Accounting and eligibility
Although, according to the Commission’s proposal, it would only have been possible to settle of the accounts of expenditures incurred following 1 January 2007, in accordance with the agreements reached within the context of negotiations, it will now be possible to launch programmes - accounting – immediately following the submission of the operational programmes.
Eligible expenditures:
A new approach has also been adopted vis-à-vis eligible expenditures. According to the new concept, a separate implementation regulation on eligibility will not be introduced; instead, the Commission shall delegate – with only very few exceptions – defining expenditure eligibility within the framework of member state regulation. Accordingly, only a few non-eligible expenditure categories have been set out in basic regulations.
Operations eligible for support:
The way in which it is not possible to support the same thematic areas in connection with specific objectives is a new approach taken vis-à-vis operations eligible for support. Therefore, in the case of the Convergence Objective, the Commission’s proposal primarily focuses on the scope of eligibility of operations supporting investment-type action and investments in infrastructure promoting closing the development gap, whilst in the case of regional competitiveness, the proposal mainly focuses on – in compliance with the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy and the current challenges of the EU – operations that mainly increase competitiveness, primarily R+D, SME development, education, etc.