Project Data: Art. 3.5 (ERDF, CF)

Project Data: Art. 3.5 (ERDF, CF)

PURPOSE

This guide aims to provide a clear and practical explanation of the purpose of the new SFC module to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements under the first and third sub-paragraphs of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation, including instructions for Member States on how to encode the relevant information.

In normal circumstances, there is a general obligation of transparency and visibility concerning any operation supported by the cohesion policy funds: 

• Article 49(3) of the CPR requires managing authorities to make publicly available, on a website, a list of operations selected for support by the Funds. 

• In parallel, Article 50(1) of the CPR lays down communication and visibility obligations for beneficiaries. 

These requirements are designed to make Union support visible to the wider public.

At the same time, article 69(5) of the CPR provides a derogation to the afore-mentioned transparency and visibility requirements applicable to Member States under article 49(3) of the CPR. This derogation can be activated in a limited number of well-defined circumstances, including, among others, where Union law or national law excludes publication of information for reasons of security or public order. 

The new Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation introduces a novel exemption from transparency and visibility requirements at beneficiary level, as well as a new notification obligation for Member States if they intend to use the derogation under article 69(5) of the CPR for reasons of security and public order as well as certain specific reporting requirements for the Commission. The entire article applies only to operations supported under the specific objectives “Enhancing industrial capacities to foster defence capabilities, prioritising capabilities of a dual-use nature (RSO1.7)” and “Developing resilient defence infrastructure, prioritising that of a dual-use nature, including to foster military mobility in the Union, as well as enhancing civil preparedness (RSO3.3)”. It is therefore not applicable to other specific objectives than 1.7 and 3.3, incl. defence-related operations under STEP-related specific objective.

DEROGATIONS AND NOTIFICATION/REPORTING REQUIREMENTS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 3(5) OF THE ERDF/CF REGULATION

• The first sub-paragraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation sets out a notification obligation for Member States. Member States shall not be required to make the data relating to relevant operations publicly available where such disclosure is not permitted for reasons of security or public order pursuant to Article 69(5) CPR. In order to activate this derogation, the Member State must inform the Commission before selecting the operation concerned for support. The term ‘selected’ refers to the national procedure of selection of operations by the managing authority, compliant with the applicable EU, national and programme rules, during which the compliance of the operations with the criteria defined in the rules, selection criteria and relevant call is verified. The grant agreement (or equivalent document) is a subsequent step to the selection. For more details, see QA00204 - ‘Selection of phased operations’ on RegioWiki Extranet. 

• The second subparagraph provides for a derogation at beneficiary level, exempting them from certain communication and visibility obligations set out in Article 50(1)(c) to (e) of the CPR. However, this derogation is closely linked to the activation of the derogation from transparency and visibility requirements by a Member State in cases where, for reasons of security or public order, the public display of information on the support or the organisation of a communication event or activity is not required, pursuant to Article 69(5) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060. In other terms, the derogation can apply only when the derogation at level of the Member State is triggered – should it happens before or after selection of the operation. The list of operations subject to derogation under the second sub-paragraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation can therefore be broader as the list of operations notified by the Member State under its first sub-paragraph. 

• The third subparagraph requires the Commission to inform the European Parliament of the number of operations covered by the derogation provided for in the second subparagraph at least once a year, as well as their total cost, in aggregated form and with due regard to confidentiality requirements. Unlike the first subparagraph, which concerns operations before selection, this third subparagraph concerns operations that have already been selected and benefit from the derogation from transparency requirements at beneficiary level. The Commission does not have access to this information unless it is provided by the Member States.

The SFC module has therefore been designed to allow fulfilment of both requirements of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation:

• One on hand, the notification obligation for Member States arising from the first subparagraph of that article and

• On the other hand, the reporting obligation for the Commission as laid down in the third subparagraph.

HOW WILL THE NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS UNDER ARTICLE 3(5) of THE ERDF/CF REGULATION BE FULFILLED THROUGH THE SFC MODULE?

