STFbreadcrumb separatorSTFsbreadcrumb separatorContractsbreadcrumb separatorContract details

Service contract

A contract will be established between ETSI and the Organization providing the experts.  ETSI cannot set up contracts directly with individuals.

During the execution of the work, the expert remains an employee of his/her Organization, which will continue to pay salary, social security, secondment allowances and comply with any other legal obligation of an employer.  ETSI will compensate the Organization for the work done by the experts, according to the conditions stated in the contract. Contractors for STFs funded by EC/EFTA must also sign an "Accession Form”

According to Article I.5 of the Framework Partnership Agreement between ETSI and the European Commission of 2014-06-26, the Partner’s Members and STF members participating in actions co-funded by the Commission (“co-beneficiaries”) shall sign an agreement with the Partner (“beneficiary”) reflecting the conditions applicable to them under the Framework Agreement.

Contract & Invoice

Establishment of the Contract

The contract is established by the ETSI Secretariat, with the Company indicated in Annex B of the candidature proposal.

If the Company is not an ETSI Member, then the support of an ETSI Member is required (Annex B of the candidature proposal). This support must have been provided at the same time as the candidature. In case of multi-annual contracts.

The contract is prepared by ETSI based on the agreed Work Plan and of the administrative information provided by the Company.

The contract will cover the activity over the period for which a complete Work Plan has been agreed. The work plan should include, at least, the following information:

  • start and end date of the working period
  • total manpower allocated over the period (working days) - indicative
  • deliverables schedule
  • reporting schedule
  • contractual milestones
  • payment percentage related to the contractual milestones

 Administrative requirements

These requirements are due on contract signature:

  • VAT number
  • Registration identification Number, if service provider is registered in a professional register (for French Service Provider: RCS,RM)

Contract signature electronic process

The Contract is sent electronically (through Adobe Sign) to the contact person indicated by the Company. The recipient will be driven to fill-in and sign the agreement.

If it is technically unfeasible it can be possible to print out two copies of the contract to sign them and to return them to ETSI at the following address:

ETSI
STFLINK
650, route des Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex
FRANCE

Upon reception, the ETSI Director-General will counter-sign one copy that will be sent back to the Company (to the address of the contact person).

Here you will find an example of invoice template for a Service Contract.

Amendments

When the work plan of an STF/TTF is updated, this may impact the conditions of the existing contract.  The work plan update is proposed by the STF/TTF Leader and must be agreed by the ETSI Secretariat, in co-ordination with the Reference Body.  The contract amendment will be established by the ETSI Secretariat based on the new agreed Work Plan.

 

Payment

Invoices shall be submitted to ETSI for the payment of the work done under a contract and for the reimbursement of authorized Mission Travel costs (see corresponding chapter).

Invoices for the work done under a contract must be submitted by the Company after ETSI has confirmed the validation of a milestone. The invoice should be equal to  the amount specified in the contract for the corresponding milestone.

The expected dates for the achievement of the milestones are given for information in Annex 2 of the contract, under the assumption that the deliverables required are provided on time by the STF/TTF and that they are approved by the RB.  If either of these conditions is not met, the confirmation of the achievement of the milestones may be delayed.

As soon as the achievement of the milestone is confirmed, the ETSI Secretariat will send to the Financial contact person of the contractor an e-mail with the indication of the amount that can be invoiced.

Note: For reporting purposes, the working days performed by the experts are recorded by the expert in the STF/TTF Timesheet Application , and should be validated by the STF/TTF Leader and accepted by the ETSI Secretariat.

For Mission Travels, the invoice will be established by the Company, together with a reimbursement claim with attached copies of the detailed bills, invoices, air tickets, boarding cards and any other element required to justify the actual cost incurred. ETSI will reimburse the real cost incurred by the experts for the performance of the mission travel and according to the minimum cost policy, unless differently and explicitly agreed in the Travel Order.

Bank Account

Payments against invoices (for manpower and travel) will be made on the bank account indicated in the contract.

