The first European Union co-financed project implementation contract of a new kind has been signed
On August 14, 2009, Director of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency Armands Eberhards and Chairman of Mērsrags Port Authority Jānis Budreika signed a contract on implementation of the European Union (EU) structural funds co-financed project “Deepening of Port's Channel and Aquatorium” within the framework of which the financing for the project implementation is fully covered from resources of the project applicant.
This kind of contract has been signed for the first time. It envisages that in case there is not sufficient amount of state budget resources for co-financing of the EU fund project but the final beneficiary is able to implement the project from its own resources a contract on implementation of the EU fund co-financed project is signed. The EU fund co-financing part should be paid to the project implementer as soon as the European Commission will make repayment to the state budget.
Until now contracts on allocation of the EU fund financing have been signed under the condition that the project’s financing should be partially ensured by the final beneficiary and from the state budget, and the EU fund repayment to the final beneficiary was made as soon as the payment request was approved from the state budget, only after that it was requested from the European Commission.
Contracts of a new kind could be signed with final beneficiaries who are not state budget institutions.
A.Eberhards noted that in current economic situation a possibility to sign such kind of contracts allows continuing of effective acquisition of allocated EU resources and implementation of significant, development-oriented projects.
Within the framework of the project “Deepening of Mērsrags Port’s Channel and Aquatorium” the banks were fixed and ship channel and port’s aquatorium were deepened. The throughput of Mērsrags port will be increased, surrounding region will be developed and the environment will be arranged, and performance of regional port where international cargo traffic is going on will be stable.
Total eligible costs of the project are 2 034 338.83 lats, co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund is 1 728 324.80 lats
The Central Finance and Contracting Agency is a state institution performing functions of a cooperation institution in the structural funds programming period 2007–2013 – signs contracts with final beneficiaries on project implementation, ensure monitoring of project implementation, ensure repayment of co-financing and state budget grant to final beneficiaries and submit reports and information about implementation of co-financed projects to Latvian and EU institutions.
Additional information:
Sanda Bergmane-Behmane,
Phone: +371 67854554
sanda.bergmane-behmane@cfla.gov.lv
http://www.cfla.gov.lv