Where a Member State decides to make use of the derogation provided for under article 69(5) of the CPR, including through the notification process pursuant to Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation and if the derogation is granted to the beneficiary of the selected operation under the second sub-paragraph of that provision, they must enter the relevant information about each such operation in the SFC module for each programme (identified by its CCI) and for each of the specific objectives concerned - 1.7 and 3.3. The encoding process is explained in the subsequent section of this guide. The data will be collected in the form of a table: 

The encoding process is important to clearly distinguish between the notification process by Member States required under the sub-paragraph 1 of Article 3(5) and the information which is required to be collected by the Commission for the purpose of reporting to the European Parliament pursuant to the third sub-paragraph of the same provision (i.e., derogation at beneficiary level). The following information should be provided under each concerned programme (CCI) and relevant SO:

• the Unique identifier of the operation – this identifier is defined by the managing authority. It may be the code already assigned to the operation in the existing national system or another code that enables the managing authority to uniquely identify the operation (see the subsequent section of this guide for further details). It must be provided:

• where the Member State intends to use the derogation from transparency and visibility requirements pursuant to the first subparagraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation, and in this case, the operations must be notified before selection. It is strongly recommended to encode the operation only when the decision about selection is reasonably certain and advanced to avoid unnecessary data entry. 

Please note that, due to the late launch of the SFC module and the fact that the first selection of operations may have already taken place under the relevant calls in some Member States, the Commission will allow for a temporary period during which such notified operations may be encoded retroactively and in accordance with the first sub-paragraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF. The period during which such retroactive encoding is allowed will be specified in a separate communication.

• where the Member State decides to apply the derogation for reasons of security or public order provided for in Article 69(5) CPR, and that decision results in a derogation from transparency and visibility requirements at beneficiary level. This is not a notification in the sense of the first subparagraph of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation – the operation will be reported for the purposes of fulfilling the requirements under the third sub-paragraph of that article. Such cases are, however, expected to remain limited.

• The SFC module will be further developed next year to ensure that both the date of the notification and the data version under which it was made are clearly visible, for reasons of transparency. 

• The total cost of the operation selected for support (EU and national contribution), pursuant to the third subparagraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation (EUR). This is a mandatory field and must be completed during each encoding process, i.e., it cannot be left blank. It refers to the total amount of support for the operation, including both the EU contribution and the national contribution, expressed in euro. Member States are asked to encode this information in the following way: 

• When the operation is notified before selection pursuant to the first sub-paragraph of article 3(5) ERDF/CF, please insert 0 in this field (there is no selection yet, thus no support is officially granted to the operation). These amounts should be encoded on a rolling basis, before selection of the operation when the notification is done in SFC. Please do not forget to send the data to the Commission before actual selection (the data entry and validation is not enough to consider the notification obligation to be fulfilled). 

• When the operation is selected for support and the derogation from transparency requirements is provided at beneficiary level pursuant to the second sub-paragraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation (regardless of whether the operation was notified before its selection, or the derogation was activated after selection), please provide the actual total cost of the operation. This will allow the Commission to fulfil its reporting requirements towards the European Parliament in accordance with the third subparagraph of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation.

Please also ensure that the information is encoded carefully, as any errors cannot be corrected within the same data version.

To reduce administrative burden linked to the encoding process, the information for selected operation benefitting from the derogation at beneficiary level can be done by Member States once a year, upon formal Commission request. On the contrary, the notification obligation pursuant to the first sub-paragraph of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation should be done as necessary, prior to selection of the relevant operation (with ‘0’ inserted in the ‘total cost’ field). In summary, the logic of the SFC module mirrors the legal structure of Article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF Regulation: 

• First, for sensitive operations under specific objectives 1.7 and 3.3, the Member State must notify the Commission before selection where publication is not permitted for reasons of security or public order. 

• Second, once such an operation is selected and benefits from the derogation at the level of beneficiary pursuant to the second sub-paragraph of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF, the module allows the total cost of the operation to be reported so that the Commission can fulfil its annual obligation to inform the European Parliament. 

The module will include all types of operations under SO 1.7 and 3.3 for which the beneficiary benefits from the derogation pursuant to the second sub-paragraph of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation while the notified operations pursuant to the first sub-paragraph should be first encoded with ‘0’ in the field ‘total cost’. 

Finally, it is important to note that where the information encoded in the SFC module does not cancel the obligation of Member States to transmit the data in accordance with article 42 of the CPR. 

REGULATIONS

More details regarding the regulation of the Project Data can be found in the "About SFC2021" section of the portal.

ROLES

Roles involved in the Project Data are:

FUNDS

Workflow

This section shows the lifecycle to create and manage Project Data.

Click here to see the Project Data workflow diagram in high resolution.

Create Project Data

1. To create Project Data, go to the Monitoring menu and select the Project Data: Art. 3.5 (ERDF, CF) option:

2. In the search screen click on the Create button to create a new Project Data:

You are redirected to the Project Data Creation Wizard:

3. Select the following information:

(1) Select a CCI Number.

