Payment application (ETC)

MS Managing Authority (MSMA)

Body entrusted with the accounting function (MSAF)

Record Payment Application

Upload Payment Application Documents

Consult Payment Application

Return Payment Application for modification

Delete Payment Application

Validate Payment Application

Prepare Payment Application for send to EC

Send Payment Application

Request for Revised Payment Application by MS

Cancel Payment Application

Create New Version of a Payment Application

Request to Withdraw Payment Application

MS Audit Authority (MSAA)

Consult Payment Application

ERDF

CF

ESF+

JTF

NDICI

IPA III

Interreg

NDICI

OCTP

EMFAF

Remark

The User is an identified User and has the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSAFu).

When creating a new Payment Application, all existing versions (last working version) for the same CCI and Fund must be Sent to the Commission, Cancelled, Fully Rejected by EC, Accepted by EC or Withdrawn at the request of the MS.

The Programme is adopted and managed on the user's Node.

For IJG and EMFAF, maximum 1 Payment Application per Programme, Fund, Accounting Year and Submission Period can be created, Fully rejected by EC, Cancelled and Withdrawn at the request of the MS ones excluded. The following Submission Periods are foreseen in Article 91.1 of the CPR: 1 January - 28 February; 1 March - 31 May; 1 June - 31 July; 1 August - 31 October; 1 - 30 November; and 1 - 31 December. The last payment application submitted by 31 July shall be deemed to be the final payment application for the accounting year that has ended 30 June.

Remark

On Create, the system will check that the Fund and Accounting Year combination is valid. Newly added Funds to a Programme after the Accounting Year end date should not be allowed, and not all Accounting Years are required since they depend on the eligibility period of the linked Programme version. When the request is valid, the initial Payment Application structure is created, and a Table of Content (ToC)/Navigation Tree is presented, so the User can continue to populate the structured data of the Payment Application.

The Payment Application is linked to the last adopted version of the Programme with a Decision Date smaller or equal to the smallest of current date and Accounting Year End Date and with a start of eligibility date <= Accounting Year end date and with an end of eligibility period >= Accounting Year start date. If such Programme version doesn't exist, an error will be displayed.

The records for the Expenditure, the Payment Application, Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3 and Appendix 4 are automatically created, based on the following information in the linked Programme Version:

• Table 11 for IJG Programmes,

• Table 8 for ETC Programmes,

• Table 11A for EMFAF Programmes.

The first version of a Payment Application for a Fund/Accounting Year has its amounts in Expenditure and Appendix 1, 2, 3 and 4 initialized to null.

Consecutive versions of a Payment Application for a Fund/Accounting Year have their amounts in Expenditure and Appendix 1, 2, 3 and 4 copied from the previous Payment Application version of the same Fund/Accounting Year.

The Source language is copied from the linked Programme Version.

The officials in charge are copied from the previous Payment Application version of the same Programme and Fund, when existing.

Remark

The User is an identified User and has the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSAFu).

When editing a version of a Payment Application, its status is Open, Validated, Ready to send or Sent at the level of the Member State or Revision requested by MS and currently resides on the User's Node.

Note

The Version Information contains information on the identification and status of the Payment Application Version like the CCI, the Fund, the Version Number, the Accounting Year, the Status, the Node where it currently resides, the Title in English, the National reference and information from the linked Programme like its Commission decision number and date, the Eligibility period and the Programme version number.

The Version information for the Payment Application cannot be modified once the version has been created, only the National reference and the Source language can be updated.

Note

Officials in Charge can be updated at any time, independent from the status of the Payment Application.

Commission Officials (email domain "ec.europa.eu") can only be created/updated/deleted by Commission Users.

The officials in charge are copied from the previous Payment Application version of the same Programme and Fund, when existing.

Note

The Documents list shows all documents uploaded against this version of the Payment Application by Member State and by Commission. Member State Users see all their own Documents and the sent Commission Documents. Commission Users see all their own Documents, unsent Integral Member State Documents and sent Member State Documents.

Description

Internal Code

Non-Integral (1)

Integral (2)

System (3)

Required (4)

Other Member State Document

PAP.OM

X

Snapshot of data before send

SNP.PAPSNT

X

X

X

MS Request to withdraw Payment Application version

PAP.WIR

X

Remark

Integral Documents (Official Proposal etc) are only sent - together with the encoded data – once the Payment Application is sent to the EC.

Referential/non-integral Documents (ie. 'Other Member State Document') can be sent at any time independently of the status of the Payment Application.

The 'Other Member State Document' type demands a manual submission (they are NOT sent automatically when the object is sent to the EC).

A non-integral document is only visible to the Commission when the SENT DATE is visible.

Remark

Integral document types will only display the Save button and will be sent when the Payment Application is sent to the Commission. Non-integral document types (such as ‘Other Member State Documents’) will display the Save button and a Save & Send button, and must be sent independently of the Payment Application.

