Commission Regulation (EC) No 718/2007Show full title

TITLE I U.K. PRINCIPLES AND GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASSISTANCE

CHAPTER I U.K. Subject matter and principles

Article 1 U.K. Subject matter

This Regulation lays down the implementing rules governing the provision by the Community of pre-accession assistance established by Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 (IPA), the ‘IPA Regulation’.

Article 2 U.K. Definitions

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

1.

‘beneficiary country’: any country listed in either of the annexes I and II to the IPA Regulation;

2.

‘enlargement package’: set of documents presented each year to the Council and the European Parliament by the Commission, the strategic and political part of which consists of the revisions, where appropriate, of the accession partnerships and the European partnerships, the regular reports established by country and the Commission's strategy paper. A multi-annual indicative financial framework completes the package;

3.

‘framework agreement’: agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country and applying to all IPA components, laying down the principles of the cooperation of the beneficiary country and the Commission under this Regulation;

4.

‘sectoral agreement’: an agreement relating to a specific IPA component drawn up, where appropriate, between the Commission and the beneficiary country, and setting out the relevant provisions to be respected which are not contained in the country specific framework agreement or financing agreements;

5.

‘financing agreement’: annual or multi–annual agreement concluded between the Commission and the beneficiary country, following a Commission financing decision approving the Community contribution to a programme or an operation falling within the scope of this Regulation;

6.

‘irregularity’: any infringement of a provision of applicable rules and contracts resulting from an act or an omission by an economic operator which has, or would have, the effect of prejudicing the general budget of the European Union by charging an unjustified item of expenditure to the general budget;

7.

‘financial year’: from 1 January to 31 December;

8.

‘final beneficiary’: body or firm, whether public or private, responsible for initiating or initiating and implementing operations. In the context of aid schemes, final beneficiaries are public or private firms carrying out an individual project and receiving public aid;

9.

‘Community contribution’: the part of the eligible expenditure which is financed by the Community;

10.

‘euro account’: interest bearing bank account opened by the national fund in a financial or treasury institution, on behalf of the beneficiary country and under its responsibility, to receive payments from the Commission;

11.

‘public expenditure’: any public contribution to the financing of operations whose origin is the European Community or the budget of the public authorities of the beneficiary country and 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;

12.

‘total expenditure’: the public expenditure and any private contribution to the financing of operations.

Article 3 U.K. Principles of assistance

The Commission shall ensure that the following principles apply in relation to assistance under the IPA Regulation:

• Assistance granted shall respect the principles of coherence, complementarity, coordination, partnership and concentration.

• Assistance shall be coherent with EU policies and shall support alignment to the acquis communautaire.

• Assistance shall comply with the budgetary principles laid down in the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.

• Assistance shall be consistent with the needs identified in the enlargement process and absorption capacities of the beneficiary country. It shall also take account of lessons learned.

• The ownership of the programming and implementation of assistance by the beneficiary country shall be strongly encouraged and adequate visibility of EU intervention shall be ensured.

• Operations shall be properly prepared, with clear and verifiable objectives, which are to be achieved within a given period.

• Any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prevented during the various stages of the implementation of assistance.

• The objectives of pre-accession assistance shall be pursued in the framework of sustainable development and the Community promotion of the goal of protecting and improving the environment.

Article 4 U.K. Priorities for assistance

Assistance for a given beneficiary country shall be based on the priorities identified in the following documents, where they exist:

• the European partnership,

• the accession partnership,

• the national programme for the adoption of the acquis,

• the reports and strategy paper contained in the annual enlargement package of the Commission,

• the stabilisation and association agreement,

• the negotiation framework.

Account shall also be taken of the priorities set out in the national strategies where they are compatible with the pre-accession objectives and scope as laid down in the IPA Regulation.

CHAPTER II U.K. General framework for implementation

Article 5 U.K. Multi-annual indicative planning documents

1. The multi-annual indicative planning document shall ensure the necessary coherence and complementarity between the IPA components in a given beneficiary country. In particular, it shall reflect the principles set out in Article 9.

2. In accordance with the provisions of Article 20(3) of the IPA Regulation and in the context of the consultation laid down in Article 6(1) of that Regulation, the Commission shall endeavour to allow sufficient time for the relevant stakeholders, including Member States, to provide their comments on the document.

3. Multi-annual indicative planning documents shall include, for each country concerned:

(a) a general background, including a brief description of the consultation process with and within the beneficiary country;

(b) a description of the European Union cooperation objectives in the country concerned;

(c) a consolidated assessment of the challenges, needs and relative importance of the priorities for assistance;

(d) an overview of past and ongoing European Union cooperation, including an analysis of needs and absorption capacity and lessons learned, and the relevant activities of other donors, where this information is available;

(e) for each component, a description of how the consolidated assessment as referred to in point (c) above is translated into strategic choices and a description of the major areas selected for assistance in the country concerned, and of the results anticipated;

(f) indicative financial allocations for the major areas of intervention under each IPA component.

4. Regional and horizontal programmes may be covered by separate and specific multi-beneficiary multi-annual indicative planning documents.

Article 6 U.K. Multi-annual or annual programmes

1. Multi-annual indicative planning documents shall be implemented through multi-annual or, depending on the component, annual programmes, as laid down in Article 7 of the IPA Regulation.

2. Multi-annual programmes or annual programmes shall consist in documents submitted by the beneficiary country, or prepared by the Commission in the case of regional and horizontal programmes, and adopted by the Commission. Programmes shall present a coherent set of priority axes, any appropriate measures or operations and a description of the financial contribution which are needed in order to implement the strategies defined in the multi-annual indicative planning documents.

Programmes are subdivided into priority axes, each of which defines a global objective to attain, and which, depending on the IPA component considered, shall be implemented through measures, which may be subdivided into operations, or directly through operations.

Operations shall comprise a project or a group of projects implemented by the Commission, or initiated or initiated and implemented by one or more final beneficiaries, allowing achievement of the goals of the measure and/or the priority axis to which it relates.

3. In line with Article 20 of the IPA Regulation, the relevant stakeholders, including Member States, shall be consulted in the process of programming, in accordance with the provisions laid down in Part II. The Commission and/or the beneficiary country shall endeavour to allow sufficient time for the interested parties to provide their comments in this context.

Article 7 U.K. Framework agreements and sectoral agreements

1. The Commission and the beneficiary country shall conclude a framework agreement, in order to set out and agree on the rules for cooperation concerning EC financial assistance to the beneficiary country. Where necessary, the framework agreement may be complemented by a sectoral agreement, or sectoral agreements, covering component specific provisions.

2. Assistance under the IPA Regulation can only be granted to the beneficiary country after the framework agreement referred to in paragraph 1 has been concluded and has entered into force.

Where a sectoral agreement has been concluded with the beneficiary country, assistance under the IPA Regulation can only be granted, under the IPA component concerned by the sectoral agreement, after the entry into force of the framework agreement and the sectoral agreement.

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, where no framework agreement is concluded or where the framework agreement in force concluded under Council Regulations (EEC) No 3906/89(1), (EC) No 1267/1999(2), (EC) No 1268/1999(3), (EC) No 2500/2001(4) or (EC) No 2666/2000(5) does not lay down the minimum provisions listed in paragraph 3, those minimum provisions shall be set down in the financing agreements.

3. The framework agreement shall lay down, in particular, the provisions concerning:

(a) the general rules for Community financial assistance;

(b) the establishment of the structures and authorities needed for management and mentioned in Articles 21, 32 and 33 and any other relevant specific bodies;

(c) the common responsibilities of the aforementioned structures, authorities and bodies, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 and 29;

(d) control requirements and conditions for:

(i)

the accreditation and the monitoring of the accreditation of the national authorising officer by the competent accrediting officer, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 12 and 15;

(ii)

the accreditation and the monitoring of the accreditation of the operating structure by the national authorising officer, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 13 and 16;

(iii)

the conferral of management powers by the Commission, in conformity with the principles set out in Articles 11, 14 and 17;

(e) the establishment of an annual statement of assurance by the national authorising officer, as set out in Article 27;

(f) procurement rules, in conformity with Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002(6) laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002;

(g) the closure of programmes as set down in Articles 47 and 56,

(h) the definitions of irregularity in conformity with Article 2, of fraud, and that of active and passive corruption, in keeping with those contained in Community legislation; the obligation of the beneficiary country to take appropriate preventive measures against active and passive corruption, anti-fraud measures and corrective actions; the rules for recovery of funds in case of irregularity or fraud;

(i) recoveries and financial corrections and adjustments, in conformity with Articles 49 and 50;

(j) the rules for supervision, control and audit by the Commission and the European Court of Auditors;

(k) the rules on taxes, customs duties and other fiscal charges;

(l) information and publicity requirements.

4. A sectoral agreement related to a specific IPA component and complementing the framework agreement may, where appropriate, be concluded. Without prejudice to the arrangements laid down in the framework agreement, it shall include detailed and specific provisions for the management, evaluation and control of the component concerned.

5. In a given beneficiary country, the framework agreement shall apply to all financing agreements as provided for in Article 8.

Where it exists, the sectoral agreement related to a given component shall apply to all the financing agreements concluded in the framework of that component.

Article 8 U.K. Financing decisions and agreements

1. The Commission decisions adopting multi-annual or annual programmes shall meet the requirements necessary to constitute financing decisions in accordance with Article 75(2) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002.

2. Where required by the financing decision, the Commission and the beneficiary country concerned shall conclude a financing agreement. Financing agreements may be concluded on an annual or multi-annual basis in accordance with Article 39.

3. Each programme forms an integral part of the financing agreement.

4. Financing agreements shall lay down:

(a) provisions by which the beneficiary country accepts the assistance of the Community and agrees to the rules and procedures concerning disbursement related to such assistance;

(b) the terms on which the assistance is managed, including the relevant methods and responsibilities for implementing the annual or multi-annual programme and/or operations;

[F1 (c) provisions relating to the establishment and regular updating, by the beneficiary country, of a road map with indicative benchmarks and time limits to achieve decentralisation without ex ante controls by the Commission as referred to in Articles 14 and 18; these provisions are only required for those components or programmes where the Commission Decision of the conferral of management powers as referred to in Article 14 provides for ex ante controls to be performed by the Commission.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Commission Regulation (EU) No 80/2010 of 28 January 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 718/2007 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 1085/2006 establishing an instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA).

(1)

OJ L 375, 23.12.1989, p. 11.

(2)

OJ L 161, 26.6.1999, p. 73.

(3)

OJ L 161, 26.06.1999, p. 87.

(4)

OJ L 342, 27.12.2001, p. 1.

(5)

OJ L 306, 07.12.2000, p. 1.

(6)

OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 1.