The Erasmus+ partnership agreement is the internal legal document that governs how a consortium operates during project implementation. It is not submitted to the National Agency — but it is binding between the coordinator and each partner, and it is the document you will rely on if anything goes wrong: a partner misses a deadline, disputes a budget share, or withdraws mid-project.
Most coordinators treat the partnership agreement as an administrative formality — something to produce quickly after the grant is approved and file away. This is a mistake. A well-drafted partnership agreement prevents the vast majority of consortium conflicts during implementation. A poorly drafted one leaves the coordinator legally exposed and partners unclear on their obligations. This guide covers what the agreement must include, what most coordinators leave out, and how to approach it in a way that protects the whole partnership.
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Required
A partnership agreement is required for all KA220 and KA210 projects before the first payment is made to partners
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Not Public
The partnership agreement is an internal document — it is not submitted to the National Agency but must be available on request during audits
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#1
Cause of consortium disputes during implementation: unclear roles and budget expectations not resolved before signing
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5 Years
Minimum period the partnership agreement must be retained after project end — National Agency may audit at any time within this window
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📋 In This Guide
- What the Partnership Agreement Is — and Is Not
- When It Must Be Signed
- Key Clauses Every Partnership Agreement Must Include
- KA210 vs KA220: How the Agreement Differs
- Coordinator Obligations the Agreement Must Reflect
- What to Include for Partner Withdrawal or Non-Performance
- Most Common Partnership Agreement Mistakes
- Partnership Agreement Checklist
1. What the Partnership Agreement Is — and Is Not
The partnership agreement is a bilateral contract between the coordinator and each partner organisation. It is not a single document signed by all parties simultaneously — in most cases, the coordinator signs a separate agreement with each partner, incorporating the specific obligations, budget share and deliverables relevant to that partner.
It is important to understand what the partnership agreement is not:
It is not the grant agreement. The grant agreement is the contract between the coordinator and the National Agency. The partnership agreement is the internal contract between the coordinator and the partners. Partners have no direct contractual relationship with the National Agency — only the coordinator does.
It is not the mandate letter. The mandate letter is a pre-application document in which a partner authorises the coordinator to submit the application on their behalf. The partnership agreement comes later — it is drafted and signed after the project is approved and before implementation formally begins.
It is not a formality. The partnership agreement is a legally binding document in the jurisdiction of the coordinator’s country. In the event of a dispute — budget disagreement, missed deliverables, partner withdrawal, financial mismanagement — it is the document that determines what each party is legally obliged to do. Treat it accordingly.
2. When It Must Be Signed
The partnership agreement must be in place before the coordinator makes the first financial transfer to any partner. In practice this means it should be drafted, reviewed by all parties and signed within the first one to two months of the project — before the kick-off meeting if possible, and certainly before any partner activity generates expenditure that needs to be reimbursed.
The National Agency does not set a hard deadline for the partnership agreement in most cases — but it requires that a signed agreement exists and is available on request during monitoring visits or audits. A project that has been running for six months without a signed partnership agreement is in an exposed position if the NA requests documentation or if a partner dispute arises.
⚠️ Do Not Wait for the Kick-Off Meeting to Start Drafting
Many coordinators plan to finalise the partnership agreement at the kick-off meeting. This creates two problems: first, kick-off meetings are busy and not conducive to careful legal review; second, if a partner raises objections to the terms at the kick-off, you have already incurred kick-off costs without a signed agreement. Draft the agreement before the meeting, circulate it for review at least two weeks in advance, and use the kick-off to sign — not to negotiate.
3. Key Clauses Every Partnership Agreement Must Include
There is no single mandatory template for an Erasmus+ partnership agreement — the Programme Guide specifies that one must exist but does not prescribe its format. This means coordinators have flexibility in how they structure it, but also means there is no default safety net. The following clauses are essential and must appear in every agreement.
