TITLE IIPROVISIONS ON THE FINANCING METHODS
Article 6Specific financing provisions
1.
In addition to the types of financing referred to in Article 4(1) of this Regulation, the Union's financial assistance under the following Instruments may be provided in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 also through the following types of financing:
(a)
under the DCI and under the ENI, debt relief in the context of internationally agreed debt relief programmes;
(b)
under the DCI and under the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, in exceptional cases, sectoral and general import programmes, which may take the form of:
- (i)
sectoral import programmes in kind;
- (ii)
sectoral import programmes providing foreign exchange to finance imports for the sector in question; or
- (iii)
general import programmes providing foreign exchange to finance general imports of a wide range of products;
(c)
under the EIDHR, direct award of:
- (i)
low-value grants to human rights defenders to finance urgent protection actions, where appropriate without the need for co-funding;
- (ii)
grants, where appropriate without the need for co-funding, to finance actions in the most difficult conditions or in situations referred to in Article 2(4) of Regulation (EU) No 235/2014 where the publication of a call for proposals would be inappropriate. Such grants shall not exceed EUR 1 000 000 and shall have a duration of up to 18 months, which may be extended by a further 12 months in the event of objective and unforeseen obstacles to their implementation;
- (iii)
grants to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as to the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, providing a European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation and an EU-UN Fellowship Programme, and its associated network of universities delivering human rights postgraduate diplomas, including scholarships to students and human rights defenders from third countries.
2.
Under the ENI and IPA II, cross-border cooperation programmes shall be implemented, in particular, in shared management with Member States or in indirect management with third countries or international organisations. Detailed rules shall be laid down in implementing acts adopted on the basis of Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 and Regulation (EU) No 231/2014.
3.
The Commission may adopt multiannual action programmes:
(a)
for a period of up to three years in the case of recurrent actions;
(b)
for a period of up to seven years under IPA II.
Where multiannual commitments are made, they shall contain provisions indicating that, for years other than the initial commitment year, the commitments are indicative and dependent on the future annual budgets of the Union.
4.
For actions under the ENI and IPA II extending over more than one year, budgetary commitments may be broken down over several years into annual instalments.
In such cases, unless otherwise provided by the applicable rules, the Commission shall automatically de-commit any portion of a budgetary commitment for a programme that, by 31 December of the fifth year following that of the budgetary commitment, has not been used for the purpose of pre-financing or making interim payments or for which the entrusted entity has not presented any certified statement of expenditure or any payment request.