Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking: funding

PURPOSE: to amend Regulation (EC) No 521/2008 setting up the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking to facilitate financial and in-kind contributions.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation (EU) No 1183/2011 amending Regulation (EC) No 521/2008 setting up the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.

BACKGROUND: the fuel cells and hydrogen joint technology initiative is a public-private partnership supporting research, development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe. Its aim is to accelerate the market introduction of these technologies realising their potential as a vector in a carbon-lean energy system. To implement the initiative, the founding members set up a joint undertaking in May 2008 for the period up to 2017 with the objective of pooling resources from public and private sources. The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (the ‘FCH Joint Undertaking’) was set up under Council Regulation (EC) No 521/2008 by its founding members, the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative Industry Grouping Aisbl (the ‘Industry Grouping’) and the Commission. The Research Grouping became a member of the FCH Joint Undertaking on 14 July 2008 and contributes both financially and in kind to the objectives of the FCH Joint Undertaking. Since the members of the Research Grouping may benefit from the results achieved by the FCH JU in the same manner as the members of the Industry Grouping, it is justified to allow the in-kind contribution from both the Industry Grouping and Research Grouping to be counted as matching funds.

CONTENT: this Regulation amends the current provisions governing the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking in order to facilitate research actions and make it easier to increase funding levels for the project.

The main amendments are as follows:

·        the new text states that the matching of EU funds shall take into account not only industry's own contribution but also that coming from the other legal entities participating in the activities;

·        the operational costs of the Programme Office of the Joint Undertaking should be provided by its three members. It is appropriate to provide that all members of the Joint Undertaking have the same payment schedule;

·        the Commission is given some flexibility as to the measures to take in case of insufficient matching;

·        the funding level is determined after each evaluation of received proposals. In order to allow the beneficiaries to estimate the extent of the potential funding, the new Regulation provides for the possibility of specifying the minimum funding level for a call.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 09/12/2011.