1.Contributions from the Structural Funds shall not replace public or equivalent structural expenditure by a Member State.
2.For regions covered by the Convergence objective, the Commission and the Member State shall determine the level of public or equivalent structural expenditure which the Member State shall maintain in all the regions concerned during the programming period.
The level of expenditure by a Member State shall be one of the items covered by the decision of the Commission on the national strategic reference framework referred to in Article 28(3). The methodological paper of the Commission, adopted in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 103(3), shall provide guidance.
3.As a general rule, the level of the expenditure referred to in paragraph 2 shall be at least equal to the amount of average annual expenditure in real terms attained during the previous programming period.
Furthermore, the level of expenditure shall be determined with reference to the general macroeconomic conditions in which the financing is carried out and taking into account certain specific or exceptional economic situations, such as privatisations as well as an exceptional level of public or equivalent structural expenditure by the Member State during the previous programming period.
4.The Commission shall, in cooperation with each Member State, verify additionality mid-term in 2011 for the Convergence objective. As part of this mid-term verification, the Commission, in consultation with the Member State, may decide to modify the required level of structural expenditure if the economic situation in the Member State concerned has significantly changed from the one existing at the moment of the determination of the level of public or equivalent structural expenditure referred to in paragraph 2. The decision of the Commission referred to in Article 28(3) shall be amended to reflect this adjustment.
The Commission shall, in cooperation with each Member State, verify additionality ex post on 31 December 2016 for the Convergence objective.
The Member State shall transmit to the Commission the information required to enable the verification of compliance with the level of public or equivalent structural expenditure determined ex ante. Where necessary, methods of statistical estimation should be used.
The Commission shall publish the results by Member State of the verification of the additionality, including the methodology and sources of information, after the conclusion of each of the three stages of verification.