Source: European Parliament
Commission Decision C(2023)5035 final of 19 July 2023 outlines the grounds for the enforced recovery procedure. It was established that Projekt Forum Zdruzenie (PFZ), coordinator of the project ‘Mirrors of Europe’ failed to respect its substantial obligations under the Grant Agreement signed for the above-mentioned project. As such, it was requested to return the EU funding due to this breach of obligations.
Regarding the co-financing of the project, it was established that the documents provided by the project coordinator, including the financial statement was still not balanced and therefore did not comply with the requirements of the Grant Agreement, and that there was no financial contribution made by PFZ and its co-organisers to the project.
The Commission is aware of the claim initiated in 2019 by the project coordinator, and of the decision by the European Ombudsman[1], who found no maladministration in the Education and Culture Executive Agency’s decision to recover the funds. Once all means of recovering the funds unduly received by the project, as put in place by the Commission services and the Agency, had failed (including debit note, reminders, formal notices, full repayment, repayment by instalment, offsetting, etc.), the sole remaining action was the enforced recovery procedure initiated via the above-mentioned Commission Decision.
Commission Decision C(2023)5035 outlines the grounds for the enforced recovery procedure.
- [1] European Ombudsman https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/decision/en/120801.