Address https://gelex.eu/eli/EU/decision/2015/842@2015-05-28/en

Contents

1. Preamble
2. 1. Article 1
   2. Article 2
   3. Article 3
   4. Article 4
   5. Article 5
3. ANNEX
4. ANNEX I CLEARED EAFRD EXPENDITURE BY RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 Amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State per programme Approved programmes with declared expenditure for EAFRD
5. ANNEX II CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 — EAFRD List of the Paying Agencies and programmes for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later clearance decision
6. ANNEX III CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 — EAFRD Corrections according to Article 54(2) of Regulation (EU) 1306/2013

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 51 and 54(5) thereof,

After consulting the Committee on the Agricultural Funds,

Whereas:

(1) Pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the Commission, on the basis of the annual accounts submitted by the Member States, accompanied by the information required for the clearance of accounts and an audit opinion regarding the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the accounts and the reports established by the certification bodies, has to clear the accounts of the paying agencies referred to in Article 7 of that Regulation.

(2) In accordance with Article 39 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 the agricultural financial year begins on 16 October of year N – 1 and ends on 15 October of year N. When clearing the accounts for the 2014 financial year, for the purpose of aligning the reference period for European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) expenditure with that of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), account should be taken of expenditure incurred by the Member States between 16 October 2013 and 15 October 2014, as provided for in Article 11(1) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014.

(3) The second subparagraph of Article 33(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 provides that the amounts that are recoverable from, or payable to, each Member State, in accordance with the accounts clearance decision referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 33(1) of that Regulation, are to be established by deducting the intermediate payments for the financial year concerned from the expenditure recognised for that year in accordance with Article 33(1). The Commission is to deduct that amount from or add it to the next intermediate payment.

(4) The Commission has checked the information submitted by the Member States and has communicated the results of its checks to the Member States before 30 April 2015, along with the necessary amendments.

(5) For certain paying agencies, the annual accounts and the accompanying documents permit the Commission to take a decision on the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the annual accounts submitted.

(6) The information submitted by certain other paying agencies requires additional enquiries and their accounts cannot therefore be cleared in this Decision.

(7) In accordance with Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the Commission may reduce or temporarily suspend interim payments to the Member States. It should inform the Member State(s) concerned accordingly. In adopting this Decision, the Commission should take into account the amounts reduced or suspended in order to avoid making any inappropriate or untimely payments, or reimbursing amounts that could later be subject to financial correction. In particular, the fourth quarterly declaration for 2013 and the first quarterly declaration for 2014 included respectively the amounts of EUR 51543 and EUR 26892 for the rural development programme of the region of Lazio, Italy (programme CCI 2007IT06RPO005). These amounts were also included in the annual declaration for financial year 2014. The amounts in question were subject to a reduction under Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, as ordered by Commission Implementing Decisions C(2014)3268 and C(2014)5156 for failure to comply with the time limits for mandatory verification. Since the procedure provided for in Article 34 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 is still ongoing, these reductions should be maintained. As regards the rural development programme for Bulgaria (CCI 2007BG06RPO001), the amounts of EUR 420467,77 and EUR 598402,41 were declared in the third quarter of 2014 under measures 311 and 312 respectively. These amounts were also declared in the annual declaration for financial year 2014. The amounts in question should be excluded from Union financing by this Decision since account should be taken of any reduction in accordance with Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. Any reduction is in fact of a provisional nature and is without prejudice to decisions to be taken pursuant to Article 52 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

(8) Pursuant to Article 54(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, 50 % of the financial consequences of non-recovery of irregularities is to be borne by the Member State concerned if recovery has not taken place within four years from the date of the recovery request, or within eight years where the recovery is taken before the national courts. Article 54(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 requires Member States to enter in the annual accounts the amounts to be borne by them under paragraph 2 of that Article. Rules on the application of the Member States' obligation to report the amounts to be recovered are laid down in Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014. Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 sets out the model of the table that Member States have to use to provide information about amounts to be recovered in 2015. On the basis of the tables completed by the Member States, the Commission should decide on the financial consequences of non-recovery of irregularities older than four or eight years respectively.

(9) Pursuant to Article 54(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, on duly justified grounds, Member States may decide not to pursue recovery. Such a decision may be taken only if the costs already and likely to be incurred, total more than the amount to be recovered or if the recovery proves impossible owing to the insolvency, recorded and recognised under national law, of the debtor or the persons legally responsible for the irregularity. If the decision has been taken within four years from the date of the recovery request, or within eight years where the recovery is taken before the national courts, 100 % of the financial consequences of the non-recovery should be borne by the Union budget. The amounts for which a particular Member State decided not to pursue recovery and the grounds for its decision are to be included in the annual accounts as per Article 29(e) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014, referred to in point (c)(iii) of Article 102(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. Therefore, such amounts should not be charged to the Member States concerned and are consequently to be borne by the Union budget.

(10) Pursuant to Article 34(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the combined total of prefinancing and interim payments are not to exceed 95 % of the EAFRD's contribution to each rural development programme. The following programmes have reached this threshold: 2007AT06RPO001, 2007BE06RPO001, 2007DE06RPO004, 2007DE06RPO010, 2007IE06RPO001 and 2007UK06RPO003. The outstanding balance on these programmes will be settled at the closure of the programming period.

(11) Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 repealed and replaced Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005. Article 26(3)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005, which corresponds to the provision of Article 36(3)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, provided that intermediate payments are to be made without overrun of the total financial programmed EAFRD contribution. Furthermore, Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 took over some of the provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No 883/2006 which had been repealed by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014. Article 17(4) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2006, which corresponds to the provision of Article 23(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014, provided that where the combined total of declarations of expenditure exceeds the total programmed contribution for a rural development programme, the amount to be paid shall be capped at the programmed amount, without prejudice to the ceiling provided for in Article 24(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 which corresponds to the provision of Article 34(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. The financial plan for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007EE06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 1122778,99 in the second and third quarterly declarations for 2014. The financial plan for Axis 5 for the rural development programme 2007ES06RPO009 was exceeded by EUR 18560,56 in the third quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plan for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007FI06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 5599314,30 in the second quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plans for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007LU06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 169459,49 in the third quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plans for Axis 2 and Axis 5 for the rural development programme 2007UK06RPO002 were exceeded by EUR 2597538,87 and EUR 427086,47 respectively in the second and third quarterly declarations for 2014. The above amounts were not paid out by the Commission. The amended financial plans have not been adopted by the Commission until the date of adoption of this Decision. The amounts totalling EUR 9934738,68 which are included in the annual declarations for the 2014 financial year should therefore be excluded from the financial clearance decision for the 2014 financial year. They will be subject to a later reimbursement by the Commission following the adoptions of the amended financial plans or at the closure of the programming period.

(12) In accordance with Article 36(3)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, an amount of EUR 913212,81 declared for the rural development programme 2007PT06RPO001 was excluded from the clearance Decision for 2013 financial year. Following the adoption of the amended financial plan, that amount was reimbursed by the Commission in 2014 and it should therefore be included in the present clearance decision.

(13) In accordance with Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, this Decision is without prejudice to the decisions the Commission may take subsequently to exclude from Union financing expenditure not effected in accordance with Union rules,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

With the exception of the paying agencies referred to in Article 2, the accounts of the Member States' paying agencies concerning expenditure financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) in respect of the 2014 financial year, are hereby cleared. The amounts recoverable from, or payable to, each Member State under each rural development programme pursuant to this Decision are set out in Annex I.

Article 2

For the 2014 financial year, the accounts of the Member States' paying agencies in respect of expenditure for each rural development programme financed by the EAFRD as set out in Annex II, are not covered by this Decision and shall be the subject of a future clearance of accounts decision.

Article 3

The amounts to be charged to the Member States, as a result of the application of Article 54(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, are set out in Annex III.

Article 4

This Decision is without prejudice to future conformity clearance decisions that the Commission may take pursuant to Article 52 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 to exclude from Union financing expenditure not effected in accordance with Union rules.

Article 5

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 28 May 2015. For the Commission Phil Hogan Member of the Commission

ANNEX

ANNEX I CLEARED EAFRD EXPENDITURE BY RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME FOR FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 Amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State per programme Approved programmes with declared expenditure for EAFRD

(in euro) MS CCI Expenditure 2014 Corrections Total Non-reusable amounts Accepted amount cleared for FY 2014 Interim payments reimbursed to the Member State for the financial year including clearing of prefinancing Amount to be recovered from (–) of paid to (+) the Member State i ii iii = i + ii iv v = iii – iv vi vii = v – vi AT 2007AT06RPO001 544468367,78 0,00 544468367,78 0,00 544468367,78 518811910,08 25656457,70 BE 2007BE06RPO001 16783607,72 0,00 16783607,72 0,00 16783607,72 13205322,27 3578285,45 BG 2007BG06RPO001 395493074,51 – 1018870,18 394474204,33 0,00 394474204,33 393750627,31 723577,02 CY 2007CY06RPO001 22567015,08 0,00 22567015,08 0,00 22567015,08 22898350,79 – 331335,71 CZ 2007CZ06RPO001 326067553,26 0,00 326067553,26 0,00 326067553,26 326067674,49 – 121,23 DE 2007DE06RAT001 499599,12 0,00 499599,12 0,00 499599,12 499599,11 0,01 DE 2007DE06RPO004 63035454,95 0,00 63035454,95 0,00 63035454,95 46638237,43 16397217,52 DE 2007DE06RPO007 151333451,42 0,00 151333451,42 0,00 151333451,42 151333504,27 – 52,85 DE 2007DE06RPO009 1756006,08 0,00 1756006,08 0,00 1756006,08 1756010,52 – 4,44 DE 2007DE06RPO010 30449586,72 0,00 30449586,72 0,00 30449586,72 29425794,68 1023792,04 DE 2007DE06RPO012 129627838,13 0,00 129627838,13 0,00 129627838,13 129627837,98 0,15 DE 2007DE06RPO015 44569423,98 0,00 44569423,98 0,00 44569423,98 44569423,92 0,06 DE 2007DE06RPO017 32302560,60 0,00 32302560,60 0,00 32302560,60 32302560,59 0,01 DE 2007DE06RPO018 2742462,33 0,00 2742462,33 0,00 2742462,33 2742462,32 0,01 DE 2007DE06RPO019 161853097,22 0,00 161853097,22 0,00 161853097,22 161853097,21 0,01 DE 2007DE06RPO020 124731223,27 0,00 124731223,27 0,00 124731223,27 124731223,25 0,02 DE 2007DE06RPO021 40589272,39 0,00 40589272,39 0,00 40589272,39 40592850,30 – 3577,91 DE 2007DE06RPO023 79390804,77 0,00 79390804,77 0,00 79390804,77 79350303,85 40500,92 DK 2007DK06RPO001 82998289,85 0,00 82998289,85 0,00 82998289,85 83307264,88 – 308975,03 EE 2007EE06RPO001 107441165,78 – 1122778,99 106318386,79 0,00 106318386,79 106318428,88 – 42,09 ES 2007ES06RAT001 5773319,62 0,00 5773319,62 0,00 5773319,62 5773319,62 0,00 ES 2007ES06RPO001 205999762,70 0,00 205999762,70 0,00 205999762,70 205999749,54 13,16 ES 2007ES06RPO002 52921899,62 0,00 52921899,62 0,00 52921899,62 52921926,24 – 26,62 ES 2007ES06RPO003 23124915,85 0,00 23124915,85 0,00 23124915,85 23124914,20 1,65 ES 2007ES06RPO004 6760223,26 0,00 6760223,26 0,00 6760223,26 6760220,72 2,54 ES 2007ES06RPO005 28014055,89 0,00 28014055,89 0,00 28014055,89 28043602,97 – 29547,08 ES 2007ES06RPO006 11673899,78 0,00 11673899,78 0,00 11673899,78 11673627,87 271,91 ES 2007ES06RPO007 180347367,42 0,00 180347367,42 0,00 180347367,42 180347333,94 33,48 ES 2007ES06RPO008 73969728,51 0,00 73969728,51 0,00 73969728,51 73969728,58 – 0,07 ES 2007ES06RPO009 52139699,74 – 18560,56 52121139,18 0,00 52121139,18 52121130,04 9,14 ES 2007ES06RPO010 156843297,22 0,00 156843297,22 0,00 156843297,22 156843349,08 – 51,86 ES 2007ES06RPO011 91565221,37 0,00 91565221,37 0,00 91565221,37 91602065,76 – 36844,39 ES 2007ES06RPO012 4476595,43 0,00 4476595,43 0,00 4476595,43 4476595,25 0,18 ES 2007ES06RPO013 31893803,19 0,00 31893803,19 0,00 31893803,19 31889970,54 3832,65 ES 2007ES06RPO014 7001783,06 0,00 7001783,06 0,00 7001783,06 7001782,94 0,12 ES 2007ES06RPO015 11360172,72 0,00 11360172,72 0,00 11360172,72 11360198,92 – 26,20 ES 2007ES06RPO016 8838843,37 0,00 8838843,37 0,00 8838843,37 8838846,41 – 3,04 FI 2007FI06RPO001 182525389,84 – 5599314,30 176926075,54 0,00 176926075,54 176930836,91 – 4761,37 FI 2007FI06RPO002 1059517,27 0,00 