合法博彩网站

The 鈥楬orizontal鈥� Regulation[1] on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy (CAP) provides the legislative framework for adapting the financing, management and monitoring rules of the CAP to its new delivery model. It seeks to achieve more subsidiarity and simplification, with greater responsibility given to Member States, a shift from ensuring compliance to monitoring performance and reduced administrative burdens for the Member States.

Legal basis

The legal basis for the common agricultural policy is established in the听 (Articles 38 to 44) (3.2.1).

of the European 合法博彩网站 and of the Council of 2听December听2021 covers the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repeals Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

In addition to this Horizontal Regulation, the CAP 2023-2027 is covered by two other regulations: of the European 合法博彩网站 and of the Council of 2听December 2021 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member听States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulations (EU) No听1305/2013 and (EU) No听1307/2013 (3.2.3) and the Common Market Organisation (CMO) of the European 合法博彩网站 and of the Council of 2听December 2021 amending Regulations (EU) 1308/2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products, (EU) No 1151/2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs, (EU) No 251/2014 on the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of geographical indications of aromatised wine products and (EU) No 228/2013 laying down specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union.

Introduction

sets out the rules for the financing of CAP expenditure and for the relevant management and control systems.

The new CAP Horizontal Regulation largely maintains the current framework and notably the two existing funds, the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for the financing of the various interventions (the EAGF and the EAFRD will have the same scope of intervention as in the previous CAP鈥檚 two-pillar structure).

However, it introduces a number of changes to adapt the functioning of the funds and the system of controls and penalties to the new CAP. As compared to its predecessor (Regulation (EU) 1306/2013), which laid down the rules on the financing of expenditure under the CAP, the new regulation modifies the clearance processes and conformity procedure. The objective here is to adapt financial procedures to the new delivery model, to simplify the financial governance of the CAP and reduce the administrative burden on both Member States and beneficiaries.

Moreover, the new CAP legislative framework moves various provisions previously included in Regulation (EU) 1306/2013 to the Strategic Plans and CMO Regulations (e.g. the scope of cross-compliance and/or conditionality, the monitoring and evaluation of the CAP or checks related to markets policy).

Following their adoption in December听2021, the new CAP regulations apply as of 1听January听2023 and all EU countries have been implementing CAP Strategic Plans since that date.

Roles and functions of governance bodies

To comply with the principle of shared management (under the EAGF and EAFRD) provided for in Article 63 of the (Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046), the Horizontal Regulation maintains the existing governance structure of the CAP and ensures that Member States put in place the necessary governance bodies, namely the competent authority, paying agency, coordinating body and certification body.

• Each Member State must designate a competent authority at ministerial level responsible for the designation, reviewing and withdrawing of the accreditation of paying agencies, coordinating bodies and certification bodies.
• Member States must, taking into account their constitutional organisation, restrict the number of their accredited paying agencies to a single paying agency at national level or, where applicable, one per region.
• Where a Member State accredits more than one paying agency, it should designate a single public coordinating body in order to ensure consistency in the management of the EAGF and EAFRD, to provide for a liaison between the Commission and the various accredited paying agencies and to ensure that the information requested by the Commission concerning the operations of several paying agencies is provided promptly.
• For the purposes of Article 63(7), first subparagraph, of the Financial Regulation, the certification body is required to issue an opinion, drawn up in accordance with internationally accepted audit standards, which must establish whether:

Clearance of accounts

The adaptation of procedures for the clearance of accounts involves a shift from an assurance on compliance to a performance-based approach:

