1.The ‘reoccurrence’ of a non-compliance means the non-compliance with the same requirement or standard determined more than once within a consecutive period of three calendar years, provided that the beneficiary has been informed of a previous non-compliance and, as the case may be, has had the possibility to take the necessary measures to terminate that previous non-compliance. For the purpose of determining the reoccurrence of a non-compliance, non-compliances determined in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1122/2009 shall be taken into account and, in particular, GAEC 3, as listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, shall be considered equivalent to SMR 2 of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 in its version in force on 21 December 2013.
2.The ‘extent’ of a non-compliance shall be determined taking account, in particular, of whether the non-compliance has a far-reaching impact or whether it is limited to the farm itself.
3.The ‘severity’ of a non-compliance shall depend, in particular, on the importance of the consequences of the non-compliance taking account of the aims of the requirement or standard concerned.
4.Whether a non-compliance is of ‘permanence’ shall depend, in particular, on the length of time for which the effect lasts or the potential for terminating those effects by reasonable means.
5.For the purposes of this Chapter, non-compliances shall be deemed to be ‘determined’ if they are established as a consequence of any kind of controls carried out in accordance with this Regulation or after having been brought to the attention of the competent control authority or, where applicable, the paying agency, in whatever other way.
1.Where a non-compliance determined results from the negligence of the beneficiary, a reduction shall be applied. That reduction shall, as a general rule, be 3 % of the total amount resulting from the payments and annual premiums indicated in Article 92 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.
However, the paying agency may, on the basis of the assessment of the importance of the non-compliance provided by the competent control authority in the evaluation part of the control report taking into account the criteria referred to in Article 38(1) to (4), decide either to reduce that percentage to 1 % or to increase it to 5 % of the total amount referred to in the first subparagraph or, in the cases where provisions relating to the requirement or standard in question leave a margin not to further pursue the non-compliance found or in the cases for which support is granted according to Article 17(5) and (6) of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, not to impose any reductions at all.
2.Where a [F1Member State][F1relevant authority] decides not to apply an administrative penalty pursuant to Article 97(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 and the beneficiary has not remedied the situation within a deadline set by the competent authority, the administrative penalty shall be applied.
The deadline set by the competent authority shall not be later than the end of the year following the one in which the finding was made.
3.Where a [F2Member State][F2relevant authority] makes use of the option provided for in the second subparagraph of Article 99(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 and the beneficiary has not remedied the situation within a deadline set by the competent authority, a reduction of at least 1 % as provided for in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be applied retroactively in relation to the year of the initial finding when the early warning system was applied, if the non-compliance is found not to have been remedied during a maximum period of three consecutive calendar years calculated from and including that year.
The deadline set by the competent authority shall not be later than the end of the year following the one in which the finding was made.
A non-compliance which has been remedied by the beneficiary within the deadline set shall not be considered as a non-compliance for the purpose of establishing reoccurrence in accordance with paragraph 4.
4.Without prejudice to cases of intentional non-compliance, the reduction to be applied in respect of the first reoccurrence of the same non-compliance in accordance with paragraph 1 shall be multiplied by the factor three.
In case of further reoccurrences, the multiplication factor three shall be applied each time to the result of the reduction fixed in respect of the previous reoccurrence. The maximum reduction shall, however, not exceed 15 % of the total amount referred to in paragraph 1.
Once the maximum percentage of 15 % has been reached, the paying agency shall inform the beneficiary concerned that if the same non-compliance is determined again, the beneficiary shall be considered to have acted intentionally within the meaning of Article 40.
Textual Amendments
F1Words in Art. 39(2) substituted (31.1.2020 in so far as it relates to the Common Agricultural Policy direct payment schemes) by The Financing, Management and Monitoring of Direct Payments to Farmers (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/90), regs. 1(2), 15(23)
F2Words in Art. 39(3) substituted (31.1.2020 in so far as it relates to the Common Agricultural Policy direct payment schemes) by The Financing, Management and Monitoring of Direct Payments to Farmers (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/90), regs. 1(2), 15(23)
Where the non-compliance determined has been committed intentionally by the beneficiary, the reduction to be applied to the total amount referred to in Article 39(1) shall, as a general rule, be 20 % of that total amount.
However, the paying agency may, on the basis of the assessment of the importance of the non-compliance provided by the competent control authority in the evaluation part of the control report taking into account the criteria referred to in Article 38(1) to (4), decide to reduce that percentage to no less than 15 % or to increase that percentage to up to 100 % of that total amount.
Where a case of non-compliance within the meaning of point (2)(b) of the second subparagraph of Article 2(1) also constitutes a non-compliance within the meaning of point (2)(a) of the second subparagraph of Article 2(1), the administrative penalties shall be applied in accordance with the rules laid down [F3by the Commission] on the basis of Article 77(8)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.
Textual Amendments
F3Words in Art. 41 omitted (31.1.2020 in so far as it relates to the Common Agricultural Policy direct payment schemes) by virtue of The Financing, Management and Monitoring of Direct Payments to Farmers (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/90), regs. 1(2), 15(24)