DECISION No 2020/05 OF THE REGIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE TRANSPORT COMMUNITY
on the rules on the reimbursement of expenses incurred by persons from outside the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community who are invited to attend meetings in an expert capacity [2023/556]
THE REGIONAL STEERING COMMITTEE OF THE TRANSPORT COMMUNITY,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Transport Community, and in particular Article 24(1) and Article 35 thereof,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
The rules on the reimbursement of expenses incurred by persons from outside the Permanent Secretariat of the Transport Community who are invited to attend meetings in an expert capacity are hereby adopted.
Those rules are set out in the Annex.
Article 2
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption.
Done in Sarajevo on 29 July 2020.
For the Regional Steering Committee
The President
ANNEX
RULES ON THE REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES INCURRED BY PERSONS FROM OUTSIDE THE PERMANENT SECRETARIAT OF THE TRANSPORT COMMUNITY WHO ARE INVITED TO ATTEND MEETINGS IN AN EXPERT CAPACITY
Article 1
1. These rules apply to the following persons, hereinafter referred to together as ‘external experts’:
(a)
any person from outside the Transport Community who is invited to give a specific professional opinion in a committee or working group, wherever the location of the meeting;
(b)
any person responsible for accompanying a disabled person falling under point (a).
2. External experts may be private-sector experts or government experts:
(a)
private-sector experts are individuals who represent civil society or work for a private organisation or company who have been invited to give the Transport Community the benefit of their personal expertise or to represent their organisations in a specific area, but not to defend the interests of a particular country;
(b)
government experts are individuals who have been invited as representatives of a national, regional or local public authority of an EU Member State or a South East European Party or who have been appointed by such an authority.
Article 2
The Permanent Secretariat shall not be liable for any material, non-material or physical damage suffered by external experts or by persons responsible for accompanying a disabled external expert during their journey to or stay in the place of the meeting, unless such harm is directly attributable to the Permanent Secretariat.
In particular, the Transport Community shall not be liable for any accidents in which external experts who use their own means of transport for travelling to the meeting are involved.
Article 3
1. All external experts shall be entitled to the reimbursement of their travel expenses from the place specified in their invitation (work or home address) to the place of the meeting, by the most appropriate means of transport given the distance involved. In general, this shall be second-class rail travel for journeys of less than 400 km (one way, according to official distance by rail) and economy class air travel for distances of 400 km or more.
2. The Director of the Permanent Secretariat (the ‘Director’) shall in particular try to ensure that meetings are organised in such a way as to enable external experts to benefit from the most economical travel rates. The Director shall scrutinise particularly closely any requests for reimbursement involving abnormally expensive flights. The Director shall have the right to carry out any checks that might be needed and to request any proof from the external expert required for this purpose. The Director shall also have the right, where it appears to be justified, to restrict reimbursement to the rates normally applied to the usual journey from the external expert’s place of work or residence to the meeting place.
3. Travel expenses shall be reimbursed on presentation of original supporting documents: tickets and invoices or, in the case of online bookings, the printout of the electronic reservation and boarding cards for the outward journey. The documents supplied must show the class of travel used, the time of travel and the amount paid.
4. The cost of travel by private vehicle shall be reimbursed at the same rate as the second class rail ticket.
5. If the route is not served by a train, the cost of travel by private vehicle shall be reimbursed at the rate of EUR 0,22 per km.
6. Taxi fares shall not be reimbursed.
Article 4
1. The daily subsistence allowance (‘DSA’) paid for each day of the meeting is a flat rate to cover all expenditure at the place where the meeting is held, including for example meals and local transport (bus, tram, metro, taxi, parking, motorway tolls, etc.), as well as travel and accident insurance.
2. The DSA shall be EUR 92,00.
3. If the place of departure cited in the invitation is 100 km or less from the place where the meeting is held, the DSA shall be reduced by 50 %.
4. External experts who have to spend one or more nights at the place where the meeting is held because the times of meetings are incompatible with the times of flights or trains ( 1 ) shall be entitled to an accommodation allowance. This allowance shall be EUR 100,00 per night. The number of nights may not exceed the number of meeting days + 1.
5. An additional accommodation allowance and DSA may, exceptionally, be paid if prolonging the stay would enable the external expert to obtain a reduction in the cost of transport worth more than the amount of those allowances.
6. The DSA and/or accommodation allowance may be increased by 50 % by reasoned decision of the Director for very high-level external experts.
Article 5
Where, taking into account any expenses incurred by disabled external experts as a result of their disability or any person accompanying them, the allowances provided for in Article 4 appear to be clearly inadequate, those expenses shall be reimbursed at the request of the Director on presentation of supporting documents.
Article 6
1. Unless stated otherwise in the letter of invitation and the request to organise the meeting, private-sector experts shall be entitled to a DSA for each day of the meeting and, where appropriate, an accommodation allowance, on condition that they declare on their honour that they are not receiving a similar allowance or similar allowances from another institution for the same visit. The Director shall ensure consistency between the content of the letters of invitation and the request to organise the meeting.
2. Government experts shall receive a DSA for each day of the meeting and, where appropriate, an accommodation allowance, provided that provision for this is made in the relevant rules of procedure of the committee or working group and on condition that they declare on their honour that they are not receiving similar allowances from their own administration for the same visit.
3. The Director may, by reasoned decision and on presentation of supporting documents, authorise the reimbursement of expenses which external experts have had to incur as a result of special instructions they have received in writing.
4. All reimbursements of travel expenses, DSAs and accommodation allowances shall be made to a single bank account per external expert.
5. Reimbursements of the costs of government experts shall be paid into an account in the name of the government, one of its ministries or a public body, in the absence of any derogation from the government, one of its ministries or a public body.
Article 7
1. The maximum number of external experts per meeting, whether or not entitled to reimbursement of their expenses, shall be one per South East European Party and per EU Member State invited as a government expert, and a number of private-sector experts equal to the number of government experts.
2. The Director may depart from the rule set out in paragraph 1, by reasoned decision, in the event of joint meetings of several committees or working groups.
Article 8
1. The payment order shall be drawn up on the basis of the request for reimbursement which has been duly completed and signed by the external expert and by the secretary of the meeting responsible for certifying the external expert's presence.
2. External experts shall provide the secretary of the meeting with the documents necessary for their reimbursement, by letter, fax or e-mail postmarked or dated no later than 30 calendar days after the final day of the meeting.
3. The Permanent Secretariat shall reimburse the external experts’ expenses within 30 calendar days.
4. Unless the external expert can provide a proper justification that is accepted by reasoned decision by the Director, failure to comply with paragraph 2 shall absolve the Transport Community from any obligation to reimburse travel expenses or pay any allowances.
Article 9
1. Travel expenses shall be reimbursed in euro where appropriate at the rate of exchange applying on the day of the meeting.
2. The DSA and, where appropriate, the accommodation allowance shall be reimbursed in euro at the flat rate applicable on the day of the meeting.
Article 10
These rules shall apply from the day following their adoption.
( 1 ) As a general rule, external experts cannot be required:
—
to leave their place of work or residence or the place where the meeting is held before 7 am (station or other means of transport) or 8 am (airport);
—
to arrive at the place where the meeting is held after 9 pm (airport) or 10 pm (station or other means of transport).
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