HCL 314/2020 adoptată

ANEXA LA HOTĂRÂREA CONSILIULUI LOCAL AL MUNICIPIULUI CRAIOVA NR.314/2020 Partnership Agreement Project Acronym: RESTART_4Danube Disclaimer: This document is a template providing minimal requirements for the Partnership Agreement. It cannot be modified with exception of the Article 4, which can be adapted by the Partnership, and the relevant fields as referred “to be defined by the Partnership” highlighted in grey. Further detailed provisions can be added by the partnership, if not contrasting with the programme rules and the Subsidy Contract. Partnership Agreement for the implementation of the project RESTART_4Danube within the Danube Transnational Programme between Lead Partner University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest – Splaiul independentei 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania and ERDF Project Partner 1 Steinbeis 2i GmbH – Kienestraße 35, 70174 Stuttgart, Germany ERDF Project Partner 2 School of Advanced Social Studies – Gregorčičeva 19, 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia ERDF Project Partner 3 IPA – Research and development company, engineering and manufacturing for automation equipment and systems – Stefan cel Mare street 12, 200130 Craiova, Romania ERDF Project Partner 4 University of Maribor – Slomškov trg 15, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia ERDF Project Partner 5 Croatian Chamber of Economy – Rooseveltov trg 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia ERDF Project Partner 6 Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vratsa – Hristo Botev street 24, 3000 Vratsa, Bulgaria ERDF Project Partner 7 Carinthian University of Applied Sciences – Villacher Straße 1, 9800 Spittal an der Drau, Austria ERDF Project Partner 8 Local Council of Craiova Municipality – A.I. Cuza street 7, 200585 Craiova, Romania ERDF Project Partner 9 Municipality of Vratsa – Stefanaki Savov street 6, 3000 Vratsa, Bulgaria ERDF Project Partner 10 Pannon Business Network Association – Gesztenyefa u. 4, 9027 Győr, Hungary ERDF Project Partner 11 Municipality of Maribor – Ulica heroja Staneta 1, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia ERDF Project Partner 12 City of Rijeka – Korzo 16, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia ERDF Project Partner 13 Self-Government Office of Vas County – Berzsenyi D. tér 1, 9700 Szombathely, Hungary IPA Project Partner 1 Development Association NERDA – M. i Ž. Crnogorčevića 5, 75000 Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina ENI MD Project Partner 1 Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises Sector Development – Boulevard Stefan cel Mare si Sfant 134, 2012 Chisinau, Moldova ENI UA Project Partner 1 Informational Centre for Innovation and Development “NOVUM” – Ivana Frank street 1B, 88000 Uzhgorod, Ukraine hereinafter jointly referred to as Parties On the basis of: Regulation (EU) No. 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 Regulation (EU) No. 1301/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the European Regional Development Fund and on specific provisions concerning the Investment for growth and jobs goal and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1080/2006 Regulation (EU) No. 1299/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on specific provisions for the support from the European Regional Development Fund to the European territorial cooperation goal. Regulation (EU) No 231/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014 establishing an Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) Regulation (EU) 447/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 May 2014 on the specific rules for implementing Regulation (EU) No 231/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing an Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) Regulation (EU) No 236/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014, Common Implementing Regulation for External Actions Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC; Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 481/2014 of 4 March 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1299/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to specific rules on eligibility of expenditure for cooperation programmes; All other applicable EU legislation, including the legislation laying down provisions on public procurement, on competition, on state aid, on protection of the environment and on equal treatment between men and woman; The European Territorial Cooperation Programme Interreg V-B Danube, approved by the European Commission on 20/08/2015 C(2015) 5953; All manuals and guidelines issued by the Danube Transnational Programme (e.g. Applicants Manual, Implementation Manual, DMS User Manual) relevant for this contract available on the Programme’s website: www.interreg-danube.eu. All laws, regulations, programme documents mentioned in this agreement – including any amendments made to these rules and regulations – are applicable in the latest version in force. Article 1 Definitions Lead Partner: the Lead Partner means the Lead Beneficiary as referred to in Article 13 of Regulation (EU) No 1299/2013 (hereinafter referred to as “LP”). Project Partner (ERDF Project Partner / IPA Project Partner/ ENI Project Partners): project beneficiaries as referred to in Article 13 of Regulation (EU) No. 1299/2013 and named in the approved Application Form, including LP (hereinafter referred to as “PP”). Associated Strategic Partner: as indicated in the Applicants Manual (hereinafter referred to as “ASP”). Project Participants: means LP, ERDF PPs, IPA PPs, ENI PPs. Project: as described in the Application Form. Project Part: covers a set of activities undertaken by a PP and presented by a project partner’s budget in the Application Form. Terms of this agreement will be used according to the abbreviations and glossary of the Applicants Manual of the Danube Transnational Programme (hereinafter referred to as Applicants Manual). Article 2 Subject of the Partnership Agreement The subject of this Partnership Agreement is the organisation of the partnership by regulating the rights and obligations of the Parties in order to successfully implement the transnational project RESTART_4Danube. The approved Application Form and the Subsidy Contract will became integral part of this Agreement after the approval of the project by the Monitoring Committee. The Parties have to fully respect the content and obligations set by the abovementioned documents and take full responsibility of keeping