F2This Regulation lays down the common rules applicable to support for rural development. It also lays down the provisions necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the support and co-ordination with other retained direct EU legislation. The common rules that apply are set out in Part Two.

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Part Four lays down general rules applicable to the Funds and the EMFF on management and control, financial management, accounts and financial corrections.

1. (1)

   F4...

2. (2)

   F4...

3. (3)

   F4...

4. (4)

   F4...

5. (5)

   F5Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (‘Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013’)

6. (6)

   a future Union legal act establishing the conditions for the financial support for maritime and fisheries policy for the programming period 2014 - 2020 (the 'EMFF Regulation").

F6Part Two of this Regulation applies to support for rural development except when it explicitly allows for derogations. The Fund-specific Regulations may establish complementary rules to Part Two of this Regulation. The complementary rules in the Fund-specific Regulations must be read consistently with Part Two of this Regulation. In case of doubt about the application between provisions, Part Two of this Regulation prevails over the Fund-specific Regulations.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply;

1. (1)

   F7...

2. (2)

   'a strategic policy framework' means a document or a set of documents established at national or regional level, which sets out a limited number of coherent priorities established on the basis of evidence and a timeframe for the implementation of those priorities and which may include a monitoring mechanism;

3. (3)

   'smart specialisation strategy' means the national or regional innovation strategies which set priorities in order to build competitive advantage by developing and matching research and innovation own strengths to business needs in order to address emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while avoiding duplication and fragmentation of efforts; a smart specialisation strategy may take the form of, or be included in, a national or regional research and innovation (R&I) strategic policy framework;

4. (4)

   F8“Fund-specific rules” means the provisions laid down in, or established on the basis of, Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013;

5. (5)

   F9“programming” means the process of organisation, decision-making and allocation of financial resources in several stages, with the involvement of partners in accordance with Article 5, intended to implement, on a multi-annual basis, action by the relevant authority;

6. (6)

   F10“programme” means a ‘rural development programme’ as referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013;

7. (7)

   'programme area' means a geographical area covered by a specific programme or, in the case of a programme covering more than one category of region, the geographical area corresponding to each separate category of region;

8. (8)

   F11“priority”, in Part Two of this Regulation, means a priority for rural development referred to in Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013;

9. (9)

   'operation' means a project, contract, action or group of projects selected by the managing authorities of the programmes concerned, or under their responsibility, that contributes to the objectives of a priority or priorities; in the context of financial instruments, an operation is constituted by the financial contributions from a programme to financial instruments and the subsequent financial support provided by those financial instruments;

10. (10)

    F12'beneficiary' means a public or private body or a natural person, responsible for initiating or both initiating and implementing operations, and:

    1. (a)
       in the context of State aid, the body which receives the aid, except where the aid per undertaking is less than EUR 200 000, in which case the F13relevant authority concerned may decide that the beneficiary is the body granting the aid, without prejudice to Commission Regulations (EU) No 1407/201323, (EU) No 1408/201324 and (EU) No 717/201425; and
    2. (b)

       in the context of financial instruments under Title IV of Part Two of this Regulation, the body that implements the financial instrument or the fund of funds as appropriate;

11. (11)

    'financial instruments' means financial instruments as defined in the Financial Regulation, save where otherwise provided in this Regulation;

12. (12)

    'final recipient' means a legal or natural person receiving financial support from a financial instrument;

13. (13)
    'State aid' means aid falling under Article 107(1) TFEU which shall be deemed for the purposes of this Regulation also to include de minimis aid within the meaning of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1998/200626, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1535/200727 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 875/200728;
14. (14)

    'completed operation' means an operation that has been physically completed or fully implemented and in respect of which all related payments have been made by beneficiaries and the corresponding public contribution has been paid to the beneficiaries;

15. (15)

    F14“public expenditure” means any public contribution to the financing or operations the source of which is the budget of national, regional or local public authorities, the budget of the Union related to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the budget of public law bodies or the budget of associations of public authorities or of public law bodies;

16. (16)

    F15“public law body” means any body governed by public law within the criteria in paragraphs (a) to (c) of point 9 of Article 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council

17. (17)

    'document' means a paper or an electronic medium bearing information of relevance in the context of this Regulation;

18. (18)

    'intermediate body' means any public or private body which acts under the responsibility of a managing or certifying authority, or which carries out duties on behalf of such an authority, in relation to beneficiaries implementing operations;

19. (19)

    'community-led local development strategy' means a coherent set of operations the purpose of which is to meet local objectives and needs, F16... and which is designed and implemented by a local action group;

20. (20)

    F17...

21. (21)

    'category of regions' means the categorisation of regions as 'less developed regions', 'transition regions' or 'more developed regions' in accordance with Article 90(2) F18as it had effect immediately before IP completion day;

22. (22)

    F19...

