1.The activities of the Funds in the Member States shall take the form of operational programmes within the national strategic reference framework. Each operational programme shall cover a period between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2013. An operational programme shall cover only one of the three objectives referred to in Article 3, save as otherwise agreed between the Commission and the Member State.
2.Each operational programme shall be drawn up by the Member State or any authority designated by the Member State, in cooperation with the partners referred to in Article 11.
3.The Member State shall submit a proposal for an operational programme to the Commission containing all the components referred to in Article 37 as soon as possible but no later than five months following the adoption of the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, as referred to in Article 26.
4.The Commission shall appraise the proposed operational programme to determine whether it contributes to the goals and priorities of the national strategic reference framework and the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion. Where the Commission, within two months following the receipt of the operational programme, considers that an operational programme does not contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the national strategic reference framework and the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, it may invite the Member State to provide all necessary additional information and, where appropriate, to revise the proposed programme accordingly.
5.The Commission shall adopt each operational programme as soon as possible but no later than four months following its formal submission by the Member State and not before 1 January 2007.
1.At the initiative of the Member State or the Commission in agreement with the Member State concerned, operational programmes may be re-examined and, if necessary, the remainder of the programme revised, in one or more of the following cases:
(a)following significant socio-economic changes;
(b)in order to take greater or different account of major changes in Community, national or regional priorities;
(c)in the light of the evaluation referred to in Article 48(3); or
(d)following implementation difficulties.
Operational programmes shall, if necessary, be revised following allocation of the reserves referred to in Articles 50 and 51.
2.The Commission shall adopt a decision on a request for revision of operational programmes as soon as possible but no later than three months after its formal submission by the Member State.
3.The revision of operational programmes shall not require revision of the decision of the Commission referred to in Article 28(3).
1.Operational programmes shall receive financing from only one Fund, save as otherwise provided in paragraph 3.
2.Without prejudice to the derogations laid down in the specific regulations of the Funds, the ERDF and the ESF may finance, in a complementary manner and subject to a limit of 10 % of Community funding for each priority axis of an operational programme, actions falling within the scope of assistance from the other Fund, provided that they are necessary for the satisfactory implementation of the operation and are directly linked to it.
3.In the Member States receiving support from the Cohesion Fund, the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund shall jointly provide assistance for operational programmes on transport infrastructure and the environment, including for major projects.
1.Operational programmes submitted under the Convergence objective shall be drawn up at the appropriate geographical level and at least at NUTS level 2.
Operational programmes submitted under the Convergence objective with a contribution from the Cohesion Fund shall be drawn up at national level.
2.Operational programmes submitted under the Regional competitiveness and employment objective shall be drawn up at NUTS level 1 or NUTS level 2, in accordance with the institutional system specific to the Member State, for regions benefiting from financing by the ERDF, save as otherwise agreed between the Commission and the Member State. They shall be drawn up by the Member State at the appropriate level if they are financed by the ESF.
3.Operational programmes submitted under the European territorial cooperation objective for cross-border cooperation shall be drawn up, as a general rule, for each border or group of borders by an appropriate grouping at NUTS level 3, including enclaves. Operational programmes submitted under the European territorial cooperation objective for transnational cooperation shall be drawn up at the level of each transnational cooperation area. Interregional cooperation and exchange of experience programmes shall relate to the whole territory of the Community.
1.The EIB and the EIF may participate, in accordance with the modalities laid down in their statutes, in the programming of assistance from the Funds.
2.The EIB and the EIF may, at the request of Member States, participate in the preparation of national strategic reference frameworks and operational programmes, as well as in activities relating to the preparation of projects, in particular major projects, the arrangement of finance, and public-private partnerships. The Member State, in agreement with the EIB and the EIF, may concentrate the loans granted on one or more priorities of an operational programme, in particular in the spheres of innovation and the knowledge economy, human capital, the environment and basic infrastructure projects.
3.The Commission may consult the EIB and the EIF before adoption of the decision referred to in Article 28(3) and of the operational programmes. That consultation shall relate in particular to operational programmes containing an indicative list of major projects or programmes which, by the nature of their priorities, are suitable for mobilising loans or other types of market-based financing.
4.The Commission may, if it considers it appropriate for the appraisal of major projects, request the EIB to examine the technical quality and economic and financial viability of the projects concerned, in particular as regards the financial engineering instruments to be implemented or developed.
5.The Commission, in implementing the provisions of this Article, may award a grant to the EIB or the EIF.
1. For the purpose of this Article, a risk-sharing instrument means a financial instrument which guarantees the total or partial coverage of a defined risk, where appropriate in exchange for an agreed remuneration.
2. A Member State that meets one of the conditions set out in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 77(2), may contribute a part of the overall resources distributed in accordance with Articles 19 and 20 to a risk-sharing instrument which shall be established by means of a cooperation agreement to be concluded by the Commission either with the EIB or with national or international public sector bodies or bodies governed by private law with a public service mission providing adequate guarantees as referred to in Article 54(2)(c) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002, under similar terms and conditions to those applied to and by the EIB ( ‘ contracted implementing body ’ ), to cover the provisioning and capital allocation of guarantees and loans, as well as other financial facilities, granted under the risk-sharing instrument.