all regulations relevant to the implementation of the project. Article 3 Activities of Project Participants in the project Activities of the Project Participants as well as the role of each PP in the project are described in the Application Form. Article 4 Operation and organisation of the Project Steering Committee The Project Participants must set up a Project Steering Committee in order to establish a clear decision making structure, where the following rules shall apply: Composition of the Steering Committee The Steering Committee (later on called "SCOM"), chaired by the LP is composed by one representative from each project financing partner (later on called "SCOM Members"). The SCOM Members representing the project participants shall be appointed in written by the concerned partner, after a written request from the LP. Alternatively, the SCOM Members will be appointed by each Financing Partner representative during the kick off meeting, according to a specific point in the agenda. In this case, the appointment has to be done in writing and shall be part of the minutes prepared in line with point e). The SCOM Members have the right to be substituted in 2 ways: by appointment of deputies; or by sending substitutes to the meeting, informing the Chairperson of the SCOM not later than one working day before the meeting Representatives of Associated Strategic Partners may participate in the "SCOM" in an advisory capacity. Tasks The SCOM shall oversee the effectiveness and quality of the implementation of RESTART_4Danube, in accordance with the following provisions: it shall consider any relevant problem incurred during the implementation of the project and take decisions on how to solve these problems; it shall periodically review progress made towards achieving the specific targets of the project; it shall examine the results of implementation, particularly the achievement of the targets value (outputs/results) stated in the Application Form on the basis of partner reports and other documents produced by the partners, either on a regular or on ad-hoc basis; it may propose any revision or examination of the project likely to make possible the achievement of the project objectives or to improve its management, including its financial management (e.g. redistribution of activities and budget across the partnership); it approves major changes requested for the implementation of the project activities (e.g. expulsion/substitution/sanctions of a PP for underperformance, modification of activities and outputs, etc.); In case of dispute between PPs, presumption of good faith from all Parties will be privileged. Should a dispute arise between the partners, the affected parties will endeavour to find a solution on an amicable way. In cases where the disputes cannot be solved by the partners, nor by the intervention of the LP, then they are referred to the SCOM in order to reach a settlement. Chairpersonship and meetings The SCOM will be chaired by a representative of the LP or person entitled by LP (the SCOM Chairperson). LP convenes the SCOM at least once every 6 months generally in coincidence with the project meeting date. The LP convenes the SCOM at least 20 working days before the date proposed for the meeting by e-mail, together with the proposed agenda (drawn up by him/her) and all information about the issues to be discussed. If any urgent issues arise to be addressed urgently, the SCOM may be convened by the LP even with a shorter notice. The SCOM Chairperson shall be responsible for the proper functioning of the SCOM and shall perform SCOM Chairperson’s duties (e.g. declares the opening and closing of each meeting, directs the discussion, rules on points of order, accords the right to speak, announces the decisions and summarizes them at the end of the meeting, etc.). Participation in the SCOM meetings is mandatory for all financing partners and any absence from meetings needs to be duly justified in advance to the LP (who then is in charge of communicating it to all the SCOM Members at the beginning of the meeting). Decision making The SCOM is legally convened when the majority (50%+1 member of the appointed members in line with point a.) of SCOM Members is present (9). The general rule is that the decision making in the SCOM is by consensus among the SCOM Members present at the meeting (according to the principle "one partner, one vote"). If consensus cannot be reached SCOM will decide according to the majority rule. Majority means the highest number of votes. Votes cannot be delegated to other partners. The LP, by its own initiative and/or under a well justified request of one or more of the SCOM Members, can initiate a written decision-making process via e-mail. In this case the LP shall send the draft decision to the SCOM Members entitled to vote and shall fix a deadline, giving the addressees at least 10 (or at least 5, in case of exceptional urgent cases) working days for the reply. If an objection to the procedure or to the draft decision is raised, the matter shall be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the SCOM. If no objection to the procedure or to the draft decision has been received by the specified time, the decision is deemed to be taken by the SCOM. Minutes The LP shall send the minutes of the SCOM meeting reporting the decisions taken to the other members of the SCOM for comments not later than 10 working days after the date of the meeting. If no written objections are raised from SCOM representatives within 10 working days after the minutes are received, they are considered to be approved. If written objections are raised, the LP shall revise the minutes accordingly, decide on the final version and send it to the members of the SCOM. In this last case, the final version is approved by the members of the SCOM in the following meeting of the SCOM according to the above mentioned rules (see point e.). Communication Communication among the members of the SCOM shall be done by email. Any document which shall be sent to the members of the SCOM must be transmitted by email. All members of the SCOM shall communicate to the Lead Partner their email address and its eventual changes promptly. Working language Working language of the SCOM shall be in English. This rule also applies to the official documents of the SCOM. Article 5 Specific obligations and responsibilities of the Lead Partner The LP shall take all the steps needed to correctly manage the project in accordance with the Application Form approved by the Monitoring Committee, the Subsidy