Reporting and evaluation
1. By 1 March each year Member States shall notify the Commission of a report on the implementation of the measures provided for in their support programme referred to in Section 4 of Chapter II of Title I of Part II of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 during the previous financial year.
That report shall list and describe the measures for which Union support under that Section was granted.
That report shall be notified using the model set out in Annex III to this Regulation.
2. At the same time as the report referred to in paragraph 1, Member States shall notify the Commission of the financial and technical data related to the implementation of the measures provided for in their support programme, using the model set out in Annex IV.
Those data shall for each financial year and in respect of each measure refer to the following:
(a)
for the financial years of the five-year period for which expenditure was already incurred: actual technical data and a statement of expenditure, which shall in no case overshoot the budgetary limit for the Member State as laid down in Annex VI to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013;
(b)
for subsequent financial years until the end of the planned period of implementation of the support programme: foreseen technical data and forecasts of expenditure, up to the budgetary limit for the Member State as laid down in Annex VI to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and in coherence with the most recent version of the financial table submitted using the model set out in Annex II to this Regulation in accordance with Article 2 of this Regulation.
3. Member States shall draw up a table containing the details on the implementation of the support for the information and promotion measures referred to in Article 45 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 within the limit of available funds. They shall notify the Commission of that table by 1 March each year using the model set out in Annex V to this Regulation.
4. By 1 March 2017 and 1 March 2019, Member States shall notify the Commission of an evaluation of the costs effectiveness and benefits of their support programme as well as an indication of how to increase its efficiency.
Those evaluations shall be submitted using the model set out in Annex III, be accompanied by the financial and technical information in accordance with the model set out in Annex IV and concern all the previous years of the relevant five-year period. In addition, the following items shall be inserted in the conclusions:
(a) C1 : Evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and benefits of the support programme;
(b) C2 : Ways to increase the efficiency of the support programme.
5. By 1 March each year, Member States shall notify the Commission of an annual report on the checks carried out during the previous financial year to comply with the requirements set out in Chapter IV in respect of each measure of their support programme. That annual report shall be submitted using the model set out in Annex VI.
6. References to payments in a given financial year shall refer to payments actually made by Member States between 16 October of the previous calendar year and 15 October of the relevant calendar year.
7. Member States shall record the details of their support programme, whether or not amended, and of all measures carried out in pursuance of that programme.
Notifications related to State aid
1. When Member States grant State aid in accordance with Article 212 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 for the measures referred to in Articles 45, 49 and 50 of that Regulation, they shall notify the Commission thereof by using the model set out in Annex VII to this Regulation and providing the following information:
(a)
whether support will be granted in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 ( 8 ) or Commission Regulation (EU) No 1408/2013 ( 9 ) ; or
(b)
the case number under which the measure has been exempted from notification in accordance with an exemption Regulation adopted on the basis of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1588 ( 10 ) ; or
(c)
the case number under which the measure has been declared compatible with the internal market by the Commission following a notification made in accordance with Article 108(3) of the Treaty.
2. The information provided must be valid over the entire life cycle of the national support programme without prejudice to any subsequent changes of that programme.
In case of any changes, Member States shall notify that information by 1 March by using the model set out in Annex VII.
3. Member States shall indicate whether State aid will be granted and the corresponding amount in the relevant points when using the models set out in Annexes I, III, IV and V.
Notifications related to advances
1. Where advances are granted in accordance with Article 49 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1149, Member States shall include in the current annual accounts of the paying agencies referred to in Article 7(3)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 information related to the use of the advances within the deadline laid down in that Article. For this purpose, Member States shall set a date by which beneficiaries shall provide the paying agencies each year with the following information for each operation:
(a)
costs statements justifying, by measure, the use of the advances until 15 October, and;
(b)
a confirmation, by measure, of the balance of unused advances remaining on 15 October.
Member States may decide to exempt from this obligation the beneficiaries of operations for which the eligible Union contribution is below EUR 5 000 000.
2. For the purposes of Article 27(2) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014 ( 11 ) , the evidence of final entitlement to be produced shall be the last costs statement and a confirmation of the balance referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
As regards advances granted for operations selected under Articles 46, 50 and 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, respectively, the last costs statement and confirmation of the balance referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall be provided by the end of the second financial year after their payment.
General provisions on notifications
1. The notifications to the Commission referred to in this Regulation shall be made in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 792/2009.
2. Without prejudice to any specific provision of this Regulation, Member States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are able to meet the deadlines for notifications set out in this Regulation.
3. Member States shall retain the information notified in accordance with this Article for at least ten wine years following the wine year during which it was submitted.
4. The obligations laid down in this Article shall not prejudice the Member States' obligations laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1337/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 12 ) on statistical surveys of areas under vines.