The CCI list contains all adopted IJG and ETC Programmes, managed at the User’s Node, for which all Project Data versions are submitted to the Commission. The list returns the CCI, and the Programme English Title retrieved from the last adopted version of the Programme.

(2) Click on Create.

The status of the Project Data is Open.

Record/Edit the Project Data

General

Version Information

Click on the Edit button to edit the Source language if needed:

Officials in Charge

Click on the Add button to add a new official in charge.

Clicking on the Edit icon of a row will allow you to modify the information of this official.

Clicking on the Delete icon of a row will allow you to delete the official in charge selected.

1. Click on the Add button to add a new Official in Charge:

The Edit details pop-up window appears:

2. Enter or select the following information:

(1) Enter the Name.

(2) Enter the Email.

The format of the Email address will be validated by the system and should be unique.

(3) Enter the Phone number.

(4) Select the Language.

(5) Enter the Valid from and Valid until dates.

The Valid until date should be greater than the Valid from date.

(6) Click on Save to save the information.

History

This section shows all the actions that have been taken on the Project Data since it was created, for example:

Documents

The following documents will be foreseen:

(1) Document can be sent at any time

(2) Document will be automatically sent when the Object is sent

(3) Document automatically created by the system

(4) Document required in the system before a next action can be executed

Observations

1. Click on the Add button to add an observation:

The Add new observation screen appears:

2. Enter the following:

(1) Enter an observation.

(2) Click on Save to save the information.

Project Data

1. Click on the Add button to add Project Data:

The Add Project Data screen appears:

2. Enter or select the following:

(1) Select the Specific Objective.

The list of Specific Objectives contains all Specific Objectives RSO1.7 and RSO3.3 when used in the last adopted Programme version. Please note that no other Specific Objectives can be encoded as they are not in the scope of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation.

(2) Enter the Unique identifier of the operation.

Specific objective, Unique identifier of the operation is the unique key for each row, meaning that an operation can be used under both Specific Objectives. Member States are free to establish this unique identifier in the manner they consider appropriate: it may correspond to the code used in national identification systems or be an entirely new code. In any event, it should enable the Member State to associate it with the relevant operation.

(3) Enter the Total cost if operation selected for support (EU and national contribution).

The amount refers to the total amount of an operation (EU and national contribution), in euro; no rounding allowed. If the operation is notified pursuant to the first sub-paragraph of article 3(5) of the ERDF/CF regulation, it should first be encoded with ‘0’ in this field. This should be done each time before the operation is selected (the data needs to be physically sent to the Commission - please refer to the below section explaining how the data are sent; simple encoding and validation at Member State level are not enough). The amount should be updated once the project is selected and benefits from derogation at beneficiary level pursuant to the second sub-paragraph of the same provision. The total cost can be updated by Member States once a year – upon official request from the Commission.

(4) Click on Save to save the information.

Validate the Project Data

Click on the Validate button to validate the Project Data:

The system validates the following information:

An example of a validation window:

You can check the list of validation results at any time throughout the Project Data:

To see the last validation results:

(1) Click on one of the 4 categories: All results, Passed, Warning, Error.

(2) The list of latest validation results for the chosen category is displayed.

After all errors have been resolved the status of the Project Data becomes Validated.

Prepare Project Data for send to EC

1. Click on the Prepare for send to EC button to prepare to send the Project Data to the Commission:

The system will ask you to confirm the send action:

2. Click on Confirm to confirm.

The status of the Project Data is set to Preparing for send to EC.

Send the Project Data

1. Click on the Send button to send the Project Data to the Commission or to an upper Node:

The system will ask you to confirm the send action:

2. Click on Confirm to confirm.

On success, the Project Data version has been sent to the Commission or to an upper Node. When sent, the status is set to Sent.

Return Project Data by MS for modification

Follow the steps to request a review for Project Data by MS:

1. Select the following:

(1) Select the icon with 3 vertical dots.

(2) Click on the Return by MS for modification button to request revision from the lower Node.

The system will ask you to confirm the request for revision:

1. Enter the following:

(1) Enter the Reason for return in the text box provided.

(2) Click on Confirm to save the information.

On success, the status of the Project Data will be changed to Returned by MS and the sender is notified of the action and its reason.

Delete the Project Data

Follow the steps to remove the Project Data from the system:

1. Select the following:

(1) Select the icon with 3 vertical dots.

(2) Click on the Delete button to remove the Project Data from the system.

The system will ask you to confirm the delete action:

2. Click on Confirm to confirm or click on Cancel to return to the Project Data.