| Clause | What It Must Cover | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Project identification | Full project title, grant agreement number, Key Action, programme year, start and end dates, total grant amount | Anchors the agreement to the specific grant; avoids ambiguity about which project the obligations refer to |
| Partner identification | Full legal name, registered address, legal representative name and title, PIC number from EU Funding and Tenders Portal | Ensures the agreement is legally binding on the correct legal entity; prevents disputes about organisational identity |
| Roles and responsibilities | Specific work packages or activities the partner leads or contributes to; deliverables and deadlines; reporting obligations to the coordinator | The most common source of disputes — partners who claim they did not know what was expected of them; this clause eliminates that argument |
| Budget allocation | Partner’s total budget share in euros; breakdown by budget category (staff, travel, subcontracting etc.); payment schedule and conditions | Prevents post-approval disputes about how much each partner receives; sets clear expectations on when payments are made and under what conditions |
| Eligible costs and financial rules | Which cost categories are eligible; documentation requirements for each category; prohibition on double-funding; VAT treatment | Partners unfamiliar with Erasmus+ financial rules may claim ineligible costs; this clause passes the NA’s financial rules down to partner level |
| Reporting and documentation | Internal reporting deadlines (ahead of NA deadlines); format and content of partner reports; document retention requirements (minimum 5 years) | Coordinator needs partner reports before they can compile the NA report; internal deadlines must be earlier than NA deadlines to allow consolidation time |
| Intellectual property | Ownership of intellectual outputs; open licence requirements (CC-BY); publication obligations on Erasmus+ Results Platform; rights of all partners to use project outputs | IP disputes are more common than expected, particularly when commercial partners are involved; open licence obligations must be contractually binding on all partners |
| Visibility and communication | Obligations to acknowledge EU funding in all communications; use of Erasmus+ logo; social media and publication rules; approval process for public statements about the project | NA requires acknowledgement of EU funding on all project outputs and communications; non-compliance is a finding in monitoring reports |
| Conflict of interest and anti-fraud | Obligations to disclose conflicts of interest; prohibition on irregular financial practices; partner’s obligation to cooperate with any audit or investigation | Required by the grant agreement; coordinator is liable to the NA for partner compliance — this clause passes that liability down |
| Governing law and dispute resolution | Which country’s law governs the agreement; dispute resolution procedure (negotiation, mediation, arbitration or courts); jurisdiction | Without this clause, a dispute between partners from different countries has no agreed legal framework — making resolution significantly more complex and expensive |
4. KA210 vs KA220: How the Agreement Differs
The core content of a partnership agreement is similar across Key Actions, but the complexity, length and financial detail differ significantly between KA210 and KA220.
| Element | KA210 Small-Scale Partnership | KA220 Cooperation Partnership |
|---|---|---|
| Grant model | Lump sum — no receipts required; agreement must specify how the lump sum is distributed between partners and under what conditions | Hybrid unit costs and real costs — agreement must specify budget by category per partner; financial documentation requirements are more detailed |
| Financial complexity | Lower — lump sum distribution is straightforward; fewer budget categories to track per partner | Higher — staff days, travel, subcontracting and real costs all require separate treatment; agreement must mirror the budget tool in the application |
| Document length | Typically 5–10 pages per partner agreement including annexes | Typically 15–25 pages per partner agreement; more detailed annexes covering work plan, budget breakdown and reporting schedule |
| Reporting obligations | Simpler — one final report to NA; internal partner reporting can be light if the project is short and the partnership is small | More complex — interim and final NA reports; internal partner reports needed ahead of each NA report; financial documentation per WP required |
| IP and outputs | IP clause needed if activities involve output development; less complex than KA220 as outputs tend to be smaller in scale | Detailed IP clause essential — multiple intellectual outputs, open licence obligations, Results Platform publication and potential translation rights all need to be covered |
| Payment schedule | Typically one or two payments — pre-financing and balance upon project completion | Staged payments aligned with WP milestones and NA payment schedule; agreement should specify payment triggers clearly |
5. Coordinator Obligations the Agreement Must Reflect
The partnership agreement is not only a document that sets out what partners must do. It must also clearly state what the coordinator commits to — because the coordinator has obligations to partners as well as to the National Agency.
Timely payment. The agreement must specify when the coordinator will transfer funds to each partner — typically within a set number of days after receiving the NA pre-financing payment and after each reporting milestone. A coordinator who withholds partner payments without contractual justification is in breach of the partnership agreement, not just in an awkward situation.
Information sharing. Partners have a right to be kept informed about the project’s financial and implementation status. The agreement should specify what information the coordinator will share, at what frequency, and in what format — including NA communications that affect the whole consortium.
Decision-making process. For significant project decisions — budget reallocation, timeline changes, partner replacement — the agreement should set out how decisions are made. Is it the coordinator’s sole decision? Does it require partner consensus? What constitutes a quorum? Leaving this undefined means every significant decision is a potential negotiation.