Contract and the programme documents relevant for this agreement. The LP solely assumes all obligations and overall responsibility for the entire project towards the MA/JS. In addition the LP shall: inform all PPs on the signature of the Subsidy Contract and provide the copy of the Subsidy Contract to all Project Partners; keep the PPs informed on a regular basis about all relevant communication between the LP and MA/JS; inform the PPs about all essential issues connected to the project implementation without any delay; be responsible for the verification that the expenditure declared by the PPs has been incurred only for the purpose of implementing the project and corresponds to the activities agreed between the PPs in the frame of the approved Application Form; ensure that the expenditure presented by the PPs has been verified by a controller or controllers; submit the Applications for Reimbursement together with the Progress Reports to the MA/JS by the deadlines given in the Subsidy Contract; transfer the EU Funds (ERDF, IPA and ENI contribution) to the PPs participating in the project according to each Application for Reimbursement approved by the MA/JS, within 14 days; No deduction, retention or any other specific charges can be made by LP concerning the approved amount when transferring the contribution and no legal dispute between the LP and the PP concerned could be subject to any compensation from the approved amount to be transferred by LP to the PP; bear in case of irregularities the overall responsibility towards the MA/JS for the repayment of the amounts unduly paid. agree with the PPs before applying for budget reallocation between budget lines and/or work packages not affecting amendment of the Subsidy Contract; agree with the PPs of the project before submission of any request for amendment of the Subsidy Contract to the MA/JS. Article 6 Obligations of the Project Partners The PPs shall respect all the rules and obligations set forth in the Subsidy Contract. The PPs shall comply with EU regulations and programme level regulatory documents – as referred in the Subsidy Contract – and the relevant national legislation. Each PP commits itself to implement its own project part according to the approved Application Form, Partnership Agreement and the programme documents. The PPs shall respect the time schedule of the project, including the completion of the activities foreseen for each reporting period as agreed among the PPs and the financial performance in relation to the project implementation, and shall contribute to the achievement of outputs and results of the project. The PPs shall have their expenditures incurred and paid in the given reporting period validated by the designated Controller of their Partner State and submit the Control Certificate issued by the Controller to the LP. The PPs shall be responsible for the sound financial management of the funds allocated to their project part, including the repayment of the contributions from the EU Funds (ERDF/IPA/ENI) unduly paid to the LP, and, where applicable, the repayment of the state co-financing to the relevant national body. Each Project Partner shall maintain either a separate accounting system or an adequate accounting code for all transactions relating to the project. The PPs shall support the LP to fulfil its tasks according to the Subsidy Contract. In particular, each PP shall: provide the LP without any delay with any information needed to draw up the Progress Reports, to react on any request by the MA/JS, or provide with any further information needed by the LP; inform the LP immediately about any circumstance that could lead to a temporary or final discontinuation of the project; inform the LP before the submission of the first Application for Reimbursement on the details of the bank account where the contribution from the EU Funds of the given PP shall be transferred. Article 7 Reporting obligations of the PPs Each Project Partner shall submit the Partner Report for validation of the expenditure to the responsible controller selected or appointed according to national rules online through the Danube Monitoring System. The deadline for submitting the Partner Report set by the responsible controller shall be respected by the PP. The LP can only submit an Application for Reimbursement to the MA/JS by providing proof of progress of the project. Therefore, in order to provide adequate information on the progress of the project, each PP has to submit a Partner Report to the LP online through the Danube Monitoring System consisting of an activity report describing the activities carried out and their outputs and results during the reporting period and of a financial report presenting the financial progress of the project in accordance with the approved Application Form. The PPs have to respect the reporting deadlines of the Subsidy Contract, and submit their Partner Report and Control Certificate to the LP in due time, 30 calendar days before the deadline for the submission of the project report. Partner Reports and Control Certificates not submitted through the Danube Monitoring System to the LP within the set deadline cannot be included in the Progress Report of the LP of the respective reporting period to be submitted to the MA/JS. Control certificates not submitted in the given reporting period shall be included in the earliest possible next Progress Report following to the reporting period concerned. All expenditure shall be reported in Euro; therefore the Partner Reports should be drawn up in Euro. Expenditure incurred by project partners in a currency other than the Euro shall be converted into Euro by using the monthly accounting exchange rate of the European Commission in the month during which expenditure was submitted for verification to the controller. This method shall be applicable to all project partners. The exchange rate risk is borne by the PP concerned. Article 8 Audits For audit purposes each PP shall: retain all files, documents and data about the project for a two year period from 31st December following the submission of the accounts in which the final expenditure of the completed project is included. The MA/JS will inform each Lead Partner individually about the beginning of the mentioned two year period. In case of State aid granted including de minimis aid as well, all related files, documents and data must be kept and be available for a period of 10 fiscal years from the date on which the aid was granted. The files, documents and data should be kept either in [...]