1.The Commission decision authorising signature of each annual financing agreement shall give rise to commitment of the appropriations in the Community budget.
2.The first annual financing agreement may only be signed on behalf of the Commission when the following conditions have been met:
the programme has been approved by the Commission, and,
the multiannual financing agreement has been signed by both parties.
[F13. Taking account of the requirements of Article 10, the Commission shall de-commit any part of a commitment which has not been settled by the payment on account or for which it has not received an acceptable payment application by the following dates:
(a) for appropriations corresponding to the 2000 annual allocation: 31 December 2004 ;
(b) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2001: 31 December 2005 ;
(c) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2002: 31 December 2006 ;
(d) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2003: 31 December 2006 ;
(e) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2004: 31 December 2007 ;
(f) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2005: 31 December 2008 ;
(g) for appropriations corresponding to the annual allocation for 2006: 31 December 2008 .]
Textual Amendments
F1 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1052/2006 of 11 July 2006 amending Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 laying down financial rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in the pre-accession period (Sapard) (Text with EEA relevance).
1.Only Sapard assistance granted in accordance with the provisions of the Programme approved by the Commission, of the multiannual and annual financing agreements and in accordance with the Commission decision referred to Article 3(1), shall be subject to co-financing by the Community.
2.Payments shall be made in euro to the Sapard euro account, and in accordance with the provisions of Article 32(1), th second subparagraph of Article 32(2), Article 32(3) with the exception of subparagraphs (a), (d) and the second and third last subparagraphs, and in accordance with Article 32(4)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EC) No. 1260/1999.
3.The Commission shall make an initial payment, on account, to the Sapard euro account. This payment, which may be made in more than one instalment, shall not exceed 49 % of the first annual allocation to the applicant country concerned, set out in the Annex to Commission Decision (EC) No 1999/595/EC(1). The payment shall be made on condition that the Sapard agency accreditation has been subject to the decision referred to in Article 3(1), and after conclusion of the multiannual financing agreement and first annual financing agreement. The payment shall be repaid if no payment application in accordance with Article 10 is received by the Commission within 18 months of the date of that payment.
4.Subsequent payments shall be made in accordance with the rules provided for in Article 10.
5.Conversion costs, bank charges and exchange losses shall not be subject to Community co-financing.
1.Payments from the Sapard agency to the beneficiary shall:
be made in national currency and debited as appropriate against the Sapard euro account. The payable order(s) to the beneficiary(ies) shall as a general rule be issued within five days of this debit,
[F2be based on declarations of expenditure incurred by the beneficiary. Such declarations shall include only projects selected and expenditure paid from the date of the Commission decision referred to in Article 3(1), except for feasibility and related studies concerning the selected projects and for technical assistance. However, where the Commission determines that an exceptional natural disaster has occurred, payments to beneficiaries for projects related to that disaster may benefit from a derogation replacing the requirement concerning declarations of expenditure by the possibility of payment of advances.]
The Community contribution shall be made simultaneously with the national contribution. However, in the case of beneficiaries in the public sector, the national contribution may precede that of the Community.
2.The total public contribution to the individual measures and to the grants at project level shall be readily identifiable at the level of the Sapard agency.
3.The Sapard agency shall maintain records of each payment which shall include at least the following information:
amount in national currency,
the corresponding amount in euro.
4.Any overpayment, namely amounts in excess of the sum due, noted by the Sapard agency, shall be recorded without delay in the Sapard euro account and subtracted from the applications for payment to the Commission referred to in Article 10.
5.The final balance of the assistance shall be paid in accordance with Article 32(4)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999 and after the decisions referred to in Articles 13 and 14 have been adopted.
6.The Sapard agency shall ensure timely treatment of payment requests by beneficiaries. In cases where the interval between receipt of the complete supporting documents and issuing of the payment order exceeds three months, Community co-financing may be reduced in accordance with the provisions of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 296/96(2).
Textual Amendments
F2 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EC) No 188/2003 of 31 January 2003 amending Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 laying down financial rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in the pre-accession period (Text with EEA relevance).
[F21. The Commission shall take into consideration only payment applications drawn up by the Sapard agency on a quarterly basis, presented in accordance with a form established by the Commission and transmitted by the national authorizing officer to the Commission within one month of the end of each quarter. However, supplementary applications may be submitted if justified on the basis of the risk of:
the net balance in the Sapard euro account being exhausted before the next quarterly application has been processed, or
decommitment being invoked as set out in Article 7(3).]
2.The applications shall include at least the following information:
the amount of expenditure paid by the Sapard agency to beneficiaries in the previous quarter, broken down in both national currency and euro by measure and the national and Community contribution,
the balance of Community funds in the Sapard euro account following the most recent debit,
details of debts to be collected.
3.The Commission shall verify the payment applications taking account of the conditions set out in Article 32(3)(b), (c), (e) and (f) of Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999.
