For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
‘beneficiary country’: any country listed in either of the annexes I and II to the IPA Regulation;
‘enlargement package’: set of documents presented each year to the Council and the European Parliament by the Commission, the strategic and political part of which consists of the revisions, where appropriate, of the accession partnerships and the European partnerships, the regular reports established by country and the Commission's strategy paper. A multi-annual indicative financial framework completes the package;
‘framework agreement’: agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country and applying to all IPA components, laying down the principles of the cooperation of the beneficiary country and the Commission under this Regulation;
‘sectoral agreement’: an agreement relating to a specific IPA component drawn up, where appropriate, between the Commission and the beneficiary country, and setting out the relevant provisions to be respected which are not contained in the country specific framework agreement or financing agreements;
‘financing agreement’: annual or multi–annual agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country, following a Commission financing decision approving the Community contribution to a programme or an operation falling within the scope of this Regulation;
‘irregularity’: any infringement of a provision of applicable rules and contracts resulting from an act or an omission by an economic operator which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the European Union by charging an unjustified item of expenditure to the general budget;
‘financial year’: from 1 January to 31 December;
‘final beneficiary’: body or firm, whether public or private, responsible for initiating or initiating and implementing operations. In the context of aid schemes, final beneficiaries are public or private firms carrying out an individual project and receiving public aid;
‘Community contribution’: the part of the eligible expenditure which is financed by the Community;
‘euro account’: interest bearing bank account opened by the national fund in a financial or treasury institution, on behalf of the beneficiary country and under its responsibility, to receive payments from the Commission;
‘public expenditure’: any public contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the European Community or the budget of the public authorities of the beneficiary country and any contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the budget of public law bodies or associations of one or more regional or local authorities or public law bodies;
‘total expenditure’: the public expenditure and any private contribution to the financing of operations.