Address https://gelex.eu/eli/EU/decision/2007/325@2007-04-27/en

Contents

1. Preamble
2. 1. Article 1
   2. Article 2
   3. Article 3
3. ANNEX
4. ANNEX I CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS Financial year 2006 — Rural Development Expenditure in New Member States Amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State
5. ANNEX II CLEARED EXPENDITURE BY RURAL DEVELOPMENT MEASURE FOR EXERCISE 2006 Cyprus Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Malta Poland Slovenia Differences between annual accounts and declarations of expenditure
6. ANNEX III CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS Financial year 2006 — Rural Development Expenditure List of the Paying Agencies for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later clearance decision

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of the common agricultural policy, and in particular Article 7(3) thereof,

After consulting the Fund Committee,

Whereas:

(1) On the basis of the annual accounts submitted by the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia concerning expenditure in the field of rural development measures, accompanied by the information required, the accounts of the paying agencies referred to in Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 are to be cleared. The clearance covers the integrality, accuracy and veracity of the accounts transmitted in the light of the reports established by the certification bodies.

(2) The time limits granted to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia for the submission to the Commission of the documents referred to in Article 6(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) 1258/1999 and in Article 4(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1663/95 of 7 July 1995 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 regarding the procedure for the clearance of accounts of the EAGGF Guarantee Section, have expired.

(3) The Commission has checked the information submitted and communicated to the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia before 31 March 2007 the results of its verifications, along with the necessary amendments.

(4) For the rural development expenditure covered by Article 7(2) of Commission Regulation (EC) No 27/2004 of 5 January 2004 laying down transitional detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 as regards the financing by the EAGGF Guarantee Section of rural development measures in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia the outcome of the clearance decision is to be deducted from or added to subsequent payments made by the Commission.

(5) In the light of the verifications made, the annual accounts and the accompanying documents permit the Commission to take, for certain paying agencies, a decision on the integrality, accuracy and veracity of the accounts submitted. The details of these amounts were described in the Summary Report that was presented to the Fund Committee at the same time as this Decision.

(6) In the light of the verifications made, the information submitted by certain paying agencies requires additional inquiries and their accounts cannot be therefore cleared in this Decision.

(7) For the rural development expenditure covered by Regulation (EC) No 27/2004, the amounts recoverable or payable under the clearance of accounts decision are to be deducted from or added to subsequent payments.

(8) In accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 and Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95, this Decision, does not prejudice decisions taken subsequently by the Commission excluding from Community financing expenditure not effected in accordance with Community rules,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Without prejudice to Article 2, the amounts which are recoverable from, or payable to, each Member State pursuant to this Decision in the field of rural development measures applicable in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia are set out in Annex I and Annex II.

Article 2

For the 2006 financial year, the accounts of the Member States’ paying agencies in the field of rural development measures applicable in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, set out in Annex III, are disjoined from this Decision and shall be the subject of a future clearance Decision.

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.

Done at Brussels, 27 April 2007. For the Commission Mariann Fischer Boel Member of the Commission

ANNEX

ANNEX I CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS Financial year 2006 — Rural Development Expenditure in New Member States Amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State

MS Expenditure for the Paying Agencies for which the accounts are Total a + b Reductions Total Interim Payments reimbursed to the Member State for the financial year Amount to be recovered from (–) or paid to (+) the Member State cleared disjoined = expenditure declared in the annual declaration = total of Interim Payments reimbursed to the Member State for the financial year a b c = a + b d e = c + d f g = e – f CY EUR 24796690,13 0,00 24796690,13 0,00 24796690,13 24797284,89 –594,76 CZ EUR 176491761,34 0,00 176491761,34 –10444,11 176481317,23 176353014,70 128302,53 EE EUR 42423603,39 0,00 42423603,39 –15231,72 42408371,67 42408371,67 0,00 HU EUR 296033597,90 0,00 296033597,90 –9339,13 296024258,77 296024258,77 0,00 LT EUR 0,00 140016475,42 140016475,42 0,00 140016475,42 140016475,42 0,00 LV EUR 95213650,83 0,00 95213650,83 0,00 95213650,83 95213651,75 –0,92 MT EUR 7944230,12 0,00 7944230,12 –4618,97 7939611,15 7939611,15 0,00 PL EUR 1149569960,50 0,00 1149569960,50 –13069,51 1149556890,99 1149556398,09 492,90 SI EUR 118941385,27 0,00 118941385,27 0,00 118941385,27 118942873,75 –1488,48 SK EUR 0,00 117783440,91 117783440,91 0,00 117783440,91 117783440,91 0,00 MS Advances paid but still to be cleared for the programme implementation (Article 32 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1260/1999) CZ EUR 86848000,00 CY EUR 11968000,00 EE EUR 24080000,00 HU EUR 96368000,00 LT EUR 78320000,00 LV EUR 52496000,00 MT EUR 4304000,00 PL EUR 458624000,00 SI EUR 45056000,00 SK EUR 63536000,00

