Commission Regulation (EC) No 1974/2006 (repealed)Show full title

Section 5 Electronic exchange of information and documents

Article 63

1. The Commission, in collaboration with the Member States, shall establish an information system (hereinafter ‘the System’) to permit the secure exchange of data of common interest between the Commission and each Member State. Those data shall cover both administrative/operational and financial aspects, the latter covered by Article 18 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 883/2006(1).

The System shall be set up and updated by the Commission through a common approach with the Member States.

2. As regards the administrative/operational management, the System shall contain the documentary aspects of common interest enabling monitoring to be carried out, and in particular: the national strategy plans and their updates, the summary reports, the programmes and their modifications, the Commission Decisions, the annual progress reports, including codification of measures in accordance with the table in Point 7 of Annex II, and the monitoring and evaluation indicators in Annex VIII.

3. The managing authority and the Commission shall input into the System and update the documents for which they are responsible in the format required.

4. The System shall be accessible to the Member States and the Commission either directly or via an interface for automatic synchronisation and inputting of data with national and regional computer management systems.

Member States shall submit requests for access rights to the System to the Commission in a centralised manner.

5. Exchanges of data shall be signed electronically in accordance with Article 5 of Directive 1999/93/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(2). The Member States and the Commission shall recognise the legal effectiveness and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings of the electronic signature used in the System.

6. The date to take into account for the forwarding of documents to the Commission shall be the date on which the Member State transmits the documents, after inputting them into the System.

A document shall be regarded as having been sent to the Commission once it is no longer possible for the Member State to amend it or remove it from the System.

7. The cost of developing and updating the common elements of the System shall be financed by the Community budget in accordance with Article 66(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005.

Any costs of an interface between national and local systems, on the one hand, and the System, on the other hand, and any costs of adapting national and local systems may be eligible under Article 66(2) of that Regulation.

8. In cases of force majeure or exceptional circumstances, and in particular of malfunctioning of the System or a lack of a lasting connection, the Member State may submit the documents to the Commission in hard copy. Such submission of hard copies shall require the t prior and formal agreement of the Commission.

Once the cause of force majeure or exceptional circumstance preventing use of the System ceases, the Member State shall input the documents concerned into the System. In this event, the date of sending shall be deemed to be the date of submission of the documents in hard copy.

(1)

OJ L 171, 23.6.2006, p. 1.

(2)

OJ L 13, 19.1.2000, p. 12.