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Definitions For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply;

(1) 'Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth' means the targets and shared objectives guiding the action of Member States and the Union set out in the Conclusions adopted by the European Council of 17 June 2010 as Annex I (New European Strategy for Jobs and Growth, EU Headline Targets), Council Recommendation of 13 July 2010 () and in Council Decision 2010/707/EU (), and any revision of such targets and shared objectives;

(2) 'a strategic policy framework' means a document or a set of documents established at national or regional level, which sets out a limited number of coherent priorities established on the basis of evidence and a timeframe for the implementation of those priorities and which may include a monitoring mechanism;

(3) 'smart specialisation strategy' means the national or regional innovation strategies which set priorities in order to build competitive advantage by developing and matching research and innovation own strengths to business needs in order to address emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding duplication and fragmentation of efforts; a smart specialisation strategy may take the form of, or be included in, a national or regional research and innovation (R&I) strategic policy framework;

(4) 'Fund-specific rules' means the provisions laid down in, or established on the basis of, Part Three or Part Four of this Regulation or a Regulation governing one or more of the ESI Funds listed in the fourth paragraph of Article 1;

(5) 'programming' means the process of organisation, decision-making and allocation of financial resources in several stages, with the involvement of partners in accordance with Article 5, intended to implement, on a multi-annual basis, joint action by the Union and the Member States to achieve the objectives of the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth;

(6) 'programme' means an 'operational programme' as referred to in Part Three or Part Four of this Regulation and in the EMFF Regulation, and 'rural development programme' as referred to in the EAFRD Regulation;

(7) 'programme area' means a geographical area covered by a specific programme or, in the case of a programme covering more than one category of region, the geographical area corresponding to each separate category of region;

(8) 'priority' in Parts Two and Four of this Regulation means the 'priority axis' referred to in Part Three of this Regulation for ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund and the 'Union priority' referred to in the EMFF Regulation and in the EAFRD Regulation;

(9) 'operation' means a project, contract, action or group of projects selected by the managing authorities of the programmes concerned, or under their responsibility, that contributes to the objectives of a priority or priorities; in the context of financial instruments, an operation is constituted by the financial contributions from a programme to financial instruments and the subsequent financial support provided by those financial instruments;

(10) 'beneficiary' means a public or private body or a natural person, responsible for initiating or both initiating and implementing operations, and:

(a) in the context of State aid, the body which receives the aid, except where the aid per undertaking is less than EUR 200 000 , in which case the Member State concerned may decide that the beneficiary is the body granting the aid, without prejudice to Commission Regulations (EU) No 1407/2013 (), (EU) No 1408/2013 () and (EU) No 717/2014 (); and (b) in the context of financial instruments under Title IV of Part Two of this Regulation, the body that implements the financial instrument or the fund of funds as appropriate;

(11) 'financial instruments' means financial instruments as defined in the Financial Regulation, save where otherwise provided in this Regulation;

(12) 'final recipient' means a legal or natural person receiving financial support from a financial instrument;

(13) 'State aid' means aid falling under Article 107(1) TFEU which shall be deemed for the purposes of this Regulation also to include de minimis aid within the meaning of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1998/2006 (), Commission Regulation (EC) No 1535/2007 () and Commission Regulation (EC) No 875/2007 ();

(14) 'completed operation' means an operation that has been physically completed or fully implemented and in respect of which all related payments have been made by beneficiaries and the corresponding public contribution has been paid to the beneficiaries;

(15) 'public expenditure' means any public contribution to the financing of operations the source of which is the budget of national, regional or local public authorities, the budget of the Union related to the ESI Funds, the budget of public law bodies or the budget of associations of public authorities or of public law bodies and, for the purpose of determining the co-financing rate for ESF programmes or priorities, may include any financial resources collectively contributed by employers and workers;

(16) 'public law body' means any body governed by public law within the meaning of point 9 of Article 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council () and any European grouping of territorial cooperation (EGTC) established in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (), regardless of whether the EGTC is considered to be a public law body or a private law body under the relevant national implementing provisions;

(17) 'document' means a paper or an electronic medium bearing information of relevance in the context of this Regulation;

(18) 'intermediate body' means any public or private body which acts under the responsibility of a managing or certifying authority, or which carries out duties on behalf of such an authority, in relation to beneficiaries implementing operations;

(19) 'community-led local development strategy' means a coherent set of operations the purpose of which is to meet local objectives and needs, and which contributes to achieving the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and which is designed and implemented by a local action group;

(20) 'Partnership Agreement' means a document prepared by a Member State with the involvement of partners in line with the multi-level governance approach, which sets out that Member State's strategy, priorities and arrangements for using the ESI Funds in an effective and efficient way so as to pursue the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and which is approved by the Commission following assessment and dialogue with the Member State concerned;

(21) 'category of regions' means the categorisation of regions as 'less developed regions', 'transition regions' or 'more developed regions' in accordance with Article 90(2);

(22) 'payment application' means a payment application or declaration of expenditure submitted by the Member State to the Commission;

(23) 'EIB' means the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund or any subsidiary of the European Investment Bank;

(24) 'Public private partnerships' (PPPs) means forms of cooperation between public bodies and the private sector, which aim to improve the delivery of investments in infrastructure projects or other types of operations, delivering public services through risk sharing, pooling of private sector expertise or additional sources of capital;

(25) 'PPP operation' means an operation which is implemented or intended to be implemented under a public-private-partnership structure;

(26) 'escrow account' means a bank account covered by a written agreement between a managing authority or an intermediate body and the body implementing a financial instrument, or, in the case of a PPP operation, a written agreement between a public body beneficiary and the private partner approved by the managing authority or an intermediate body, set up specifically to hold funds to be paid out after the eligibility period in the case of a financial instrument, or during the eligibility period and/or after the eligibility period in the case of a PPP operation, exclusively ◄ for the purposes provided for in point (c) of Article 42(1), Article 42(2), Article 42(3) and Article 64, or a bank account set up on terms providing equivalent guarantees on the payments out of the funds;

(27) 'fund of funds' means a fund set up with the objective of contributing support from a programme or programmes to several financial instruments. Where financial instruments are implemented through a fund of funds, the body implementing the fund of funds shall be considered to be the only beneficiary within the meaning of point 10 of this Article;

(28) 'SME' means a micro, small or medium sized enterprise as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC ();

(29) 'accounting year', means, for the purposes of Part Three and Part Four, the period from 1 July to 30 June, except for the first accounting year of the programming period, in respect of which it means the period from the start date for eligibility of expenditure until 30 June 2015. The final accounting year shall be from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024;

(30) 'financial year', means, for the purposes of Part Three and Part Four, the period from 1 January to 31 December;

(31) 'macroregional strategy' means an integrated framework agreed by the Council and, where appropriate, endorsed by the European Council, which may be supported by the ESI Funds among others, to address common challenges faced by a defined geographical area relating to Member States and third countries located in the same geographical area which thereby benefit from strengthened cooperation contributing to achievement of economic, social and territorial cohesion;