<hidden onHidden=“F10 ⇲” onVisible=“F10 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Financial Provisions
The financial year of the Association shall run from 1 January to 31 December of the same year.
At the end of each financial year, the Board shall adopt the annual accounts for the past financial year and the budget for the next year in the manner provided for by law and shall then submit them annually for approval by the Council.
After approval of the annual accounts and the budget, the Council shall vote separately on granting discharge to the members of the Board and, if appropriate, the Auditor(s), if any have been appointed.
At least eight days before the annual Council meeting, the accounts and budget shall be communicated to the members of the Council, who may then ask to inspect, without removal, any of the documents on which these accounts and budgets are based.
A surplus shall be added to the assets of the Association and may not under any circumstances be paid to the members as a dividend or in any other way.
The Board shall ensure that the annual accounts and the other documents referred to in the Law on Not-for-profit Associations are deposited within thirty (30) days of approval at the Registry of the Court of First Instance or, if the law so requires, the National Bank of Belgium. </hidden>
<hidden onHidden=“F20 ⇲” onVisible=“F20 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Funding
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 2004/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4th November 2003 on the regulations governing political parties at European level and the rules regarding their funding (stating that, the funding of political parties at European level from the general budget of the European Union or from any political parties, which shall continue to be governed by national rules) the Association shall not fund directly or indirectly political parties that are members of the Association.
The Association is financed by membership fees, donations , public subsidies and other legal contributions authorised by the Board. </hidden>
<hidden onHidden=“F30 ⇲” onVisible=“F30 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Co-organised and Co-financed Projects
The Association may co-organise and co-host events or publications or other projects with the Member Parties and the Pirate Group in the European Parliament. The general principle is that the contribution of the Association to that event will be limited to the contribution of each applicant and will not be higher than the 50% of the total costs of the event. The final amount to be provided to the event is to be decided by the Council. For this decision, the political objectives and the activity programme of the Association will be taken into consideration.
Appropriations received from the general budget of the European Union in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 2004/2003 may only be used to meet expenditure directly linked to the objectives set out in the common political program. Such expenditure shall include administrative expenditure and expenditure linked to technical assistance, meetings, research, cross-border events, studies, information and publications.
Rules on co-organised and co-financing projects:
- The party applying for co-financing needs to send its application to the Association four (4) months before the date planned for the event. If there is an urgent need, the Council may decide to accept an application that does not meet the deadline. It should table a description of the project, indicating the objectives, methods and budget.
- A document with the agreement on co-financing including a short description of the project is to be accepted and signed by all the parts and handed to the Treasurer.
- The distribution of the resources will be done as equally as possibly between all the projects tabled by the applicants, taking into account the resources available and the amount of requests.
- An official invoice with all the original tickets/receipts has to be the sent to the Association for the payment.
- The proposed activities shall respect the objectives of the Association and its political goals.
(g) Visibility of the financing of the European Parliament:
- The visibility of the financing of the European Parliament must be guarantied in every publication, leaflet and/or product concerning the activity programme as requested in the Convention annually signed between the Association and the European Parliament.
- Every publication, leaflet and/or product destined for the public must indicate that it has been financed with the support of the European Parliament. It is also necessary to clearly indicate that the communication/publication engages only its author and that the European Parliament is not responsible for the use which could be made of the information contained in the communication or publication. </hidden>
<hidden onHidden=“F40 ⇲” onVisible=“F40 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Reimbursement
The Council may decide to grant reimbursement of costs in relation with offices and functions fulfilled for the Association, if the financial situation of the Association allows. This decision will be made at the annual Council meeting together with the adoption of the budget for the next year.
The Association will only reimburse the travel costs or accommodation costs or other costs relating to each meeting under presentation of original receipts and tickets. The original tickets/receipts for any event, including the Council meetings, must be send to the PPEU office before the last day of February of the year after the event. After that date, no reimbursement may be requested. </hidden>
<hidden onHidden=“F50 ⇲” onVisible=“F50 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Audit
If, pursuant to the provisions applicable to it, the Association is so required, auditing of the financial condition, annual accounts and their regularity from the point of view of the Law on Not-for-profit Associations and the status of transactions to be reflected in the annual accounts shall be entrusted to one or more auditors appointed by the Council from among the members of the Belgian Institute of Company Auditors ((Institut des Réviseurs d'Entreprises/ Instituut der bedrijfsrevisoren).
The Council shall determine the number of auditors and their remuneration. The auditors shall be appointed for a renewable term of three years. The Council may revoke their mandates at any time, but have to appoint new auditors at the same time. Any auditor appointed to replace an auditor who has resigned in the course of his term of office completes the latter’s term.
The auditors shall jointly or severally have an unlimited right to scrutinise any transactions of the Association. They may inspect on the premises the books, correspondence, minutes and generally any documents of the association.
The accounts of the Association are to be audited annually or as often as the law necessitates. </hidden>
<hidden onHidden=“F60 ⇲” onVisible=“F60 ⇱” initialState=“visible”> Per year a maximum of 30% of the time of real live meetings may be spent on administrative purposes. At least 70% of the time must be spend on non administrative goals. The same ratio applies to money and work force.
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