Reimbursement Rules of the Energy Community lay down the conditions and procedure concerning the reimbursement of costs of travel for attendance at the meetings of the institutions established by the Treaty as well as bodies established by these institutions.
 

ELIGIBILITY
ENTITLEMENT
PROCEDURE 
 

Eligibility


Eligible persons

The Energy Community reimburses travelling expenses to officials nominated and representing state institutions of the Contracting Parties and Observers of the Treaty establishing Energy Community. As of Feb 2010, these are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and UNMIK, Georgia,  Ukraine and Turkey.

Representatives from industry and private organizations in particular shall not be eligible.


Eligible Meetings

The rules for reimbursement are applicable for the institutional meetings of the Energy Community as well as of bodies as established by those institutions. As of Feb 2010, these comprise:

• the Ministerial Council;

• the Permanent High Level Group;

• the Energy Community Fora (Electricity Forum, Gas Forum, Oil Forum, Social Forum), and,

 • the Energy Community Regulatory Board, including its Working Groups (EWG,CAO lG, GWG, CWG);

• the Budget Committee;

• the Task Forces established by the Ministerial Council (Energy Efficiency Task Force and

• Renewable Energy Task Force);

• The Security of Supply Coordination Group, as established by the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community.

Participation in conferences and workshops, organized by the Secretariat in implementing the Work Program of the Energy Community, shall be eligible for reimbursement when ever this can be accommodated by the Energy Community budget. The Director of the Energy Community Secretariat shall take decisions for each concrete case.
 

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Entitlement


Travel

Experts are entitled to reimburse travel expenses incurred in travelling between their place of residence and the place of the meeting. In terms of means of transport, experts are authorized to travel by

• airplane,
• train and/or
• car.

Principles of the most cost-effective means of transport and the most direct route apply. For travel by plane, the costs of an economy class return ticket will be reimbursed. For travel by train, the costs of a 2nd class return ticket will be reimbursed. For travel by private car, mileage costs based on the most recent scale under Austrian legislation will be reimbursed. Costs for public transportation (bus, train, metro) shall be reimbursed. Taxi costs may be reimbursed when public transportation is not in place or not reasonable.


Accommodation

In terms of costs of accommodation, the experts should pay respect to the pre-fixed "hotel ceiling". As of Feb 2010, Energy Community reimburses the maximum amount of 120 € per night for the costs of accommodation. Exceptionally, when the cost of accommodation in the hotel, where the relevant meeting takes place is higher, costs of accommodation up to 150 € per night shall be reimbursed.

Conditions

The Energy Community reimburses the maximum of 800 € per meeting and per beneficiary party. Travelling expenses shall be refunded to only one officially nominated expert/person per meeting. For the events where two persons are eligible for reimbursement, the cost of travel to be reimbursed per meeting and per beneficiary party may not exceed 1.200 € to be shared between the two attendees.

A person claiming reimbursement must declare that he/she is not entitled to refunding of expenses from any other source. Depending on the budgetary situation of the Energy Community, the Budget Committee has the right to adjust the cieling.
 
 

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Procedure

Experts must submit a travel reimbursement request to the Secretariat within 30 calendar days after the date of the meeting. Applicants must complete and attach a travel reimbursement request form.
 

All the reimbursement requests must be accompanied by documents as evidence of the costs incurred, namely flight, railway, public transport tickets, hotel invoices etc. Reimbursement will be made in Euro currency and only via bank transfer for the benefit of the institution, which nominated the expert(s) to the Energy Community meeting. 

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