3. The cooperation agreement, referred to in paragraph 2, shall contain rules in particular on: the total amount of the Union contribution and a schedule on how it will be made available; the trust account conditions to be set up by the contracted implementing body; the eligibility criteria for the use of the Union contribution; the details of the exact risk-sharing (including the leverage ratio) to be covered and the guarantees to be provided by the contracted implementing body; the pricing of the risk-sharing instrument based on the risk margin and the coverage of all the administrative costs of the risk-sharing instrument; the application and approval procedure for the project proposals covered by the risk-sharing instrument; the period of availability of the risk-sharing instrument; and the reporting requirements.
The exact risk-sharing (including the leverage ratio) to be undertaken, pursuant to the cooperation agreement, by the contracted implementing body, shall, as an average, aim at being at least 1,5 times the amount of the Union contribution to the risk-sharing instrument.
Payments to the risk-sharing instrument shall be made in tranches, in accordance with the scheduled use of the risk-sharing instrument in providing loans and guarantees financing specific operations.
4. By way of derogation from Article 54(5), the risk-sharing instrument shall be used to finance operations co-financed by the ERDF or the Cohesion Fund, regarding investment costs which cannot be financed, as eligible expenditure pursuant to Article 55, or pursuant to the Union rules on State aids.
It may also be used to finance operations which contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the national strategic reference framework of the requesting Member State and the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion under Council Decision 2006/702/EC (1) , and which bring the greatest added value to the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.
5. The risk-sharing instrument shall be implemented by the Commission within the framework of indirect centralised management in accordance with Articles 54 and 56 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.
6. A Member State seeking to benefit from a risk-sharing instrument shall submit a written request to the Commission by 31 August 2013 . In its request, the Member State shall provide all the information necessary to establish:
(a) that it meets one of the conditions referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 77(2), by providing a reference to a Council decision or other legal act proving its eligibility;
(b) the list of programmes (including project proposals and related funding needs) co-financed either by the ERDF or by the Cohesion Fund, and the part of the 2012 and 2013 allocations to such programmes that it wants to take out of those programmes in order to reallocate those amounts to the risk-sharing instrument;
(c) the list of proposed projects pursuant to the second subparagraph of paragraph 4, and the part of the 2012 and 2013 allocations that it wants to take out of the programmes in order to reallocate those amounts to the risk-sharing instrument;
(d) the amount available for its exclusive benefit within its cohesion policy financial allocation pursuant to Article 18(2), and an indication of the amount which may be earmarked for the objectives of the risk-sharing instrument exclusively from the Union budget commitments to be effected in the years 2012 and 2013, pursuant to Article 75(1).
7. After verifying that the Member State request is correct and justified, the Commission shall adopt a decision, within four months of the Member State request, by means of an implementing act, specifying the system established to guarantee that the amount available is used for the exclusive benefit of the Member State which provided it within its cohesion policy financial allocation pursuant to Article 18(2), as well as setting out the terms and conditions of the participation of the requesting Member State in the risk-sharing instrument. The terms and conditions shall in particular cover the following:
(a) traceability and accounting, information on the use of the funds, payment conditions and monitoring and control systems;
(b) structure of the fees and other administrative and management costs;
(c) indicative list of eligible projects for financing; and
(d) the maximum amount of the Union contribution that can be allocated to the risk-sharing instrument from the Member State allocations available, and the instalments for practical implementation.
The Commission decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union .
When deciding on the Member State request, the Commission shall ensure that only projects for which a favourable financing decision is taken either by the EIB or by a national or international public-sector body or body governed by private law with a public-service mission, shall be accepted as eligible for financing through an established risk-sharing instrument.
8. The Commission decision referred to in paragraph 7 shall be preceded by the revision of the operational programmes under the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund in accordance with Article 33(2).
9. The financial allocations to the risk-sharing instrument shall be strictly capped and shall not exceed 10 % of the indicative total allocation for the requesting Member State for the years 2007-13 regarding the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund, which was approved in accordance with Article 28(3)(b). The financial allocations available to the projects in the second subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article are limited to the amounts left after financing the operations mentioned in the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article. Apart from the total Union contribution to the risk-sharing instrument endorsed in the decision referred to in paragraph 7 of this Article, the Union participation in a risk-sharing instrument shall not create any additional contingent liabilities either for the general budget of the European Union or for the Member State concerned.
10. Any reflow or amount left over after the completion of an operation covered by the risk-sharing instrument may be reused, at the request of the Member State concerned, within the risk-sharing instrument, provided that the Member State still meets one of the conditions set out in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 77(2). If the Member State no longer meets any of those conditions, the reflow or the amount left-over shall be considered as assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 18 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002. At the request of the Member State concerned, additional commitment appropriations generated by this assigned revenue shall be added the following year to the cohesion policy financial allocation of that Member State.]
Textual Amendments
F1 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 423/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards certain provisions relating to risk-sharing instruments for Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability.
Textual Amendments
F1 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 423/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2012 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards certain provisions relating to risk-sharing instruments for Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability.