LegalizeCommission Regulation (EC) No 718/2007 of 12 June 2007 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 establishing an instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA)
PART I
COMMON PROVISIONS
TITLE I
PRINCIPLES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASSISTANCE
CHAPTER I
Subject matter and principles
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation lays down the implementing rules governing the provision by the Community of pre-accession assistance established by Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 (IPA), the ‘IPA Regulation’.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:
‘beneficiary country’: any country listed in either of the annexes I and II to the IPA Regulation;
‘enlargement package’: set of documents presented each year to the Council and the European Parliament by the Commission, the strategic and political part of which consists of the revisions, where appropriate, of the accession partnerships and the European partnerships, the regular reports established by country and the Commission's strategy paper. A multi-annual indicative financial framework completes the package;
‘framework agreement’: agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country and applying to all IPA components, laying down the principles of the cooperation of the beneficiary country and the Commission under this Regulation;
‘sectoral agreement’: an agreement relating to a specific IPA component drawn up, where appropriate, between the Commission and the beneficiary country, and setting out the relevant provisions to be respected which are not contained in the country specific framework agreement or financing agreements;
‘financing agreement’: annual or multi–annual agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country, following a Commission financing decision approving the Community contribution to a programme or an operation falling within the scope of this Regulation;
‘irregularity’: any infringement of a provision of applicable rules and contracts resulting from an act or an omission by an economic operator which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the European Union by charging an unjustified item of expenditure to the general budget;
‘financial year’: from 1 January to 31 December;
‘final beneficiary’: body or firm, whether public or private, responsible for initiating or initiating and implementing operations. In the context of aid schemes, final beneficiaries are public or private firms carrying out an individual project and receiving public aid;
‘Community contribution’: the part of the eligible expenditure which is financed by the Community;
‘euro account’: interest bearing bank account opened by the national fund in a financial or treasury institution, on behalf of the beneficiary country and under its responsibility, to receive payments from the Commission;
‘public expenditure’: any public contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the European Community or the budget of the public authorities of the beneficiary country and any contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the budget of public law bodies or associations of one or more regional or local authorities or public law bodies;
‘total expenditure’: the public expenditure and any private contribution to the financing of operations.
Article 3
Principles of assistance
The Commission shall ensure that the following principles apply in relation to assistance under the IPA Regulation:
— Assistance granted shall respect the principles of coherence, complementarity, coordination, partnership and concentration.
— Assistance shall be coherent with EU policies and shall support alignment to the acquis communautaire.
— Assistance shall comply with the budgetary principles laid down in the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
— Assistance shall be consistent with the needs identified in the enlargement process and absorption capacities of the beneficiary country. It shall also take account of lessons learned.
— The ownership of the programming and implementation of assistance by the beneficiary country shall be strongly encouraged and adequate visibility of EU intervention shall be ensured.
— Operations shall be properly prepared, with clear and verifiable objectives, which are to be achieved within a given period.
— Any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prevented during the various stages of the implementation of assistance.
— The objectives of pre-accession assistance shall be pursued in the framework of sustainable development and the Community promotion of the goal of protecting and improving the environment.
Article 4
Priorities for assistance
Assistance for a given beneficiary country shall be based on the priorities identified in the following documents, where they exist:
— the European partnership,
— the accession partnership,
— the national programme for the adoption of the acquis,
— the reports and strategy paper contained in the annual enlargement package of the Commission,
— the stabilisation and association agreement,
— the negotiation framework.
Account shall also be taken of the priorities set out in the national strategies where they are compatible with the pre-accession objectives and scope as laid down in the IPA Regulation.
CHAPTER II
General framework for implementation
Article 5
Multi-annual indicative planning documents
Multi-annual indicative planning documents shall include, for each country concerned:
(a) a general background, including a brief description of the consultation process with and within the beneficiary country;
(b) a description of the European Union cooperation objectives in the country concerned;
(c) a consolidated assessment of the challenges, needs and relative importance of the priorities for assistance;
(d) an overview of past and ongoing European Union cooperation, including an analysis of needs and absorption capacity and lessons learned, and the relevant activities of other donors, where this information is available;
(e) for each component, a description of how the consolidated assessment as referred to in point (c) above is translated into strategic choices and a description of the major areas selected for assistance in the country concerned, and of the results anticipated;
(f) indicative financial allocations for the major areas of intervention under each IPA component.
