The Agriculture (Removal of Cross-Compliance and Miscellaneous Revocations and Amendments, etc.) (England) Regulations 2023

PART 6 Scrutiny of transactions

Amendment of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013

6.—(1) 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 is amended as follows.

(2) In Article 80 (scrutiny by the relevant authority)—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) for “shall”, in each place it occurs, substitute “may”;

(ii) omit the second and third sentences;

(b) in paragraph 2, for “shall” substitute “may”.

(3) In Article 81 (objectives of the scrutiny)—

(a) in paragraph 1—

(i) after “The accuracy of” insert “any”;

(ii) for “shall” substitute “may”;

(b) in paragraph 2—

(i) before “scrutiny” insert “any”;

(ii) for “shall” substitute “may”;

(c) omit paragraph 3.

(4) In Article 82 (access to commercial documents)—

(a) in paragraph 1, for “shall”, in the second place it occurs, substitute “may”;

(b) in paragraph 3, in the first subparagraph—

(i) for “shall” substitute “may”;

(ii) for “such records as are required” substitute “such records as may be required”.

(5) In Article 84 (programming)—

(a) in paragraph 1, for “shall” substitute “may”;

(b) in paragraph 2, for “shall”, in both places it occurs, substitute “may”;

(c) in paragraph 3, for “shall” substitute “may”.

(6) In Article 85(1) (special departments), for “shall”, in the first place it occurs, substitute “may”.

(7) In Article 86(1) (reports), for “shall” substitute “may”.

Amendment of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014

7.—(1) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to paying agencies and other bodies, financial management, clearance of accounts, rules on checks, securities and transparency(1) is amended as follows.

(2) In Article 42 (scrutiny by the relevant authorities)—

(a) in paragraph 1, for “shall” substitute “may”;

(b) in paragraph 2—

(i) for “shall”, in the first, second, fourth and fifth places it occurs, substitute “may”;

(ii) omit “, without prejudice to their obligations laid down in Article 80(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013,”;

(c) in paragraph 3—

(i) for “it shall be compulsory for” substitute “the relevant authority may scrutinise”;

(ii) omit “, to be scrutinised”;

(d) in paragraph 4, omit the second sentence.

(3) In Article 47(1) (special departments)—

(a) for “shall be responsible” substitute “may”;

(b) omit “, for”;

(c) in point (a), for “training” substitute “train”;

(d) in point (b), for “administering” substitute “administer”;

(e) in point (c), for “the preparation and communication of” substitute “prepare and communicate”.

(1)

EUR 2014/908, amended by S.I. 2019/765 (amended by S.I. 2020/1445; there are other amending instruments but none is relevant); there are other amending instruments but none is relevant. EUR 2014/908 was incorporated into domestic law by section 1 of the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Act 2020 insofar as it relates to direct payments, and by section 3 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 in relation to the rest of the Common Agricultural Policy. From 1st January 2024 EUR 2014/908 is intended to be revoked in England insofar as it relates to direct payments, so the amendments made by this instrument have effect only in respect of the remaining applications of the Common Market Organisation and rural development support measures in England.