ANNEX II CLEARED EXPENDITURE BY RURAL DEVELOPMENT MEASURE FOR EXERCISE 2006 Cyprus Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Malta Poland Slovenia Differences between annual accounts and declarations of expenditure

No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Support of investments for management of animal waste 9443852,29 0,00 9443852,29 2 Encouragement of the improvement and the development 1239312,75 0,00 1239312,75 3 Encouragement of the set up of producer groups 0,00 0,00 0,00 4 Promotion of vocational training of farmers 0,00 0,00 0,00 5 Technical and advisory service to the farmers 0,00 0,00 0,00 6 Early retirement 486308,23 0,00 486308,23 7 Support for setting up of young farmers 1275250,49 0,00 1275250,49 8 Meeting EU standards 1360168,93 0,00 1360168,93 9 Adoption of agri-environmental measures 4130349,24 0,00 4130349,24 10 Agri-environmental actions for the protection of natural value 556903,68 0,00 556903,68 11 Afforestation 13952,08 0,00 13952,08 12 Improving of infrastructure for livestock development 192901,09 0,00 192901,09 13 Less Favourite Areas 4881517,45 0,00 4881517,45 14 Support for quality schemes 0,00 0,00 0,00 15 Support of small scale, traditional processing 209556,17 0,00 209556,17 16 Protection of agricultural and traditional landscapes 696713,67 0,00 696713,67 17 Protection of forest fires and other natural disasters 200764,44 0,00 200764,44 18 Afforestation of non-agricultural land 55636,33 0,00 55636,33 19 Improvement of harvesting process 53503,29 0,00 53503,29 20 Technical support of the implementation, monitoring 0,00 0,00 0,00 21 Technical support of collective initiatives at local level 0,00 0,00 0,00 Total 24796690,13 0,00 24796690,13 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Early retirement 545103,99 0,00 545103,99 2 Less Favourite Areas 76534949,79 –10115,18 76524834,61 3 Agri-environment 88959922,46 –178,10 88959744,36 4 Forestry 2707601,06 –150,83 2707450,23 5 Producer groups 1687004,62 0,00 1687004,62 6 Technical assistance 0,00 0,00 0,00 7 Sapard 0,00 0,00 0,00 700 Investments in agricultural holdings, Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 351123,76 0,00 351123,76 701 Processing and marketing Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 1641034,72 0,00 1641034,72 702 Flood damage 1 0,00 0,00 0,00 703 Improving structures for quality 847428,46 0,00 847428,46 704 Land improvement and reparcelling 683889,73 0,00 683889,73 705 Renovation and development of villages 634488,40 0,00 634488,40 706 Flood damage 2 110168,00 0,00 110168,00 707 Development of rural infrastructure 464428,01 0,00 464428,01 708 Development and diversification of activities 1024762,25 0,00 1024762,25 709 Agricultural production methods to protect 241255,09 0,00 241255,09 710 Improvement of vocational training 47031,42 0,00 47031,42 711 Technical assistance Sapard 11569,58 0,00 11569,58 Total 176491761,34 –10444,11 176481317,23 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Less favourite areas 6350920,66 –1226,94 6349693,72 2 Agri-environment 18368083,98 –9000,91 18359083,07 3 Afforestation of agricultural land 1102043,43 –51,36 1101992,07 4 Semi-substance farms undergoing restructuring 2273812,97 –612,11 2273200,86 5 Meeting standards 5826010,68 –2488,11 5823522,57 6 Complements in direct payments 7422630,38 0,00 7422630,38 7 Technical assistance 1080101,29 –1852,29 1078249,00 8 Sapard 0,00 0,00 0,00 9 Support to areas with environmental restrictions 0,00 0,00 0,00 Total 42423603,39 –15231,72 42408371,67 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Agri-environment 227833992,16 0,00 227833992,16 2 Meeting standards 