COMMISSION DECISION of[] budget of the European Communities · COMMISSION DECISION of[...] on the...

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Draft COMMISSION DECISION of[...] on the Annual Action Programme 2007 in favour of Brazil for the Action "EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility" financed under Article 19 09 01 of the general budget of the European Communities THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EC) № 1905/2006, of 18 December 2006, establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation 1 , and in particular Article 6 and 22 thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities 2 , in particular Article 53 thereof, Whereas: (1) The Commission has adopted the Country Strategy Paper for Brazil for the period 2007-2013 3 and the Multiannual Indicative Programme for the period 2007-2013 4 , points 5.1 and 5.2 of which indicate the priority for 'Enhancing bilateral relations', including an Action 1 : 'facility to support sectoral dialogues'. (2) The objectives pursued by the Annual Action Programme 2007 are to further and deepen the bilateral EU-Brazil relation through increasing sector dialogues on themes of mutual interest. (3) This decision constitutes a financing decision within the meaning of Article 75 (2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002, Article 90 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 5 and Article 15 of the Internal Rules 6 . ' OJ L 348, 27.12.2006, p.41. 2 OJ L 248, 16.09.2002, p.l; Regulation as last ammended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) 1995/2006 of 13 December 2006 (OJ L 390, 30.12.2006, p. 1) 3 C(2007) 2032, 14.05.2007 4 C(2007) 2032, 14.05.2007 5 OJ L357, 31.12.2002, p.l Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) №478/2007 of 23 April 2007 (OJ LI 11, 28.04.2007, p.l) 6 Commission C/2007/513, C/2007/514, C/2007/433. EN . EN

Transcript of COMMISSION DECISION of[] budget of the European Communities · COMMISSION DECISION of[...] on the...

Draft

COMMISSION DECISION

of[...]

on the Annual Action Programme 2007 in favour of Brazil for the Action "EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility" financed under Article 19 09 01 of the general

budget of the European Communities

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Regulation (EC) № 1905/2006, of 18 December 2006, establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation1, and in particular Article 6 and 22 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities2, in particular Article 53 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The Commission has adopted the Country Strategy Paper for Brazil for the period 2007-20133 and the Multiannual Indicative Programme for the period 2007-20134, points 5.1 and 5.2 of which indicate the priority for 'Enhancing bilateral relations', including an Action 1 : 'facility to support sectoral dialogues'.

(2) The objectives pursued by the Annual Action Programme 2007 are to further and deepen the bilateral EU-Brazil relation through increasing sector dialogues on themes of mutual interest.

(3) This decision constitutes a financing decision within the meaning of Article 75 (2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002, Article 90 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 20025 and Article 15 of the Internal Rules6.

' OJ L 348, 27.12.2006, p.41. 2 OJ L 248, 16.09.2002, p.l; Regulation as last ammended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) № 1995/2006 of

13 December 2006 (OJ L 390, 30.12.2006, p. 1) 3 C(2007) 2032, 14.05.2007 4 C(2007) 2032, 14.05.2007

5 OJ L357, 31.12.2002, p.l Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) №478/2007 of 23 April 2007 (OJ LI 11, 28.04.2007, p.l)

6 Commission C/2007/513, C/2007/514, C/2007/433.

EN . EN

(4) It is appropriate to define the term "substantial change" in the meaning of Article 90 (4) Commission Regulation № 478/2007 of 23 April 2007, amending Commission Regulation No 2342/2002 for the application of this decision.

(5) The measures provided for in this decision are in accordance with the opinion of the DCI Committee set up under Article 35 of Regulation (EEC) № 1905/2006.

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Article 1

The action "EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility - DCI-ALA/2006/18698" which constitutes the Annual Action Programme 2007 in favour of Brazil, the text of which is set out in the Annex, is approved.

Article 2

The maximum contribution of the Community is set at EUR 2 000 000 to be financed within the limits of the available resources of budget line 19 09 01 of the general budget of the European Communities for 2007.

Article 3

Within the maximum indicative budget of the specific action, cumulated changes not exceeding 20% of the maximum contribution of the Community are not considered to be substantial provided that they do not significantly affect the nature and objectives of the Annual Action Programme.

The authorising officer may adopt such changes in accordance with the principles of sound financial management.

Done at Brussels, [...]

For the Commission

Member of the Commission

EN 2 EN

2.1.

