the common costs of Union operations under Articles 42(4) and 43(2) TEU having military or defence implications and which therefore, according to Article 41(2)TEU, cannot be charged to the Union budget;

assistance measures consisting of Union actions under Article 28 TEU where the Council decides unanimously, pursuant to Article 41(2) TEU, that the operating expenditure arising therefrom shall be charged to the Member States.

an administrator for operations;

the operation commander of each operation, in relation to the operation which he or she commands and to any assistance measure, or part thereof, which the operation may implement, as provided in Article 60;

an administrator for assistance measures; and

an accounting officer for operations and an accounting officer for assistance measures.

the implementing rules as regards military operations, which shall be similar in terms of flexibility to the financial rules which applied to the mechanism to administer the common costs of European Union operations having military or defence implications established by Decision (CFSP) 2015/528 (the ‘Athena mechanism’);

the implementing rules as regards assistance measures, which shall be consistent with and guarantee the same level of sound financial management, transparency and non-discrimination as those set out in Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 ( 2 ) of the European Parliament and of the Council. Those rules shall explicitly justify the cases where it is necessary to diverge from the rules of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 in order to allow for targeted flexibility, and shall ensure that the accounting rules adopted by the accounting officer pursuant to point (d) of Article 13(4) comply with internationally accepted accounting standards for the public sector.

the Committee shall be composed of a representative of each contributing Member State;

a representative of a Member State which does not contribute to the operation or assistance measure may attend the Committee’s proceedings relating to such operation or assistance measure, without taking part in its votes;

each operation commander or his or her representative shall participate in the proceedings of the Committee for the operation he or she commands and for the assistance measure or any part thereof that the operation implements, without taking part in its votes;

the representatives of contributing third States and of voluntary contributors shall be invited to participate in the proceedings of the Committee if the discussion directly relates to their financial contribution, without taking part in or being present at its votes;

representatives of other relevant actors, in particular implementing actors, may be invited to participate in the proceedings of the Committee concerning the assistance measure which they implement in whole or in part, without taking part in its votes.

shall draw up and submit to the Committee the titles of the draft annual budget and amending budgets for which he or she is responsible. The ‘expenditure’ section for an operation and for any assistance measure or part thereof which the operation may implement in the draft annual and amending budgets shall be drawn up on the basis of a proposal from the operation commander in question;

shall implement and report on the annual and respective amending budgets under his or her responsibility after their adoption by the Committee;

shall be the respective authorising officer for the revenue and expenditure of the Facility, except for expenditure incurred during the active phase of operations. The administrator may delegate the powers of authorising officer as required;

as regards revenue, shall implement the financial arrangements made with third parties in relation to the financing of operations and assistance measures respectively.

properly implement payments, collect revenue and recover amounts established as being receivable;

prepare the annual accounts and submit them to the Committee for approval;

keep the accounts;

lay down the accounting rules and procedures and the chart of accounts;

lay down, validate and monitor the accounting systems for revenue and, where appropriate, validate and monitor systems laid down by the respective authorising officer to supply or justify accounting information, check information received and request corrective measures when deemed necessary;

keep supporting documents;

be responsible for treasury management.

shall send the administrator for operations his or her proposals for the ‘expenditure’ section of the draft budgets;

as an authorising officer:

the appropriations deemed necessary to cover:

a general part to cover the support and preparatory expenditure on operations, as referred to in Annexes II and III, which is not linked to a specific operation;

a general part to cover the support and preparatory expenditure on assistance measures, as referred to in Annexes II and III, which is not linked to a specific assistance measure;

a forecast of the revenue needed to cover expenditure.

contributions payable by the contributing Member States and, where appropriate, by contributing third parties;

miscellaneous revenue, which includes, inter alia:

a new operation or assistance measure has been decided by the Council and therefore a new title must be created for it in the budget;

the budget outturn for a financial year for which the accounts have been approved in accordance with Article 43(6) needs to be entered in the budget of the following financial year:

due to unavoidable, exceptional or unforeseen circumstances, the appropriations entered in the titles for operations or in the titles for assistance measures do not correspond to the needs of the corresponding operation or assistance measure.

payment appropriations, where they are necessary to cover existing commitments;

commitment appropriations in titles for assistance measures for which most of the preparatory stages of the commitment procedure, to be specified in the rules for implementation pursuant to Article 11(6), have been completed by 31 December of the preceding year. Such appropriations may then be committed up to 31 March;

commitment and payment appropriations which are necessary when a Council decision for a new assistance measure has been adopted in the final quarter of the preceding financial year.

a forecast of the amounts and an indicative schedule for the calls for contributions for the year n;

a forecast for the ceiling for payments for the year n + 1 to take into account ongoing and future or expanding operations and assistance measures, including an indicative distribution between envisaged payments necessary for assistance measures which allow the supply of military equipment, or platforms, designed to deliver lethal force and assistance measures which do not allow such support;

an indicative estimate for the annual amount of the contributions for the year n + 2, n + 3 and n + 4 in line with estimated needs;

a forecast for the amounts and an indicative schedule for the calls for contributions for the year n + 1;

a revised indicative estimate based on the best available information for the annual amounts of contributions for the years n + 2, n + 3 and n + 4.

pay contributions to the Facility in advance, with the amount of the contributions reflecting the respective share of GNI of that Member State in the total GNI aggregate of the Member States at the time when the advance contribution is paid to the Facility. That share shall be recalculated to its final value when the rapid response operation to which they contribute is launched, and when individual assistance measures are approved by the Council or the urgent activities referred to in Article 58 are approved by the PSC; or

pay their contributions within 15 days following dispatch of the call, at the level of the reference amount of the rapid response operation or of the authorised cost of the urgent activities or individual assistance measure when the Council decides to launch a rapid response operation to which they contribute, when the PSC approves urgent activities as referred to in Article 58, or when the Committee authorises its use for individual assistance measures pursuant to paragraph 1, and it is necessary to resort to the minimum deposit, unless the Council decides otherwise. In the case of delay, Article 31(1), shall apply.

a budget for a financial year is adopted by the Committee. The first call for contributions shall cover the payment needs for up to the first eight months, taking into account the needs of Member States. The subsequent calls for contributions shall cover the remaining balance of contributions, taking into account the balance of the previous year when the Committee has decided to enter such balance in the current budget. The calls for contributions shall take into account the indicative schedule for the call for contributions referred to in Article 25(3), point (a);

an amending budget is adopted as provided for in Article 19 and the planned calls for contributions for the year will not meet the payment needs in a timely manner;

contributions to the minimum deposits and their replenishment are needed as provided for in Article 28(3) and in paragraphs 9 and 10 of this Article.

make budgetary commitments and legal commitments, including by signing contracts on behalf of the Facility;

validate expenditure and authorise payments; and

undertake the preliminary steps for the implementation of appropriations.

the staff members at an appropriate level receiving such delegation;

the extent of the conferred powers; and

the scope for delegatees to subdelegate their powers.

Member States’ ministries or Government departments, or their other public law bodies and agencies, or bodies governed by private law with a public service mission to the extent that the latter are provided with adequate financial guarantees;

an international organisation, a regional organisation, or their bodies and agencies;

a third State or its public law bodies and agencies, provided that such third State does not contravene the security and defence interests of the Union and its Member States and that it respects international law and, where relevant, the principle of good neighbourly relations with Member States;

Union agencies and bodies having legal personality;

bodies or persons entrusted with the implementation of specific actions in the CFSP pursuant to Title V of the TEU and identified in the relevant basic act;

bodies established in a Member State, governed by the private law of a Member State or Union law and eligible to be entrusted, in accordance with sector-specific rules, with the implementation of Union funds or budgetary guarantees, to the extent that such bodies are controlled by bodies as set out in point (a) and are provided with adequate financial guarantees in the form of joint and several liability by the controlling bodies or equivalent financial guarantees and which may be, for each action, limited to the maximum amount of the Union support.