Remark

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

Remark

Only unsent documents can be deleted.

Note

This section is used to provide any relevant information to the Payment Application. It can be used as a type of 'chat' between the Member State and Commission.

All Users who have Read permission on the Payment Application will be able to read all Observations in the conversation.

All Users who have Update permission on the Payment Application will be able to send an observation and participate in the conversation.

All observations are kept against the specific version of the Payment Application.

The observation is added below the Observations box and includes the username, the date and time of the post.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application. Extra information from the Programme record (Technical assistance rate for article 36(5), Co-financing rate) is not visible in the page but will be persisted in these table records.

The Category of regions column is only available for ESF+ and ERDF Payment Applications.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 (IJG) / table 8 (ETC) of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application, except for JTF where only a record for each JTF total record per priority will be foreseen. Extra information from the Programme record (Technical assistance rate for article 36(5) (IJG) / 27(1) (ETC), Co-financing rate) is not visible in the page but will be persisted in these table records.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11A of the linked Programme version. Extra information from the Programme record (Technical assistance rate for article 36(5), Co-financing rate) is not visible in the page but will be persisted in these table records.

Note

The requester type comes from the linked Programme version Authority information. When there is a “Accounting function in case this function is entrusted to a body other than the managing authority” in the Programme, then we use this requester type, else we use the “Managing authority” requester type.

Remark

The "Bank Account" information is automatically pre-filled with data received from SFC2021 Back-office (SFC2021-BO). This Bank Account information should exist in the SFC2021-BO against the Commitments for this CCI and Fund. If the SFC2021-BO service is not available or doesn't return anything, the information will be taken from a previous Payment Application version for the same Fund. Multiple Bank Accounts can exist.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each non-technical assistance record in table 11 of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application.

The Category of regions column is only available for ESF+ and ERDF Payment Applications.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each non-technical assistance record in table 11 (IJG) / table 8 (ETC) of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application, except for JTF where only a record for each JTF total record per priority will be foreseen.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each non-technical assistance record in table 11A of the linked Programme version.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application.

The Category of regions column is only available for ESF+ and ERDF Payment Applications.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 (IJG) of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application, except for JTF where only a record for each JTF total record per priority will be foreseen.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11A of the linked Programme version.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application, technical assistance included.

The Category of regions column is only available for ESF+ and ERDF Payment Applications.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11 (IJG) / table 8 (ETC) of the linked Programme version that corresponds to the Fund of the Payment Application, technical assistance included, except for JTF where only a record for each JTF total record per priority will be foreseen.

Note

A record is automatically foreseen by the create action for each record in table 11A of the linked Programme version, technical assistance included.

Remark

The Payment Application can be validated at any time, when the current version is in status Open and resides at the User’s Node.

To validate the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update or Send rights (MSMAu/s or MSAFu/s).

Remark

An Error will block you from sending the Payment Application. The error(s) should be resolved and the Payment Application must be revalidated. Note that a Warning does not block you from sending the Payment Application.

Code

Severity

Validation Rule

001

Warning

Validate that at least one official in charge of the Member State exists.

002

Error

Validate that the CCI code matches the following regular expression:

• For IJG

(……16..PR…|……16..TA…| ……05..PR…|……05..TA…)

• For ETC

(….TC16….…)

• For EMFAF

(……14MFPR…) (Implicit in web).

003

Error

Validate that the programme is already adopted (Implicit in web).

004

Error

Validate that the start date of eligibility of the linked programme version is smaller or equal to the end date of the accounting year of this payment application and that the end date of eligibility is greater or equal to the start date of the accounting year.

005

Error

Validate that the payment application is for a Fund covered by the programme (Implicit in web).

006

Error

Validate that the records in the expenditure table are equivalent (not less, not more) to the following information in the linked programme version (Implicit in web):

• Table 11 for IJG programmes,

• Table 8 for ETC programmes,

• Table 11A for EMFAF programmes.

007

Error

Validate for IJG programmes in the expenditure table, that the absolute amount of column (B) ‘Total amount of eligible expenditure incurred by beneficiaries and paid in implementing operations in accordance with point (a) of Article 91(3) and point (c) of Article 91(4)’ + column (C) ‘Total amount of Union contribution pursuant to points (a) and (b) of Article 91(4)’ is >= the absolute amount of column (E) ‘Total amount of public contribution made or to be made in accordance with point (c) of Article 91(3)’ and that the amounts in these two columns have the same sign.

008

Error

Validate for ETC programmes in the expenditure table, that the absolute amount of column (B) ‘Total amount of eligible expenditure incurred by beneficiaries and paid in implementing operations in accordance with point (a) of Article 91(3) and point (c) of Article 91(4)’ + column (C) ‘Total amount of Union contribution pursuant to points (a) and (b) of Article 91(4)’ is >= the absolute amount of column (E) ‘Total amount of public contribution made or to be made in accordance with point (c) of Article 91(3)’ and that the amounts in these two columns have the same sign.