A C T I O N FICH E FOR B R A Z I L (AAP 2007)

IDENTIFICATION

Title

Total cost

Aid Method

DAC-code

EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility - DCI-ALA/2006/18 698

3.1 Million Euro

• EC contribution: 2 Million Euro

• Beneficiary country contribution: 1.1 Million Euro

Project approach - Direct centralised management

43010 Sector Multisector aid

RATIONALE

Sector context

EU's present relations with Brazil are based on the 1992 EC-Brazil Framework Co-operation Agreement and the 1995 EU-Mercosul Framework Co-operation Agreement, the latter having the long term objective of preparing an Inter-Regional Association between the EU and Mercosur. Policy dialogue is dealt with at both the bilateral EU-Brazil and the bi-regional EU-Mercosur levels.

At the bilateral level, the EC-Brazil Framework Co-operation Agreement entrusted a Joint Committee, composed of representatives of the EC and of the Brazilian government, with the task of ensuring the proper functioning of the Agreement and of coordinating activities in relation to the aims of the Agreement. The Joint Committee has met regularly since 1995 to appraise the state of the bilateral relation and define areas of common interest for further development.

During the last few years the EC-Brazil relationship acquired a new dynamics and different sector dialogues have been established. These dialogues are usually identified and decided at political level, namely in the scope of presidential summits, mutual visits at ministerial and high-ranking officers' levels, etc., and their progress is regularly monitored in the framework of the Joint Committee meetings.

The X Joint Committee meeting, held in Brasilia on 21/22 March 2007, appraised the situation of previously decided sector dialogues (Energy, Environment, Information Society, Maritime Transport, Regional Development & Territory Integration, Satellite Navigation System "GALILEO", Science & Technology and Social Policies & Social Cohesion) and identified new potential areas for enhanced bilateral dialogue, namely in the areas of Education & Culture, Agriculture and Economical and Financial Issues. The potential for future dialogues on Intellectual Property Rights, Air Transport and RTD related Nuclear Issues was also analysed.

During the preparation of the Country Strategy Paper (CSP)/National Indicative Programme (NIP) 2007-2013 both parties agreed that the progress and pace of the sector dialogues are frequently hampered by the lack of a specific facility aimed at stimulating and supporting exchanges between relevant public and private stakeholders from both parties particularly in between the Joint Committee and other high-level meetings. The parties also agreed that this

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problem will certainly worsen as the number of active dialogues grows and each of them becomes more structured, resulting in the involvement of new stakeholders and the increase of the technical complexity of discussions.

That is why both parties agreed in creating, in the scope of the 2007-2013 bilateral cooperation programme, the EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Facility, with the primary aim of providing technical and logistical support to keep the momentum of on-going bilateral sector dialogues in between Joint Committee and other high-level meetings. Additionally, it will also be a tool to keep track of the evolution of the different dialogues and to exploring new opportunities of mutual interest.

Through stimulating exchanges, collaboration and networking between EU and Brazil relevant stakeholders, it is also expected that this facility will contribute to improve mutual understandmg, to build-up wider consensus on relevant themes, to create a climate of confidence between the Parties and to raise the profile of the European Union in Brazil and vice versa.

2.2. Lessons learnt

It is largely recognized by the authorities from both sides that EC-Brazil cooperation cannot be seen as a mere financing of traditional development projects. On the contrary, both parties recognize that the core of the EC-Brazil relation should be based on a political partnership founded on the development of policy and sector dialogues on issues of common interest.

Moreover, the EC resources available in the scope of the bilateral co-operation with Brazil could not support a traditional development co-operation agenda, especially when compared with the huge budgets of the national programmes.

Past experience in implementing bilateral cooperation with Brazil also shows that traditional cooperation projects, especially when they are implemented under decentralised management approaches, have always been hampered by tough administrative difficulties. This was particularly the case of the 2002-2006 bilateral programme, where the complex and time consuming procedures required to internalise the EC resources into the national budgets caused big delays in the projects' start-up, which revealed hardly compatible with the Financial Regulations' "sunset clauses". After that, the pace and momentum of projects' implementation were also strongly conditioned by conflicts between provisions of the Financial Regulation (FR) and the Brazilian public expenditure regulatory framework. As a result, though the National Indicative Programme has been respected in terms of commitments, projects' implementation up today has been very modest.

On the other hand, the use of sector support or general budget support approaches, which could avoid the majority of the above problems, have limited interest in a country like Brazil, given the low impact and visibility that can be anticipated from the simple comparison between our cooperation resources and the huge national budgets.

