Final balance

The grant shall be paid to the partner by the European Commission in one payment within 45 days after approving the final report accompanied by:

• a request for payment of the balance conforming to the model in Annex V,
• an expenditure verification report (see Terms of Reference in Annex VII) if required (see Payment arrangements).

Any report shall be considered approved if there is no written reply from the European Commission within 45 days of its receipt accompanied by the required documents.

Approval of the reports shall not imply recognition of their regularity nor of the authenticity, completeness and correctness of the declarations and information they contain. The European Commission may suspend the time-limit for approval of a report by notifying the partner that the report cannot be approved and that it finds it necessary to carry out additional checks. In such cases, the EC may request clarification, alteration or additional information, which must be produced within 30 days of the request. The time-limit starts running again on the date the required information is received.

The EC may suspend the time-limit of 45 days for payment by notifying the partner that the request for payment is inadmissible, either because the amount in question is not due or because proper supporting documents have not been supplied or it thinks it necessary to conduct further checks, including on-the-spot checks, to make sure that the expenditure is eligible. The time-limit for payment shall start running again on the date on which a correctly formulated request for payment is recorded.

Once the time-limit referred to above has expired, the partner may, within two months of receipt of the late payment, claim default interest:

• at the rediscount rate applied by the central bank of the country of the Contracting Authority if payments are in the currency of that country;
• at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its main refinancing transactions in euro, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, if payments are in euro,

on the first day of the month in which the time-limit expired, plus three and a half percentage points. The interest shall be payable for the time elapsed between the expiry of the payment deadline and the date on which the Contracting Authority's account is debited. This interest is not considered income. Any partial payments shall first cover the default interest thus established.



Sources and useful links:

• General conditions, Article 15