EU money is managed and distributed according to the rules set in special Programmes / programme documents developed by a beneficiary country and agreed with the European Commission. These programme documents define, among other things, the following issues:
- type of projects for which assistance can be granted (training, infrastructure development, investment);
- entities which are eligible for this assistance (public, private, SMEs, large enterprises);
- application procedures, conditions and timing;
- level of co-financing (depending on type of programme, range of co-financing level can reach 30 – 70% of total project expenditures).
The key programme documents for next budgetary period are:
- National Cohesion Strategy (NSS), which defines strategic directions for spending EU money in certain programming period;
- Operational Programmes (OPs) which define general conditions of granting aid for particular projects;
- Supplements for particular OPs (currently not available).
