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 Jan 2012, the eligible beneficiary parties are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and UNMIK (Contracting Parties), as well as, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Turkey (Observers).
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. These comprise:

• the Ministerial Council;

• the Permanent High Level Group;

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

 • 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, Renewable Energy, Environmental and Regional Energy Strategy Task Force); and,

• 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.
 

Eligible participants

As a rule, only one representative per beneficiary party shall be eligible for reimbursement when attending an institutional meeting of the Energy Community. For participation at the Electricity, Gas and Social Fora of the Energy Community, one representative from the government and one representative from the regulatory authority per beneficiary party may be reimbursed in the maximum reimbursable amount. For workshops and conferences, participation of up to two representatives per Contracting Party and one per Observer shall as a rule be reimbursed.
Should the eligible authority envoy more participants, it must notify the Secretariat who of its repsentatives is to be reimbursed. ln case such a notification is missing, reimbursement shall be made to the representative who first submits his/hers reimbursement claim. 

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Entitlement
 

Only costs of travel are reimbursed. No per diems will be paid in addition to the travel expenses. The costs of travel comprise the costs of transportation and costs of accommodation as necessary for the purposes of the meeting in question. For all events where participation is eligible for reimbursement, the cost of travel to be reimbursed per meeting and per eligible participant from any beneficiary party may not exceed EUR 800. This maximum may be subject to changes, depending on the budgetary situation of the Energy Community.


Travel

Participants are entitled to reimburse travel expenses incurred in travelling between their place of residence and the place of the meeting. Bookings of the tickets shall be made individually by the participants.In terms of means of transport, the participants 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 on an exceptional when public transportation is not in place or not reasonable.

Accommodation

In terms of costs of accommodation, the participants should pay respect to the pre-fixed "hotel ceiling". Currently the Energy Community reimburses the maximum amount of 120 € per night for the costs of accommodation.

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Procedure 

The nominated participants 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. Reimbursement claims may be sent via regular mail to the postal address of the Energy Community in Vienna or via e-mail to accounting@energy-community.org.
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 eligible authority. 
 

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