Article 6
Multi-annual or annual programmes
Multi-annual programmes or annual programmes shall consist in documents submitted by the beneficiary country, or prepared by the Commission in the case of regional and horizontal programmes, and adopted by the Commission. Programmes shall present a coherent set of priority axes, any appropriate measures or operations and a description of the financial contribution which are needed in order to implement the strategies defined in the multi-annual indicative planning documents.
Programmes are subdivided into priority axes, each of which defines a global objective to attain, and which, depending on the IPA component considered, shall be implemented through measures, which may be subdivided into operations, or directly through operations.
Operations shall comprise a project or a group of projects implemented by the Commission, or initiated or initiated and implemented by one or more final beneficiaries, allowing achievement of the goals of the measure and/or the priority axis to which it relates.
Article 7
Framework agreements and sectoral agreements
Assistance under the IPA Regulation can only be granted to the beneficiary country after the framework agreement referred to in paragraph 1 has been concluded and has entered into force.
Where a sectoral agreement has been concluded with the beneficiary country, assistance under the IPA Regulation can only be granted, under the IPA component concerned by the sectoral agreement, after the entry into force of the framework agreement and the sectoral agreement.
By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, where no framework agreement is concluded or where the framework agreement in force concluded under Council Regulations (EEC) No 3906/89 (3), (EC) No 1267/1999 (4), (EC) No 1268/1999 (5), (EC) No 2500/2001 (6) or (EC) No 2666/2000 (7) does not lay down the minimum provisions listed in paragraph 3, those minimum provisions shall be set down in the financing agreements.
The framework agreement shall lay down, in particular, the provisions concerning:
(a) the general rules for Community financial assistance;
(b) the establishment of the structures and authorities needed for management and mentioned in Articles 21, 32 and 33 and any other relevant specific bodies;
(c) the common responsibilities of the aforementioned structures, authorities and bodies, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 29;
(d) control requirements and conditions for: (i) the accreditation and the monitoring of the accreditation of the national authorising officer by the competent accrediting officer, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 12 and 15; (ii) the accreditation and the monitoring of the accreditation of the operating structure by the national authorising officer, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 13 and 16; (iii) the conferral of management powers by the Commission, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 14 and 17;
(e) the establishment of an annual statement of assurance by the national authorising officer, as set out in Article 27;
(f) procurement rules, in conformity with Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 (8) laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002;
(g) the closure of programmes as set down in Articles 47 and 56,
(h) the definitions of irregularity in conformity with Article 2, of fraud, and that of active and passive corruption, in keeping with those contained in Community legislation; the obligation of the beneficiary country to take appropriate preventive measures against active and passive corruption, anti-fraud measures and corrective actions; the rules for recovery of funds in case of irregularity or fraud;
(i) recoveries and financial corrections and adjustments, in conformity with Articles 49 and 50;
(j) the rules for supervision, control and audit by the Commission and the European Court of Auditors;
(k) the rules on taxes, customs duties and other fiscal charges;
(l) information and publicity requirements.
In a given beneficiary country, the framework agreement shall apply to all financing agreements as provided for in Article 8.
Where it exists, the sectoral agreement related to a given component shall apply to all the financing agreements concluded in the framework of that component.
Article 8
Financing decisions and agreements
Financing agreements shall lay down:
(a) provisions by which the beneficiary country accepts the assistance of the Community and agrees to the rules and procedures concerning disbursement related to such assistance;
(b) the terms on which the assistance is managed, including the relevant methods and responsibilities for implementing the annual or multi-annual programme and/or operations;
(c) provisions relating to the establishment and regular updating, by the beneficiary country, of a road map with indicative benchmarks and time limits to achieve decentralisation without ex ante controls by the Commission as referred to in Articles 14 and 18; these provisions are only required for those components or programmes where the Commission Decision of the conferral of management powers as referred to in Article 14 provides for ex ante controls to be performed by the Commission.
