Joint Statement by the European Parliament and the Council on the exclusion of any retroactivity with regard to the application of article 5(3)
The European Parliament and the Council agree that:
concerning the application of Articles 14(2), 15(1)(c), and 26 (2) of Regulation laying down common provisions for the European Structural and Investment Funds, the actions taken by the Member States to involve the partners referred to in Article 5(1) in the preparation of the Partnership Agreement and the programmes referred to in Article 5 (2) include all actions taken on a practical level by the Member States irrespective of their timing as well as actions taken by them before the entry into force of that and before the day of the entry into force of the delegated act for a European code of conduct adopted in accordance with Article 5(3) of the same Regulation, during the preparatory phases of a Member State programming procedure, provided that the objectives of the partnership principle, laid down in that Regulation, are achieved. In this context, Member States, in accordance with their national and regional competences, will decide on the content of both, the proposed Partnership Agreement and proposed draft programmes, in accordance with the relevant provisions of that Regulation and the fund specific rules;
the delegated act laying down a European code of conduct, adopted in accordance with Article 5(3), will under no circumstances and neither directly nor indirectly have any retroactive effect, especially concerning the approval procedure of the Partnership Agreement and the programmes, since it is not the intention of the EU legislature to confer any powers on the Commission to the effect that it could reject the approval of the Partnership Agreement and programmes solely and exclusively based on any kind of non-compliance with the European code of conduct, adopted in accordance with Article 5(3);
the European Parliament and the Council invite the Commission to make available for them the draft text of the delegated act to be adopted under article 5(3) as early as possible, but not later than the date when the political agreement on the Regulation laying down common provisions for the European Structural and Investment Funds is adopted by the Council or the date when the draft report on that Regulation is voted at the plenary of the European Parliament, whichever date is the earliest.