1059517,27 0,00 1059517,27 1059517,24 0,03 FR 2007FR06RPO001 678837059,60 0,00 678837059,60 0,00 678837059,60 678834981,35 2078,25 FR 2007FR06RPO002 13637663,26 0,00 13637663,26 0,00 13637663,26 13632754,78 4908,48 FR 2007FR06RPO003 21794860,24 0,00 21794860,24 0,00 21794860,24 21794860,25 – 0,01 FR 2007FR06RPO004 13085698,30 0,00 13085698,30 0,00 13085698,30 13085698,26 0,04 FR 2007FR06RPO005 15147820,52 0,00 15147820,52 0,00 15147820,52 15147820,49 0,03 FR 2007FR06RPO006 56350372,69 0,00 56350372,69 0,00 56350372,69 56350372,73 – 0,04 HU 2007HU06RPO001 550321317,91 0,00 550321317,91 0,00 550321317,91 550278758,74 42559,17 IE 2007IE06RPO001 179326161,10 0,00 179326161,10 0,00 179326161,10 99168661,16 80157499,94 IT 2007IT06RAT001 6005846,41 0,00 6005846,41 0,00 6005846,41 6005846,38 0,03 IT 2007IT06RPO001 18263314,16 0,00 18263314,16 0,00 18263314,16 18380705,60 – 117391,44 IT 2007IT06RPO002 13819039,14 0,00 13819039,14 0,00 13819039,14 13819039,26 – 0,12 IT 2007IT06RPO003 79515358,43 0,00 79515358,43 0,00 79515358,43 79515358,51 – 0,08 IT 2007IT06RPO004 14444151,54 0,00 14444151,54 0,00 14444151,54 14449678,70 – 5527,16 IT 2007IT06RPO005 47406432,46 – 78435,00 47327997,46 0,00 47327997,46 47406972,32 – 78974,86 IT 2007IT06RPO006 13259461,34 0,00 13259461,34 0,00 13259461,34 13284525,74 – 25064,40 IT 2007IT06RPO007 64999720,96 0,00 64999720,96 0,00 64999720,96 64948526,65 51194,31 IT 2007IT06RPO008 25528865,56 0,00 25528865,56 0,00 25528865,56 25590820,49 – 61954,93 IT 2007IT06RPO009 58633519,29 0,00 58633519,29 0,00 58633519,29 58633519,64 – 0,35 IT 2007IT06RPO010 58921922,19 0,00 58921922,19 0,00 58921922,19 58921921,96 0,23 IT 2007IT06RPO011 8167143,75 0,00 8167143,75 0,00 8167143,75 8167148,05 – 4,30 IT 2007IT06RPO012 38683225,74 0,00 38683225,74 0,00 38683225,74 38790060,80 – 106835,06 IT 2007IT06RPO013 2490100,59 0,00 2490100,59 0,00 2490100,59 2490100,63 – 0,04 IT 2007IT06RPO014 81528911,04 0,00 81528911,04 0,00 81528911,04 81528910,48 0,56 IT 2007IT06RPO015 13836214,26 0,00 13836214,26 0,00 13836214,26 13854106,18 – 17891,92 IT 2007IT06RPO016 74561854,94 0,00 74561854,94 0,00 74561854,94 74573079,80 – 11224,86 IT 2007IT06RPO017 39985924,56 0,00 39985924,56 0,00 39985924,56 39989076,63 – 3152,07 IT 2007IT06RPO018 77467416,73 0,00 77467416,73 0,00 77467416,73 77467266,26 150,47 IT 2007IT06RPO019 156458307,09 0,00 156458307,09 0,00 156458307,09 156909167,01 – 450859,92 IT 2007IT06RPO020 124466658,87 0,00 124466658,87 0,00 124466658,87 125467724,29 – 1001065,42 IT 2007IT06RPO021 191224405,91 0,00 191224405,91 0,00 191224405,91 191569197,15 – 344791,24 LT 2007LT06RPO001 232441651,12 0,00 232441651,12 0,00 232441651,12 232382704,60 58946,52 LU 2007LU06RPO001 6858402,22 – 169459,49 6688942,73 0,00 6688942,73 6688942,73 0,00 LV 2007LV06RPO001 127288585,55 0,00 127288585,55 0,00 127288585,55 127288585,56 – 0,01 NL 2007NL06RPO001 111099420,13 0,00 111099420,13 0,00 111099420,13 111269776,51 – 170356,38 PL 2007PL06RPO001 1700780302,65 0,00 1700780302,65 0,00 1700780302,65 1700775834,08 4468,57 PT 2007PT06RAT001 1775386,28 0,00 1775386,28 0,00 1775386,28 1775386,20 0,08 PT 2007PT06RPO001 25956964,38 913212,81 26870177,19 0,00 26870177,19 26870173,33 3,86 PT 2007PT06RPO002 628254854,61 0,00 628254854,61 0,00 628254854,61 628239028,87 15825,74 PT 2007PT06RPO003 28045383,88 0,00 28045383,88 0,00 28045383,88 28045361,36 22,52 SE 2007SE06RPO001 264374589,77 0,00 264374589,77 0,00 264374589,77 267849243,12 – 3474653,35 SI 2007SI06RPO001 129408871,46 0,00 129408871,46 0,00 129408871,46 129408892,36 – 20,90 SK 2007SK06RPO001 148343717,70 0,00 148343717,70 0,00 148343717,70 148345429,79 – 1712,09 UK 2007UK06RPO001 562657447,24 0,00 562657447,24 0,00 562657447,24 562707534,14 – 50086,90 UK 2007UK06RPO002 61921949,43 – 3024625,34 58897324,09 0,00 58897324,09 58897167,99 156,10 UK 2007UK06RPO003 118605393,99 0,00 118605393,99 0,00 118605393,99 72997308,43 45608085,56 UK 2007UK06RPO004 53920344,45 0,00 53920344,45 0,00 53920344,45 54338878,50 – 418534,05

