Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilDangos y teitl llawn

PART ONE SUBJECT-MATTER AND DEFINITIONS

Article 1 Subject-matter

This Regulation lays down the common rules applicable to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which operate under a common framework (the 'European Structural and Investment' - 'ESI Funds'). It also lays down the provisions necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the ESI Funds and their coordination with one another and with other Union instruments. The common rules applying to the ESI Funds are set out in Part Two.

Part Three lays down the general rules governing the ERDF, the ESF (together referred to as the 'Structural Funds') and the Cohesion Fund concerning the tasks, priority objectives and organisation of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (the 'Funds'), the criteria that Member States and regions are required to fulfil in order to be eligible for support from the Funds, the financial resources available and the criteria for their allocation.

Part Four lays down general rules applicable to the Funds and the EMFF on management and control, financial management, accounts and financial corrections.

The rules set out in this Regulation shall apply without prejudice to the provisions laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council(1) and to the specific provisions laid down in the following Regulations (the 'Fund-specific Regulations') in accordance with the fifth paragraph of this Article:

(1)

Regulation (EU) No 1301/2013 (the 'ERDF Regulation');

(2)

Regulation (EU) No 1304/2013 (the 'ESF Regulation');

(3)

Regulation (EU) No 1300/2013 (the 'CF Regulation');

(4)

Regulation (EU) No 1299/2013 (the 'ETC Regulation');

(5)

Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 (the 'EAFRD Regulation'); and

(6)

a future Union legal act establishing the conditions for the financial support for maritime and fisheries policy for the programming period 2014 - 2020 (the 'EMFF Regulation").

Part Two of this Regulation shall apply to all the ESI Funds except when it explicitly allows for derogations. Parts Three and Four of this Regulation shall establish complementary rules to Part Two that apply respectively to the Funds and to the Funds and the EMFF and may explicitly allow for derogations in the Fund-specific Regulations concerned. The Fund-specific Regulations may establish complementary rules to Part Two of this Regulation for the ESI Funds, to Part Three of this Regulation for the Funds and to Part Four of this Regulation for the Funds and the EMFF. The complementary rules in the Fund-specific Regulations shall not be in contradiction with Parts Two, Three or Four of this Regulation. In case of doubt about the application between provisions, Part Two of this Regulation shall prevail over the Fund-specific rules, and Parts Two, Three and Four of this Regulation shall prevail over the Fund-specific Regulations.

Article 2 Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply;

(1)

'Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth' means the targets and shared objectives guiding the action of Member States and the Union set out in the Conclusions adopted by the European Council of 17 June 2010 as Annex I (New European Strategy for Jobs and Growth, EU Headline Targets), Council Recommendation of 13 July 2010(2) and in Council Decision 2010/707/EU(3), and any revision of such targets and shared objectives;

(2)

'a strategic policy framework' means a document or a set of documents established at national or regional level, which sets out a limited number of coherent priorities established on the basis of evidence and a timeframe for the implementation of those priorities and which may include a monitoring mechanism;

(3)

'smart specialisation strategy' means the national or regional innovation strategies which set priorities in order to build competitive advantage by developing and matching research and innovation own strengths to business needs in order to address emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding duplication and fragmentation of efforts; a smart specialisation strategy may take the form of, or be included in, a national or regional research and innovation (R&I) strategic policy framework;

(4)

'Fund-specific rules' means the provisions laid down in, or established on the basis of, Part Three or Part Four of this Regulation or a Regulation governing one or more of the ESI Funds listed in the fourth paragraph of Article 1;

(5)

'programming' means the process of organisation, decision-making and allocation of financial resources in several stages, with the involvement of partners in accordance with Article 5, intended to implement, on a multi-annual basis, joint action by the Union and the Member States to achieve the objectives of the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth;

(6)

'programme' means an 'operational programme' as referred to in Part Three or Part Four of this Regulation and in the EMFF Regulation, and 'rural development programme' as referred to in the EAFRD Regulation;

(7)

'programme area' means a geographical area covered by a specific programme or, in the case of a programme covering more than one category of region, the geographical area corresponding to each separate category of region;

(8)

'priority' in Parts Two and Four of this Regulation means the 'priority axis' referred to in Part Three of this Regulation for ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund and the 'Union priority' referred to in the EMFF Regulation and in the EAFRD Regulation;

(9)

'operation' means a project, contract, action or group of projects selected by the managing authorities of the programmes concerned, or under their responsibility, that contributes to the objectives of a priority or priorities; in the context of financial instruments, an operation is constituted by the financial contributions from a programme to financial instruments and the subsequent financial support provided by those financial instruments;

(10)

'beneficiary' means a public or private body and, for the purposes of the EAFRD Regulation and of the EMFF Regulation only, a natural person, responsible for initiating or both initiating and implementing operations; and in the context of State aid schemes, as defined in point 13 of this Article, the body which receives the aid; and in the context of financial instruments under Title IV of Part Two of this Regulation, it means the body that implements the financial instrument or the fund of funds as appropriate;

(11)

'financial instruments' means financial instruments as defined in the Financial Regulation, save where otherwise provided in this Regulation;

(12)

'final recipient' means a legal or natural person receiving financial support from a financial instrument;

(13)

'State aid' means aid falling under Article 107(1) TFEU which shall be deemed for the purposes of this Regulation also to include de minimis aid within the meaning of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1998/2006(4), Commission Regulation (EC) No 1535/2007(5) and Commission Regulation (EC) No 875/2007(6);

(14)

'completed operation' means an operation that has been physically completed or fully implemented and in respect of which all related payments have been made by beneficiaries and the corresponding public contribution has been paid to the beneficiaries;

(15)

'public expenditure' means any public contribution to the financing of operations the source of which is the budget of national, regional or local public authorities, the budget of the Union related to the ESI Funds, the budget of public law bodies or the budget of associations of public authorities or of public law bodies and, for the purpose of determining the co-financing rate for ESF programmes or priorities, may include any financial resources collectively contributed by employers and workers;

(16)

'public law body' means any body governed by public law within the meaning of point 9 of Article 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council(7) and any European grouping of territorial cooperation (EGTC) established in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council(8), regardless of whether the EGTC is considered to be a public law body or a private law body under the relevant national implementing provisions;

(17)

'document' means a paper or an electronic medium bearing information of relevance in the context of this Regulation;

(18)

'intermediate body' means any public or private body which acts under the responsibility of a managing or certifying authority, or which carries out duties on behalf of such an authority, in relation to beneficiaries implementing operations;

(19)

'community-led local development strategy' means a coherent set of operations the purpose of which is to meet local objectives and needs, and which contributes to achieving the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and which is designed and implemented by a local action group;

(20)

'Partnership Agreement' means a document prepared by a Member State with the involvement of partners in line with the multi-level governance approach, which sets out that Member State's strategy, priorities and arrangements for using the ESI Funds in an effective and efficient way so as to pursue the Union strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and which is approved by the Commission following assessment and dialogue with the Member State concerned;

(21)

'category of regions' means the categorisation of regions as 'less developed regions', 'transition regions' or 'more developed regions' in accordance with Article 90(2);

(22)

'request for payment' means a payment application or declaration of expenditure submitted by the Member State to the Commission;

(23)

'EIB' means the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund or any subsidiary of the European Investment Bank;

(24)

'Public private partnerships' (PPPs) means forms of cooperation between public bodies and the private sector, which aim to improve the delivery of investments in infrastructure projects or other types of operations, delivering public services through risk sharing, pooling of private sector expertise or additional sources of capital;

(25)

'PPP operation' means an operation which is implemented or intended to be implemented under a public-private-partnership structure;

(26)

'escrow account' means a bank account covered by a written agreement between a managing authority or an intermediate body and the body implementing a financial instrument, or, in the case of a PPP operation, a written agreement between a public body beneficiary and the private partner approved by the managing authority or an intermediate body, set up specifically to hold funds to be paid out after the eligibility period, exclusively for the purposes provided for in point (c) of Article 42(1), Article 42(2), Article 42(3) and Article 64, or a bank account set up on terms providing equivalent guarantees on the payments out of the funds;

(27)

'fund of funds' means a fund set up with the objective of contributing support from a programme or programmes to several financial instruments. Where financial instruments are implemented through a fund of funds, the body implementing the fund of funds shall be considered to be the only beneficiary within the meaning of point 10 of this Article;

(28)

'SME' means a micro, small or medium sized enterprise as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC(9);

