Establishment of milestones and targets
Article 5
1. Milestones and targets shall be set at the level of the priority, except in the cases referred to in Article 7. Output indicators and key implementation steps set out in the performance framework shall correspond to more than 50 % of the financial allocation to the priority. For the purposes of establishing that amount, an allocation to an indicator or key implementation step shall not be counted more than once. 2. For all ESI Funds, except for the EAFRD, the milestone and the target for a financial indicator shall refer to the total amount of eligible expenditure entered into the accounting system of the certifying authority and certified by that authority in accordance with point (c) of Article 126 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013. For the EAFRD, they shall refer to the realised total public expenditure entered into the common monitoring and evaluation system. 3. For all ESI Funds, except for the ESF and the EAFRD, the milestone and target for an output indicator shall refer to operations, where all the actions leading to outputs have been implemented in full, but for which not all the payments have necessarily been made. For the ESF and for the EAFRD for measures according to Articles 16, 19(1)(c), 21 (1)(a) and (b), 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, they may also relate to the achieved value for operations which have been started but where some of the actions leading to outputs are still ongoing. For other measures under the EAFRD, they shall refer to the completed operations in the meaning of Article 2(14) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013. 4. A key implementation step shall be an important stage in the implementation of operations under a priority, whose completion is verifiable and may be expressed by a number or percentage. For the purpose of Articles 6 and 7 of this Regulation, key implementation steps shall be treated as indicators. 5. A result indicator shall be used only where appropriate and closely linked to supported policy interventions. 6. Where the information referred to in Article 4(2) of this Regulation has been found to be based on incorrect assumptions leading to under- or over-estimation of targets or milestones, this may be considered to constitute a duly justified case in the meaning of paragraph 5 of Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.