General principles
1. The amounts given in the Commission decisions adopting rural development programmes, the amounts of commitments and payments by the Commission and the amounts of expenditure attested or certified and amounts in declarations of expenditure by the Member States shall be expressed and paid in euro.
2. The prices and amounts fixed in the sectoral agricultural legislation shall be expressed in euro.
They shall be granted or collected in euro in the Member States which have adopted the euro and in the national currency in the Member States which have not.
Exchange rate and operative event
1. The prices and amounts referred to in Article 105(2) shall be converted in the Member States which have not adopted the euro into the national currency by means of an exchange rate.
2. The operative event for the exchange rate shall be:
(a)
the completion of customs import or export formalities in the case of amounts collected or granted in trade with third countries;
(b)
the event whereby the economic objective of the operation is attained in all other cases.
3. Where a direct payment as provided for in Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 is made to a beneficiary in a currency other than the euro, Member States shall convert the amount of aid expressed in euro into the national currency on the basis of the most recent exchange rate set by the European Central Bank prior to 1 October of the year for which the aid is granted.
By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, Member States may decide, in duly justified cases, to carry out the conversion on the basis of the average of the exchange rates set by the European Central Bank during the month prior to 1 October of the year for which the aid is granted. Member States that choose that option shall set and publish that average rate before 1 December of that year.
4. As regards EAGF, when drawing up their declarations of expenditure, Member States which have not adopted the euro shall apply the same exchange rate as that which they used to make payments to beneficiaries or receive revenue, in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter.
5. In order to specify the operative event referred to in paragraph 2 or to fix it for reasons peculiar to the market organisation or the amount in question, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 115, containing rules on those operative events and the exchange rate to be used. The specific operative event shall be determined taking account of the following criteria:
(a)
actual applicability as soon as possible of adjustments to the exchange rate;
(b)
similarity of the operative events for analogous operations carried out under the market organisation;
(c)
coherence in the operative events for the various prices and amounts relating to the market organisation;
(d)
practicability and effectiveness of checks on the application of suitable exchange rates.
6. In order to avoid the application by the Member States which have not adopted the euro of different exchange rates in accounts of revenue received or aid paid to beneficiaries in a currency other than the euro, on the one hand, and in the establishment of the declaration of expenditure drawn up by the paying agency, on the other, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 115 laying down rules on the exchange rate applicable when declarations of expenditure are drawn up and when public storage operations are recorded in the accounts of the paying agency.
Safeguard measures and derogations
1. The Commission may adopt implementing acts safeguarding the application of Union law if exceptional monetary practices related to national currency are likely to jeopardise it. Those implementing acts may only derogate from the existing rules for a period of time which is strictly necessary.
Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 116(3).
The European Parliament, the Council and the Member States shall be notified forthwith of the measures referred to in the first subparagraph.
2. Where exceptional monetary practices concerning a national currency are liable to jeopardise the application of Union law, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 115 derogating from this Section, in particular in the following cases:
(a)
where a country uses abnormal exchange techniques such as multiple exchange rates or operates barter agreements;
(b)
where countries have currencies which are not quoted on official foreign exchange markets or where the trend in such currencies is likely to create distortion in trade.
Use of the euro by non-euro Member States
1. If a Member State which has not adopted the euro decides to pay the expenditure resulting from sectoral agricultural legislation in euro rather than in its national currency, the Member State shall take measures to ensure that the use of the euro does not provide a systematic advantage compared with the use of national currency.
2. The Member State shall notify the Commission of the measures planned before they come into effect. The measures may not take effect until the Commission has notified its agreement thereto.
