Select the programme from the list after searching (1) and click on the Show button (2)

 

 

3. To accept the decision click on the Accept EC Decision button

 

 

 

The Accept Commission decision confirmation pop-up window appears:

 

4. Click on the Confirm button to accept the Commission Decision on this OP

 

 

5. To link the Commission Decision click on the Link to EC decision button

 

 

6. Select your Decision from the list

 

 

7. Click on the Confirm button

 

 

 

The OP is linked to the Commission Decision and the EC Decision Number appears on the Version information screen:

 

 

 

The Status is 'Adopted by EC', and the decision appears in the list:

 

 

Remark

When a Decision has been corrected, the icon will be shown. Clicking on it will show a popup with a hierarchical list of correcting Decisions. Clicking one of those decisions will open the detail page in the same way as clicking on a Decision is the search result list.     The same icon and principle will be used on all Search pages and General Version Information pages containing a Commission Decision column, like for Partnership Agreements, Programmes, Major Projects and Accounts.

 

 

Accept MS decision

 

Remark

THIS OPTION IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR HOME FUNDS (AMIF, ISF, BMVI) To accept the MS decision on an Operational Programme, the OP must be in a status 'Sent' at the level of the Commission and must have a version number > 1. In this case the last applied Commission decision is still valid and no new Commission decision is required.

 

1. To accept the MS decision on an OP, first click on the Programming menu (1) and then choose the programme type (2) from the available menu items:

 

 

2. Select the programme from the list after searching (1) and click on the Show button (2)

 

 

3. To accept the MS decision click on the Accept MS decision button

 

 

The Accept MS decision confirmation pop-up window appears:

 

4. Click on the Confirm button to accept the MS Decision on this OP

 

 

The OP Status becomes 'Adopted by MS', and the last available Commission decision on that Programme still appears.

Delete the Commission Decision

 

Remark

The Commission Decision is not yet linked to a Partnership Agreement, a Programme or a Major Project and it is not corrected by another Commission Decision. To delete the Commission Decision, the User must have the role of EC Operational Agent or EC Publishing Officer with Update access (ECOAu/ECPOu). The delete is a physical delete and cannot be recovered!

 

Follow the steps to remove the Commission Decision from the system:

 

 

1. Select the following:

(1) Select the icon with 3 vertical dots.

(2) Click on the Delete button to remove the Programme AIB from the system.

 

The system will ask you to confirm the delete action:

 

 

2. Click on the Confirm button to confirm the deletion of the Commission Decision.

 

 

Re-Open the Commission Decision

 

Remark

When a Commission Decision has been created and linked to an Object the option to 'Reopen' becomes available – this option will change the status of the Object back to 'Decision OK' and you can link again the Object with another Commission Decision or 'Reopen' the Object a second time and change the status to 'Sent to the EC'. This option undoes the 'Link Commission Decision' action. The 'Reopen' option should only be used exceptionally and when the 'Link Commission Decision' has been used accidentally or when you want to link the Object with another Commission Decision. The User is an identified User and has the Role of EC Operational Agent or EC Publishing Officer with Update access (ECOAu/ECPOu).

 

1. Click on the 3 dots button (1) and then on the Reopen menu item (2) to change the Object status back to 'Decision OK'

 

 

The Re-open confirmation screen window appears:

 

2. Click on the Confirm button to confirm the Reopen action or Cancel to go back to the Commission Decision:

 

 

After the re-open action its status will change to 'Decision OK' and you can 'Link to EC decision' again:

 

 

Additional Functionality

 

Notifications

 

For Commission internal use, it is necessary to generate the following events:

 

Since the Commission Decision has no state or procedural steps, the only events we will foresee are:

1. CDCRE – generated when a Commission Decision record is created.

2. CDDEL – generated when a Commission Decision record is deleted.

3. CDUPD – generated when a Commission Decision record is updated and when any of the underlying data (CCIs covered, Documents, Attachments) is created, updated, deleted.

 

The following event type parameters will be foreseen:  

 

PARAM_NAME	MANDATORY	DATA_TYPE	COMMENT
Action Date	Y	Date
Action User Id	N	Int
Action User Name	N	char
CCIs	N	char	covered CCIs
Cd Uniq Id	Y	Long
Decision Number	Y	Char