009

Error

Validate for EMFAF programmes in the expenditure table, that the absolute amount of column ‘Total amount of eligible expenditure incurred by beneficiaries and paid in implementing operations in accordance with point (a) of Article 91(3) and point (c) of Article 91(4)’ is >= the absolute amount of column ‘Total amount of public contribution made or to be made in accordance with point (c) of Article 91(3)’ and that the amounts in these two columns have the same sign.

011

Error

Validate that the records in the application for payment table are equivalent (not less, not more) to the following information in the linked programme version (Implicit in web):

• Distinct Fund, category of region records from table 11 for IJG programmes,

• Distinct Fund records from table 8 for ETC programmes,

• Distinct Fund records from table 11A for EMFAF programmes,

012

Error

Validate when the PAP setting “pap.<fund>.allow.negative.claim” for the Fund of the Payment Application is false, that the total requested amount in the payment application is >= 0.

013

Warning

Validate that the IBAN format is correct.

014

Error

Validate that the “Body identified”, the “Bank”, the “BIC” and the “Bank account IBAN” are provided (Implicit in web).

015

Error

Validate that the records in appendix 1 are equivalent (not less, not more) to the following information in the linked programme version (Implicit in web):

• Table 11 for IJG programmes, TA excluded,

• Table 8 for ETC programmes, TA excluded,

• Table 11A for EMFAF programmes, TA excluded,

016

Error

Validate for IJG programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

017

Error

Validate for ETC programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

018

Error

Validate for EMFAF programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

020

Error

Validate for IJG programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public expenditure’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C).

021

Error

Validate for ETC programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public expenditure’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C).

022

Error

Validate for EMFAF programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public expenditure’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C).

024

Warning

Validate for IJG programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

025

Warning

Validate for ETC programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

026

Warning

Validate for EMFAF programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions pursuant to Article 92(2)(b)’ (C) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of programme contributions paid to financial instruments’ (A).

028

Warning

Validate for IJG programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B).

029

Warning

Validate for ETC programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B).

030

Warning

Validate for EMFAF programmes per record in appendix 1 that the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (D) is <= the amount in column ‘Total amount of corresponding public contribution’ (B).

032

Error

Validate per record in appendix 1 that the amount per priority, Fund [and category of region] for IJG in column A and B is <= the sum of the amounts under the respective priority, Fund [and category of region] for IJG in the expenditure table of the payment applications including the earlier accounting years of columns (B)+(C) and (E) (take last version of each accounting year). In other words, the basic principle is that expenditure related to financial instruments cannot exceed the total expenditure in the respective records.

033

Error

Validate per record in appendix 1 that the amount per priority, Fund for ETC in column A and B is <= the sum of the amounts under the respective priority, Fund for ETC in the expenditure table of the payment applications including the earlier accounting years of columns (B)+(C) and (E) (take last version of each accounting year). In other words, the basic principle is that expenditure related to financial instruments cannot exceed the total expenditure in the respective records.

034

Error

Validate per record in appendix 1 that the amount per priority and specific objective for EMFAF in column A and B is <= the sum of the amounts under the respective priority and specific objective for EMFAF in the expenditure table of the payment applications including the earlier accounting years of columns (B)+(C) and (E) (take last version of each accounting year). In other words, the basic principle is that expenditure related to financial instruments cannot exceed the total expenditure in the respective records.

036

Error

Validate that the records in appendix 2 are equivalent (not less, not more) to the following information in the linked programme version (Implicit in web):

• Table 11 for IJG programmes,

• Table 11A for EMFAF programmes.

038

Error

Validate that the records in appendix 4 are equivalent (not less, not more) to the following information in the linked Programme version (Implicit in web):

• Table 11 for IJG programmes,

• Table 8 for ETC programmes,

• Table 11A for EMFAF programmes

039

Warning

Validate for IJG programmes per record in appendix 4 that the ‘Total amount paid as advances’ (A) = ‘Amount which has been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries within three years of the payment of the advance’ (B) + ‘Amount which has not been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries and for which the three-year period has not yet elapsed’ (C).

040

Warning

Validate for ETC programmes per record in appendix 4 that the ‘Total amount paid as advances’ (A) = ‘Amount which has been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries within three years of the payment of the advance’ (B) + ‘Amount which has not been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries and for which the three-year period has not yet elapsed’ (C).

041

Warning

Validate for EMFAF programmes per record in appendix 4 that the ‘Total amount paid as advances’ (A) = ‘Amount which has been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries within three years of the payment of the advance’ (B) + ‘Amount which has not been covered by expenditure paid by beneficiaries and for which the three-year period has not yet elapsed’ (C).

