Article 91.

Contracts shall be based on the appropriate standard contract drawn up by the Commission and shall reflect, where necessary, the various activities concerned. They shall specify in particular:

(a)

the possibility of the payment of an advance by the Fund, within two months of the contract being signed;

(b)

the nature of the project deliverables required in order to obtain subsequent payments, which shall be made in staggered instalments reflecting the progress of the work and on the basis of invoices and appropriate supporting documents;

(c)

the deadline for submitting applications for payment of the balance following completion of the measures provided for in the contract, together with the nature of the accompanying deliverables, which shall include at least a summary of work carried out, appropriate supporting documents and an evaluation of the results obtained and how those results can be used;

(d)

a maximum period for payments from the Fund of 60 days from the date of approval by the Commission of the project deliverables, which may be suspended by the Commission in order to carry out additional verifications.

The payment of an advance by the Fund shall be subject to the lodging by the contractor, in favour of the Commission, of a security of an amount equivalent to 110 % of the advance, lodged in accordance with the conditions laid down in Title III of Regulation (EEC) No 2220/85. However, public institutions may be exempt from this requirement.

The security shall be released subject to payment of the balance of the contribution for the measures concerned.

Where the advance exceeds the amount due, the security shall be partially forfeit for an amount equal to the amount wrongly paid.