FAQ Interreg NEXT BSB Programme 2021-2027

In order to check that project partners do not have any unpaid debt to the Managing Authority for any project financed under ENI-CBC Black Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020, please address the question in writing to the following address: blacksea-cbc@mdlpa.ro

According to the indicative timetable (section 1.4) included in Part IV of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, the results of the evaluation and selection are expected to be available to applicants in the beginning of 2024.

The offline application form and additional instructions on how to fill in the sections in Jems is provided in Part III of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals.

The Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals are available only in English language, the official language of the Programme.

As mentioned in section 7 from Part I of the Guidelines, in case translation of documents is needed, it is recommended to take advantage of the Commission automatic translation service, eTranslation covering all EU official languages and part of the languages of the programme eligible area (e.g Turkish and Ukrainian). The tool is available at https://language-tools.ec.europa.eu/.

Indicative lists of the Programme target group relevant for achieving the Programme objectives are described in the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part I - section 4, for each Specific Objective. Jems was developed for the use of all interested Interreg Programmes and therefore it includes a larger variety of target groups which may be eligible under other programmes but not under Interreg NEXT BSB.

When writing the application, please make sure you identify and select the target group which is relevant for the Interreg Next BSB Programme.

The Partner who has editing rights may add more users to view, edit or manage the Application Form, by accessing the section “Project Privileges”, which is the last section on the left menu in the Application Form.

As indicated in Part III – Offline application Form of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, the Application Form will contain a dedicated section for describing the investment and works undertaken within the project: “Based on information inserted here, an overview list of the foreseen investments will be automatically generated by JeMS.” Indicative information to be filled in under this section is exemplified at page 18: investment title, description of the investment and of its transnational relevance, who and in what way will benefit from the investment, location, ownership etc.

Since there will be only one work package which may include several activities, if there is an activity linked to an investment, you may mention, under the “Work package” section, the start and end period and a brief description (e.g. an activity generated or necessary to be done after the respective investment). If it is only an investment activity as such, you shall describe it only under the “Investment(s)” section.

It depends on the type of contract. If it is a contract for a service requiring external expertise, yes. (“For each type of service, a clear description of the required service needs to be included (...)Different services have to be listed separately, i.e. a new row has to be created and filled in by clicking on “+” for each.” – Part III of the Guidelines, page 9). If it is a contract for infrastructure and works or delivery of a certain equipment, it will be included under the corresponding budget line (“For each main type of equipment or infrastructure and works, a clear description of the required item or works needs to be included.” – Part III of the Guidelines, page 10).
Please also pay attention that external experts contracted under a service contract cannot be included under “Staff costs” as they fall under budget line 4 “External expertise and services”.

According to Part III Offline application Form of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, page 12, “This section collects necessary information to help the project to comply with applicable State aid rules if it is selected for funding.” Therefore, all sections are compulsory to be filled in, and it is recommended to provide a description for the given answer, in order for the assessors to have all the necessary information and to conclude a thorough analysis on whether the project activities may fall under the incidence of state aid or not.

According to the provisions of Part II – Project’s main requirements of the Guidelines for the applicants for the 1st call for proposals, Budget line 6 – Infrastructure and works, (take note box) page 27, “The costs for fixed investments (e.g. an equipment which requires works for permanent installation) shall be budgeted under this budget line.” Therefore, if the respective equipment requires works for its permanent installation (e.g. refurbishment of green area with installation of banks and garbage bins) then it should be described also under the “Investment(s)” section.

As mentioned in section 3 from Part III - Offline application Form of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, the pre-submission check will provide you with an overview of missing data. Jems will warn you only if there are sections which are not filled in (Jems requirement is that all fields of the Application Form shall be filled in, in order to be able to submit your application).

According to the section 2 from Part II of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, the project overall objective should clearly target one single programme specific objective within chosen priority.  

Moreover, in the section 3 from Part II, it is defined that “Each project should foresee activities which address the main challenges that are shared across the regions participating in the project, have a clear transnational impact and contribute to one of the programme specific objectives. This means:

• The problems identified can be solved more efficiently jointly, instead of individual regions or countries acting alone; 
• Solutions are jointly developed by organisations in different participating countries working together in a project, thereby showing a clear transnational added value going beyond the results independently achievable in the involved regions/areas;
• Project outputs reflect the transnational, joint approach;

All partners actively participate in the project in order to achieve the project results”.

The events can be included in Jems either as separate, or combined activities, both approaches are acceptable.
Make sure the activities will lead to the envisaged output(s) and contribute to the achievement of the project result(s).