ANNEX II CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 — EAFRD List of the Paying Agencies and programmes for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later clearance decision

Member State Paying Agency Programme Belgium Région Wallonne 2007BE06RPO002 Germany Zahlstelle Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2007DE06RPO011 Baden-Württemberg 2007DE06RPO003 Spain Agencia Valenciana de Fomento y Garantía Agraria 2007ES06RPO017 Greece Payment and Control Agency for Guidance and Guarantee Community Aids (OPEKEPE) 2007GR06RPO001 Malta Agriculture and Rural Payments Agency 2007MT06RPO001 Romania Paying Agency for Rural Development and Fishery (PARDF) 2007RO06RPO001

ANNEX III CLEARANCE OF THE PAYING AGENCIES' ACCOUNTS FINANCIAL YEAR 2014 — EAFRD Corrections according to Article 54(2) of Regulation (EU) 1306/2013

Member State Currency In National currency In Euro AT EUR 1798,80 1798,80 BE EUR — — BG BGN — — CY EUR — — CZ CZK 29407,72 1060,31 DE EUR 251988,10 251988,10 DK DKK 247438,67 33234,21 EE EUR 13728,54 13728,54 ES EUR 71148,24 71148,24 FI EUR 4570,86 4570,86 FR EUR 673346,67 673346,67 GB GBP 20844,52 26761,48 GR EUR — — HU HUF 617170583,00 1955918,69 IE EUR 211211,12 211211,12 IT EUR 115207,94 115207,94 LT LTL 1521,20 440,57 LU EUR 632,55 632,55 LV EUR 2135,35 2135,35 MT EUR — — NL EUR 179,84 179,84 PL PLN 1519162,56 355509,35 PT EUR 9417,17 9417,17 RO RON — — SE SEK 386246,04 41120,63 SI EUR 15262,11 15262,11 SK EUR — —

Versions

1. 2015-05-28