08 - CONTRACT CONCLUDED BETWEEN TWO OR MORE PUBLIC BODIES/BODIES GOVERNED BY PUBLIC LAW

Can a project partner, with legal personality as public body/body governed by public law, sign an agreement with another third subject (public body or body governed by public law) with the aim of sub-granting part of its own budget and delegating the implementation of some project activities?

In line with art. 12 (4) of Directive 2014/24/EU it is possible to conclude agreements between Public Bodies / Bodies governed by public law for the implementation of a specific part of the project’s activities respecting following conditions:

• the contract establishes a cooperation among participating public authorities aimed at ensuring that the public services they must provide will be provided in order to achieve common objectives;
• the implementation of such cooperation is governed only by considerations related to public interest;
• the participating contracting authorities perform on the open market less than 20% of the activity covered by the cooperation agreement.

Moreover, if applicable, the agreement shall be governed in compliance with the National and Regional laws in force, as well as the internal rules of procedure of those public bodies/bodies governed by public law interested in signing.

This kind of agreement shall be activated only where the implementation of the project activities requires institutional and technical support from other public subjects and it shall be duly justified.

The Partner or Lead Partner intending to sign this kind of agreement shall clearly specify this intention in the description of relevant activities in “Section I - Project Workplan” of the AF

The activities and the budget that represent the object of the agreement may not become the object of an agreement signed with another third subject.

The agreement must, under penalty of nullity, be drawn up in written form.

It is desirable that these kind of agreements has been already signed before the application.

Otherwise, the interested applicant shall engage itself formally within the AF also referring to official internal acts that has been already adopted in order to prove this will and demonstrate that no obstacles exist in order to finalise the agreement before the start date of the project and in any event not later than the date of the signature of the Subsidy Contract (for LP) or Partnership Agreement (for PPs).

If an agreement between two public bodies/bodies governed by public law already exist and it has been signed on the basis of general common public interest of the two parties involved, a new formal act and/or an addendum to the act in force able to specify the new conditions of collaboration within the specific project applied to the Interreg V A Italy Croatia Programme must be provided.

The full costs of those activities that represent the object of these kind of agreements are eligible under “external expertise and services” budget line if the conditions as set above are met.​​​​​​