The term refers to the way in which the activities of a project are developed, in the sense that the outputs are jointly set by organisations in different participating countries working together in a project to address challenges that are shared across the regions participating in the project. Thus, activities of the project have a transnational added value and impact and contribute to one of the programme specific objectives.

Please be advised that “Joint implementation” is one of the three compulsory cooperation criteria to be selected and described in section C.7.5. of the Application Form.

For guidance on how to address horizontal principles in projects, please refer to Annex 1 to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals. Annex 1 is a document developed precisely for this purpose and provides a detailed description of each principle, as well as recommendations on how to approach them in projects.

According to the provisions of the Performance Framework Methodology, page 17, “Examples of public events include: launching/final Conference of the projects, trainings, workshops and seminars organized in the framework of the project, etc.” However, when counting the number of public events under this output indicator, make sure you closely observe the definition of RCO 115 as described in the programme Performance Framework Methodology.

For further information, you may access the document here: https://blacksea-cbc.net/interreg-next-bsb-2021-2027/programme-documents.

When designing the communication plan, project partners should take into account that in the application form there is no separate communication package and therefore communication activities should be fully integrated in different parts. Information regarding communication should be included under the following Sections: Project summary, Target groups, Work plan, Project Management & Communication. For more detailed information, see Part III – Offline Application Form Template.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II, section 5.2 Geographical location, in order to be eligible Lead Partners and Project Partners must be legal persons effectively established (registered with own Registration Code and located) in the eligible area of the programme as described in Part I Section 3 Eligible Area. Limited exceptions, in certain cases, are mentioned in the same section.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals (Regular and Small-scale projects) – Part II, section 5.1 Legal status, In order to be eligible for a grant, Lead Partners and Project Partners must be registered as legal entity, with own registration number. They must be:

1. public authorities 
   E.g.: regional/county council, local council, municipality, ministries, etc;
2. bodies governed by public law – namely bodies that have all of the following characteristics: 
   • they are established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character; 
   • they have legal personality; and 
   • they are financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law; or are subject to management supervision by those authorities or bodies; or have an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law;
     E.g.: state/regional owned institutes, universities and educational institutions, regional development agencies, nature parks and protected areas management bodies, research institutes, etc; 
3. non-profit organizations: 
   E.g.: associations, unions, foundations, private universities if their legal status is of a non-profit organization, Local Action Groups, Euro regions, European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation .

Also, the Guidelines includes one exception related to the individual registration number of the organisation. This exception concerns Faculties, educational departments within a university (registered and located in the eligible area) which shall be considered separate legal entities although not having their own registration number.

There are different criteria which concern Lead Partners and Project Partners, which are described in the related Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 5.3 and section 6.1.

The fulfilment of these criteria and the relevance of the partnership will be assessed and scored accordingly (see Annex 7 Quality assessment Grid).

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II, section 5.1 Legal status and section 5.5 Ineligible applicants, private companies are not eligible to participate in the Programme.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II, section 6.3 – Take note box:

• A Lead Partner may submit more than one application under this Call for Proposals;
• A Lead Partner or a Project Partner may at the same time be partner in other application(s); however, it is recommended to thoroughly consider the number of applications which you decide to involve in, taking into account the required human and financial resources which have to be available for project implementation; 

A Lead Partner may be awarded only one grant for a regular project, per Priority.

Please see above the answer to question no 28.

At the same time, according to the section 6.3 from Part II Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, “A Lead Partner may be awarded only one grant for a regular project, per Priority”. Please also see above the answer to question no 31.

As to the question related to final selection, according to the section 1.1 from Part IV Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, “in case there are two applications of the same Lead Partner under the same Specific Objective, scored and ranked in positions for financing, the application with the highest score will be proposed for financing”.

An organisation registered in 2022, fulfilling the eligibility requirements related to the legal status and geographical location may be eligible.

Be aware that there are different professional and financial capacity criteria as well as related to the partnership relevance which concern lead partners and project partners. These criteria are described in the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 5.3 and section 6.1.

Considering the specificity of the Programme and the complexity of a transnational project it is highly recommended that the lead partner has very good knowledge and understanding of the particularities for a proper management of such a project.

The professional and financial capacity criteria as well as requirements related to the partnership relevance are described in the related Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 5.3 and section 6.1.

The fulfilment of these criteria and the relevance of the partnership will be assessed and scored accordingly (see Annex 7 Quality assessment Grid).

