1.On the basis of the applications submitted by the Member States and analysed by the Commission, the allocation of Union funding for 2014 to cover expenditure incurred by Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria relating to necessary measures as specified in Article 23(2)(a), (b) and (c) of Directive 2000/29/EC and taken for the purpose of combating the organisms concerned by the requests listed in Annex I to this Decision, is hereby approved.
On the basis of the application submitted by Spain and analysed by the Commission, the allocation of Union funding for 2014 to cover expenditure incurred by that Member State and relating to further actions, as specified in Article 23(6) of Directive 2000/29/EC, to control Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in the request listed in Annex II to this Decision, is hereby approved.
2.The total amount of the Union funding referred to in paragraph 1 is EUR 5 715 000. The maximum amounts of the Union funding for each of the requests shall be as indicated in Annex I or II to this Decision, respectively.
3.Those Union fundings shall be financed from the following line of the general budget of the European Union for 2014: budget line 17 04 04.
4.This Decision and its Annexes constitute a financing decision within the meaning of Article 84 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012.
1.The Union funding, as set out in Annexes I and II to this Decision, shall be granted provided that the Member States concerned:
(a)implement the measures in accordance with the relevant provisions of Union law, including rules on competition and on the award of public contracts;
(b)submit evidence of the measures in accordance with the provisions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1040/2002;
(c)submit a request for payment to the Commission, in accordance with Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1040/2002, accompanied by a technical report for the measures implemented.
2.No payment of the Union funding may occur if the request of payment mentioned under point (c) of paragraph 1 is submitted later than 31 October 2015.
Cumulated changes to the allocations to specific actions not exceeding 15 % of the maximum contribution set in Article 1 of this Decision shall not be considered to be substantial within the meaning of Article 94(4) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1268/2012, where those changes do not significantly affect the nature of the actions and objective of the programme. The increase of the maximum contribution set in Article 1 of this Decision shall not exceed 15 %.
The authorising officer responsible may adopt the changes referred to in the first paragraph in accordance with the principles of sound financial management and proportionality.
This Decision is addressed to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the French Republic, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Republic of Austria.
Done at Brussels, 12 December 2014.
For the Commission
Vytenis Andriukaitis
Member of the Commission