Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 (repealed)Dangos y teitl llawn

TITLE V U.K. FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION FROM THE FUNDS

CHAPTER I U.K. Contribution from the funds

Article 52 U.K. Modulation of the contribution rates

The contribution from the Funds may be modulated in the light of the following:

(a)

the gravity of the specific problems, in particular of an economic, social or territorial nature;

(b)

the importance of each priority axis for the Community's priorities as set out in the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, as well as for national and regional priorities;

(c)

protection and improvement of the environment, principally through the application of the precautionary principle, the principle of preventive action, and the polluter-pays principle;

(d)

the rate of mobilisation of private financing, in particular under public-private partnerships, in the fields concerned;

(e)

the inclusion of interregional cooperation as referred to in Article 37(6)(b) under the Convergence and Regional competitiveness and employment objectives;

(f)

under the Regional competitiveness and employment objective, the coverage of areas with a geographical or natural handicap defined as follows:

(i)

island Member States eligible under the Cohesion Fund, and other islands except those on which the capital of a Member State is situated or which have a fixed link to the mainland;

(ii)

mountainous areas as defined by the national legislation of the Member State;

(iii)

sparsely (less than 50 inhabitants per square kilometre) and very sparsely (less than 8 inhabitants per square kilometre) populated areas;

(iv)

the areas which were external borders of the Community on 30 April 2004 and which ceased to be so on the day after that date.

Article 53 U.K. Contribution from the Funds

1. The contribution from the Funds, at the level of operational programmes, shall be calculated with reference to:

(a) either the total eligible expenditure including public and private expenditure;

(b) or the public eligible expenditure.

2. The contribution from the Funds at the level of operational programmes under the Convergence and Regional competitiveness and employment objectives shall be subject to the ceilings set out in Annex III.

3. For operational programmes under the European territorial cooperation objective in which at least one participant belongs to a Member State whose average GDP per capita for the period 2001 to 2003 was below 85 % of the EU-25 average during the same period, the contribution from the ERDF shall not be higher than 85 % of the eligible expenditure. For all other operational programmes, the contribution from the ERDF shall not be higher than 75 % of the eligible expenditure co-financed by the ERDF.

4. The contribution from the Funds at the priority axis level shall not be subject to the ceilings set out in paragraph 3 and in Annex III. However, it shall be fixed so as to ensure compliance with the maximum amount of contribution from the Funds and the maximum contribution rate per Fund fixed at the level of the operational programme.

5. For operational programmes co-financed jointly:

(a) by the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund; or

(b) by the additional allocation for the outermost regions provided for in Annex II, the ERDF and/or the Cohesion Fund,

the decision adopting the operational programme shall fix the maximum rate and the maximum amount of the contribution for each Fund and allocation separately.

6. The Commission's decision adopting an operational programme shall fix the maximum rate and the maximum amount of the contribution from Fund for each operational programme and for each priority axis. The decision shall show separately the appropriations for regions receiving transitional support.

Article 54 U.K. Other provisions

1. The contribution from the Funds for each priority axis shall not be less than 20 % of the eligible public expenditure.

2. Technical assistance measures implemented at the initiative of or on behalf of the Commission may be financed at the rate of 100 %.

3. During the period of eligibility referred to in Article 56(1):

(a) a priority axis may receive assistance from only one Fund and one objective at a time;

(b) an operation may receive assistance from a Fund under only one operational programme at a time;

(c) an operation shall not receive an assistance from a Fund higher than the total public expenditure allocated.

4. For State aid to enterprises within the meaning of Article 87 of the Treaty, public aid granted under operational programmes shall observe the ceilings on State aid.

5. An expenditure co-financed by the Funds shall not receive assistance from another Community financial instrument.

CHAPTER II U.K. Revenue-generating projects

Article 55 U.K. Revenue-generating projects

1. For the purposes of this Regulation, a revenue-generating project means any operation involving an investment in infrastructure the use of which is subject to charges borne directly by users or any operation involving the sale or rent of land or buildings or any other provision of services against payment.