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 6.2, A partnership shall include maximum 2 organisations from the same participating country.

In addition, be aware of the other requirements related to the partnership size which are described in the aforementioned section.

According to Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 14, the following financial documents are mandatory to be submitted with the project proposal: “

• Financial Capacity Self-assessment (Annex 5) – Excel file – to be provided by all project partners. This obligation does not apply to public authorities.
• Annual accounts for the latest financial year for which the accounts have been closed at the moment of submission of the Application must be submitted by the Lead Partner and all project partners, as full unofficial translation(s) in English (certified through signature by the legal representative of the organisation). The extracts from bank accounts are not equivalent to latest annual account. Only documents (the balance sheet and profit and loss account) providing data about revenues, expenditures, profit and losses will be accepted.

Annual Accounts containing only the Balance Sheet without the Profit and Loss Account or a document providing data about revenues, expenditures, profit and losses for the latest financial year for which the accounts have been closed, will be considered noncompliant and therefore missing documents.”

As an exception, “Organisations (any lead partner or project partner) established in 2023 not having the latest annual accounts must submit the Balance sheet for the last closed month.

This obligation does not apply to public authorities.”

The legal entity applying for the project will be the university, even though the partner in the project will be represented by one of its faculty or educational departments (information related to the department shall be filled in in Jems, such as identification data etc). Therefore, the mandatory documents mentioned in the Guidelines will be submitted for the university as a whole (which has to be registered and located in the eligible area), while the respective faculty or educational department shall submit documents in order to demonstrate that it is located in the eligible area of the Programme.

There is no such condition included in the Guidelines for applicants for the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals - Part I - section 3, the following regions in Ukraine are eligible under the Programme: Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia Oblasts and Bakhmut District, Kramatorsk District, Volnovakha District, Mariupol District, Pokrovsk District from Donetsk Oblast.

Regarding the eligibility requirements related to the geographical location, section 5.2. from Part II of the Guidelines, indicates that, as an exception, “organisations from Ukraine effectively established (registered and located in the eligible area), with offices operating, at the date of project submission, in other areas in Ukraine outside the programme eligible area, are eligible.”

For an equipment which requires works for its permanent installation, an investment shall be considered and budgeted under the budget line “Infrastructure and works”. In this case, the applicants shall provide with the Application Form a Feasibility study or an equivalent document, describing the envisaged investment (in accordance with the national legislation of the respective applicant) in the national language, with unofficial translation in English language of the main parts.

An eligible applicant is any organisation that meets the eligibility criteria for legal status and geographical location as set out in section 5 from Part II of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals.

The Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals for regular projects and small - scale projects do not mention any restriction related to the type of organisations that are forming the partnership.

Any partnership among an NGO, public authority and a body governed by public law is permitted provided that the project partnership is established taking into account the requirements of the partnership structure and relevance set out in the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 6.1. and 6.2.

An organisation registered in 2023, fulfilling the eligibility requirements related to the legal status and geographical location may be eligible. Regarding the annual accounts, is to be noted that, for small-scale projects, only the Lead Partner has the obligation to submit annual accounts for the latest financial year for which the accounts have been closed at the moment of submission of the Application. Furthermore, according to Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 14, “Organisations (lead partner) established in 2023 not having the latest annual accounts must submit the Balance sheet for the last closed month.

However, be aware that there are different professional and financial capacity criteria as well as related to the partnership relevance which concern lead partners and project partners and which shall be assessed and scored during the assessment stage. These criteria are described in the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 5.3 and section 6.1, whilst the scoring is indicated in Annex 7 (Quality assessment) to the Guidelines.

The Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals do not mention any condition regarding the country from which the Leading Partner must be. Thus, the Lead Partner can be from any programme eligible region of any participating country in the Programme.

According to the section 6.3 from Part II Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, a Lead Partner may be awarded only one grant for a regular project, per Priority (PO1 and PO2).

In case there are two applications of the same Lead Partner under the same Specific Objective, scored and ranked in positions for financing, the application with the highest score will be proposed for financing. Details on the assessment and selection of project proposals are provided in section 1.1. from Part IV of the Guidelines.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II, section 5.2 Geographical location, in order to be eligible, Lead Partners and Project Partners must be legal persons effectively established (registered with own Registration Code and located) in the eligible area of the programme as described in Part I Section 3 Eligible Area. Limited exception in certain cases are mentioned in the same section.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II - section 5.3 , in order to ensure the achievement of the forecasted project results, it is expected that the Lead Partner has relevant experience for managing a cooperation project, the necessary competences and financial capacity to manage the implementation of the planned activities and to secure the cash-flow needed for the project implementation.

