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1. Union trust funds shall be implemented in accordance with the principles of sound financial management, transparency, proportionality, non-discrimination and equal treatment, and in accordance with the specific objectives defined in each constitutive agreement and in full respect of the rights of scrutiny and control of the Union contribution of the European Parliament and of the Council.

2. Actions financed under Union trust funds may be implemented directly by the Commission pursuant to Article 62(1), first subparagraph, point (a), and indirectly with the entities implementing Union funds pursuant to Article 62(1), first subparagraph, points (c)(i), (ii), (iii), (v), and (vi).

3. Funds shall be committed and paid by financial actors of the Commission, within the meaning of Chapter 4 of Title IV. The accounting officer of the Commission shall serve as the accounting officer of the Union trust funds. He or she shall be responsible for laying down accounting procedures and chart of accounts common to all Union trust funds. The Commission’s internal auditor, OLAF and the Court of Auditors shall exercise the same powers over Union trust funds as they do in respect of other actions carried out by the Commission.

4. The contributions of the Union and of other donors shall not be integrated in the budget and shall be lodged in a specific bank account. The specific bank account of the Union trust fund shall be opened and closed by the accounting officer. All transactions made on the specific bank account during the year shall be properly accounted for in the accounts of the Union trust fund. Union contributions shall be transferred to the specific bank account on the basis of payment requests that are duly substantiated with disbursement forecasts, taking into account the balance available on the account and the resulting need for additional payments. Disbursement forecasts shall be provided on an annual, or where appropriate on a semi-annual, basis. The contributions of other donors shall be taken into account when cashed in the specific bank account of the Union trust fund and for the amount in euro resulting from the conversion at their reception on the specific bank account. Interests accumulated on the specific bank account of the Union trust fund shall be invested in the Union trust fund except where otherwise provided in the constitutive agreement of the Union trust fund.

5. The Commission shall be authorised to use a maximum of 5 % of the amounts pooled into the Union trust fund to cover its management costs from the years in which the contributions referred to in paragraph 4 have started to be used. Notwithstanding the first sentence and in order to avoid the double charging of costs, management costs arising from the Union contribution to the Union trust fund shall only be covered by that contribution to the extent that those costs have not already been covered by other budget lines. For the duration of the Union trust fund, such management fees shall be assimilated to assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 21(2), point (a)(ii). In addition to the annual report referred to in Article 258, financial reporting on the operations carried out by each Union trust fund shall be established twice every year by the authorising officer. The Commission shall also report monthly on the state of implementation of each Union trust fund. The Union trust funds shall be subject to an independent external audit every year.