CHAPTER IGENERAL RULES ON THE SCHOOL SCHEME
Article 6Conditions for approval of aid applicants
1.
Aid applicants shall be approved by the competent authority of the Member State in which the educational establishment to which the products are supplied and/or distributed is located. Approval shall be subject to the following written commitments made by the applicants:
(a)
to ensure the products financed by the Union under the school scheme are made available for consumption by the children in educational establishment or establishments in respect of which they will apply for aid;
(b)
to use the aid allocated for accompanying educational measures, monitoring, evaluation, and publicity, in accordance with the objectives of the school scheme;
(c)
to reimburse any aid unduly paid for the quantities concerned, if it has been found that the products have not been distributed to the children or are not eligible for Union aid;
(d)
to reimburse any aid unduly paid for accompanying educational measures, monitoring, evaluation, publicity measures, if it has been found that those measures or activities have not been properly carried out;
(e)
to make supporting documents available to the competent authority on request;
(f)
to permit the competent authority to conduct any necessary checks, in particular the scrutiny of records and physical inspection.
Where applications for aid concern activities subject to public procurement procedures, Member States may consider approval as granted where the commitments set out at the first subparagraph are included in the conditions for participating in the public procurement procedures.
2.
In the case of aid applications relating to the supply and/or distribution of products only, points (b) and (d) of paragraph 1 shall not apply. Applicants shall make an additional written commitment to keep a record of the names and addresses of the educational establishments or educational authorities in receipt of their products and a record of the quantities of the specific products sold or supplied.
3.
In the case of aid applications relating to accompanying educational measures only, points (a) and (c) of paragraph 1 shall not apply. Competent authorities may specify any additional written commitments to be undertaken by applicants, in particular as regards:
(a)
accompanying educational measures carried out in schools, when those schools are not aid applicants;
(b)
accompanying educational measures that include the distribution of products.
4.
In the case of aid applications relating to monitoring, evaluation and publicity only, points (a) and (c) of paragraph 1 shall not apply.
5.
Member States may consider the approvals granted under the school fruit and vegetables scheme according to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/247 and/or under the school milk scheme according to Regulation (EC) No 657/2008 valid if the criteria and the conditions are not changed.