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PART TWO U.K. COMMON PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO THE ESI FUNDS

TITLE IIIU.K. PROGRAMMING

CHAPTER II U.K. Community-led local development

Article 32U.K.Community-led local development

1.Community-led local development shall be supported by the EAFRD, which shall be designated as LEADER local development and may be supported by the ERDF, ESF or EMFF. For the purposes of this Chapter, those Funds are hereinafter referred to as the "ESI Funds concerned".

2.Community-led local development shall be:

(a)focused on specific subregional areas;

(b)led by local action groups composed of representatives of public and private local socio-economic interests, in which, at the decision-making level neither public authorities, as defined in accordance with national rules, nor any single interest group represents more than 49 % of the voting rights;

(c)carried out through integrated and multi-sectoral area-based local development strategies;

(d)designed taking into consideration local needs and potential, and shall include innovative features in the local context, networking and, where appropriate, cooperation.

3.Support from the ESI Funds concerned to community-led local development shall be consistent and coordinated between the ESI Funds concerned. This shall be ensured inter alia through coordinated capacity-building, selection, approval and funding of community-led local development strategies and local action groups.

[F14. Where the selection committee for the community-led local development strategies set up under Article 33(3) determines that the implementation of the community-led local development strategy selected requires support from more than one Fund, it may designate in accordance with national rules and procedures, a lead Fund to support all preparatory, running and animation costs under points (a), (d) and (e) of Article 35(1) for the community-led local development strategy.]

5.Community-led local development supported by the ESI Funds concerned shall be carried out under one or more priorities of the relevant programme or programmes in accordance with Fund-specific rules of the ESI Funds concerned.

Textual Amendments

Article 33U.K.Community-led local development strategies

1.A community-led local development strategy shall contain at least the following elements:

(a)the definition of the area and population covered by the strategy;

(b)an analysis of the development needs and potential of the area, including an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats;

(c)a description of the strategy and its objectives, a description of the integrated and innovative features of the strategy and a hierarchy of objectives, including measurable targets for outputs or results. In relation to results, targets may be expressed in quantitative or qualitative terms. The strategy shall be consistent with the relevant programmes of all the ESI Funds concerned that are involved;

(d)a description of the community involvement process in the development of the strategy;

(e)an action plan demonstrating how objectives are translated into actions;

(f)a description of the management and monitoring arrangements of the strategy, demonstrating the capacity of the local action group to implement the strategy and a description of specific arrangements for evaluation;

(g)the financial plan for the strategy, including the planned allocation from each of the ESI Funds concerned.

2.Member States shall define criteria for the selection of community-led local development strategies.

3.Community-led local development strategies shall be selected by a committee set up for that purpose by the managing authority or authorities responsible and approved by the managing authority or authorities responsible.

4.The first round of selection of community-led local development strategies shall be completed within two years of the date of the approval of the Partnership Agreement. Member States may select additional community-led local development strategies after that date but no later than 31 December 2017.

5.The decision approving a community-led local development strategy shall set out the allocations of each of the ESI Funds concerned. The decision shall also set out the responsibilities for the management and control tasks under the programme or programmes in relation to the community-led local development strategy.

6.The population of the area referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1 shall be not less than 10 000 and not more than 150 000 inhabitants. However, in duly justified cases and [X1on the basis of a proposal by a Member State, the Commission may adopt or amend those population limits in its decision under Article 16(2) or (4)] to approve or amend respectively the Partnership Agreement in the case of that Member State, in order to take account of sparsely or densely populated areas or in order to ensure the territorial coherence of areas covered by the community-led local development strategies.

Editorial Information

Article 34U.K.Local action groups

1.Local action groups shall design and implement the community-led local development strategies.

Member States shall define the respective roles of the local action group and the authorities responsible for the implementation of the relevant programmes, concerning all implementation tasks relating to the community-led local development strategy.

2.The managing authority or authorities responsible shall ensure that the local action groups either select one partner within the group as a lead partner in administrative and financial matters, or come together in a legally constituted common structure.

3.The tasks of local action groups shall include the following:

[F1(a) building the capacity of local actors, including potential beneficiaries, to develop and implement operations including by fostering their capacity to prepare and manage their projects;

(b) drawing up a non-discriminatory and transparent selection procedure which avoids conflicts of interests, ensures that at least 50 % of the votes in selection decisions are cast by partners which are not public authorities, and allows selection by written procedure;

(c) drawing up and approving non-discriminatory objective criteria for the selection of operations that ensure coherence with the community-led local development strategy by prioritising those operations according to their contribution to meeting that strategy’s objectives and targets;

(d) preparing and publishing calls for proposals or an ongoing project submission procedure;]

(e)receiving and assessing applications for support;

(f)selecting operations and fixing the amount of support and, where relevant, presenting the proposals to the body responsible for final verification of eligibility before approval;

(g)monitoring the implementation of the community-led local development strategy and the operations supported and carrying out specific evaluation activities linked to that strategy.

[F2Where local action groups carry out tasks not covered by points (a) to (g) of the first subparagraph that fall under the responsibility of the managing or certifying authority or of the paying agency, those local action groups shall be designated as intermediate bodies in accordance with the Fund-specific rules.]

4.Without prejudice to point (b) of paragraph 3, the local action group may be a beneficiary and implement operations in accordance with the community-led local development strategy.

5.In the case of cooperation activities of local action groups as referred to in point (c) of Article 35(1), the tasks set out in point (f) of paragraph 3 of this Article may be carried out by the managing authority responsible.

Textual Amendments

Article 35U.K.Support from the ESI Funds for community-led local development

1.Support from the ESI Funds concerned for community-led local development shall cover:

(a)the costs of preparatory support consisting of capacitybuilding, training and networking with a view to preparing and implementing a community-led local development strategy.

Such costs may include one or more of the following elements:

(i)

training actions for local stakeholders;

(ii)

studies of the area concerned;

(iii)

costs related to the design of the community-led local development strategy, including consultancy costs and costs for actions related to consultations of stakeholders for the purposes of preparing the strategy;

(iv)

administrative costs (operating and personnel costs) of an organisation that applies for preparatory support during the preparation phase;

(v)

support for small pilot projects.

Such preparatory support shall be eligible regardless of whether the community-led local development strategy designed by the local action group benefitting from the support is selected for funding by the selection committee set up under Article 33(3).

(b)implementation of operations under the community-led local development strategy;

(c)preparation and implementation of the local action group's cooperation activities;

(d)running costs linked to the management of the implementation of the community-led local development strategy consisting of operating costs, personnel costs, training cost, costs linked to public relations, financial costs as well as the costs linked to monitoring and evaluation of that strategy as referred to in point (g) of Article 34(3);

(e)animation of the community-led local development strategy in order to facilitate exchange between stakeholders to provide information and to promote the strategy and to support potential beneficiaries with a view to developing operations and preparing applications.

2.Support for running costs and animation as referred to in points (d) and (e) of paragraph 1 shall not exceed 25 % of the total public expenditure incurred within the community-led local development strategy.