Regulation (EU, Euratom ) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002

For the purposes of this Regulation:

1. "Union" means the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community, or both, as the context may require;

2. "institution" means the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the European Ombudsman, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European External Action Service (the "EEAS"); the European Central Bank shall not be considered as an institution of the Union;

3. "budget" means the instrument which, for each financial year, forecasts and authorises all revenue and expenditure considered necessary for the Union;

4. "basic act" means a legal act which provides a legal basis for an action and for the implementation of the corresponding expenditure entered in the budget.

   A basic act may take any of the following forms:

   1. in implementation of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (the Euratom Treaty), the form of a regulation, a directive or a decision within the meaning of Article 288 TFEU; or

   2. in implementation of Title V of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), one of the forms specified in Articles 26(2), 28(1), 29, 31(2), 33 and 37 TEU.

   Recommendations and opinions shall not constitute basic acts;

5. "method of implementation" means the method of budget implementation described in Articles 58, 59 or 60;

6. "delegation agreement" means an agreement concluded with entities and persons entrusted with budget implementation tasks pursuant to points (i) to (viii) of Article 58(1)(c);

7. "beneficiary" means a natural or legal person with whom a grant agreement has been signed or to whom a grant decision has been notified;

8. "contractor" means a natural or legal person with whom a procurement contract has been concluded;

9. "recipient" means a beneficiary, contractor, or any natural or legal person that receives prizes or funds under a financial instrument;

10. "prize" means a financial contribution given as a reward following a contest.

11. "loan" means an agreement which obliges the lender to make available to the borrower an agreed sum of money for an agreed period of time and under which the borrower is obliged to repay that amount within the agreed time;

12. "guarantee" means a written commitment to assume responsibility for all or part of a third party's debt or obligation or for the successful performance by that third party of its obligations if an event occurs which triggers such guarantee, such as a loan default;

13. "equity investment" means the provision of capital to a firm, invested directly or indirectly in return for total or partial ownership of that firm and where the equity investor may assume some management control of the firm and may share the firm's profits;

14. "quasi-equity investment" means a type of financing that ranks between equity and debt, having a higher risk than senior debt and a lower risk than common equity. Quasi-equity investments can be structured as debt, typically unsecured and subordinated and in some cases convertible into equity, or as preferred equity;

15. "risk-sharing instrument" means a financial instrument which allows for the sharing of a defined risk between two or more entities, where appropriate in exchange for an agreed remuneration;

16. "financial instruments" means Union measures of financial support provided on a complementary basis from the budget in order to address one or more specific policy objectives of the Union. Such instruments may take the form of equity or quasi-equity investments, loans or guarantees, or other risk-sharing instruments, and may, where appropriate, be combined with grants;

17. "Staff Regulations" means the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union laid down in Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68⁽¹⁾;

18. "control" means any measure taken to provide reasonable assurance regarding the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of operations, the reliability of reporting, the safeguarding of assets and information, the prevention and detection and correction of fraud and irregularities and their follow-up, and the adequate management of the risks relating to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, taking into account the multiannual character of programmes as well as the nature of the payments concerned. Controls may involve various checks, as well as the implementation of any policies and procedures to achieve the objectives described in the first sentence;

19. "check" means the verification of a specific aspect of a revenue or expenditure operation.