http://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2014/515/article/13/adoptedRegulation (EU) No 515/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing, as part of the Internal Security Fund, the instrument for financial support for external borders and visa and repealing Decision No 574/2007/ECRegulation (EU) No 515/2014 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilRegulation (EU) No 515/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing, as part of the Internal Security Fund, the instrument for financial support for external borders and visa and repealing Decision No 574/2007/EC2020-12-11King's Printer of Acts of Parliamenthttps://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/eu-exit/https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32014R0515texttext/xmlen CHAPTER II <Strong>FINANCIAL AND IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK</Strong> Union actions Article 13 1 At the Commission’s initiative, the Instrument may be used to finance transnational actions or actions of particular interest to the Union (‘Union actions’) concerning the general, specific and operational objectives referred to in Article 3. 2 To be eligible for funding, Union actions shall in particular pursue the following objectives: a to support preparatory, monitoring, administrative and technical activities, required to implement external borders and visa policies, including to strengthen the governance of the Schengen area by developing and implementing the evaluation mechanism as established by Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013 to verify the application of the Schengen acquis and the Schengen Borders Code, in particular mission expenditure for experts of the Commission and the Member States participating in on site visits; b to improve the knowledge and understanding of the situation prevailing in the Member States and third countries through the analysis, evaluation and close monitoring of policies; c to support the development of statistical tools, including common statistical tools, methods and common indicators; d to support and monitor the implementation of Union law and Union policy objectives in the Member States, and assess their effectiveness and impact, including with regard to respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as far as the scope of the Instrument is concerned; e to promote networking, mutual learning, identification and dissemination of best practices and innovative approaches amongst different stakeholders at European level; f to promote projects aiming at harmonisation and interoperability of border management-related measures in accordance with common Union standards with a view to developing an integrated European border management system; g to enhance awareness of Union policies and objectives among stakeholders and the general public, including corporate communication on the political priorities of the Union; h to boost the capacity of European networks to assess, promote, support and further develop Union policies and objectives; i to support particularly innovative projects developing new methods and/or technologies with a potential for transferability to other Member States, especially projects which aim to test and validate research projects; j to support actions in relation to and in third countries as referred to in Article 4(2). 3 Union actions shall be implemented in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EU) No 514/2014.