Division 4.3 Additional protection measures, including sanctionsF1

In order to reinforce the requirement of proposals submitted by solid consortia with effective and appropriate governance mechanisms and internal controls, the Union will not simply rely on recovering amounts due from the PGF to ensure the protection of its financial interests.

Indeed, and in addition to the abovementioned actions regarding the verification of the legal existence, the legal status/category, the operational capacity and the financial capacity of applicants, the following actions will be implemented, where appropriate, and in compliance with the FR, its IR and the FP7 model grant agreement:

• recovery orders issued against defaulting participants to the benefit of the PGF shall be enforced in all cases and by all means foreseen by regulations relating to the protection of the financial interests of the Union. In addition, when signing/joining the grant agreement, any participant will accept that any amount due from it to the Union will be assigned to the PGF;

• in accordance with the FR and its IR, sanctions - including the exclusion from the benefit of any EU grant for a number of years - will be enforced, and the FP7 model grant agreement will foresee appropriate financial and administrative penalties (in particular Articles II.24 and II.25).