23. (23)

    F20...

24. (24)

    'Public private partnerships' (PPPs) means forms of cooperation between public bodies and the private sector, which aim to improve the delivery of investments in infrastructure projects or other types of operations, delivering public services through risk sharing, pooling of private sector expertise or additional sources of capital;

25. (25)

    'PPP operation' means an operation which is implemented or intended to be implemented under a public-private-partnership structure;

26. (26)

    X1'escrow account' means a bank account covered by a written agreement between a managing authority or an intermediate body and the body implementing a financial instrument, or, in the case of a PPP operation, a written agreement between a public body beneficiary and the private partner approved by the managing authority or an intermediate body, set up specifically to hold funds to be paid out after the eligibility period in the case of a financial instrument, or during the eligibility period and/or after the eligibility period in the case of a PPP operation, exclusively for the purposes provided for in point (c) of Article 42(1), Article 42(2), Article 42(3) and Article 64, or a bank account set up on terms providing equivalent guarantees on the payments out of the funds;

27. (27)

    'fund of funds' means a fund set up with the objective of contributing support from a programme or programmes to several financial instruments. Where financial instruments are implemented through a fund of funds, the body implementing the fund of funds shall be considered to be the only beneficiary within the meaning of point 10 of this Article;

28. (28)
    'SME' means a micro, small or medium sized enterprise as defined in Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC31F21as it had effect immediately before IP completion day;
29. (29)

    'accounting year', means, for the purposes of F22... Part Four, the period from 1 July to 30 June, except for the first accounting year of the programming period, in respect of which it means the period from the start date for eligibility of expenditure until 30 June 2015. The final accounting year shall be from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024;

30. (30)

    'financial year', means, for the purposes of F23... Part Four, the period from 1 January to 31 December;

31. (31)

    F24...

32. (32)

    F24...

33. (33)

    'applicable ex ante conditionality' means a concrete and precisely pre-defined critical factor, which is a prerequisite for and has a direct and genuine link to, and direct impact on, the effective and efficient achievement of a specific objective for an investment priority or a F25priority for rural development;

34. (34)

    'specific objective' means the result to which an investment priority or F26priority for rural development contributes in a specific national or regional context through actions or measures undertaken within such a priority;

35. (35)

    F27...

36. (36)

    F28”irregularity” means any breach of the law as it applies in the constituent nation resulting from an act or omission by an economic operator involved in the implementation of support for rural development, which has, or would have, the effect of charging an unjustified item of expenditure to a programme budget;

37. (37)

    F29”economic operator” means any natural or legal person or other entity taking part in the implementation of support for rural development, with the exception of a relevant authority exercising its prerogatives as a public authority;

38. (38)

    'systemic irregularity' means any irregularity, which may be of a recurring nature, with a high probability of occurrence in similar types of operations, which results from a serious deficiency in the effective functioning of a management and control system, including a failure to establish appropriate procedures in accordance with this Regulation and the Fund-specific rules;

39. (39)

    'serious deficiency in the effective functioning of a management and control system' means, for the purposes of implementation of the Funds and the EMFF under Part Four, a deficiency for which substantial improvements in the system are required, which exposes the Funds and the EMFF to a significant risk of irregularities, and the existence of which is incompatible with an unqualified audit opinion on the functioning of the management and control system;

40. (40)

    F30‘Financial Regulation’ means Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union as it had effect immediately before IP completion day;

41. (41)

    “CMO support” means financial support granted under Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or any of the delegated or implementing acts adopted on the basis of that regulation or of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1234/2007;

42. (42)

    “direct payment support” means financial support granted under any of the support schemes listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013;

43. (43)

    “constituent nation” means England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, as the case may be;

44. (44)

    “relevant authority” means—

    1. (a)

       in respect of support under rural development

       1. (i)

          in England, the Secretary of State,

       2. (ii)

          in Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs,

       3. (iii)

          in Scotland, the Scottish Ministers,

       4. (iv)

          in Wales, the Welsh Ministers,

45. (45)

    “support for rural development” means financial support granted under Title 3 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 or Title 3, Chapter 2 of this Regulation;

46. (47)

    F31‘appropriate authority’ means:

    1. (b)

       in relation to regulations which relate to rural development:

       1. (i)

          subject to point (ii):

          1. (aa)

             insofar as the regulations apply in England, the Secretary of State;

          2. (bb)

             insofar as the regulations apply in Wales, the Welsh Ministers;

          3. (cc)

             insofar as the regulations apply in Scotland, the Scottish Ministers;

          4. (dd)

             insofar as the regulations apply in Northern Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, or

       2. (ii)

          the Secretary of State:

          1. (aa)

             for regulations applying in Scotland, if consent is given by the Scottish Ministers;

          2. (bb)

             for regulations applying in Northern Ireland, if consent is given by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

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