Having the above in mind, both parties agreed that the present cooperation action should follow two basic principles:

• use the available resources to promote "soft" innovative actions focussed on priority issues of mutual interest that might have multiplier effects in the Brazilian administrations and civil society, thanks to the dissemination of successful experiences and good practices;

• use implementing modalities that, though preserving the Brazilian ownership on the action, avoid the burdensome procedures required to "internalise" the EC contribution into the national budget.

Regarding objectives and purpose, the proposed action is an innovative action in Brazil and, more generally, also in Latin America. Thus, no previous reviews or evaluations exist regarding similar projects from which specific lessons could be derived.

2.3. Complementary actions

Some on-going bilateral projects coming from the 2002-2006 bilateral programme and several on-going contracts under different thematic budget lines (namely environment and NGO co-financing) or regional programmes, as well as other interventions foreseen under the 2007-2013 programme, are closely related to different on-going or foreseen dialogues. In these cases, the EC Delegation in Brazil will seek to ensure proper coordination between those interventions, both through regular monitoring activities and by promoting direct exchanges between the corresponding beneficiaries. The same will be done in relation to the relevant actions under the EC's regional (LA) and sub-regional (Mercosur) programmes.

Besides the coordination that will be established at the political level with EU Member States in the scope of the different dialogues, the Delegation will also ensure a close coordination with their representations in Brasilia during the project preparation and implementation phases, in order to adequately explore potential complementarities and synergies.

Considering the nature of the project and its focus on the EU-Brazil bilateral relation, coordination with other donors will have relevance only when the dialogues address themes of global interest like the Millennium objectives, climate change or others of similar scope. In those cases, the involvement of other relevant donors in project interventions will be sought and encouraged.

2.4. Donor coordination

As stated in point 5 of the Memorandum, the EC Delegation in Brazil will ensure proper coordination between the proposed action and other relevant actions financed by the EC in Brazil. The same will be done in relation to the relevant actions under the EC's regional (LA) and sub-regional (Mercosur) programmes. This coordination will be made both through regular monitoring activities and by promoting direct exchanges between the corresponding beneficiaries and implementing agencies. The Delegation will also ensure close field coordination with EU MS representations in Brasilia (cf. 2.3).

Coordination with other donors will specially be sought on dialogues involving themes of global interest like the Millennium objectives, climate change or others of similar scope. This coordination will especially involve multilateral institutions and agencies active in the country, namely from the UN and WB/IMF systems, as well as other bilateral donors with relevant interventions in Brazil (Japan, US AID, Canada etc.).

3. DESCRIPTION

3.1. Objectives

The overall objective of the proposed action is to further and deepen the bilateral EU-Brazil relation through fostering sector dialogues on themes of mutual interest.

The specific purpose is to facilitate and support the exchanges between relevant stakeholders involved in specific sector dialogues, especially in the areas of social development and

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cohesion, environment sustainability, regional development and territory integration, according to the agreements made and guidelines issued by the policy decision levels.

3.2. Expected results and main activities

As stated in Section 2.1, several EU-Brazil sector dialogues are already going-on and other areas of common interest have been identified for eventual future dialogues on specific themes. It is thus expected that the number and complexity of the dialogues will increase along the 2007-2013 period.

These dialogues are usually conducted, at the political level, by the concerned Directorates-General of the European Commission in coordination with the corresponding Brazilian Federal Ministries and Institutions. The rhythm and pace of the dialogues is ultimately determined at this political level and the proposed project will basically facilitate and support the exchanges between relevant stakeholders in the framework of the dialogues, according to the agreements made and the guidelines issued by the competent decision-makers.

This means that the project will not take in charge the current expenses required to carry on the regular contacts and negotiations between these central authorities from both sides, but will mainly provide technical and logistic supplementary support to ground political negotiations on sounder basis and to involve other public and private relevant stakeholders in the dialogues. This is expected to strengthen the partnership between public/private European and Brazilian institutions and to promote new joint initiatives through sharing of experiences, dissemination of best practices and networking.

It is expected that the proposed facility will provide support to all the on-going sector dialogues during the entire 2007-2013 period. However, given the innovative nature of the intervention, it is considered prudent to develop a pilot phase in 2008/2009, in order to test the adequacy of the approach and of the implementing mechanisms. Having in mind the relatively large number of on-going and foreseen dialogues, the lack of previous experience and the limited resources available for this pilot phase (2,0 million Euros to be committed in 2007), it is also prudent to focus the project on a small number of selected dialogues.