(29)

'accounting year', means, for the purposes of Part Three and Part Four, the period from 1 July to 30 June, except for the first accounting year of the programming period, in respect of which it means the period from the start date for eligibility of expenditure until 30 June 2015. The final accounting year shall be from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024;

(30)

'financial year', means, for the purposes of Part Three and Part Four, the period from 1 January to 31 December;

(31)

'macroregional strategy' means an integrated framework endorsed by the European Council, which may be supported by the ESI Funds among others, to address common challenges faced by a defined geographical area relating to Member States and third countries located in the same geographical area which thereby benefit from strengthened cooperation contributing to achievement of economic, social and territorial cohesion;

(32)

'sea basin strategy' means a structured framework of cooperation in relation to a given geographical area, developed by Union institutions, Member States, their regions and where appropriate third countries sharing a sea basin; a sea basin strategy takes into account the geographic, climatic, economic and political specificities of the sea basin;

(33)

'applicable ex ante conditionality' means a concrete and precisely pre-defined critical factor, which is a prerequisite for and has a direct and genuine link to, and direct impact on, the effective and efficient achievement of a specific objective for an investment priority or a Union priority;

(34)

'specific objective' means the result to which an investment priority or Union priority contributes in a specific national or regional context through actions or measures undertaken within such a priority;

(35)

'relevant country-specific recommendations adopted in accordance with Article 121(2) TFEU' and 'relevant Council recommendations adopted in accordance with Article 148(4) TFEU' mean recommendations relating to structural challenges which it is appropriate to address through multiannual investments that fall directly within the scope of the ESI Funds as set out in the Fund-specific Regulations;

(36)

'irregularity' means any breach of Union law, or of national law relating to its application, resulting from an act or omission by an economic operator involved in the implementation of the ESI Funds, which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the budget of the Union by charging an unjustified item of expenditure to the budget of the Union.

(37)

'economic operator' means any natural or legal person or other entity taking part in the implementation of assistance from the ESI Funds, with the exception of a Member State exercising its prerogatives as a public authority;

(38)

'systemic irregularity' means any irregularity, which may be of a recurring nature, with a high probability of occurrence in similar types of operations, which results from a serious deficiency in the effective functioning of a management and control system, including a failure to establish appropriate procedures in accordance with this Regulation and the Fund-specific rules;

(39)

'serious deficiency in the effective functioning of a management and control system' means, for the purposes of implementation of the Funds and the EMFF under Part Four, a deficiency for which substantial improvements in the system are required, which exposes the Funds and the EMFF to a significant risk of irregularities, and the existence of which is incompatible with an unqualified audit opinion on the functioning of the management and control system.

Article 3 Calculation of time limits for Commission decisions

Where, pursuant to Articles 16(2) and (3), 29(3), 30 (2) and (3), 102(2), 107(2), and 108(3), a time limit is set for the Commission to adopt or amend a decision, by means of an implementing act, that time limit shall not include the period which starts on the date following the date on which the Commission sends its observations to the Member State and lasts until the Member State responds to the observations.

(1)

Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agriculture policy and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 352/78, (EC) No 165/94, (EC) No 2799/98, (EC) No 814/2000, (EC) No 1290/2005 and (EC) No 485/2008 (See page 549 of this Official Journal).

(2)

Council Recommendation of 13 July 2010 on broad guidelines for the economic policies of the Member States and of the Union (OJ L 191, 23.7.2010, p. 28).

(3)

Council Decision 2010/707/EU of 21 October 2010 on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (OJ L 308, 24.11.2010, p. 46).

(4)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1998/2006 of 15 December 2006 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to de minimis aid (OJ L 379, 28.12.2006, p. 5).

(5)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1535/2007 of 20 December 2007 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid in the sector of agricultural production (OJ L 337, 21.12.2007, p. 35).

(6)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 875/2007 of 24 July 2007 on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to de minimis aid in the fisheries sector and amending Regulation (EC) No 1860/2004 (OJ L 193, 25.7.2007, p. 6).

(7)

Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts (OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114).

(8)

Regulation (EC) No 1082/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on a European grouping of territorial cooperation (EGTC) (OJ L 210, 31.7.2006, p. 19).

(9)

Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (OJ L 124, 20.5.2003, p. 36).