2.1 Subject to the conditions laid down in Article 9 of the General Conditions, the Agreement shall enter into force on the date of receipt by the Commission of one of the originals of the Agreement duly signed by both Parties.
The Agreement produces effects only once it has entered into force. The Commission sends two signed originals of the Agreement to the Organisation. The Organisation must sign the Agreement within the same calendar year as the Commission and return one original within 15 calendar days from receipt of the two originals. If it fails to do so, the Commission can cancel the Agreement.
2.2 The implementation period of the Action shall run for […] months from […] (“the start date of the Action”).
The implementation period of the Agreement is the period during which the Action is implemented in the field. The implementation period of the Action can equal the period of eligibility of expenditure (see below, Article 2.3 of the Special Conditions) or can be shorter. The implementation period can never start before the eligibility period.
2.3 Subject to the conditions laid down in Article 18 of the General Conditions, expenditure is eligible from […].
The eligibility period of the Agreement may cover the period between the start date of eligibility of expenditure and the end of the implementing period. The date of submission to DG ECHO of the Single Form or Letter of Intent no longer influences the eligibility date of individual actions (see section 1.6 of the Single Form). This does not mean that all costs are eligible as such. Costs between the start of the eligibility and the start of the Action have to be clearly spelled out in the section 4.3.2 of the Single Form and agreed with DG ECHO.
The eligibility period of an Agreement may under no circumstances begin before the start date for eligibility of expenses set out in Article 3.2 of the financing Decision. Furthermore, it should be underlined that this in no way relieves the Partner of the responsibility to prove that costs fulfil all other criteria for the eligibility of costs as set out in the Financial Regulation (Article 27), the Humanitarian Aid Regulation (Article 3), the FPAs (Article 18 of the General Conditions) and the FAFA (Article 3).
It is important to note that the eligibility period of the Agreement may not always correspond to the implementation period of the Agreement. The second figure inserted is retrieved from section 1.5 of Single Form. The start date of the Action is retrieved from section 1.4 of Single Form.
The start date of eligibility of expenditure is requested by the Organisation in section 1.6 of the Single Form.
As a general rule, the eligibility period ends at the end of the implementation period. Expenditure incurred after the end of the implementation period might only be considered eligible if related to winding-up activities.