the necessary advances to the operation commanders for the implementation of expenditure relating to the common costs of operations and to the cost of the assistance measures or any part thereof which are implemented by operations; and

the necessary payments to implementing actors and to suppliers necessary for assistance measures.

subject to prior consultation of the Committee if they are concluded with Member States, Union institutions, or bodies or agencies of a Member State or of the Union; or

submitted to the Committee for prior approval if they are concluded with third States, international organisations or regional organisations.

neither request nor receive instructions other than from the Committee; within its audit mandate the College of Auditors and its members shall be completely independent and solely responsible for the conduct of their external audit;

report on their task only to the Committee.

the common costs listed in Part A of Annex IV;

the common costs listed in Part B of Annex IV, if the Council so decides;

the common costs listed in Part C of Annex IV, where the operation commander so requests and if the Committee approves it.

minor and temporary works for deployment/temporary infrastructure: expenditure absolutely needed for the temporary headquarters and forces participating in the exercise to achieve its objective, if approved by the Committee;

the planning and preparatory phase of exercises, including essential training necessary for the exercise, in particular training for operators of the EU Deployable Packages and for financial experts designated to participate in the exercise;

transport for deployment and redeployment to and from the theatre of operations for EU RDC exercises (including EU Battlegroups, strategic enablers and modules), under the conditions set out in Annex IV, Part A, paragraph 3 related to EU RDC operations up to an amount in line with the most cost-effective option, according to the decision of the Committee. The decision by the Committee shall be made taking into account the applicable strategic orientation discussion in the PSC, focusing on operational and financial aspects, and in time to be duly considered in the force generation process of the exercise.

infrastructure may be sold, transferred or donated through the Facility to the host country, a Member State, other operations, Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, or a third party;

equipment may be sold, transferred or donated through the Facility to a Member State, another operation, Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, the host country, a third country, or a third party, or be stored and maintained by the Facility, a Member State or such a third party, for use in a subsequent operation.

to strengthen the capacities relating to military and defence matters and resilience of third States and of regional and international organisations;

to contribute rapidly and effectively to the military response of third States and of regional and international organisations in a crisis situation;

to contribute effectively and efficiently to conflict prevention, stabilisation and peace consolidation, including in the context of operations with tasks of training, advice and mentoring in the security sector, as well as in other pre-conflict or post-conflict situations;

to support cooperation in the area of security and defence between the Union and a third State or a regional or international organisation.

they must be consistent with the policies and objectives of the Union’s external action aiming at building peace, preventing conflicts and strengthening international security;

they must comply with Union law and with Union policies and strategies, in particular the EU Strategic Framework to support Security Sector Reform and the Integrated Approach to external conflicts and crises, the EU Strategic Approach to Women, Peace and Security as well as with relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions;

they must respect the obligations of the Union and its Member States under international law, in particular international human rights law and humanitarian law;

they must not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of a Member State and must not contravene the security and defence interests of the Union and its Member States. To this end, the transparency and traceability of the support provided by the Facility shall be ensured.

proper and efficient use of assets for the purposes for which they were provided;

sufficient maintenance of the assets to ensure their usability and their operational availability over the life-cycle of the assets;

that the assets will not be lost, or transferred without the prior agreement of the High Representative to persons or entities other than those identified in the arrangements. The High Representative shall obtain the prior consent of the PSC for the transfer of items on the Common Military List of the Union and in the case of the re-export of items delivered under an assistance measure. For the transfer of other items delivered under an assistance measure, the High Representative shall obtain the prior consent of the Committee;

compliance with any other requirements established by the Council;

that the beneficiary grants the High Representative, and those persons indicated by him or her, including the Facility’s auditors, access and necessary assistance to conduct on-site controls and audits upon request.

