THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 352/78, (EC) No 165/94, (EC) No 2799/98, (EC) No 814/2000, (EC) No 1290/2005 and (EC) No 485/2008, and in particular, Articles 57(2), 58(4), 62(2) and 66(4) thereof,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007, and in particular Article 31 thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
In the light of the experience gained during the implementation of the 3-year work programmes that started on 1 April 2015, certain provisions of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 615/2014 should be simplified or clarified. At the same time, it is appropriate to further limit the administrative burden for operators and the national administrations.
(2)
As the year of implementation of the work programmes starts on 1 April, in the context of amendments to approved work programmes in the event of a merger of beneficiary organisations, the separate work programmes of the merging beneficiary organisations should be operated in parallel until the start of the year of implementation that follows the year of implementation in which the merger occurred. In the same context, certain conditions to accept amendments to work programme measures should be adapted to make clear that the budget allocated to the area concerned remains stable.
(3)
In order to better match the applications for advance payment to the liquidity of the beneficiary, Member States should have the possibility to allow beneficiary organisations to submit applications for advance payments during the implementation of the 3-year work programme.
(4)
A minimum amount for the security to be lodged when submitting an application for approval of a work programme should be laid down in order to ensure the implementation of the approved work programme. The rules on releasing the security related to advances before the end of each year of implementation of the work programme should be more flexible and aligned with the rules relating to the payment of EU funding.
(5)
Taking into account that the main objective of having strict deadlines for submitting a payment application is to respect the annual budget life-cycle, Member States should have more flexibility when fixing the deadline to lodge an application for payment as long as payments are made by the Member States by 15 October of the calendar year in which the year of implementation of the work programme ends.
(6)
To prevent liquidity difficulties, a system of partial payments during each year of implementation of the work programme should be provided for the reimbursement of expenditure already incurred.
(7)
For the sake of simplification, it should be possible to carry out the verification of the compliance with the conditions for the recognition of beneficiaries on the basis of documents only.
(8)
Finally, some dates for notifying the Commission of certain information and cross-references between certain provisions of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 615/2014 should be expressed in a clearer way.
(9)
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 615/2014 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(10)
Work programmes approved before 1 April 2018 should continue to be governed by the provisions of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 615/2014 applicable at the time of their approval until those programmes come to an end.
(11)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: