Means of transmission
The introduction of the etools (eSingle Form) in the operational environment of DG ECHO will have an implication on the exchange of paper documents between DG ECHO and its Partners.
- Details on transmission of documents in the etools application are provided in Fact sheet A.7.
When preparing the transmission of a document, DG ECHO and the Partner should bear in mind the following:
- Electronic or paper?: The general principle is that documents will be transmitted electronically, unless otherwise requested (in the General Conditions or Special Conditions).
To improve efficiency the General Conditions aim to widen the possibility to use electronic transmissions, whilst reducing the number of situations requiring both delivery of a paper and electronic document.
- Terminology: e-documents, e-mails and paper documents:
- An E-document is a document, transmitted electronically as fax or as electronic file (e.g. tiff, jpg or PDF) resulting from the scan of an original, signed paper document.
- Any other electronic message is called e-mail. In this case the message or request is included in the message body of a conventional e-mail or as attachment of the e-mail in standard office file formats like MS Word, MS Excel etc. When this reference to electronic transmission of documents is made, it refers to both PDF-documents and e-mails, unless otherwise specified.
- Paper transmission means that hard copies of the original documents must be transmitted. In practice, a paper transmission shall take place by registered letter or equivalent such as courier services.
“Documents” refer to each form of written communication between DG ECHO and the Partner relating to the agreement and its management. Unless otherwise provided, the term “transmission” encompasses all forms of transmission, electronic or not.
Due to the maximum capacity of DG ECHO's mailbox, DG ECHO may not receive or send documents exceeding 10 MB. DG ECHO and the Partners are recommended to limit the transmission to relevant information only and to zip files exceeding 1 MB.
Long strings of e-mails should be avoided.
DG ECHO and the Partner must draft the document in the language of the agreement, pursuant to Article 12.3 of the General Conditions.
The translation costs related to the correspondence with DG ECHO may be recognised as eligible costs.
Any change of language in reporting after the signature of the Agreement can take place if accepted by both parties. In this case, the partner will also provide a translation of the annexes to the Agreement (Logframe and financial overview).
Reference and useful links