the PSC may decide to suspend wholly or partially the implementation of an assistance measure at the request of a Member State or the High Representative in the following cases:

in urgent and exceptional cases the High Representative may provisionally suspend wholly or partially the implementation of an assistance measure pending a decision by the PSC.

ministries or Government departments of Member States where they are designated as implementing actors;

Union agencies and bodies;

bodies or persons entrusted with the implementation of specific actions in the CFSP pursuant to Title V of the TEU and identified in the relevant basic act.

assets financed with funds provided by the Facility, if any, are procured in accordance with applicable Union law on public procurement, or with rules deemed equivalent to those adopted by the Committee pursuant to Article 11(6) for direct procurement by the Facility;

an accounting system providing accurate, complete and reliable information in a timely manner is used;

an effective and efficient internal control system, as well as policies and measures, based on international best practices, enables in particular the legality and regularity of the expenditure financed under the Facility to be ensured, and for irregularities, corruption and fraud to be prevented, detected and corrected;

independent external audits are performed, in accordance with internationally accepted auditing standards by an audit service functionally independent of the entity or persons implementing the assistance measure, on the legality and regularity of the expenditure financed under the Facility;

the Facility shall be provided with regular financial reports on how the assistance measures are implemented, and it shall be notified without delay of cases of detected fraud and irregularities concerning the Facility and of the preventive or corrective measures taken, including recovery or restitution of amounts wrongly paid;

any amount wrongly paid is recovered by the Facility;

the Facility shall be provided in a timely manner with the accounts of the expenditure financed under the Facility during the relevant reference period, with a management declaration that, in the opinion of those in charge of the management of the funds, the information is properly presented, complete and accurate, the expenditure was used for its intended purpose and the control systems in place give the necessary guarantees in that regard, and with an opinion of an independent audit body, drawn up in accordance with internationally accepted audit standards;

the Facility, the auditors which it designates and the College of Auditors are given the right and all necessary assistance by the implementing actor to carry out the necessary on-the-spot checks and to access without delay and without giving prior notice the documents and data relating to expenditure financed under the Facility, and to the premises where those documents and data are kept;

any arrangement, condition, limitation or mitigating provision in or in accordance with the Council decision establishing the assistance measure is complied with;

the implementing actor bears liability regarding its implementation of the contract;

obligations of the Facility under the contract will be suspended if the assistance measure is suspended in accordance with Article 64(1), and that those obligations will be terminated if the assistance measure is terminated by the Council.

with a view to achieving the objectives of the assistance measure in an efficient and timely manner;

in accordance with the arrangements set out in the assistance measure including any restriction or limitation on their use, sale or transfer and any other mitigating provisions;

with respect for the objectives and principles set out in Article 56(1), (2) and (3) and in accordance with Article 59.

delivered effectively to the beneficiary in accordance with the assistance measure;

kept at all times under the control of the implementing actor until they are delivered to the beneficiary.

provide the Facility with regular reports on the implementation of the assistance measure entrusted to them, including where appropriate inventories of the assets financed from the Facility and information on suppliers and sub-contractors;

give the Facility or persons it designates the right and all necessary assistance to carry out the necessary on-the-spot checks.

transport, as indicated in Annex IV for the EU Battlegroup, including for its strategic enablers, and within the simulated theatre of operations, temporary barracks and temporary lodging;

works for deployment/temporary infrastructure: expenditure absolutely needed for the headquarters and forces participating in the exercise to achieve its objective;

identification marking: specific identification marks, ‘European Union’ identity cards, badges, medals, flags in Union colours or other Force or headquarter identification marking (excluding clothes, hats or uniforms);

running costs: incremental costs for services absolutely needed for the direct support to the deployment at air and/or maritime entry points and logistical and assembly areas.

the expenditures of ongoing operations and of the general part of the annual budget referred to in Article 18(3), point (b);

the expenditures provided for in Article 18(3), point (c), to enable the management of assistance measures established before but not completed by 31 December 2027.