The fulfilment of these criteria will be assessed and scored accordingly (see Annex 7 Quality assessment Grid).

The budget of a project proposal is established by the potential applicants forming the partnership, according to the project needs and proposed activities and by taking into account the budget requirements included in the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals - Part II- section 8, i.e “Any grant awarded under the Interreg NEXT BSB Programme for the implementation of a regular project must fall between minimum EUR 500,001 - maximum EUR 1,500,000 (Interreg funds).”

In accordance with the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.3,
The national co-financing may take the following forms:

• Beneficiary’s own resources;
• Financial contributions by national governments, third parties, from sources other than the European Union.

Each participating country shall decide on its own co-financing system (from national/ regional/local level or directly from the beneficiary, or both from the national/regional/local level and from the beneficiary itself). No resources from other EU Assistance may be taken into account as co-financing. 

The final amount representing co-financing will be established at the final report.

Co-financing rate (10%) will be equal for all project partners.

We recommend each applicant to contact the National Authority of their country related to this issue. The contact person and the contact details are available in the INTERREG NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme, section 7.1 Programme authorities. 

Project partners will have to submit several narrative and financial reports, covering every 4 months of implementation. The number of reports depends on the length of the implementation period and will be automatically calculated by Jems as soon as the total project duration is introduced.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.2 (take note box), The payments to beneficiaries under Interreg NEXT BSB programme shall include:

• Advance payment – maximum 30%
• Several interim payments – linked and based on actual expenditure made and reported
• The advance will be recovered by deducting 20% from the eligible value of the next payment requests until the amount is recovered;

The payments will be made by the MA to the Lead Partner who shall be responsible for transferring the amounts to each project partner, as follows:

• Advance payment – maximum 30% calculated to the total budget estimated by each partner;
  Interim payments – amount will depend on the actual expenditure made and reported by the respective partner, less 20% from the eligible value of the reported amount representing recovery of the advance payment.

For an 18 months project, there will be 5 reporting periods and 6 tranches.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.2 – Budget line 1 Staff costs:

The budget line 1 “Staff costs” will be automatically calculated in Jems, as soon as the amounts for the budget lines 3 “Travel and accommodation”, 4 “External expertise and services”, 5 “Equipment” and 6 “Infrastructure and works” are filled in.

Consequently, there is no need to introduce any staff positions.

The percentage is fixed to 20%, as Jems automatically calculates it. The 20% is applied on the other estimated direct costs.

If an organisation cannot use the budget for staff costs, the respective partner shall not “select” the box “Staff costs flat rate (20% of eligible direct costs other than staff costs)” under section Partner Budget Options.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.2 – Budget line 5 Equipment - In accordance with Article 43 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg), the following exhaustive list contains the cost items which could be included under this budget line:

1. Office equipment;
2. IT hardware and software;
3. Furniture and fittings;
4. Laboratory equipment;
5. Machines and instruments;
6. Tools or devices; 
   
7. Vehicles;
8. Other specific equipment needed for the project.

There is no limitation or recommendation regarding the amount. However, the costs have to be necessary for the project implementation and observe the principle of sound financial management: economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Costs for the purchase of second-hand equipment may be eligible, subject to the following conditions

(a) no other assistance has been received for it from the Interreg funds or from the funds listed in point (a) of Article 1(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060;

(b) its price does not exceed the generally accepted price on the market in question; and

(c) it has the technical characteristics necessary for the operation and complies with applicable norms and standards.

For Regular projects
As the staff costs is covered as a flat rate of 20% to the direct costs, and the amount representing flat rate will be reimbursed as a top-up on each payment from Interreg funds, the salaries cannot be considered co-financing.

For Small Scale projects
Being reimbursed as real costs, part of the salaries shall represent co-financing.

For small scale projects, the staff costs can be accepted as co-financing. To be observed that for this type of projects, all other costs are reimbursed as flat rate of 40% of the direct eligible staff costs.

Please also see the answer to question no.58.

As a general rule, according to the Grant Contract, Annex 9 to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, any contributions in kind do not represent actual expenditure and are not eligible costs.

According to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.1, …. expenditure is eligible for funding when fulfilling the applicable national legislation, as well as respecting the specific rules described in the Common Provisions Regulation (EU Regulation 2021/1060) and the Interreg Regulation (EU Regulation 2021/1059).