💡 The Agreement Protects Partners as Much as the Coordinator
Many coordinators approach the partnership agreement primarily as a tool to manage partner compliance. But partners also need protection — against late payments, against being excluded from decisions, against having their budget reduced without consultation. A balanced agreement that clearly states coordinator obligations as well as partner obligations builds trust and reduces the risk of conflicts that destabilise the whole project.
6. What to Include for Partner Withdrawal or Non-Performance
Partner withdrawal and non-performance are more common than most first-time coordinators expect. Staff changes, organisational restructuring, financial difficulties or simply a loss of commitment — any of these can result in a partner failing to deliver. The partnership agreement is your primary tool for managing these situations without losing the grant.
Non-performance clause. Define what constitutes non-performance: missed internal reporting deadlines by more than a specified number of days, failure to deliver an assigned output, or failure to participate in consortium meetings without notice. Specify the escalation process — written notice, remediation period, formal warning — and the ultimate consequence, which is termination of the partner’s participation and recovery of unspent funds.
Withdrawal procedure. If a partner wishes to withdraw voluntarily, the agreement should specify the notice period required, the process for transferring their obligations to remaining partners or a replacement, and the financial settlement — how much of their budget share they retain for work already delivered and how the remainder is redistributed.
Recovery of funds. If a partner has received funds but failed to deliver the corresponding activities, the coordinator must be able to recover those funds — because the coordinator is liable to the NA for the whole grant. The agreement must explicitly state the coordinator’s right to recover funds from a non-performing partner and the process for doing so.
Force majeure. Include a force majeure clause that defines what constitutes an extraordinary and unforeseeable event, what the notification obligations are, and how the project will adapt if a force majeure event affects one or more partners. COVID-19 illustrated why this clause matters — projects without it had no contractual framework for managing the disruption.
7. Most Common Partnership Agreement Mistakes
Using a generic template without adapting it to the project. A template downloaded from the internet and minimally edited does not reflect the specific roles, budget shares and deliverables of your project. Evaluators do not see the agreement — but partners do, and a generic agreement that does not match the work plan creates confusion about what each party is actually committed to.
Omitting the budget breakdown per category. Stating only the total budget share per partner — “Partner B will receive €45,000” — is insufficient. The agreement must break this down by cost category (staff days, travel, subcontracting) so that both parties understand what the money is for and what financial documentation is required to justify it.
No internal reporting deadlines. The partnership agreement often states that partners must report to the coordinator — but does not specify when. Without internal deadlines that are earlier than the NA reporting deadlines, coordinators find themselves chasing partner reports in the final days before submission. Set internal deadlines at least four weeks ahead of NA deadlines.
No provisions for partner replacement. Projects change. A partner may withdraw, merge with another organisation, or lose the staff capacity to deliver. Without a clause covering how a replacement partner is identified, onboarded and contracted, the coordinator faces a governance vacuum at exactly the moment they need clarity.
Signing after implementation has started. Some coordinators hold the kick-off meeting, begin project activities and then finalise the partnership agreement weeks later. This means activities are being delivered — and in some cases costs incurred — without a signed legal framework. If a dispute arises during this period, there is no agreement to rely on.
8. Partnership Agreement Checklist
- ✅ Separate agreement drafted for each partner — not a single multi-party document
- ✅ Full legal names, addresses, PIC numbers and legal representative details included for all parties
- ✅ Grant agreement number, project title, Key Action and dates referenced correctly
- ✅ Each partner’s roles, work packages, deliverables and deadlines specified in detail
- ✅ Budget allocation broken down by cost category — not just as a total lump sum
- ✅ Payment schedule specified — amounts, triggers and timeline for each transfer
- ✅ Eligible costs and financial documentation requirements defined per budget category
- ✅ Internal reporting deadlines set at least 4 weeks before each NA reporting deadline
- ✅ IP ownership, open licence obligations and Results Platform publication confirmed
- ✅ EU funding visibility and acknowledgement obligations included
- ✅ Non-performance clause with escalation process and consequences included
- ✅ Partner withdrawal procedure and fund recovery rights included
- ✅ Force majeure clause included
- ✅ Governing law, jurisdiction and dispute resolution process specified
- ✅ Agreement circulated for review at least 2 weeks before signing
- ✅ Signed before first partner payment is made and before kick-off activities begin
📋 Need Support With Your Erasmus+ Partnership Agreement?
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