During the pilot phase, the dialogues in the areas of social development and cohesion, environmental sustainability, regional development and territory integration, which are at the core of DCI objectives, will be privileged. These priorities are also fully coherent with the current development strategy of Brazil, as defined in the government's Multi-Annual Development Plan 2003-2007, whose mega-objectives are: 1) social inclusion and reduction of social inequalities; 2) environmentally-sustainable economic growth, with the generation of employment and income and reduction of regional inequalities; and 3) promotion and expansion of citizen empowerment and strengthening of democracy.

Nevertheless, this list of priority dialogues shall be considered neither exhaustive nor exclusive. In fact, all the on-going and foreseen dialogues are important pieces to further strengthen and deepen the EU-Brazil bilateral relation and, in line with the demand driven approach proposed for the project, other dialogues may be supported according to the requests from the concerned authorities and the response capacity enabled by the available resources. Additionally, the project will also assist the competent authorities in keeping track of the evolution of the different dialogues and in identifying new areas of potential common interest.

According to this general strategy, the main expected results of the project may be defined as follows:

1. Enhanced momentum and pace of selected EC-Brazil sector dialogues, especially in the areas of social development and cohesion, environment and sustainable development, and regional development and territory integration.

2. Extended cooperation ties, partnership agreements and joint initiatives established between European and Brazilian relevant stakeholders.

3. Updated information available and regularly disseminated on the evolution and "state of the art" of the different dialogues, contributing to enhance the mutual awareness between EU and Brazilian institutions and societies at large.

4. New opportunities of mutual interest identified and exploited.

To achieve these results the project will implement four types of activities:

a) Preparation of baseline, benchmarking and specific sector studies on themes relevant for the dialogues, with the aim of providing high level technical inputs to ground political negotiations on sounder basis and build-up wider consensus in the scope of the dialogues.

b) Organisation of a number of different events (conferences, seminars, workshops, mutual technical visits and other exchange activities, etc.) with the aim of involving other relevant public and private stakeholders in the dialogues and strengthening their cooperation ties through sharing of experiences, dissemination of best practices and networking.

c) Provision of specialised technical assistance to: (i) advise policy negotiators and decision makers on technically complex and/or sensible issues; (ii) coach and animate the above mentioned events; and (iii) assist the project implementing institution (cf. Section 4.1 below) with the planning, organisation and implementation of the foreseen activities.

d) Establishment of an information and communication system aimed at following-up the different dialogues and disseminating regular information on their evolution and "state of art", both in Brazil and the EU. This system will be established at the project office in Brasilia and will be operated by the project implementing institution. It will register on an adequate database all the mformation required to follow-up activities developed and achievements obtained in the framework of the different dialogues. The database will be used as a tool to: (i) monitor the progress of the dialogues; (ii) regularly report to the policy decision levels on the "state of the art" of the different dialogues; (iii) prepare relevant information to be disseminated among stakeholders and to feed visibility-related activities addressed to the general public, in Brazil and the EU. On-line access to the database through the Internet will be selectively provided to policy-makers, other stakeholders, the press and the general public.

As stated before, the project intends to be an innovative experience based on a demand driven approach. Thus, this list of activities is not limitative and other types of actions may be selected to be carried out during project implementation, according to the specific demands of relevant stakeholders.

3.3. Stakeholders

A first group of project stakeholders, who are also major actors and beneficiaries of the foreseen activities, include:

• The Brazilian Federal Ministries directly involved in the dialogues, including horizontal Ministries with coordinating functions and line Ministries implementing the dialogues, especially in the above proposed priority areas, together with the corresponding

Directorates-General of the European Commission. These stakeholders are the main project partners and will benefit from the project through: (i) the provision of studies and technical assistance services aimed at facilitating and deepen the dialogues; (ii) enhanced opportunities to meet, exchange views, negotiate and establish agreements, and other relevant joint initiatives, with the corresponding institutions of the other party; and (iii) better coordination of the dialogues and improved information on their evolution and on the initiatives of other relevant stakeholders.

• A large number of other Brazilian and European public and private institutions directly related to the dialogues (regional and local governments, public agencies, universities and research centres, foundations, business associations and companies, NGOs and other civil society organisations, etc.), who are also important project partners and will directly benefit from: (i) enhanced opportunities to communicate among them and meet together to exchange views, good practices and successful experiences, establish partnerships and develop joint initiatives; and (ii) enhanced access to technical, economical, legal and institutional information on themes relevant for their activities.

