Without prejudice to specific provisions of this Regulation or other Community legislation, Member States shall introduce checks and measures in so far as they are necessary to ensure the proper application of Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 and this Regulation. They shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive so that they provide adequate protection for the Communities’ financial interests.

In particular, Member States shall ensure that:

1. (a)

   all eligibility criteria established by Community or national legislation or the national framework can be checked;

2. (b)

   the competent authorities responsible for carrying out checks have a sufficient number of suitably qualified and experienced staff to carry out the checks effectively;

3. (c)

   provision is made for checks to avoid irregular duplicated financing of measures under this Regulation and other Community or national schemes;

4. (d)

   the checks and measures are in line with the nature of the support measure concerned. Member States shall define methods and means for verification and specify who shall be subject to checks;

5. (e)

   controls are carried out either systematically or by sampling. In the case of sampling, Member States shall ensure that by their number, nature and frequency controls are representative of the whole of their territory and correspond, where applicable, to the volume of wine-sector products marketed or held with a view to their marketing;

6. (f)

   the operations admitted to community financing are genuine and comply with the Community legislation.