The following information is required for the bank account:

  • Bank name and branch where the account is held
  • Account holder name
  • Bank address (or of the branch where the account is held)
  • IBAN code or equivalent for non-European banks (e.g. ABA number)
  • SWIFT code

The bank account must be in the name of the Company and in the country where the Company have their legal address.

Payments will be made in EUR.  ETSI can do their best to make the transfer cheap and fast, however this is subject to banking and national regulations, which limit, e.g. the choice of intermediate banks.  It is therefore recommended to choose a bank which is able to manage efficiently and cheaply the fund transfer coming from the "Euroland".  In any case, fund transfer cost will remain at the charge of the Company. 

Invoices

In order to comply with the French regulations and the ETSI accounting requirements, the invoice must fulfil the following requirements:

  • be an electronic invoice with the name of the Company (paper copy invoice will no longer be considered)
  • contain the term "INVOICE" (or the equivalent term in the national language) in the header of the document

and provide the following information:

  • Date of issue
  • Invoice number (a sequential number, based on one or more series, which uniquely identifies the invoice)
  • Full name, legal address and registration number of your Company
  • Company VAT number (the VAT identification number under which your company supplied the services)
  • Customer name and address (ETSI, 650 route des Lucioles, F-06921 Sophia Antipolis, cedex France)
  • ETSI VAT identification number (FR 14 348 623 562), for companies based in an EU country
  • Quantity and nature of the services rendered and, in particular:
  • Contract identification number* or Travel Order number
  • Milestone(s) code, as referenced in Annex 2 of the contract
  • Reference period during which the working days claimed have been performed
    (the indication of the month is sufficient, example "Mar-Jun 2016")
  • Date of the travel
  • Net amount due (in EUR, exclusive of tax)
  • VAT rate amount (VAT must be charged only by Companies based in France) **
  • Total amount of the invoice (in EUR, inclusive of tax)

Notes:

* The invoice must refer to a single contract or Travel Order: if the expert works on different STFs/TTFs, separate invoices are required

** Application of VAT on travel reimbursement invoices for Companies based in France

The requirements listed above comply with the Council Directive 2001/115/EC of 20 December 2001 for invoicing in respect of value added tax.

The invoice shall be mailed to: stflink@etsi.org or if it is not possible, it can be addressed to:

ETSI
STFLINK
650, Route des Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex
France

If the invoice is established correctly and all the necessary information has been provided by the Company and the expert, payment will be made within 30 (thirty) days upon reception of the invoice by ETSI and confirmation of the achievement of the relevant milestone (whichever later).

In case of the required output/deliverables are unacceptable for the achievement of the relevant milestone, ETSI is authorized to suspend the payment until it has been proven that the expert is not totally or partly responsible of this failure.  In this case, ETSI will inform the Company in writing of the corrective action to be determined between the parties, not later than 5 (five) working days after ETSI identifies that the deliverables are unacceptable.  The STF Manager and the Company Supervisor of the contract will identify the actions and the timeline for the correction of the output/deliverables.

Invoices must be submitted not later than one year after the conclusion of the participation of the expert to the STF/TTF.

Resolution of conflicts

The following provisions have been taken to resolve conflicts at different levels, proportional to the nature and importance of the misunderstanding/conflict:

 1st level: supervisors

To guard against "wrong turns" that may rise from different interpretation of the engagement and/or its’ governing rules, both ETSI and the Company designate a "Supervisor", to serve as liaison to resolve minor inconsistencies.  If problems arise, the Supervisors must be available to participate in preliminary informal discussions on fact-findings, on a weekly basis.

The ETSI Supervisor is the STF/TTF Manager, Léa Belloulou

STFManager@etsi.org, tél: +33 (0)4 92 94 49 40

 

2nd level: Contract signatories

If the conflict cannot be resolved between the Supervisors, then the issue will be raised at the level of the Signatories of the contract.

 

3rd level: Termination of the engagement

The contract can be terminated by each of the parties by giving one-month formal notice.

 

4th level: Jurisdiction

This engagement is governed under French law.  In case of a mutual agreement proves impossible at all levels, the French Courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to determine the dispute.