The expenditure should mainly: Be incurred during the implementation period of the Project and paid before the submission of the final report;

The only exception relates to documentation for projects including an infrastructure component which are eligible if they are incurred after the date of 1st of January 2021.

Regarding expenses for consumables, according to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.2 Budget line 2 Office and administration, in accordance with Article 40 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg), the following exhaustive list includes the cost items which could be included under this budget line: 

1. Office rent; 
2. Insurance and taxes related to the buildings where the staff is located and to the equipment of the office (e.g. fire, theft insurance); 
3. Utilities (e.g. electricity, heating, water);
4. Office supplies and other consumables;
5. Accounting;
6. Archives; 
7. Maintenance, cleaning and repairs; 
8. Security;
9. IT systems (operating/administrative IT services of general nature, linked to the implementation of the project); 
10. Communication (e.g. telephone, fax, internet, postal services, business cards); 
11. Bank charges for opening and administering the project account or accounts;
12. Charges for transnational financial transactions.

Regarding expenses for fuel, according to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals – Part II – section 10.2 Budget line 3 Travel and accommodation, in accordance with Article 41 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg), travel and accommodation costs shall be limited to the following elements:

1. Travel costs (such as tickets, travel and car insurance, fuel, car mileage, toll, and parking fees);
2. Costs of meals;
3. Accommodation costs;
4. Visa costs; 
5. Daily allowances.

Jems calculates automatically the share of Interreg funds and co-financing for each partner, as soon as project budget is defined by each partner. The co-financing rate is 10% for all partners.
See also the answer above to question no. 51.

The 30% advance payment shall be granted from Interreg funds, that is 30% from the 90% share of Interreg funds.

The Programme only reimburses the Interreg share of the amount certified in a report. The advance will be recovered by deducting 20% from the Interreg eligible value of the next payment requests until the amount is recovered. If the advance is not recovered from the interim payment requests, the percentage for deduction may be increased in the request for the final balance.

Indeed, the 1.5 months for reporting is for each project partner within the consortium to submit to the controllers the report for expenditure verification.

According to the Grant Contract, Annex 9 to the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals, the interim and final payments shall be made by the Managing Authority (MA) within 45 days of receipt of the payment request from the Lead Partner, subject to the approval by the MA of the accompanying interim and final reports.

Indeed, irrespective of the type of project, the budget shall include costs for FLC (controller).

For small scale projects, please note that all costs are reimbursed as flat rate of 40% of the direct eligible staff costs.

For regular projects they will be budgeted under external expertise and services budget line.

The staff can be allocated to work full-time (100% of the working time is allocated to the project) or part-time for the project (flexible number of hours).

Staff costs expenditure consists of the gross employment costs of staff employed by the project partners for implementing the project. For detailed information related to staff costs please refer to section 10.2 from Part II of the Guidelines for applicants for the 1st call for proposals.

Yes. However, you shall keep in mind the provisions of section 10.2 - Part II of the Guidelines for the applicants for the 1st call for proposals, according to which: “Costs under this budget line refer to expenditure by a project partner for equipment purchased, rented or leased specifically for the purpose of the project, which should be listed in the approved project budget. 

In accordance with Article 43 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1059 (Interreg), the following exhaustive list contains the cost items which could be included under this budget line:

1. Office equipment;
2. IT hardware and software;
3. Furniture and fittings;
4. Laboratory equipment;
5. Machines and instruments;
6. Tools or devices; 
7. Vehicles;

Other specific equipment needed for the project.”

Indeed, this is the approach for small scale projects, which is different to regular projects. For small scale projects, all costs are reimbursed as flat rate of 40% of the direct eligible staff costs. Thus, the project budget will not actually include a detailed forecast of all the other expenses necessary to implement the project.

Yes, according to Part II of the Guidelines for applicants, section 10.2 Project budget – Budget line Travel and accommodation – Text box:

“It is recommended to foresee in the budget a reasonable amount of costs under Travel and accommodation budget line necessary for participation in programme related activities (ex. Participation in meetings with MA/JS, programme events, etc).”

Please remember that the Travel and accommodation costs are not eligible for experts who are budgeted under external expertise and services budget line.

In case of beneficiaries located in EU Member States, which are contracting authorities/ entities within the meaning of the Union law applicable to public procurement procedures, the rules of nationality and origin are according with their national law.

In all other cases, there are no rules of nationality and origin according to the Interreg Regulation (REGULATION (EU) 2021/1059 on specific provisions for the European territorial cooperation goal (Interreg) supported by the European Regional Development Fund and external financing instruments).