Amendment procedures

The purpose of an amendment is to modify the contract in response to changed circumstances.

Substantial modifications to the contract must be made by means of an addendum signed by the two contracting parties. Some smaller changes such as change of address, change of bank account, or change of auditor may be made unilaterally and notified in writing without delay to the Contracting Authority. Any change leading to the amendment of the Grant Contract must be requested in writing a formal request.

If requesting an amendment, the Grant Beneficiary must submit that request to the Contracting Authority at least one month before the date on which the amendment should enter into force, unless there are special circumstances duly substantiated by the partner and accepted by Contracting Authority. Contracts can be modified only within their execution period and the maximum amount of the grant may not be increased.

A unilateral modification consists of a written communication from the partner informing the Contracting Authority of changes that the Grant Beneficiary has introduced. The latter may amend the budget and inform “without delay” in writing to the Contracting Authority accordingly without asking previous authorisation. The written communication commits the Grant beneficiary to apply the change. Acceptance by the Contracting Authority is not requested in this case, and should not be expected; nevertheless it is important to duly justify the changes and archive the related correspondence. Further explanation on the changes should be provided with the interim/final narrative reports.

In the following cases:

• if the amendment does not affect the basic purpose of the Action;
• if the financial impact is limited to a transfer between items within the same main budget line including cancellation or introduction of an item;
• if a transfer between main budget headings involves a variation of 15% or less of the amount originally budgeted.

This method may not be used to amend the budget headings for administrative costs or the contingency reserve, or for changes between budget headings that exceed the 15% threshold.

An addendum is a contractual document modifying the Grant Contract. It is prepared by the Contracting Authority (see template), following a duly justified request of modification by the Grant Beneficiary.

In the proposed addendum, the Grant Beneficiary must make reference to articles and/or annexes of the Grant Contract to be modified.

The Contracting Authority sends three signed originals of the addendum to the Grant Beneficiary, who must countersign them within 30 days of receipt and return two originals together with the financial guarantee where required.

The addendum takes effect on the date of the later signature, unless otherwise agreed by the contractual parties.

An addendum may not have the purpose or the effect of making changes to the Grant Contract that would call into question the grant award decision or be contrary to the equal treatment of applicants. The maximum grant referred to in Article 3.2 of the Special Conditions may not be increased.

This method should be used for extension of the implementation period or financial modification between budget headings that exceed the 15% threshold. Any addendum modifying the budget must include a new one showing how the full budget breakdown of the initial contract has been modified. Therefore in this case the Grant Beneficiary must include the modified budget ( Annex B of the Grant Application Form) in its request for modification.



Sources and useful links:

• General Conditions, art. 9.
• PRAG 2010, section 6. Grants