4.Expenditure declared in the payment applications shall be reimbursed by the Commission within, in principle, two months of an acceptable payment application being received by it, subject to the verifications referred to in paragraph (3).
Textual Amendments
F2 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EC) No 188/2003 of 31 January 2003 amending Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 laying down financial rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in the pre-accession period (Text with EEA relevance).
1.The conversion rate between euro and national currency shall be the exchange rate published by the European Central Bank:
for payments by the Sapard agency, on the last but one working day at the Commission in the month preceding the month during which the expenditure was recorded in the accounts of the Sapard agency. The date the payment order is issued to the beneficiary shall be the date shown in the accounts,
for overpayments by the Sapard agency, on the last but one working day at the Commission in the month preceding the month during which the overpayment was first noted,
for amounts fixed by the clearance of accounts and conformity clearance decisions, on the last but one working day at the Commission in the month preceding the month during which the decision was taken.
2.Where the timelimits in Article 13(5) and 14(4) are not respected, any outstanding amount shall generate interest at a rate equal to the Euribor rate for three month deposits published by the European Central Bank plus 1,5 % points. That rate shall be the monthly average of the month in which the decision referred to in these articles was notified.
[F33. Interest earned on the Sapard euro account shall be used exclusively for the programme. Such interest shall not be subject to reduction due to any charges.]
Textual Amendments
F3 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2252/2001 of 20 November 2001 amending Regulation (EC) No 2222/2000 laying down financial rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 on Community support for pre-accession measures for agriculture and rural development in the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe in the pre-accession period (Text with EEA relevance).
In cases where the Commission does not allocate all the annual allocation provided for in Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 to the applicant country, use of the amount not so allocated shall be decided by the Commission on the basis of ad-hoc decisions.
1.Without prejudice to decisions referred to in Article 14, for each financial year an annual declaration presented in accordance with a form established by the Commission together with a certificate and an audit report as required by Article 6(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999, Article 4 and Article 5(1)(a), (c) and (e), and Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95 shall be drawn up by the applicant country and transmitted to the Commission by the national authorising officer.
2.The Commission shall receive the documents referred to in paragraph 1 by 30 April of the year following the financial year concerned.
The provisions fixed in the first and second last sentence of Article 7(1), Article 7(2)(c), and Article 7(3) and (4) of Regulation (EC) No 296/96 are applicable. For the financial year ‘n’, all transactions recorded in the accounts of the Sapard agency in the financial year ‘n’ are taken into consideration.
3.The Commission shall, before the 30 September of the year following the financial year concerned, clear the account of the Sapard agency in accordance with the provisions of Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 and Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95 hereinafter referred to as ‘the clearance of accounts decision’. The clearance of accounts decision shall also cover the clearance of the Sapard euro account. It shall also clear the amounts to be credited to the Sapard euro account in accordance with Article 9(4) and Article 11(3).
4.The Commission shall communicate to the applicant country concerned the results of its verifications of the information supplied, before 31 July following the end of the financial year. If, for reasons attributable to the applicant country concerned, the Commission is unable to clear the accounts of an applicant country before 30 September, the Commission shall notify the applicant country of further enquiries it proposes to undertake.
5.The amount fixed by the clearance of accounts decision shall normally be added to or deducted from one of the subsequent payments from the Commission to the applicant country. However in cases where the amount to de deducted, fixed by this decision, exceeds the level of possible subsequent payments, the amount not covered by the balance shall be credited to the Commission in euro within two months of notification of the decision. The Commission may however, on a case by case basis, decide that any amount to be credited to it shall be offset against payments due to be made by the Commission to the applicant country under any Community instrument.
1.The Commission shall decide on the expenditure to be excluded from Community cofinancing where it finds that expenditure has not been effected in compliance with the rules referred to in Article 8(1) hereinafter referred to as the ‘conformity clearance decision’.
2.The conformity clearance procedures shall be executed in accordance with the mechanisms and procedures in force for the application of Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 and Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95.
3.A financial correction may include application of flat rate corrections in cases where controls have not correctly been established or executed by the Sapard agency and refusal of compensation of the foreseen financial correction with expenditure for other projects.
4.The amount to be recovered in accordance with the conformity clearance decision under paragraph 1, shall be communicated to the national authorising officer who ensures that the amount is credited to the Commission in euro within two months of notification of the decision. The amount in the decision shall not be reallocated to the Sapard programme. The Commission may however, on a case-by-case basis, decide that any amount to be credited to it shall be offset against payments due to be made by the Commission to the applicant country under any Community instrument.
1.Documents shall be kept by the Sapard agency and the national fund at the disposal of the Commission for a period of five years after the date of final payment to the beneficiary has been made.
2.When controls are carried out under Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999, the provisions of Regulation (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96(3) and of Article 8(1) and (2), and Article 9(1) and (2) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999, shall apply mutatis mutandis for the execution of the Sapard programme.
3.Applicant countries will be required to apply the rules contained in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1681/94(4) concerning irregularities and the organisation of an information system in this field.