THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006, and in particular Articles 38(10), 46(3), 115(4) and the second subparagraph of Article 125(8) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 215/2014 lays down provisions necessary for the preparation of programmes. In order to ensure implementation of the programmes financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds (the ‘ESI Funds’), it is necessary to lay down further provisions for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013. To facilitate a comprehensive view and the access to those provisions, those provisions should be set out in one implementing act.
(2)
To increase flexibility in mobilising support for financial instruments from different sources managed by the managing authority in one of the ways set out in the first subparagraph of Article 38(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, it is necessary to clarify how the programme contributions are transferred and managed. In particular it is necessary to clarify the circumstances under which a financial instrument may receive contributions from more than one programme or from more than one priority axis or measure of the same programme, and the conditions under which national public or private contributions to financial instruments made at the level of final recipients can be taken into consideration as national co-financing resources.
(3)
It is necessary to establish a model for reporting on financial instruments to the Commission in order to ensure that the managing authorities provide the information required by Article 46(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 in a consistent and comparable way. The model for reporting on financial instruments is also necessary to enable the Commission to provide summaries of the data on progress made in financing and implementing the financial instruments.
(4)
In order to ensure a harmonised visual identity for information and communication measures for operations in the area of Union cohesion policy, the instructions for creating the Union emblem and a definition of the standard colours should be established, as well as technical characteristics for displaying the Union emblem and the reference to the Fund or Funds supporting the operation.
(5)
In order to ensure a harmonised visual identity for information and communication measures for infrastructure and construction operations in the area of Union cohesion policy, it is necessary to establish the technical characteristics of billboards and permanent plaques for infrastructure and construction operations where the total public support for each operation exceeds EUR 500 000.
(6)
For the purposes of Article 125(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, it is necessary to lay down technical specifications of the system to record and store in computerised form data on each operation necessary for the monitoring, evaluation, financial management, verification and audit.
(7)
For the purposes of effective implementation of the second subparagraph of Article 122(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, it is necessary to ensure that the technical specifications of the system to record and store data guarantee full interoperability with the system referred to in Article 122(3) of that Regulation, at architectural, technical and semantic level.
(8)
The detailed technical specifications of the system to record and store data should be sufficiently documented to ensure audit trail of the compliance with the legal requirements.
(9)
The system to record and store data should also include appropriate search tools and reporting functions in order to be able to easily retrieve and aggregate information stored in it for monitoring, evaluation, financial management, verification and audit purposes.
(10)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Coordination Committee for the European Structural and Investment Funds,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: