Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014 of 20 February 2014 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down specific measures for agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands

CHAPTER I

SPECIFIC SUPPLY ARRANGEMENTS

SECTION 1

Forecast supply balances

Article 1

Purpose of forecast supply balances and amendments thereto

The forecast supply balances to be established by Greece in accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 shall state the quantities of essential products needed to meet the supply requirements of the smaller Aegean Islands (hereinafter referred to as ‘smaller islands’) every calendar year.

Greece may amend its forecast supply balance. Article 32 of this Regulation shall apply mutatis mutandis to such amendments.

SECTION 2

Functioning of the supply arrangements

Article 2

Fixing and granting of aid

For the purposes of Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, Greece shall determine within the context of the programme the amount of the aid to be granted for each product in order to compensate for remoteness, insularity and distant location, taking into account:

(a) the specific needs of the smaller islands and the precise quality requirements;

(b) traditional trade flows with ports in mainland Greece and between the islands in the Aegean Sea;

(c) the economic aspect of the proposed aid;

(d) where applicable, the need not to obstruct the potential development of local products;

(e) as regards specific additional transport costs, the intermediate reloading costs involved in supplying goods to the smaller islands;

(f) as regards the specific additional costs involved in local processing, the small size of the market and the need to guarantee security of supply for goods in the smaller islands concerned.

Article 3

Aid certificate and payment

Presenting an aid certificate to the authorities responsible for making payments shall be tantamount to applying for the aid. Except in cases of force majeure or exceptional climatic conditions, certificates shall be presented within 30 days of the date on which they are charged. Where that time limit is overrun, the aid shall be reduced by 5 % per day of delay.

The aid shall be paid by the competent authorities not later than 90 days after the date on which the utilised certificate is lodged, except in one of the following cases:

(a) force majeure or exceptional climatic conditions;

(b) where an administrative enquiry has been opened concerning entitlement to the aid; in such cases, payment shall take place only after entitlement has been recognised.

Article 4 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1237 (²) and Articles 2 and 3, Article 4(1), Articles 5 and 7 and 13 to 16 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239 shall apply *mutatis mutandis*, without prejudice to this Regulation.

The negative tolerance provided for in Article 5(4) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1237 and Article 8(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239 shall apply mutatis mutandis.

Article 4

Passing on the advantage to the end-user

For the purposes of Article 12(1) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, the competent authorities shall take all appropriate measures to check that the advantage is actually passed on to the end-user. In doing so, they may assess the trading margins and prices applied by the various operators concerned.

The measures referred to in the first paragraph, and in particular the control points used to determine whether the aid has been passed on, and any amendments made, shall be notified to the Commission in the context of the annual implementation report provided for in Article 20(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013.

Article 5

Register of operators

In order to be eligible for entry in the register referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 11(1) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, operators shall undertake to:

(a) communicate to the competent authorities, at their request, all relevant information about their commercial activities, particularly regarding the prices and profit margins they practise;

(b) operate exclusively in their own name and on their own account;

(c) submit certificate applications commensurate with their real capacity to dispose of the products concerned, such capacity being proven by reference to objective factors;

(d) refrain from acting in any way likely to create artificial shortages of products and from marketing the available products at artificially low prices;

(e) ensure to the satisfaction of the competent authorities that, when the agricultural products are disposed of in the smaller islands, the advantage is passed on to the end-user.

Article 6

Documents to be presented by operators and validity of aid certificates

The purchase invoice, bill of lading or airway bill shall be drawn up in the name of the applicant.

Article 7

Presentation of certificates and goods

Article 8

Quality of products

Conformity of the products with the requirements laid down in Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 shall be examined no later than the stage of first marketing, in accordance with the standards or practices in force in the Union.

Where a product is considered not to meet the requirements laid down in Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, its entitlement under the specific supply arrangements shall be withdrawn and the corresponding quantity shall be reattributed to the forecast supply balance.

Where aid has been granted in accordance with Article 3 of this Regulation, the aid shall be reimbursed.

Article 9

Significant increases in application for aid certificates

Article 10

Fixing a maximum quantity per certificate application

Insofar as is strictly necessary to avoid disturbances on the market in the smaller islands, or the pursuit of speculative actions likely to be prejudicial to the smooth functioning of the specific supply arrangements, the competent authorities may fix a maximum quantity per certificate application.

The competent authorities shall notify the Commission immediately of the instances in which this Article is applied.

The notification referred to in this Article shall be made in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1183 (³) and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1185 (⁴).

SECTION 3

Export and dispatch

Article 11

Conditions of export or dispatch

Those products shall not be dispatched or exported until the reimbursement referred to in the first subparagraph has been made.

Where it is impossible to establish the amount of aid granted, the products shall be considered to have received the highest rate of aid fixed by the Union for such products during the six-month period preceding the submission of the application for export or dispatch.

Such products may benefit from an export refund, provided that the criteria for granting such a refund are met.

The competent authorities shall authorise the re-export or re-dispatch of unprocessed products or packaged products other than those referred to in paragraph 2 only where the consignor certifies that those products have not benefited from specific supply arrangements.

The competent authorities shall carry out the necessary checks to ensure the accuracy of the certificates referred to in the first and second subparagraphs and shall, if necessary, recover the advantage.

Article 12

Traditional exports and traditional dispatches of processed products

SECTION 4

Management, controls and monitoring

Article 13

Checks

The physical checks carried out in the smaller Aegean islands on the export or dispatch provided for in Section 3 shall involve a representative sample of at least 5 % of the operations, based on the risk profiles established by Greece.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1276/2008 (⁵) shall apply mutatis mutandis to those physical checks.

In addition, in special cases the Commission may request that physical checks cover different percentages.

Article 14

National management and monitoring rules

The competent authorities shall adopt the additional rules needed to manage and monitor the specific supply arrangements in real time.

Upon request of the Commission, they shall notify the Commission of any measures they intend to implement pursuant to the first paragraph.

CHAPTER II

MEASURES TO SUPPORT LOCAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

SECTION 1

Amount of aid and aid applications

Article 15

Amount of aid

Article 16

Submission of applications

Aid applications for a calendar year shall be submitted to the office designated by the competent authorities of Greece in accordance with the specimens drawn up by the latter and within the periods they have laid down. Those periods shall be fixed so as to allow time for the necessary on-the-spot checks and shall not run beyond 28 February of the following calendar year.

Article 17

Correction of manifest errors

An aid application may be rectified at any time after its submission where a manifest error is recognised by the competent authority.

Article 18

Late submission of applications

Except in cases of force majeure and exceptional circumstances, submission of an aid application after the time limit laid down in accordance with Article 16 shall lead to a 1 % reduction per working day in the amounts to which the aid applicant would have been entitled if the aid application had been lodged within the time limit. If the delay amounts to more than 25 calendar days, the application shall be considered inadmissible.

Article 19

Withdrawal of aid applications

However, where the competent authority has already informed the aid applicant of irregularities in the aid application or has given notice to the aid applicant of its intention to carry out an on-the-spot check and this check reveals irregularities, withdrawal shall not be authorised in respect of the parts of the aid application affected by those irregularities.

SECTION 2

Checks

Article 20

General principles

Verification shall be by administrative and on-the-spot checks.

Administrative checks shall be exhaustive and shall include cross-checks with, inter alia, data from the integrated administration and control system provided for in Chapter II of Title V, Chapter II of Title VI and Articles 47, 61 and 102, paragraph 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁶).

On the basis of a risk analysis in accordance with Article 22(1) of this Regulation, the competent authorities shall perform on-the-spot checks by sampling, for each action, at least 5 % of aid applications. The sample shall also represent at least 5 % of the amounts covered by the aid for each action.

In all appropriate cases, Greece shall make use of the integrated administration and control system.

Article 21

On-the-spot checks

Article 22

Selection of aid applicants to be subjected to on-the-spot checks

Aid applicants shall be selected to undergo on-the-spot checks by the competent authority on the basis of a risk analysis and the representativeness of the aid applications submitted. The risk analysis shall, as appropriate, take account of:

(a) the amount of aid;

(b) the number of agricultural parcels and the surface area and, if applicable, the number of animals covered by the aid application, or the quantity produced, transported, processed or marketed;

(c) changes in comparison with the previous year;

(d) the findings of checks performed in the preceding years;

(e) other parameters to be defined by Greece.

To provide the element of representativeness, Greece shall randomly select between 20 % and 25 % of the minimum number of aid applicants to be subjected to on-the-spot checks.  When the minimum number of aid applicants to be subjected to on-the-spot checks is lower than 12, Greece shall randomly select at least one applicant.

Article 23

Inspection report

Every on-the-spot check shall be the subject of an inspection report relating the details of the checks carried out. Reports shall indicate in particular:

(a) the aid schemes and applications checked;

(b) the persons present;

(c) the agricultural parcels checked, the agricultural parcels measured, the results of the measurements per parcel measured and the measuring methods used;

(d) the number and type of animals found and, where applicable, the ear tag numbers, entries in the register and in the computerised database for bovine animals and any supporting documents checked, the results of the checks and, where applicable, particular observations in respect of individual animals or their identification code;

(e) the quantities produced, transported, processed or marketed which are covered by the check;

(f) whether advance notice was given to the aid applicant of the visit and, if so, how much;

(g) any further control measures carried out.

Where the on-the-spot check is carried out by remote-sensing, Greece may decide not to give the aid applicants or their representatives the opportunity to sign the inspection report if no irregularities are revealed during the check by remote-sensing.

SECTION 3

Reductions and exclusions, and undue payments

Article 24

Reductions and exclusions

In the event of a discrepancy between the information declared in the context of aid applications and the findings of the inspections referred to in Section 2, Greece shall apply reductions and exclusions to the aid. Those reductions and exclusions shall be effective and proportionate and shall act as a deterrent.

Article 25

Exceptions to the application of reductions and exclusions

On the basis of the information given by the aid applicant as referred to in the first subparagraph, the aid application shall be rectified to reflect the actual situation.

Article 26

Recovery of undue payments and penalties

Article 27

Force majeure and exceptional circumstances

In cases of force majeure or exceptional circumstances within the meaning of Article 2(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, Article 4 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 640/2014 (⁸) shall apply mutatis mutandis.

CHAPTER III

GENERAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 28

Aid payments

After verifying the aid applications and relevant supporting documents, and calculating the amounts to be granted under the support programme referred to in Chapter II of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, the competent authorities shall pay the aid for a calendar year as follows:

(a) in the case of the specific supply arrangements and of the measures referred to in Article 3 of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 178/2014, throughout the year;

(b) in the case of direct payments, in accordance with Article 75 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013;

(c) in the case of other payments, during the period beginning on 16 October of the current year and ending on 30 June of the following year.

Article 29

Performance indicators

Every year, Greece shall notify the Commission of at least the data relating to the performance indicators laid down in Annex II.

This data shall be notified in the context of the annual implementation report referred to in Article 20(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013.

Article 30

Notifications

As regards the specific supply arrangements, the competent authorities shall notify the Commission, no later than 31 May each year, of the following data relating to the operations carried out in the previous year with respect to the supply balance of the reference calendar year, broken down by product and CN code and, where applicable, by individual destination:

(a) the quantities broken down according to whether they are dispatched from mainland Greece or other islands;

(b) the amount of aid and the expenditure actually paid by product;

(c) the quantities for which aid certificates have not been utilised;

(d) any quantities exported to third countries or dispatched to the rest of the Union after processing in accordance with Article 11;

(e) transfers within an overall quantity for a category of products and amendments to the forecast supply balances during the period;

(f) the available balance and the utilisation rate.

The data provided for in the first subparagraph shall be supplied on the basis of the certificates utilised.  The final data in a subsequent notification referring to the supply balance of each calendar year shall be notified to the Commission by the following 31 May at the latest.

Article 31

Annual report

Article 32

Amendments to the programme

Amendments made to the support programme referred to in Chapter II of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 shall be submitted to the Commission once per calendar year, except in cases of force majeure or exceptional circumstances. They shall be sent to the Commission no later than 31 July of the year prior to their application. The amendments shall be duly substantiated, in particular by giving the following information:

(a) the reasons for any implementation problems justifying the amendment of the programme;

(b) the expected effects of the amendment;

(c) the implications for financing and eligibility conditions.

The Commission shall inform Greece if it considers that the amendments do not comply with Union legislation, in particular with Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013, without prejudice to the Articles 51 and 52 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

The amendments shall apply from 1 January of the year following that in which they were notified. In case an earlier application is deemed necessary, such amendments may apply earlier, unless the Commission objects.

The amendments thus approved shall apply from 1 January of the year following that in which the proposal for an amendment was made or as from the date explicitly indicated in the approval decision.

Greece may make the following amendments without recourse to the procedure set out in paragraph 1, provided that the amendments are notified to the Commission:

(a) in the case of forecast supply balances, changes in the individual level of aid up to 20 % or changes in the quantities of the products concerned covered by the supply balance and, consequently, the global amount of aid allocated to support each line of products;