Joint Monitoring Committee
Within three months after the entry into force of the first financing agreement relating to the programme, the beneficiary countries will establish the Joint Monitoring Committee.
The JMC is the cross-border programme’s decision making authority, and is made up of representatives at national, regional and local level of the beneficiary countries, including representatives of the OSs, and of socio–economic stakeholders in the eligible area. The European Commission shall participate in the work of the JMC in an advisory capacity.
The JMC shall meet at least twice a year, at the initiative of the participating countries or of the Commission and is chaired by a representative of one of the participating countries on a rotating basis.
At its first meeting, the joint monitoring committee will draw up its rules of procedure, and adopt them in order to exercise its missions pursuant to the IPA Implementing Regulation.
The responsibilities of the Joint Monitoring Committee are, inter alia, as follows:
- Oversees the programming and effective implementation of the Programme;
- Considers and approve the criteria for selecting the operations financed by the cross-border programme and approve any revision of those criteria in accordance with programming needs;
- It shall periodically review progress made towards achieving the specific (and quantified) objectives of the programme on the basis of documents submitted by the OSs;
- It shall examine the results of implementation, particularly achievement of the targets set for each priority axis and the evaluations referred to in Article 57(4) and Article 141 IPA Implementing Regulation;
- It shall examine the annual and final implementation reports prior to their transmission, by the OS, to the respective NIPAC and to the Commission (Art 144 IPA Implementing Regulation);
- It shall be responsible for selecting operations. To this aim, as appropriate (and on a case–by–case basis), it may delegate this function to a Steering Committee (to perform the role of an evaluation committee) whose member should be designated by the OSs. The composition of the Steering Committee will be endorsed by EC Delegation;
- It may propose any revision or examination of the cross-border programme likely to make possible the attainment of the objectives referred to in Article 86(2) IPA Implementing Regulation or to improve its management, including its financial management;
- It shall consider and approve any proposal to amend the content of the cross-border programme;
- It shall approve the framework for the JTS tasks.