043

Error

Validate that all integral documents have at least one attachment with a length > 0.

044

Error

Validate that at least one bank account record is provided.

045

Error

Validate when first working version, that the end date for submission for the Accounting Year (AccountingYear.submitToDate) has not been passed.

047

Error

Validate for IJG programmes in the expenditure table, that there is an amount in column (E) ‘Total amount of public contribution made or to be made in accordance with point (c) of Article 91(3)’.

048

Error

Validate for ETC programmes in the expenditure table, that there is an amount in column (E) ‘Total amount of public contribution made or to be made in accordance with point (c) of Article 91(3)’.

Remark

The Prepare for Send can occur when a User on the highest MS Node wants to indicate that the Payment Application version can be prepared for sending to the Commission, once the Validation Errors have been removed and the status is Validated.

To prepare the send of the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update or Send rights (MSMAu/s or MSFAu/s) for the funds managed by the Programme.

Remark

When on the highest MS node, a ‘Snapshot’ document will be available in all official MS languages in the Documents section so that the sender can first verify what will be sent to the Commission.

Remark

The Payment Application can only be sent once the Validation Errors have been removed and the status is Ready To Send.

The "4 eyes principle" must be respected. Therefore, the User sending must be different from the User who last validated.

To send the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Send rights (MSMAs/MSFAs) for all the concerned funds.

Remark

When the requested amounts are recalculated by the SFC2021-BO and differ from what was previously persisted, the status of this payment application will be set back to Validated.

When on the highest MS node, different versions of the generated “Snapshot before send” document will be available so that the sender can first verify what will be sent to the Commission:

• A version containing the untranslated content with the template in the Source language.

• When the Source language is different from English, a version containing the untranslated content with the template in English.

• When the Source language is different from English, a version containing a machine translation of the content in English with the template in English.

The requested amounts in the Application for Payment are automatically calculated and persisted by the SFC2021 Back Office (SFC2021-BO) calculation service, each time a modification is done on the Expenditure table. This applies for all Funds and types. Since, between the last update of the Expenditure table and the sending of the Payment Application to the Commission, there could be changes in the already paid amounts for this Accounting Year, we need to recalculate and to persist them just before sending to the Commission. If the calculated requested amounts differ from what was previously persisted, a message on the send confirmation page will say “Please note the requested amounts were recalculated and are different than previously presented on the page and in the snapshot document. The status of this payment application will be set back to ‘Validated’. You will need to re-execute the ‘Prepare for send to EC’ generating an updated snapshot document, and then re-execute the ‘Send’”.

When the SFC2021-BO calculation service is down or errors, a message on the send confirmation page will say "Application for payment cannot be sent since the Back-Office calculation service is temporarily not available. Please try again later".

Remark

The Payment Application can only be revised by MS when a lower Node exists and the status is Sent (to a higher MS node), Open, Validated, Ready to Send or Revision requested by MS.

This action can be used when a User wants to request a revision for the Payment Application version sent by the Member State/Region because it is incomplete or incorrect.

To request a revised Payment Application version, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSAFu).

Remark

The Payment Application can only be deleted when:

• it resides on the owner Node

• the status is Open, Validated or Ready to Send or Revision requested by MS 

• it has never been sent to the Commission before

• it has no sent documents attached.

To delete the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSFAu).

The delete is a physical delete and cannot be recovered!

Remark

The Payment Application can only be cancelled when a Payment Application version with documents was sent to the Commission and without any previous work version in status Revision requested by EC. The notification utility will be called to notify the Commission of the cancel of the version.

The Payment Application version must currently reside on the User's Node and its status is Open, Validated, Ready to send or Revision requested by MS and contains a sent Document and has no previous working version of the same major version in status Revision requested by EC.

To cancel the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSFAu).

Remark

A new version of the Payment Application can only be created when the last version is in status Revision requested by EC

To create a new version, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update rights (MSMAu/MSFAu).

Remark

The Member State must request to withdraw the Payment Application by uploading a document called MS Request to withdraw Payment Application version.

The Payment Application version is in a status Sent, Revision requested by EC at the level of the Commission, or in a status Open, Validated, Ready to send, Revision requested by MS at the owner Node of the Member State and has previously been sent to the Commission.

This scenario occurs when at the request of the Member State the Commission withdraw a Payment Application version and stop the amendment procedure.

To request to withdraw the Payment Application, the User must have the role of MS Managing Authority or Body entrusted with the accounting function with Update and Send rights (MSMAu+MSMAs/MSFAu+MSFAs).

Remark

Withdrawals are subject to confirmation by the Commission. After the document is uploaded, it is up to the Commission User to perform the withdrawal action and stop the amendment procedure. On success, the Payment Application version status will be set to Withdrawn at the Request of the MS.