Article 6

Paying agencies shall be the departments or bodies of the Member States which, in respect of payments made by them and as regards communicating and keeping information, provide sufficient guarantees that: the eligibility of requests and, in the framework of rural development, the procedure for allocating aid, as well as their compliance with Community rules are checked before payment is authorised; accurate and exhaustive accounts are kept of the payments made; the checks laid down by Community legislation are made; the requisite documents are presented within the time-limits and in the form stipulated by Community rules; the documents are accessible and kept in a manner which ensures their completeness, validity and legibility over time, including with regard to electronic documents within the meaning of Community rules. With the exception of the payment of Community aid, the execution of these tasks may be delegated. Member States shall accredit as paying agencies departments or bodies which fulfil the conditions laid down in paragraph 1. Each Member State shall, taking into account its constitutional provisions and institutional structure, restrict the number of its accredited paying agencies to the minimum necessary to ensure that the expenditure referred to in Article 3(1) and Article 4 is effected under sound administrative and accounting conditions. Where more than one paying agency is accredited, the Member State shall communicate to the Commission the particulars of the department or body to which it assigns the following tasks: collecting the information to be made available to the Commission and sending that information to the Commission; promoting harmonised application of the Community rules. This department or body, hereinafter referred to as the ‘coordinating body’, shall be subject to specific accreditation by the Member States as regards the processing of the financial information referred to in point (a). Where an accredited paying agency does not meet or no longer meets one or more of the conditions laid down in paragraph 1, the Member State shall withdraw accreditation unless the paying agency makes the necessary changes within a period to be determined according to the severity of the problem.

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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.