Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/288 of 17 December 2014 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 508/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund with regard to the period of time and the dates for the inadmissibility of applications

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

This Regulation applies to applications for support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and identifies the period during which such applications submitted by operators who have carried out any of the actions referred to in Article 10(1)(a), (b) and (d) of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014, or in Article 10(3) of that Regulation, shall be inadmissible (the inadmissibility period).

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

CHAPTER II

DURATION AND STARTING DATE OF INADMISSIBILITY PERIOD

Article 3

Inadmissibility of applications by operators who have committed serious infringements under Article 42(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 (⁶) or Article 90(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, where a Member State pursuant to Article 42(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 assigns infringement points for serious infringements listed in points 1, 2, and 5 of Annex XXX to Regulation (EU) No 404/2011, the following rules shall apply:

(a) if the infringement points accumulated by an operator in respect of a fishing vessel remain below 9, applications for EMFF support by that operator shall be admissible;

(b) if the number of infringement points accumulated by an operator in respect of a fishing vessel is 9 points, the inadmissibility period shall be 12 months;

(c) each infringement point assigned in addition to the points accumulated by an operator in respect of a fishing vessel in point (b) shall result in an additional period of inadmissibility of 1 month.

For the purposes of calculating the inadmissibility period, only serious infringements committed as from 1 January 2013 and for which a decision within the meaning of the above subparagraph was taken as from that date shall be taken into account.

For the purposes of calculating the inadmissibility period, only points for infringements committed as from 1 January 2013 and assigned by an official decision taken as from that date shall be taken into account.

Article 4

Inadmissibility of applications by operators included in the Union IUU vessel list or whose vessel is flagged to a non-cooperating third county

Article 4a

Inadmissibility of applications by operators who have committed environmental offences

Where a competent authority has determined in a first official decision that an operator has committed one of the offences set out in Article 3 of Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁹), applications for support from the EMFF made by that operator pursuant to Chapter II of Title V of Regulation (EU) No 508/2014 shall be inadmissible:

(a) for a period of 12 months, if the offence was committed with serious negligence; or

(b) for a period of 24 months, if the offence was committed intentionally.

The inadmissibility period shall be increased by 6 months where in the decision referred to in paragraph 1 or 2 the competent authority has:

(a) explicitly referred to the presence of aggravating circumstances; or

(b) determined that an offence committed by the operator was carried out over a period of more than 1 year.

Article 5

Inadmissibility of applications by operators that have committed fraud in the context of the EFF or the EMFF

CHAPTER III

COMMON PROVISIONS

Article 6

Calculation of the inadmissibility period where the operator owns more than one fishing vessel

However, applications for EMFF support by that operator shall also be inadmissible:

(a) if applications in relation to more than half of fishing vessels owned or controlled by that operator are inadmissible for EMFF support pursuant to Article 3 and Article 4, or

(b) if, in the case of serious infringements pursuant to Article 42(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 listed in points 1, 2, and 5 of Annex XXX to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011, the average number of assigned infringement points per fishing vessel owned or controlled by the operator is 7 or more.

Article 7

Transfer of ownership

Article 8

Permanent withdrawal of the fishing licence

By way of derogation from Article 6, where the fishing licence of an operator has been permanently withdrawn for any of the fishing vessels owned or controlled by that operator:

(a) in accordance with Article 129(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011; or, where applicable,

(b) as a result of sanctions for serious infringements imposed by the Member States in accordance with Article 45 of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008,

all applications by that operator shall be inadmissible for support from the EMFF from the date of the withdrawal until the end of the eligibility period as set out in Article 65(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013.

Article 9

Revision of inadmissibility period

Provided it lasts at least 12 months in total, the inadmissibility period:

(a) hall be reduced in the case of serious infringements pursuant to Article 42(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 listed in points 1, 2, and 5 of Annex XXX to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011 by 2 months if 2 infringement points are deleted in accordance with Article 133(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011 for such serious infringements;

(b) shall be extended by 12 months for each additional serious infringement committed by the operator during the inadmissibility period under Article 42(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 or Article 90(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009; or

(c) by way of derogation from paragraph (b), shall be extended in accordance with the rules set out in Article 3(2)(c) for each additional serious infringement committed by the operator during the inadmissibility period under Article 42(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 listed in items 1, 2 and 5 of Annex XXX to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011;

(d) shall be extended by the following periods for each additional offence set out in Article 3 of Directive 2008/99/EC committed by the operator during the inadmissibility period: (i) 12 months, if the additional offence has been committed with serious negligence; (ii) 24 months if the additional offence has been committed intentionally; or

(e) shall be extended by 24 months for each additional offence set out in Article 4 of Directive 2008/99/EC committed by the operator during the inadmissibility period;

If an additional offence referred to in point (d) or (e) of the first paragraph is of the same type of environmental offences as the one which has caused the inadmissibility period or which has already led to its revision, the extension of the inadmissibility period due to that offence as provided for in points (d) and (e) shall be increased by an additional 6 months.

CHAPTER IV

FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 10

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 1 January 2014.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.