2. Eligible expenditure on revenue-generating projects shall not exceed the current value of the investment cost less the current value of the net revenue from the investment over a specific reference period for:

(a) investments in infrastructure; or

(b) other projects where it is possible to objectively estimate the revenues in advance.

Where not all the investment cost is eligible for co-financing, the net revenue shall be allocated pro rata to the eligible and non-eligible parts of the investment cost.

In the calculation, the managing authority shall take account of the reference period appropriate to the category of investment concerned, the category of project, the profitability normally expected of the category of investment concerned, the application of the polluter-pays principle, and, if appropriate, considerations of equity linked to the relative prosperity of the Member State concerned.

3. Where it is objectively not possible to estimate the revenue in advance, the revenue generated within five years of the completion of an operation shall be deducted from the expenditure declared to the Commission. The deduction shall be made by the certifying authority at the latest at partial or at final closure of the operational programme. The application for payment of the final balance shall be corrected accordingly.

4. Where, at the latest three years after closure of the operational programme, it is established that an operation has generated revenue that has not been taken into account under paragraphs 2 and 3, such revenue shall be refunded to the general budget of the European Union in proportion to the contribution from the Funds.

5. Without prejudice to their obligations under Article 70(1), Member States may adopt procedures proportionate to the amounts concerned for monitoring revenues generated by operations whose total cost is below EUR 200 000.

6. This Article shall not apply to projects subject to the rules on State aid within the meaning of Article 87 of the Treaty.

CHAPTER III U.K. Eligibility of expenditure

Article 56 U.K. Eligibility of expenditure

1. Expenditure, including for major projects, shall be eligible for a contribution from the Funds if it has actually been paid between the date of submission of the operational programmes to the Commission or from 1 January 2007, whichever is earlier, and 31 December 2015. Operations must not have been completed before the starting date for eligibility.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, in-kind contributions, depreciation costs and overheads may be treated as expenditure paid by beneficiaries in implementing operations under the following conditions:

(a) the eligibility rules laid down under paragraph 4 provide for the eligibility of such expenditure;

(b) the amount of the expenditure is justified by accounting documents having a probative value equivalent to invoices;

(c) in the case of in-kind contributions, the co-financing from the Funds does not exceed the total eligible expenditure excluding the value of such contributions.

3. Expenditure shall be eligible for a contribution from the Funds only where incurred for operations decided on by the managing authority of the operational programme concerned or under its responsibility, in accordance with criteria fixed by the monitoring committee.

New expenditure, added at the moment of the revision of an operational programme referred to in Article 33, shall be eligible from the date of the submission to the Commission of the request for revision of the operational programme.

4. The rules on the eligibility of expenditure shall be laid down at national level subject to the exceptions provided for in the specific Regulations for each Fund. They shall cover the entirety of the expenditure declared under the operational programme.

5. This Article shall be without prejudice to the expenditure referred to in Article 45.

CHAPTER IV U.K. Durability of operations

Article 57 U.K. Durability of operations

1. The Member State or managing authority shall ensure that an operation retains the contribution from the Funds only if that operation does not, within five years from the completion of the operation or three years from the completion of the operation in Member States which have exercised the option of reducing that time limit for the maintenance of an investment or jobs created by SMEs, undergo a substantial modification:

(a) affecting its nature or its implementation conditions or giving to a firm or a public body an undue advantage; and

(b) resulting either from a change in the nature of ownership of an item of infrastructure or the cessation of a productive activity.

2. The Member State and the managing authority shall inform the Commission in the annual implementation report referred to in Article 67 of any modification referred to in paragraph 1. The Commission shall inform the other Member States.

3. Sums unduly paid shall be recovered in accordance with Articles 98 to 102.

4. The Member States and the Commission shall ensure that undertakings which are or have been subject to a procedure of recovery in accordance with paragraph 3 following the transfer of a productive activity within a Member State or to another Member State do not benefit from a contribution from the Funds.