Article 2 Definitions

(a) "Cooperation Programme" means a programme supporting the cooperation between the participating countries, based on the whole of the following documents with regard to the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme for the 2014 to 2020 period which do not constitute an integral part of this Agreement:

- The Cooperation Programme document (CCI 2014TC16M5TN001) as approved by Commission Decision C (2014) 10146 of 18 December 2014 and as amended by Commission Decision C (2015) 9118 of 9 December 2015;

- The "Agreement on Management, Financial and Control Systems";

- The "Programme Manual";

- The "Rules of Procedure for the Monitoring Committee of the Cooperation Programme";

- The "Programme Communication Strategy".

(b) "Participating countries" means the Russian Federation, the participating EU Member States and the Kingdom of Norway;

(c) "Programme area" means the regions as defined in the Cooperation Programme document;

(d) "Operation" means a project, contract or group of projects selected by the Monitoring Committee of the Cooperation Programme, or under its responsibility, that contributes to the objectives of a priority or priorities;

(e) "Project" means a series of activities defined and managed in relation to the objectives, outputs, results and impacts which it aims at achieving within a defined time-period and budget and which shall contribute to the priorities identified in the Cooperation Programme document;

(f) "Grant" means a direct financial contribution from the funds provided under the financial contribution of the Russian Federation and under the financial contribution of the ENI to a Russian beneficiary in the Russian Federation in order to co-finance a project;

(g) "Subsidy contract" means a contract concluded between the Managing Authority and the lead beneficiary for an approved project constituting the legally binding agreement between the project and the Cooperation Programme, also confirming the final commitment of the financial contribution of the Russian Federation and of the financial contribution of the ENI to a given project and setting out the obligations and rights of the contracting parties, including the specific requirements concerning the products or services to be delivered under the project, its financing plan, and the time-limit for its execution;

(h) "Procurement contract" means a contract concluded between a lead beneficiary or another beneficiary with a contractor to implement a project;

(i) "Beneficiary" means a legal entity responsible for initiating or initiating and implementing an operation and receiving financial contribution from the Cooperation Programme;

(j) "Lead beneficiary" means the beneficiary designated by all beneficiaries participating in a given operation and representing the partnership towards the Managing Authority;

(k) "Public entity" in the Russian Federation means a federal, regional or local authority of the Russian Federation;

(l) "Closure" of the Cooperation Programme means the financial settlement of outstanding financial contribution from the EU through one of the following actions:

- payment of the final balance due by the Commission to the Managing Authority; or

- issuance of a recovery order by the Commission concerning sums unduly paid by it to the Managing Authority; and/or

- de-commitment of the final balance of the budgetary commitment by the Commission.