Guidance for Member States on the calculation of total eligible costs to apply for major projects in 2014-2020

Purpose of the guidance and key differences with the 2007-2013 period

According to Article 100 CPR, major projects (MP) are "[…] operations comprising a series of works, activities or services intended in itself to accomplish an indivisible task of a precise economic or technical nature which has clearly identified goals and for which the total eligible cost exceeds EUR 50 000 000 and in the case of operations contributing to the thematic objective under point (7) of the first paragraph of Article 9 where the total eligible cost exceeds EUR 75 000 000 […]".

For the 2014-2020 period, according to Article 100 CPR, the total eligible cost of the project determines whether a project is to be approved as a major project

This guidance note clarifies that the total eligible cost of a project for the application of Article 100 CPR is calculated on the basis of applicable eligibility rules. As Article 100 CPR covers the cohesion policy funds (ERDF, ESF and CF), the eligibility rules refered are those for those funds.

The guidance note also clarifies that state aid rules or the decision of a managing authority to apply the co-financing rate of a programme to total eligible expenditures or public eligible expenditures are irrelevant for the calculation of the threshold.