# Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing 'Erasmus+': the Union programme for education, training, youth and sport and repealing Decisions No 1719/2006/EC, No 1720/2006/EC and No 1298/2008/EC (Text with EEA relevance), Article 28: National agency

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. The term 'national agency' refers to one or more national agencies in accordance with national law and practice.
2. The national agency shall:
(a) have legal personality or be part of an entity having legal personality, and be governed by the law of the Member State concerned; a ministry may not be designated as a national agency;
(b) have the adequate management capacity, staff and infrastructure to fulfil its tasks satisfactorily, ensuring efficient and effective management of the Programme and sound financial management of Union funds;
(c) have the operational and legal means to apply the administrative, contractual and financial management rules laid down at Union level;
(d) offer adequate financial guarantees, issued preferably by a public authority, corresponding to the level of Union funds it will be called upon to manage;
(e) be designated for the duration of the Programme.
3. The national agency shall be responsible for managing all stages of the project lifecycle of the following Programme actions, in conformity with points (c)(v) and (vi) of Article 58(1) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and with Article 44 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012:
(a) learning mobility of individuals, with the exception of mobility organised on the basis of joint or double/multiple degrees, large-scale volunteering projects and the Student Loan Guarantee Facility;
(b) strategic partnerships within the action 'cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices';
(c) the management of small-scale activities supporting the structured dialogue in the youth field within the action 'support for policy reform'.
4. By way of derogation from paragraph 3, the selection and award decisions for the strategic partnerships referred to in point (b) of paragraph 3 may be managed at Union level, if a decision to that effect is taken in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 36(3) and only in specific cases where there are clear grounds for such centralisation.
5. The national agency shall issue grant support to beneficiaries either by way of a grant agreement or a grant decision, as specified by the Commission for the Programme action concerned.
6. The national agency shall report each year to the Commission and to its national authority in accordance with Article 60(5) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012. The national agency shall be in charge of implementing the observations issued by the Commission following its analysis of the yearly management declaration and of the independent audit opinion thereon.
7. The national agency may not without prior written authorisation from the national authority and the Commission delegate to a third party any task of Programme or budget implementation conferred on it. The national agency shall retain sole responsibility for any tasks delegated to a third party.
8. Where the mandate of a national agency is revoked, that national agency shall remain legally responsible for meeting its contractual obligations vis-à-vis the beneficiaries of the Programme and the Commission pending the transfer of those obligations to a new national agency.
9. The national agency shall be in charge of managing and winding up the financial agreements relating to the predecessor Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes that are still open at the beginning of the Programme.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2013/1288/article/28 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2013-1288/article-28
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.