Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 (repealed)Show full title

CHAPTER IV Principles of assistance

Article 9 Complementarity, consistency, coordination and compliance

1. The Funds shall provide assistance which complements national actions, including actions at the regional and local levels, integrating into them the priorities of the Community.

2. The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that assistance from the Funds is consistent with the activities, policies and priorities of the Community and complementary to other financial instruments of the Community. This consistency and complementarity shall be indicated in particular in Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, in the national strategic reference framework and in the operational programmes.

3. The assistance co-financed by the Funds shall target the European Union priorities of promoting competitiveness and creating jobs, including meeting the objectives of the Integrated Guidelines for Growth and Jobs (2005 to 2008) as set out by Council Decision 2005/600/EC of 12 July 2005(1). To this end, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, the Commission and the Member States shall ensure that 60 % of expenditure for the Convergence objective and 75 % of expenditure for the Regional competitiveness and employment objective for all the Member States of the European Union as constituted before 1 May 2004 is set for the abovementioned priorities. These targets, based on the categories of expenditure in Annex IV, shall apply as an average over the entire programming period.

With a view to ensuring that specific national circumstances, including the priorities identified in the national reform programme of each Member State concerned, are taken into account, the Commission and that Member State may decide to complement in an appropriate manner the list of categories of Annex IV.

Each Member State concerned shall contribute to these targets.

At their own initiative, Member States that acceded to the European Union on or after 1 May 2004 may decide to apply these provisions.

4. In accordance with their respective responsibilities, the Commission and the Member States shall ensure the coordination between the assistance from the Funds, the EAFRD, the EFF and the interventions of the EIB and of other existing financial instruments.

5. Operations financed by the Funds shall comply with the provisions of the Treaty and of acts adopted under it.

Article 10 Programming

The objectives of the Funds shall be pursued in the framework of a multiannual programming system organised in several stages comprising the identification of the priorities, the financing, and a system of management and control.

Article 11 Partnership

1. The objectives of the Funds shall be pursued in the framework of close cooperation, (hereinafter referred to as partnership), between the Commission and each Member State. Each Member State shall organise, where appropriate and in accordance with current national rules and practices, a partnership with authorities and bodies such as:

(a) the competent regional, local, urban and other public authorities;

(b) the economic and social partners;

(c) any other appropriate body representing civil society, environmental partners, non-governmental organisations, and bodies responsible for promoting equality between men and women.

Each Member State shall designate the most representative partners at national, regional and local level and in the economic, social, environmental or other spheres (hereinafter referred to as partners), in accordance with national rules and practices, taking account of the need to promote equality between men and women and sustainable development through the integration of environmental protection and improvement requirements.

2. The partnership shall be conducted in full compliance with the respective institutional, legal and financial powers of each partner category as defined in paragraph 1.

The partnership shall cover the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of operational programmes. Member States shall involve, where appropriate, each of the relevant partners, and particularly the regions, in the different stages of programming within the time limit set for each stage.

3. Each year the Commission shall consult the organisations representing the economic and social partners at European level on assistance from the Funds.

Article 12 Territorial level of implementation

Implementation of operational programmes referred to in Article 32 shall be the responsibility of Member States at the appropriate territorial level, in accordance with the institutional system specific to each Member State. That responsibility shall be exercised in accordance with this Regulation.

Article 13 Proportional intervention

1. The financial and administrative resources employed by the Commission and Member States in the implementation of the Funds in relation to:

(a) the choice of indicators provided for in Article 37(1)(c);

(b) the evaluation under Articles 47 and 48;

(c) the general principles of management and control systems referred to in Article 58(e) and (f);

(d) the reporting as referred to in Article 67,

shall be proportional to the total amount of expenditure allocated to an operational programme.

2. In addition, specific provisions relating to proportionality in relation to controls are set out in Article 74 of this Regulation.

Article 14 Shared management

1. The budget of the European Union allocated to the Funds shall be implemented within the framework of shared management between the Member States and the Commission, in accordance with Article 53(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(2), with the exception of the technical assistance referred to in Article 45 of this Regulation.

The principle of sound financial management shall be applied in accordance with Article 48(2) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.

2. The Commission shall exercise its responsibility for implementing the general budget of the European Union in the following ways:

(a) the Commission shall check the existence and proper functioning of management and control systems in the Member States in accordance with the procedures described in Articles 71, 72 and 73;

(b) the Commission shall interrupt the payment deadline or suspend all or part of payments in accordance with Articles 91 and 92 if the national management and control systems fail, and shall apply any other financial correction required, in accordance with the procedures described in Articles 100 and 101;

(c) the Commission shall check reimbursements of payments on account and automatically decommit budget commitments in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 82(2) and Articles 93 to 97.

Article 15 Additionality

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.

Article 16 Equality between men and women and non-discrimination

The Member States and the Commission shall ensure that equality between men and women and the integration of the gender perspective is promoted during the various stages of implementation of the Funds.

The Member States and the Commission shall take appropriate steps to prevent any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation during the various stages of implementation of the Funds and, in particular, in the access to them. In particular, accessibility for disabled persons shall be one of the criteria to be observed in defining operations co-financed by the Funds and to be taken into account during the various stages of implementation.

Article 17 Sustainable development

The objectives of the Funds shall be pursued in the framework of sustainable development and the Community promotion of the goal of protecting and improving the environment as set out in Article 6 of the Treaty.

(1)

OJ L 205, 6.8.2005, p. 21.

(2)

OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.