Article 4

1. Each Member State shall communicate to the Commission: details of the authorities and bodies it accredits to pay the expenditure referred to in Articles 2 and 3, hereinafter referred to as "paying agencies", where more than one paying agency is accredited, details of the authority or body it charges, first, with bringing together the information to be supplied to the Commission and sending it the same, and, second, with promoting the harmonised application of Community rules, hereinafter referred to as the "coordinating body". 2. Paying agencies shall be authorities and bodies of the Member States, which, as regards payments in the areas for which they are responsible, offer sufficient guarantees that: the admissibility of claims and compliance with Community rules are checked before payment is authorised; the payments effected are correctly and fully recorded in the accounts; and the necessary documents are submitted within the time and in the form laid down in Community rules. 3. The paying agencies must hold documents justifying the payments effected and documents concerning the carrying out of the prescribed administrative and physical controls. Where the relevant documents are kept by the bodies responsible for authorising the expenditure, those bodies must transmit reports to the paying agency on the number of checks carried out, their content and the measures taken in the light of the results. 4. Only expenditure effected by accredited paying agencies may be the subject of Community financing. 5. Each Member State shall, taking into account its constitutional and institutional structures, limit the number of accredited paying agencies to the minimum necessary in order to effect the expenditure referred to in Articles 2 and 3 under satisfactory administrative and accounting conditions. 6. Each Member State shall communicate to the Commission the following particulars concerning those paying agencies: their name and their statutes; the administrative, accounting and internal control conditions under which payments are made relating to the implementation of Community rules within the framework of the common agricultural policy; the act of accreditation. The Commission shall be informed forthwith of any change in those particulars. 7. Where one or more of the conditions for accreditation are not, or are no longer, fulfilled by an accredited paying agency, accreditation shall be withdrawn unless the paying agency makes the necessary adjustments within a time limit to be fixed in relation to the seriousness of the problem. The Member State concerned shall inform the Commission. 8. Detailed rules for the application of this Article shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 13.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-09 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.