Recital 26

(26) The regulatory framework for the implementation of the 2014-2020 programmes has been adapted over the past years to provide Member States and regions with additional flexibility in terms of implementation and more liquidity to tackle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Those measures, introduced at the end of the programming period, require sufficient time and administrative resources to be fully exploited and implemented, in particular at a time where Member States focus resources on revising the 2021-2027 operational programmes linked to the STEP objectives. With a view to alleviating the administrative burden on programme authorities and to prevent possible loss of funds at the time of closure for purely administrative reasons, the deadlines for the administrative closure of the programmes under the 2014-2020 period in Regulations (EU) No 1303/2013 (23) and (EU) No 223/2014 (24) of the European Parliament and of the Council should be extended. More specifically, the deadline for the submission of the final payment application should be extended by 12 months. Furthermore, the deadline for the submission of the closure documents should also be extended by 12 months. In the context of those amendments, it is appropriate to clarify that distribution of food and material bought until the end of the eligibility period (end of 2023) should be allowed to continue after that date. In order to ensure a sound implementation of the Union budget and respect for the payment ceilings, payments to be made in 2025 should be capped per programme at 1 % of the financial appropriations from resources under the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027, laid down in Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 (25). Amounts due that exceed the ceiling of 1 % of programme appropriations per fund for 2025 should not be paid in 2025 nor in subsequent years but only used for the clearance of pre-financing. Unused amounts should be decommitted in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 at the time of closure. In order to ensure that the outermost regions can make full use of support from the funds covered by this Regulation, it should be clarified that, for the purposes of the flexibility provided in Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013, the additional special allocations for the outermost regions should be considered to be part of the ERDF allocation to the same category of region as the outermost region concerned. Despite different eligibility rules applicable to the additional special allocation, it should be possible also to apply that flexibility between the additional special allocation and other ERDF allocations to the same category of regions within a programme.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-13 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.