TITLE II
COMMON RULES FOR IMPLEMENTATION
CHAPTER I
Principles
Article 9
Coherence of implementation of assistance
Article 10
General principles for implementation of assistance
Unless otherwise provided for in paragraph 2, 3 and 4, decentralised management, where the Commission confers the management of certain actions on the beneficiary country, while retaining overall final responsibility for general budget execution in accordance with Article 53c of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 and the relevant provisions of the EC Treaties, shall apply to the implementation of assistance under the IPA Regulation.
For the purposes of assistance under the IPA Regulation, decentralised management shall cover at least tendering, contracting and payments.
In the event of decentralised management, operations shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions laid down in Article 53c of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
Centralised management as defined in Article 53a of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 may be used under the transition assistance and institution building component, in particular for regional and horizontal programmes, and under the cross-border cooperation component. It may also be used for technical assistance under any of the IPA components.
Under centralised management, operations shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions laid down in Articles 53(a), 53a and 54 to 57 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
Joint management, as defined in Article 53d of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 may be used under the transition assistance and institution building component, in particular for regional and horizontal programmes, for programmes involving international organisations.
In the event of joint management with international organisations, operations shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions laid down in Articles 53(c) and 53d of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
Shared management as defined in Article 53b of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 may be used under the cross-border cooperation component, for cross-border programmes involving Member States.
Under shared management with a Member State, operations shall be implemented in accordance with the provisions laid down in Articles 53(b), 53b and Title II of Part two of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
CHAPTER II
Management and control systems
Section 1
Decentralised management
Sub-section 1
Accreditation and conferral of management powers
Article 11
Common requirements
Where specific persons have been given responsibility for an activity in relation to the management, implementation and control of programmes, the beneficiary country shall enable such persons to exercise the duties associated with that responsibility, including in cases where there is no hierarchical link between them and the bodies participating in that activity. The beneficiary country shall, in particular, provide those persons with the authority to establish, through formal working arrangements between them and the bodies concerned:
(a) an appropriate system for the exchange of information, including the power to require information and a right of access to documents and staff on the spot if necessary;
(b) the standards to be met;
(c) the procedures to be followed.
Article 12
Accreditation of the national authorising officer and the national fund
Article 13
Accreditation of the operating structure
Article 14
Conferral of management powers by the Commission
Article 15
Withdrawal or suspension of the accreditation of the national authorising officer and the national fund
Where the accreditation of the national authorising officer is withdrawn or suspended by the competent accrediting officer, the provisions of this paragraph shall apply.
The Commission shall cease to make transfers of funds to the beneficiary country during the period when the accreditation is not in force.
During the period when the accreditation is not in force, all the euro accounts or the euro accounts for the components concerned shall be blocked and no payment made by the National Fund from those euros accounts which are blocked shall be considered eligible for Community funding.
Without prejudice to any other financial corrections, the Commission may make financial corrections as laid down in Article 49 against the beneficiary country in respect of its past non-compliance with the requirements for the conferral of management powers.
Article 16
Withdrawal or suspension of the accreditation of the operating structures
If any of the requirements set out in Article 11 are not, or are no longer, fulfilled, the national authorising officer shall either suspend or withdraw the accreditation of the operating structure concerned, and shall immediately inform the Commission and the competent accrediting officer of his decision and of the reasons for his decision.
The national authorising officer shall assure himself that those requirements are again fulfilled before restoring the accreditation concerned. This assurance shall be supported by an audit opinion as referred to in Article 13(2).
Where the accreditation of an operating structure is withdrawn or suspended by the national authorising officer, the provisions of this paragraph shall apply.
The Commission shall make no transfers to the beneficiary country of funds relating to programmes or operations implemented by the operating structure concerned while its accreditation is suspended or withdrawn.
Without prejudice to any other financial corrections, the Commission may make financial corrections as laid down in Article 49 against the beneficiary country in respect of its past non-compliance with the requirements and conditions for the conferral of management powers.
No new legal commitments made by the operating structure concerned shall be considered eligible during the period when the accreditation is not in force.
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