Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 (repealed)Show full title

TITLE I U.K. OBJECTIVES AND GENERAL RULES ON ASSISTANCE

CHAPTER I U.K. SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Article 1 U.K. ScopeThis Regulation:

1) lays down the general rules governing Community support for rural development, financed by the EAFRD, established by Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005;

2) defines the Objectives to which rural development policy is to contribute;

3) defines the strategic context for rural development policy, including the method for fixing the Community strategic guidelines for rural development policy (hereinafter the Community strategic guidelines) and the national strategy plans;

4) defines the priorities and measures for rural development;

5) lays down rules on partnership, programming, evaluation, financial management, monitoring and control on the basis of responsibilities shared between the Member States and the Commission.

Article 2 U.K. Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)

‘programming’: the process of organisation, decision-taking and financing in several stages intended to implement, on a multiannual basis, the joint action by the Community and the Member States to achieve the priority goals of the EAFRD;

(b)

‘region’: territorial unit corresponding to level 1 or 2 of the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS level 1 and 2) within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (1);

(c)

‘axis’: a coherent group of measures with specific goals resulting directly from their implementation and contributing to one or more of the objectives set out in Article 4;

(d)

‘measure’: a set of operations contributing to the implementation of an axis as referred to in Article 4(2);

(e)

‘operation’: a project, contract or arrangement, or other action selected according to criteria laid down for the rural development programme concerned and implemented by one or more beneficiaries allowing achievement of the objectives set out in Article 4;

(f)

‘common monitoring and evaluation framework’: a general approach developed by the Commission and the Member States defining a limited number of common indicators relating to the baseline situation and the financial execution, outputs, results and impacts of the programmes;

(g)

‘local development strategy’: a coherent set of operations to meet local objectives and needs implemented in partnership at the appropriate level;

(h)

‘beneficiary’: an operator, body or firm, whether public or private, responsible for implementing operations or receiving support;

(i)

‘public expenditure’: any public contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the budget of the State, of regional and local authorities, of the European Communities and any similar expenditure. Any contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the budget of public law bodies or associations of one or more regional or local authorities or public law bodies within the meaning of 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 (2) shall be regarded as public contribution;

(j)

‘Convergence Objective’: the objective of the action for the least developed Member States and regions according to the Community legislation governing the European Regional Development Fund (hereinafter the ERDF), the European Social Fund (hereinafter the ESF) and the CF for the period from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013.

CHAPTER II U.K. MISSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Article 3 U.K. Missions

The EAFRD shall contribute to the promotion of sustainable rural development throughout the Community in a complementary manner to the market and income support policies of the common agricultural policy, to cohesion policy and to the common fisheries policy.

Article 4 U.K. Objectives

1. Support for rural development shall contribute to achieving the following objectives:

(a) improving the competitiveness of agriculture and forestry by supporting restructuring, development and innovation;

(b) improving the environment and the countryside by supporting land management;

(c) improving the quality of life in rural areas and encouraging diversification of economic activity.

2. The objectives set out in paragraph 1 shall be implemented by means of the four axes defined in Title IV.

CHAPTER III U.K. PRINCIPLES OF ASSISTANCE

Article 5 U.K. Complementarity, consistency and conformity

1. The EAFRD shall complement national, regional and local actions contributing to the Community’s priorities.

2. The Commission and the Member States shall ensure that the assistance from the EAFRD and the Member States is consistent with the activities, policies and priorities of the Community. The assistance of the EAFRD shall be consistent with the objectives of Economic and Social Cohesion and those of the Community support instrument for fisheries in particular.

3. This consistency shall be provided by the Community strategic guidelines referred to in Article 9, the national strategy plan referred to in Article 11, the rural development programmes referred to in Article 15 and the Commission report referred to in Article 14.

4. In accordance with their respective responsibilities, the Commission and the Member States shall ensure the coordination between the assistance from the different Funds, the ERDF, the ESF, the CF, the Community support instrument for fisheries, and the interventions of the European Investment Bank (hereinafter the EIB), and of other Community financial instruments.

5. There shall also be consistency with the measures financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund.

6. No support under this Regulation shall be granted to schemes eligible for support under common market organisations, subject to any exceptions yet to be defined, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 90(2).

7. The Member States shall ensure that the operations financed by the EAFRD are in conformity with the Treaty and any acts adopted under it.

Article 6 U.K. Partnership

1. EAFRD assistance shall be implemented through close consultations (hereinafter partnership) between the Commission and the Member State and with the authorities and bodies designated by the Member State under national rules and practices, including:

(a) the competent regional, local authorities and other public authorities;

(b) the economic and social partners;

(c) any other appropriate body representing civil society, non-governmental organisations, including environmental organisations, and bodies responsible for promoting equality between men and women.

The Member State shall designate the most representative partners at national, regional and local level and in the economic, social, environmental or other sphere (hereinafter partners). It shall create the conditions for a broad and effective involvement of all appropriate bodies, in accordance with national rules and practices, taking into account the need to promote equality between men and women and sustainable development through integration of environmental protection and improvement requirements.

2. The partnership shall be conducted with due regard to the respective institutional, legal and financial responsibilities of each category of partner as defined under paragraph 1.

3. The partnership shall be involved in the preparation and monitoring of the national strategy plan and in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the rural development programmes. Member States shall involve all appropriate partners at the various programming stages, due regard being had to the time limit set for each step.

Article 7 U.K. Subsidiarity

Member States shall be responsible for implementing the rural development programmes at the appropriate territorial level, according to their own institutional arrangements, in accordance with this Regulation.

Article 8 U.K. Equality between men and women and non-discrimination

Member States and the Commission shall promote equality between men and women and shall ensure that any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation is prevented during the various stages of programme implementation.

This includes the stages of design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

(1)

OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1.

(2)

OJ L 134, 30.4.2004, p. 114.