All the institutions included in this group are reliable partners, endowed with adequate institutional, technical and financial capacities and strongly engaged in pursuing sector dialogues that are at the heart of their missions and current activities. It is thus reasonable to anticipate that they will assume the ownership of the action, actively participate in project activities and ensure the adequate use and sustainability of their results.

The second group of stakeholders, who are neither direct actors nor project partners, but may indirectly benefit from the project activities, include:

• The press and the media, in general, who will benefit from easier access to relevant information and news on the bilateral EU-Brazil relation and on the evolution and "state of art" of the different dialogues.

• Large groups of Brazilian and European citizens that can potentially benefit from the project activities, either through positive social, environmental and economic impacts of the dialogues or through improved access to information that will increase mutual awareness and raise the profile of the European Union in Brazil and vice versa.

3.4. Risks and assumptions

Main assumption is that there is a political willingness of both parties to develop and deepen structured sector dialogues in areas of mutual interest within the wider goal of building-up a strategic partnership between the EU and Brazil.

A second important assumption is that the main actors of the dialogues, from both the EU and Brazilian sides, are willing to develop these dialogues in a coordinated manner, in order to take advantage of potential complementarities and synergies. Authorities steering the specific sector dialogues are expected to agree with its coordination at the Joint Committee level, in order to enable an adequate control of global EU-Brazil policy dialogue and to ease mutual information and cross-fertilisation.

A third assumption is that other public and private stakeholders involved in the dialogues adopt a pro-active attitude and propose concrete actions to advance and deepen them.

While major risks would arise from the non-confirmation of any of the above assumptions, recent past shows that the occurrence of such risks is highly improbable:

• Up to now, political willingness in pursuing on-going dialogues and opening new areas of mutual interest has been reiterated by authorities from both Parties at the highest level. There has been also a strong commitment of parties involved in the specific dialogues in developing and deepen them.

• The last Joint Committee meetings effectively played a coordinating role on the different sector dialogues and the involved representatives of the different technical partners generally expressed their satisfaction for the opportunity of meeting together and exchanging information on each other activities.

• Whenever requested, other public and private stakeholders from both sides have always shown willingness in engaging into partnership and networking activities aimed at enhancing their collaboration and bringing concrete substance to the sector dialogues.

There are no signs that this situation might significantly change in the near future.

3.5. Crosscutting Issues

As stated before, the project will have a strong focus on themes related to social development and cohesion, environment and sustainable development, regional development and territory integration. This means that cross cutting issues like environmental sustainability, gender equality, good governance and human rights are at the heart of the action and will be permanently pursued as major goals along project implementation.

4. IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

4.1. Implementation method

The project will be implemented in direct centralised management. The EC Delegation in Brazil will directly ensure the management of all the contracts financed with the EC contribution, including the coiresponding procurement procedures and payments.

The project will be framed by a Financing Agreement to be signed between the EC and the Brazilian Federal Government. The overall coordination and supervision of the implementation of the Agreement will be jointly ensured by the Brazilian Agency for Cooperation (ABC) and the EC Delegation in Brazil.

The intervention will be implemented according to the decisions and the politic and strategic guidance provided by the EC-Brazil Joint Committee. The ABC will establish a Project Steering Committee, involving representatives from the most relevant Brazilian Ministries, the EC Delegation and, whenever possible, representatives of the EC Directorates-General involved in the dialogues. This Committee will ensure the regular monitoring of the project implementation in between the Joint Committee meetings, appraise the results achieved and propose possible corrective measures. The Steering Committee shall convene at least twice a year.

The Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MP) will ensure the day-to-day management of the project, ensuring that the inputs made available by the EC, the Federal Government and other stakeholders are used with effectiveness, efficiency and efficacy to develop the foreseen activities and achieve the expected results. To this end, the MP will provide a properly furbished, equipped and staffed project implementing office, which will be run by a Project Director (DP) appointed by the MP, following previous agreement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and the EC.

External services' providers selected by the EC will assist the DP with the administration of the project and the implementation of the foreseen activities, by providing technical and logistical expertise, services and other inputs required to implement the project according to the Financing Agreement provisions.

4.2. Procurement and grant award procedures

All contracts implementing the action and financed by the EC contribution must be awarded and implemented in accordance with the procedures and standard documents laid down and published by the Commission for the implementation of external operations, in force at the time of the launch of the procedure in question.

The essential selection and award criteria for the award of grants are laid down in the Practical Guide to contract procedures for EC external actions. The maximum possible rate of co-financing for grants is 80%. Full financing may only be applied in the cases provided for in Article 253 of the Implementing Rules of the Financial Regulation where financing in full is essential to carry out the action in question.

4.3. Budget and calendar

The resources required to implement the project and the distribution of the corresponding financing are estimated as shown in next table:

Unit: €

Intervention type

1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

2 2.1 2.2

Services Technical Assistance Studies Events & Missions3

Monit., Eval.&Audits Running Costs Local Staff Other running costs

TOTAL

Total Cost

2.400.000,00 1.000.000,00 450.000,00 850.000,00 100.000,00 700.000,00 500.000,00 200.000,00

3.100.000,00

Financing

EC1

2.000.000,00 1.000.000,00 300.000,00 600.000,00 100.000,00 0,00 0,00 0,00

2.000.000,00

Brazil2

Government

200.000,00 0,00 150.000,00 50.000,00 0,00 700.000,00 500.000,00 200.000,00

900.000,00

Others

200.000,00 0,00 0,00 200.000,00 0,00 0,00 0,00 0,00

200.000,00

1 - EC contributions to the project will be managed through services contracts to be directly tendered, managed and paid by the EC.

2 - Contributions from Brazil will be directly managed by the partners providing them, according to the national applicable procedures. It is estimated that at least 50% of the national contributions to the project will be in cash.

3 - Besides the organisation of the different events directly related to the dialogues (conferences, seminars, workshops, mutual technical visits and other exchange activities, etc.), EC contribution to line 1.3 will also cover the organisation of other visibility-related activities, namely the organisation of yearly stakeholders' forums assembling representatives of relevant public and private stakeholders involved in the different dialogues.

The operational implementation of activities will have 2 years duration as from signature of the Financing Agreement. It is expected that the Financing Agreement will be signed during 2007, so project activities could start early in 2008.

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4.4. Performance monitoring

The MP will establish an adequate system for the permanent follow-up and monitoring of the project implementation. On the basis of this internal monitoring system, the Project Director will prepare half-yearly progress reports providing enough detail to measure the state of advancement of the Project against its objectives and expected results. At the end of the project, the Project Director shall also prepare a final technical and financial report reviewing the entire project. All these reports shall be submitted by the MP to the MRE and the EC Delegation for approval and will form the basis for the discussions of the Steering Committee meetings.

The EC Delegation in Brazil will ensure a regular follow-up of the project through its own staff. Besides, the Commission will also provide for external monitoring missions, whose reports will be equally analysed by the Steering Committee meetings.

Key indicators measuring the performance of the project shall include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Number and practical results of studies prepared in the scope of the project.

• Number and practical results of events organised in the scope of the proj ect.

• Duration and quality of the technical assistance and advisory services provided by the project.

• Volume and quality of the information provided by the project team to the relevant stakeholders and the general public.

• Number, relevance and level of dissemination of news, articles, interviews and other information on the dialogues and the project activities diffused by the media in Brazil and the EU.

Qualitative indicators will be essentially derived from the opinions expressed by the direct beneficiaries of the different actions and on their appraisal of the impact of those actions on deepening the dialogues and on building-up wider consensus among the relevant stakeholders.

The above list of indicators should not be considered exhaustive and a more detailed set of indicators and milestones will included in the Financing Agreement.

4.5. Evaluation and audit

The Commission shall provide for the organisation of external missions to evaluate the project, its methods and its results. In particular, the following shall be provided for:

• a mid-term evaluation, which shall appraise the project performance up to the date of its organisation and provide relevant information to support the design of the next phase of the intervention;

• possibly, an ex-post evaluation.

The MRE, the Commission and the Steering Committee shall analyze the conclusions and recommendations of the mid-term evaluation and jointly decide on the follow-up action to be taken and any adjustments necessary.

Independently of the above arrangements, both the Commission and the MRE may decide to organise, jointly or on their own, other monitoring and evaluation missions.

No financial audits are deemed necessary besides those that will be performed in the framework of the services contracts to be signed by the Commission and those that will be eventually performed by the Government on the national contributions.

4.6. Communication and visibility

Most of the activities to be developed under the proposed action (stakeholders' conferences, seminars, workshops, etc.), are in themselves visibility-related activities.

Besides, activity referred to in section 3.2.d) consists in establishing an information and communication system aimed at following-up the different dialogues and disseminating regular information among stakeholders, the media and the general public, both in Brazil and the EU.

Communication and visibility are thus central project activities that will be developed in an almost permanent manner along all the implementation period.

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