The responsibilities of the competent control authorities shall be as follows:

1. (a)

   the specialised control bodies shall bear the responsibility for carrying out the control and checks on the respect of the requirements and standards in question;

2. (b)

   the paying agencies shall bear the responsibility for fixing administrative penalties in individual cases in accordance with Chapter II of Title IV of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 and Chapter III of this Title.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, F1Member StatesF1the relevant authority may decide that the control and checks in relation to all or certain requirements, standards, acts, or areas of cross-compliance are to be carried out by the paying agency, provided that the F2Member StateF2relevant authority guarantees that the effectiveness of the control and checks is at least equal to that achieved when the control and checks are carried out by a specialised control body.