PART TWOF3COMMON PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO SUPPORT FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT

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Amendments (Textual)

TITLE IIIPROGRAMMING

CHAPTER IICommunity-led local development

Article 34Local action groups

1

Local action groups shall design and implement the community-led local development strategies.

F4The relevant authority shall define the respective roles of the local action group and the authorities responsible for the implementation of the relevant programmes, concerning all implementation tasks relating to the community-led local development strategy.

2

The managing authority or authorities responsible shall ensure that the local action groups either select one partner within the group as a lead partner in administrative and financial matters, or come together in a legally constituted common structure.

3

The tasks of local action groups shall include the following:

F1a

building the capacity of local actors, including potential beneficiaries, to develop and implement operations including by fostering their capacity to prepare and manage their projects;

b

drawing up a non-discriminatory and transparent selection procedure which avoids conflicts of interests, ensures that at least 50 % of the votes in selection decisions are cast by partners which are not public authorities, and allows selection by written procedure;

c

drawing up and approving non-discriminatory objective criteria for the selection of operations that ensure coherence with the community-led local development strategy by prioritising those operations according to their contribution to meeting that strategy’s objectives and targets;

d

preparing and publishing calls for proposals or an ongoing project submission procedure;

e

receiving and assessing applications for support;

f

selecting operations and fixing the amount of support and, where relevant, presenting the proposals to the body responsible for final verification of eligibility before approval;

g

monitoring the implementation of the community-led local development strategy and the operations supported and carrying out specific evaluation activities linked to that strategy.

F2Where local action groups carry out tasks not covered by points (a) to (g) of the first subparagraph that fall under the responsibility of the managing or certifying authority or of the paying agency, those local action groups shall be designated as intermediate bodies in accordance with the Fund-specific rules.

4

Without prejudice to point (b) of paragraph 3, the local action group may be a beneficiary and implement operations in accordance with the community-led local development strategy.

5

In the case of cooperation activities of local action groups as referred to in point (c) of Article 35(1), the tasks set out in point (f) of paragraph 3 of this Article may be carried out by the managing authority responsible.