Selection procedure
1. Member States shall verify that the applications have been lodged within the deadline, examine each application and assess it as regards its compliance with the rules on the content of the application and with the eligibility criteria and eligible costs established for each measure provided for in their support programme. If applications do not comply with these requirements or with the eligibility criteria and the eligible costs, they shall be excluded as ineligible.
2. Where priority criteria apply to a measure, Member States shall examine all the applications considered as eligible under that measure after the assessment provided for in paragraph 1 and give a score to each of them.
The score shall be calculated on the basis of the priority criteria fulfilled by the application and the specific weighting attributed to every priority criterion established for each measure.
Member States shall establish a ranking of the eligible applications on the basis of the scores they have obtained.
3. Where the total value of the eligible applications of a support measure exceeds the budget allocated to that measure in a given financial year, Member States shall select the applications in descending order of the ranking established in accordance with paragraph 2 until the exhaustion of the available budget.
Alternatively, Member States may fix a minimum score as a threshold and select all applications that reach that minimum score. In this case, where the total value of the eligible applications that reach the threshold exceeds the available budget for a support measure, Member States may apply pro-rata payments to those applications.
4. Member States may fix a threshold and decide to exclude eligible applications that do not reach that threshold even if the value of the eligible applications does not exceed the available budget.
5. For each relevant measure, Member States may submit again to the selection procedure eligible applications that have been excluded in the previous year in accordance with paragraphs 3 and 4 upon the agreement of the applicant.
6. Where applications have been excluded pursuant to this Article, applicants shall be informed of the reasons thereof.
Simplified cost reimbursement
1. Where Member States choose to use standard scales of unit costs in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 5 and Article 44(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1149, they shall:
(a)
establish those scales in advance of any submission of applications;
(b)
establish those scales through a fair, equitable and verifiable calculation method based on:
(i)
statistical data or other objective information;
(ii)
the verified historical data of individual beneficiaries; or
(iii)
the application of the usual costs accounting practices of individual beneficiaries.
To this end, Member States shall ensure that a body that is functionally independent from the authorities responsible for the implementation of the support programme and possesses the appropriate expertise performs the calculations or confirms the adequacy and accuracy of the calculations.
2. Member States may decide to use differentiated scales to take into account regional or local specificities.
3. Member States shall re-examine the calculations provided for in paragraph 1 every second year and shall, if necessary, adjust the initially established standard scales of unit costs.
4. Member States shall keep all the documentary evidence concerning the establishment of standard scales of unit costs and their re-examination which allows verifying the reasonableness of the method followed to establish them in accordance with point (b) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1.
Deadlines for the payments to beneficiaries
Member States shall set the deadline for lodging the payment claim for each support measure.
Member States shall pay the beneficiaries within 12 months after the date of lodging a valid and complete interim or final payment claim.
Advance payments
1. Beneficiaries of support under Articles 45, 46, 50, 51 and 52 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, respectively, may request the payment of an advance from the competent paying agencies, if this option is included in the national support programme in accordance with Article 49 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1149.
2. The amount of advances shall not exceed 80 % of the Union contribution.
3. The advance shall be paid on condition that the beneficiary has lodged a bank guarantee or an equivalent security at least equal to the amount of that advance in favour of the Member State in accordance with Chapter IV of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014.
4. For the purposes of Article 23 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014, the obligation shall be to spend the total amount advanced in the implementation of the operation concerned by the end of the second financial year following the financial year during which the advance was paid, except in cases of force majeure and other exceptional circumstances.
5. As regards the restructuring and conversion of vineyards, the period referred to in paragraph 4 may be adjusted by the Member State in cases where:
(a)
the surfaces concerned are part of an area which has suffered a natural disaster within the meaning of Article 2(9) of Regulation (EU) No 702/2014 or an adverse climatic event which can be assimilated to a natural disaster within the meaning of Article 2(16) of that Regulation recognised by the competent authorities of the Member State concerned;
(b)
planned operations cannot be implemented because the plant material suffers health problems which have been certified by a body recognised by the Member State concerned.
In order for the support to be paid in advance, any previous action carried out on the same area, for which the producer also received support in advance, must have been fully implemented.
6. The security shall be released when the competent paying agency establishes that the amount of actual expenditure corresponding to the Union contribution related to the operations concerned exceeds the amount of the advance.
Verification of the prohibition on double financing
For the support under Articles 45, 46, 48, 49, 50 and 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Member States shall set out, in the relevant point of the support programme, the provisions they have adopted to ensure that an efficient control system is in place to avoid double funding as provided for in Article 43 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1149.
Obvious error
Any communication, claim or request made to a Member State under Section 4 of Chapter II of Title I of Part II of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or this Regulation, including an application for support, may be adjusted any time after its submission in cases of obvious errors recognised by the competent authority.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