• in accordance with the architecture and the key characteristics of the new CAP delivery model, the eligibility of payments made by Member States for Union financing should no longer depend on the legality and regularity of payments to individual beneficiaries. Instead, as regards the types of intervention referred to in Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, Member States鈥� payments should be eligible if they are matched by corresponding output and the applicable basic Union requirements are complied with. For this reason, the Commission鈥檚 decision on the clearance of the accounts (annual financial clearance) will be supplemented by an annual performance clearance.
• Member States should send the annual accounts, an annual performance report on the implementation of the CAP Strategic Plan, the annual summary of the final audit reports and the management declaration to the Commission by 15听February every year. If these documents are not sent, the Commission is not able to clear the accounts for the paying agency concerned and cannot check the eligibility of the expenditure against reported outputs. As a result, the Commission may suspend the monthly payments and interrupt the quarterly reimbursement until the outstanding documents have been received.
• a new form of payment suspension is introduced for situations of abnormally low outputs. If the outputs reported are at an abnormally low level in comparison with the declared expenditure and if the Member States cannot provide duly justified reasons for that situation, the Commission should be able, in addition to reducing the expenditure for the financial year N-1, to suspend future expenditure related to the intervention for which the output was abnormally low. Such suspensions should be subject to confirmation in the annual performance clearance decision.
• as regards the multiannual performance monitoring, the Commission should also be able to suspend payments. This means that in cases of delayed or insufficient progress towards targets set out in a Member State鈥檚 CAP Strategic Plan for which the Member State cannot provide duly justified reasons, the Commission will be able to request the Member State concerned to take the necessary remedial actions. It will do so on the basis of an action plan to be established in consultation with the Commission and containing clear progress indicators together with the time frame during which the progress is to be achieved. If the Member State fails to submit or to implement the action plan, if the action plan is manifestly insufficient to remedy the situation, or if it has not been modified in accordance with the written request of the Commission, the Commission may suspend the monthly or interim payments. The Commission should reimburse the suspended amounts when, on the basis of the performance review or on the basis of the voluntary notification made during the budgetary year by the Member State on the advancement of the action plan and of the corrective action taken to remedy the shortfall, satisfactory progress towards targets is achieved.

The concept of the single audit approach is strengthened: in order to apply the requirements of the Financial Regulation in relation to the cross-reliance on audits, to reduce the risk of overlap between audits by various institutions and to minimise the cost of controls and the administrative burden on the beneficiaries and the Member States, the regulation sets out rules concerning the single audit approach. It also provides for the possibility for the Commission to take assurance from the work of reliable certification bodies, taking due account of the principles of single audit and proportionality in relation to the level of risk to the Union budget. While this single audit approach should reduce Commission audits, particularly the number of on-the-spot checks, the Commission will be able to carry out checks where it has informed the Member State concerned that it cannot rely on the work of the certification body.

Control systems and penalties

Further simplification is to be achieved by applying subsidiarity and giving greater flexibility to Member States in designing the inspection and penalty systems as well as deciding on the penalties for non-compliance.

The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) to be set up and used by each Member State retains its main features but should be upgraded to make greater use of modern technology, including satellite imagery, geo-spatial and area monitoring data and animal-based application data to reduce compliance and administrative costs for both beneficiaries and Member States.

The Horizontal Regulation includes new provisions on control systems and administrative penalties for social conditionality following the introduction of this new mechanism in the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation.

Financial discipline and agricultural reserve

The financial discipline mechanism and the budgetary discipline procedure are maintained (they were previously included in the Direct Payments Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013)).

The crisis reserve (now called the agricultural reserve) was moved from the previous CMO Regulation.听To cope with future crises, this new financial reserve amounts to at least EUR听450听million per year.

Role of the European 合法博彩网站

On 1听June听2018, the European Commission published its legislative proposals for the reform of the CAP. In 合法博彩网站, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) was in charge of this dossier and after the 2019 European elections, Ulrike M眉ller (ALDE, Germany) was appointed as AGRI rapporteur. On 23听October听2020, 合法博彩网站 adopted its first-reading position on the Commission鈥檚 legislative proposals.

The adopted text constituted the basis for the subsequent negotiations with the Council, which started for all three CAP files on 10听November听2020 and continued through a series of 鈥樷�� meetings. In late June听2021, negotiators reached an agreement on the three proposals of the CAP reform package. EU agriculture ministers endorsed the agreement on 28听June听2021 and by AGRI members followed suit on 9听September听2021. 合法博彩网站 voted on the three proposals of the CAP reform package during its November II plenary session and the final act, now Regulation (EU) 2021/2116 of 2听December听2021, was published in the Official Journal L 435 of 6听December听2021.

In its 2018 on the future of food and farming, 合法博彩网站 stressed the importance of basic uniform criteria in the new performance-based evaluation approach and of the Commission鈥檚 financial and performance control and audits, in guaranteeing that functions are performed to the same high standards and in accordance with the same criteria across the EU.

As pointed out by a study commissioned by 合法博彩网站 on the reform process of the CAP post-2020 seen from an interinstitutional angle, 合法博彩网站 achieved several of its objectives during the negotiations, notably on the agricultural reserve (including a rollover mechanism), increased sanctions for beneficiaries who repeatedly fail to comply with EU requirements, financial discipline (as proposed by the 合法博彩网站, the EUR听2听000 threshold for payments below which financial discipline would not operate still applies) or the protection of the Union鈥檚 financial interests (e.g. through the adoption of the amendment tabled by 合法博彩网站 to make sure that the Member States鈥� management and control system to be set up must also cover the assurance of compliance with the eligibility criteria).

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Fran莽ois N猫gre

10-2023