TITLE I

This Regulation sets specific requirements and rules on the financing of expenditure falling under the common agricultural policy, including expenditure on rural development. In order to attain the objectives of the common agricultural policy defined by the Treaty and finance the various measures falling under it, including rural development, the following are hereby set up: a European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, hereinafter referred to as the ‘EAGF’; a European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, hereinafter referred to as the ‘EAFRD’. The EAGF and the EAFRD shall come under the general budget of the European Communities. The EAGF shall finance in a context of shared management between the Member States and the Community the following expenditure, which shall be effected in accordance with Community law: refunds for the exportation of agricultural products to third countries; intervention measures to regulate agricultural markets; direct payments to farmers under the common agricultural policy; the Community's financial contribution to information and promotion measures for agricultural products on the internal market of the Community and in third countries, undertaken by Member States on the basis of programmes other than those referred to in Article 4 and selected by the Commission. The EAGF shall finance the following expenditure in a centralised manner and in accordance with Community legislation: the Community's financial contribution to specific veterinary measures, veterinary inspection measures, inspection measures for foodstuffs and animal feed, animal disease eradication and control programmes (veterinary measures) and plant-health measures; promotion of agricultural products, undertaken either directly by the Commission or via international organisations; measures, undertaken in accordance with Community legislation, to ensure the conservation, characterisation, collection and utilisation of genetic resources in agriculture; establishment and maintenance of agricultural accounting information systems; agricultural survey systems, including surveys on the structure of agricultural holdings; expenditure relating to fisheries markets. The EAFRD shall finance, in a context of shared management between the Member States and the Community, the Community's financial contribution to rural development programmes implemented in accordance with the Community legislation on support for rural development by the EAFRD. The EAGF and the EAFRD may each respectively finance on a centralised basis, on the initiative of the Commission and/or on its behalf, the preparatory, monitoring, administrative and technical support, evaluation, audit and inspection measures required to implement the common agricultural policy, including rural development. Those measures shall include in particular: measures required for the analysis, management, monitoring, information exchange and implementation of the common agricultural policy, as well as measures relating to the implementation of control systems and technical and administrative assistance; measures required to maintain and develop methods and technical means for information, interconnection, monitoring and control of the financial management of the funds used to finance the common agricultural policy; provision of information on the common agricultural policy, undertaken on the Commission's initiative; studies on the common agricultural policy and evaluation of measures financed by the EAGF and the EAFRD, including improvement of evaluation methods and exchange of information on practices; where relevant, executive agencies set up in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes OJ L 11, 16.1.2003, p. 1. , acting in connection with the common agricultural policy; measures relating to dissemination, raising awareness, promoting cooperation and exchanging experience at Community level, undertaken in the context of rural development, including networking of the parties concerned. 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. The certification body shall be a public or private legal entity designated by the Member State with a view to certifying the truthfulness, completeness and accuracy of the accounts of the accredited paying agency, taking account of the management and control systems set up. In addition to the provisions laid down in the sectoral Regulations, Member States shall send to the Commission the following information, declarations and documents: for accredited paying agencies and accredited coordinating bodies: their accreditation document; their function (accredited paying agency or accredited coordinating body); where relevant, the withdrawal of their accreditation, for certification bodies: their name; their address details, for measures relating to operations financed by the EAGF and the EAFRD: declarations of expenditure, which also act as payment requests, signed by the accredited paying agency or the accredited coordinating body and accompanied by the requisite information; estimates of their financial requirements, with regard to the EAGF and, with regard to the EAFRD, an update of estimated declarations of expenditure which will be submitted during the year and estimated declarations of expenditure in respect of the following financial year; the annual accounts of the accredited paying agencies with a statement of assurance signed by the person in charge of the accredited paying agency, accompanied by the requisite information for their clearance, and a certification report drawn up by the certification body referred to in Article 7. The annual accounts of accredited paying agencies relating to EAFRD expenditure shall be submitted at the level of each programme. The accredited paying agencies shall keep supporting documents relating to payments made and documents relating to the performance of the administrative and physical checks required by Community legislation, and shall make the documents and information available to the Commission. Where those documents are kept by an authority acting under delegation from a paying agency and responsible for authorising expenditure, that authority shall send reports to the accredited paying agency on the number of checks made, their content and the measures taken in the light of their results. Member States shall: within the framework of the common agricultural policy, adopt all legislative, regulatory and administrative provisions and take any other measures necessary to ensure effective protection of the financial interests of the Community, and particularly in order to: check the genuineness and compliance of operations financed by the EAGF and the EAFRD; prevent and pursue irregularities; recover sums lost as a result of irregularities or negligence, set up an efficient management and control system comprising the certification of accounts and a declaration of assurance based on the signature of the person in charge of the accredited paying agency. The Commission shall ensure that Member States check the legality and compliance of the expenditure referred to in Articles 3(1) and 4, and that they observe the principles of sound financial management; it shall carry out the following measures and checks in this connection: it shall check that management and control systems exist and function properly in the Member States; it shall reduce or suspend intermediate payments in full or in part and apply the requisite financial corrections, particularly where the management and control systems fail; it shall check that prefinancing is reimbursed and shall, if necessary, automatically decommit budget commitments. Member States shall inform the Commission of the provisions adopted and measures taken under paragraph 1 and, with regard to rural development programmes, the measures taken for management and control in compliance with Community legislation concerning support for rural development by the EAFRD in order to protect the financial interests of the Community. The expenditure referred to in Articles 3(1) and 4 may be covered by Community financing only if it has been effected by accredited paying agencies designated by Member States. Save provision to the contrary under Community legislation, payments relating to the financing provided for under this Regulation or to amounts corresponding to the public financial contribution under the rural development programmes shall be disbursed in full to the beneficiaries.

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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.