Provisions applying to payments for rural development programmes
1. The appropriations necessary to finance the expenditure referred to in Article 5 shall be made available to Member States in the form of prefinancing, interim payments and the payment of a balance, as described in this Section.
2. The combined total of prefinancing and interim payments shall not exceed 95 % of the EAFRD's contribution to each rural development programme.
When the ceiling of 95 % is reached, the Member States shall continue transmitting requests for payments to the Commission.
Prefinancing arrangements
1. Following its decision to approve the rural development programme, the Commission shall pay an initial prefinancing amount to the Member State for the whole programming period. This initial pre-financing amount shall be paid in instalments as follows:
(a)
in 2014: 1 % of the amount of support from the EAFRD for the entire programming period to the programme and 1,5 % of the amount of support from the EAFRD for the entire programming period to the programme, where a Member State has been receiving financial assistance since 2010, either in accordance with Articles 122 and 143 TFEU, or from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), or is receiving financial assistance on 31 December 2013 in accordance with Articles 136 and 143 TFEU;
(b)
in 2015: 1 % of the amount of support from the EAFRD for the entire programming period to the programme and 1,5 % of the amount of support from the EAFRD for the entire programming period to the programme where a Member State has been receiving financial assistance since 2010, either in accordance with Articles 122 and 143 TFEU, or from the EFSF, or is receiving financial assistance on 31 December 2014 in accordance with Articles 136 and 143 TFEU;
(c)
in 2016: 1 % of the amount of support from the EAFRD for the entire programming period to the programme.
If a rural development programme is adopted in 2015 or later, the earlier instalments shall be paid in the year of such adoption.
2. The total amount paid as prefinancing shall be reimbursed to the Commission if no expenditure is effected and no declaration of expenditure for the rural development programme is sent within 24 months of the date on which the Commission pays the first instalment of the prefinancing amount.
3. Interest generated on the prefinancing shall be posted to the rural development programme concerned and deducted from the amount of public expenditure indicated on the final declaration of expenditure.
4. The total prefinancing amount shall be cleared in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 51 of this Regulation before the rural development programme is closed.
Interim payments
1. Interim payments shall be made for each rural development programme. They shall be calculated by applying the co-financing rate for each measure to the public expenditure effected pertaining to it as referred to in Article 59 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013.
2. Subject to the availability of resources, the Commission shall, taking account of reductions or suspensions applied under Article 41, make interim payments in order to reimburse the expenditure effected by accredited paying agencies in implementing the programmes.
3. Each interim payment shall be made by the Commission, subject to compliance with the following requirements:
(a)
transmission to the Commission of a declaration of expenditure signed by the accredited paying agency, in accordance with Article 102(1)(c);
(b)
no overrun of the total EAFRD contribution to each measure for the entire period covered by the programme concerned;
(c)
transmission to the Commission of the last annual progress report on the implementation of the rural development programme.
4. If one of the requirements laid down in paragraph 3 is not met, the Commission shall forthwith inform the accredited paying agency or the coordinating body, where one has been appointed. If one of the requirements laid down in point (a) or in point (c) of paragraph 3 is not respected, the declaration of expenditure shall be inadmissible.
5. Without prejudice to the application of Articles 51 and 52, the Commission shall make interim payments within 45 days of registering a declaration of expenditure which meets the requirements set out in paragraph 3 of this Article.
6. Accredited paying agencies shall establish and forward to the Commission, either directly or via the intermediary of the coordinating body, where one has been appointed, intermediate declarations of expenditure relating to rural development programmes, within periods to be set by the Commission.
The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down the periods for accredited paying agencies to forward those intermediate declarations of expenditure. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 116(3).
Declarations of expenditure shall cover expenditure that the paying agencies have effected during each of the periods concerned. However, in cases in which expenditure referred to in Article 65(9) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 cannot be declared to the Commission in the period concerned due to pending approval by the Commission of an amendment to the programme, it may be declared in subsequent periods.
Intermediate declarations of expenditure in respect of expenditure effected from 16 October onwards shall be booked to the following year's budget.
7. Article 83 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 shall apply.
Payment of the balance and closure of the programme
1. After receiving the last annual progress report on the implementation of a rural development programme, the Commission shall pay the balance, subject to the availability of resources, on the basis of the financial plan in force, the annual accounts for the last execution year for the relevant rural development programme and of the corresponding clearance decision. Those accounts shall be presented to the Commission no later than six months after the final eligibility date of expenditure as referred to in Article 65(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 and shall cover the expenditure effected by the paying agency up to the last eligibility date of expenditure.
2. The balance shall be paid no later than six months after the information and documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article are considered to be receivable by the Commission and the last annual account has been cleared. Without prejudice to Article 38(5) the amounts still committed after the balance is paid shall be decommitted by the Commission within a period of six months.
3. If, by the time limit set out in paragraph 1, the Commission has not been sent the last annual progress report and the documents needed for clearance of the accounts of the last execution year for the programme the balance shall be automatically decommitted in accordance with Article 38.
Automatic decommitment for rural development programmes
1. The Commission shall automatically decommit any portion of a budget commitment for a rural development programme that has not been used for the purpose of prefinancing or for making interim payments or for which no declaration of expenditure fulfilling the requirements laid down in Article 36(3) has been presented to it in relation to expenditure effected by 31 December of the third year following that of the budget commitment.
2. The part of budget commitments that is still open on the last eligibility date for expenditure as referred to in Article 65(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 for which no declaration of expenditure has been made within six months of that date shall be automatically decommitted.
3. In the event of legal proceedings or of an administrative appeal having suspensory effect, the period for automatic decommitment referred to in paragraph 1 or paragraph 2 shall, in respect of the amount relating to the operations concerned, be interrupted for the duration of those proceedings or that administrative appeal, provided that the Commission receives a substantiated notification from the Member State by 31 December of year N + 3.
4. The following shall be disregarded in calculating the automatic decommitment:
(a)
that part of the budget commitments for which a declaration of expenditure has been made but for which reimbursement has been reduced or suspended by the Commission at 31 December of year N + 3;
(b)
that part of the budget commitments which a paying agency has been unable to disburse for reasons of force majeure seriously affecting the implementation of the rural development programme. National authorities claiming force majeure shall demonstrate the direct consequences on the implementation of all or part of the programme.
By 31 January, the Member State shall send to the Commission information on the exceptions referred to in the first subparagraph concerning the amounts declared by the end of the preceding year.
5. The Commission shall inform Member States in good time if there is a risk of automatic decommitment. It shall inform them of the amount involved as indicated by the information in its possession. The Member States shall have two months from receiving this information to agree to the amount in question or present observations. The Commission shall carry out the automatic decommitment not later than nine months after the last time-limit resulting from the application of paragraphs 1 to 3.
6. In the event of automatic decommitment, the EAFRD contribution to the rural development programme concerned shall be reduced, for the year in question, by the amount automatically decommitted. The Member State shall produce a revised financing plan splitting the reduction of the aid between the measures for approval by the Commission. If it does not do so, the Commission shall reduce the amounts allocated to each measure pro rata.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