1595755,18 –0,03 1595755,15 3 Afforestation 22153089,37 0,00 22153089,37 4 Support for semi-substance farms 502022,58 –135,83 501886,75 5 Producer groups 7202971,57 0,01 7202971,58 6 Early retirement 0,00 0,00 0,00 7 Less favourite areas 6402140,63 –799,99 6401340,64 8 Technical assistance 15153476,83 0,00 15153476,83 9 Projects approved under Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 14999999,74 –8403,29 14991596,45 10 Complementary national direct payments 190149,84 0,00 190149,84 Total 296033597,90 –9339,13 296024258,77 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Early retirement 114610,00 0,00 114610,00 2 Producer groups 778930,76 0,00 778930,76 3 Support for semi-substance farms 13140756,56 0,00 13140756,56 4 Meeting standards 16269647,82 0,00 16269647,82 5 Agri-environment 11920958,74 0,00 11920958,74 6 Less favourite areas 41850749,84 0,00 41850749,84 7 Technical assistance 991731,69 0,00 991731,69 8 Obligations transferred from previous programming period 0,00 0,00 0,00 9 Allocations of resources for single area payments 10146265,42 0,00 10146265,42 Total 95213650,83 0,00 95213650,83 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Less favourite areas 1593569,29 681,16 1594250,45 2 Agri-environment 385505,60 –4335,34 381170,26 3 Meeting standards 307772,98 0,00 307772,98 4 Producer groups 0,00 0,00 5 Technical assistance 0,00 0,00 6 State Aid complement 3760000,00 0,00 3760000,00 7 Ad hoc measure 1897382,26 –964,80 1896417,46 Total 7944230,12 –4618,97 7939611,15 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Early retirement 140747510,60 0,00 140747510,60 2 Support for semi-substance farms 105651252,73 –9615,14 105641637,59 3 Producer groups 1039815,80 0,00 1039815,80 4 Less favourite areas 261975568,73 –238,56 261975330,17 5 Agri-environment undertakings and animal welfare 54365171,48 –421,86 54364749,62 6 Afforestation 27182933,10 –457,96 27182475,14 7 Meeting EU standards 279345058,83 –188,51 279344870,32 8 Technical assistance 474369,94 –954,75 473415,19 9 Complements to direct payments 189369013,75 –1191,12 189367822,63 10 Projects approved under Regulation (EC) No 1268/1999 89419265,54 –1,61 89419263,93 Total 1149569960,50 –13069,51 1149556890,99 No Measure Expenditure 2006 Annex I column a Reductions Annex I column d Amount cleared 2006 Annex I column e 1 Less favourite areas 32537794,40 0,00 32537794,40 2 Agri-environment 36334012,75 0,00 36334012,75 3 Early retirement 1695055,58 0,00 1695055,58 4 Meeting standards 36789386,23 0,00 36789386,23 5 Technical assistance 257731,75 0,00 257731,75 6 SAPARD programme 1235224,98 0,00 1235224,98 7 Complements to direct payments 10092179,58 0,00 10092179,58 Total 118941385,27 0,00 118941385,27

ANNEX III CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS Financial year 2006 — Rural Development Expenditure List of the Paying Agencies for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later clearance decision

Member State Paying Agency Lithuania NMA Slovakia APA

Versions

1. 2007-04-27

Cited by

• Commission Decision of 30 April 2008 on the clearance of the accounts of the paying agencies of Lithuania and Slovakia concerning expenditure in the field of rural development measures financed by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), Guarantee Section, for the 2006 financial year (notified under document number C(2008) 1713) (Only the Lithuanian and Slovak texts are authentic) (2008/398/EC) Decision · Grade B

  Commission Decision 2007/325/EC cleared, for the 2006 financial year, the accounts of all the paying agencies except for the Lithuanian paying agency NMA and the Slovak paying agency APA.