Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2224

Contents

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 228/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2013 laying down specific measures for agriculture in the outermost regions of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 247/2006^note, and in particular Article 19(3) and Article 21(4) thereof,Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2013 laying down specific measures for agriculture in favour of the smaller Aegean islands and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1405/2006^note, and in particular Article 15(3) thereof,Whereas:

(1)Reporting requirements play a key role in ensuring proper monitoring and correct enforcement of legislation. However, it is important to streamline those requirements in order to ensure that they fulfil the purpose for which they were intended and to limit the administrative burden.

(2)The administrative burden arising from the requirements for the systematic communication to the Commission of certain data or information provided for in Commission Implementing Regulations (EU) No 180/2014^note and (EU) No 181/2014^note should be reduced by replacing them with communication at the Commission’s request, without altering access to such data or information.

(3)Article 32(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014 provides that the competent authorities are to notify the Commission, upon its request, of the services or bodies responsible for granting the approval, provided for in Article 6(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 179/2014^note, of the right to use the logo for the outermost regions, provided for in Article 21(1) of Regulation (EU) No 228/2013 (the logo), and for carrying out the checks required under Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014, as well as certain additional measures.

(4)Article 32(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014 provides that the competent authorities are to notify the Commission of each approval of the right to use the logo, by indicating the name and the seat of the producer, the products, and the period for which the right was granted. In addition, Article 32(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014 requires that that notification is to be made in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1183^note and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1185^note, which implies the systematic notification of each logo approved. It is more appropriate to require the communication of approvals only upon the request of the Commission, as is the case under Article 32(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014.

(5)Article 38(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014, and Article 30(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014, provide, as regards support for local production, that the Member States and Greece respectively, are to notify the Commission: (a) not later than 30 April each year, of the aid applications received and the amounts involved for the previous calendar year; and (b) not later than 31 July each year, of the aid applications definitively eligible and the amounts involved for the previous calendar year. These systematic notifications, that are required to be made in accordance with Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1183 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1185, should be replaced with the requirement of communicating such data upon the request of the Commission.

(6)Article 23(2) of Regulation (EU) No 228/2013 provides that Member States may grant additional financing for the implementation of programmes of options specifically relating to remoteness and insularity (POSEI programmes), and Article 17(2) of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 provides that Greece may grant additional financing for the implementing of the support programme. In such cases, the Member States and Greece respectively are to notify the Commission of the State aid and the Commission may approve it in accordance with those Regulations as part of those programmes. Aid thus notified is to be regarded as notified within the meaning of the first sentence of Article 108(3) of the Treaty.

(7)Article 40(3), point (b), of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014, and Article 32(3), point (b), of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014, permit Member States to make certain amendments to POSEI programmes, and Greece to make certain amendments to the support programme, without recourse to the procedure for amending such programmes laid down respectively in Article 40(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014, and in Article 32(1) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014, provided that those amendments are notified to the Commission. As regards all measures, adjustments up to 20 % of the financial allocation for each individual measure, without prejudice to the financial ceilings provided for in Article 30 of Regulation (EU) No 228/2013 for POSEI programmes, and in Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013 for the support programme, are allowed on condition that such adjustments are notified not later than 31 May of the year following the calendar year to which the amended financial allocation refers. Accordingly, Article 40(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014 and Article 32(3) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014 provide the possibility for the Member States and Greece respectively to increase the amount allocated to any individual measures by complementary national funding up to 20 % of the financial allocation of the measure by notification. Considering the recent crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian war of aggression against Ukraine the additional national financing has become a significant element in helping the improvement of food sovereignty in the outermost regions and SAI, essentially because of their extreme remoteness, isolation, insularity and small surface.

(8)It may happen that the need of complementary national funding to complement the amount of a POSEI or SAI measures, financed from the European agricultural guarantee fund (EAGF) or from the EAGF and from a national source, exceeds the limit of 20 % of the total financial allocation of the measure. Therefore, when the source of the increase is complementary national funding, it is appropriate to allow, in duly justified cases, for a higher percentage of additional allocation, of up to 50 % of the financial allocation for each individual measure of the support programmes in accordance with the notification procedure laid down in Article 40(3), point (b), of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 180/2014, and Article 32(3), point (b), of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 181/2014.

(9)Implementing Regulations (EU) No 180/2014 and (EU) No 181/2014 should therefore be amended accordingly to simplify the requirements mentioned above, in line with the Commission’s Communication on ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU: looking beyond 2030’^note.

(10)The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for Direct Payments,

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