Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance, financial engineering and certain provisions related to statement of expenditure - Montesquieu Instituut

 

-

COUNCIL OFBrussels, 5 October 2011

THE EUROPEAN UNION

15147/11

Interinstitutional File:

2011/0210 (COD)

FSTR - 46

FC - 36

REGIO - 80 - -

SOC - 848

CADREFIN 83

FIN - 709

CODEC 1616

NOTE

from:

Working Party on Structural Measures

to: Permanent Representatives Committee

No. prev. doc.: 13403/11 FSTR 30 FC 30 REGO 62 SOC 679 CADREFIN 67 FIN 566

CODEC 1558 + COR 1 - COM(2011) 483 final

Subject: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance, financial engineering and certain provisions related to statement of expenditure

-

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

amending Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards repayable assistance,

financial engineering and certain provisions related to statement of expenditure

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 177

thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national Parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee1,

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions2,

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure

Whereas:

(1) Member States have had positive experiences with repayable assistance schemes at the level

of operations during the programming period 2000-2006 and have therefore continued such

schemes or have started to implement repayable assistance schemes in the current

programming period 2007-2013. Some Member States have also included descriptions of

those schemes in their programming documents, which were approved by the Commission.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on

the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund

and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1260/19991 sets out financial engineering instruments with

precise areas and scope of intervention. However, the schemes implemented by Member

States in the form of reimbursable grants and of credit lines managed by managing authorities

via intermediate bodies are neither appropriately covered by the provisions on financial

engineering instruments, nor by other provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006. It is

therefore necessary, in line with Article 11(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1081/2006 of the

European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the European Social Fund and

repealing Regulation (EC) No 1784/19992, which already provides that assistance can take the

form of reimbursable grants, to set out in a new Section of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006

that the Structural Funds may co-finance repayable assistance. That Section should cover

reimbursable grants and credit lines managed by the managing authority through intermediate

bodies which are financial institutions.

(4) It is necessary to clarify that the provisions on major projects, revenue-generating projects and

durability of operations should not be applicable as a matter of principle to financial

engineering instruments, since those rules are rather meant for other types of operations.

(5) Having regard to the need of ensuring appropriate monitoring, by the Member States as well

as by the Commission, of the implementation of financial engineering instruments, inter alia

in order to allow the Member States to provide appropriate information to the Commission on

the type of instruments put in place and on the relevant actions undertaken by such

instruments on the ground, it is necessary to introduce a provision on reporting. This would

also allow the Commission to better assess the overall performance of financial engineering

instruments and provide a summary of the progress at the Union and Member State level.

(6) In order to ensure compliance with Article 61(2) of the Council Regulation (EC) 1605/2002

on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities1, it

is necessary to require that the statement of expenditure to be submitted to the Commission

shall provide all information necessary for the Commission to produce accounts which give a

true image of the Union's assets and of budgetary implementation. To this effect, an

attachment to each statement of expenditure shall include information on the amount of total

expenditure paid in establishing financial engineering instruments and on the advances paid to

the beneficiaries in the context of State aids. The format of the attachment should be defined

in the Annex to this Regulation for the purpose of legal security and consistency. However,

the practical implementation of the collection of data necessary for this purpose shall be

(7) The amendments relating to the forms and reuse of repayable assistance as well as the

exclusion of the application to operations falling under Article 44 (financial engineering

instruments) of the provisions on major projects, revenue-generating projects and durability of

operations aim at providing for greater legal security and clarity concerning the application of

an existing practice in these fields with effect from the beginning of the eligibility period as

set out by Regulation (EC) 1083/2006. It is therefore necessary that the subject amendments

have retroactive effect from the beginning of the current programming period 2007-2013.

(8) Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 is amended as follows:

(1) In Article 2 the following points 8 and 9 are added:

"(8) 'reimbursable grant': a direct financial contribution by way of a donation which can be

totally or partially reimbursable without interest."

"(9) 'credit line': a financial facility allowing the beneficiary to draw down the financial

contribution, which can be totally or partially reimbursable, in relation to expenditure paid by

the beneficiary and supported by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent

"Section 3a

Repayable assistance

Article 43a

Forms of repayable assistance

• 1. 

  As part of an operational programme, the Structural Funds may co-finance repayable

assistance as follows:

(a) in the form of reimbursable grants, or

(b) in the form of credit lines managed by the managing authority through

intermediate bodies which are financial institutions.

• 2. 

  The statement of expenditure concerning repayable assistance shall be submitted in

accordance with Article 78(1) to (5).

Article 43b

Reuse of repayable assistance

"Article 44a

Non-application of certain provisions

Articles 39, 55 and 57 shall not apply to operations falling under Article 44."

(4) In the first subparagraph of Article 67(2) the following point is added:

"(j) the progress in the financing and implementation of financial engineering

instruments as defined in Article 44, namely:

(i) description of the financial engineering instrument and implementation

arrangements;

(ii) identification of the entities which implement the financial engineering

instrument, including those acting through holding funds;

(iii) amounts of the assistance from the Structural Funds and national co-

financing paid to the financial engineering instrument;

(iv) amounts of the assistance from the Structural Funds and national co-

financing paid by the financial engineering instrument."

(6) The following Article 78a is inserted:

"Article 78a

Requirement to provide information in the statement of expenditure

An attachment to each statement of expenditure to be submitted to the Commission, in the

format set out in Annex V, shall indicate the following information in relation to the amount

of total expenditure included therein:

(a) as regards financial engineering instruments as defined in Article 44, the total

expenditure paid in establishing or contributing to such funds or holding funds and the

corresponding public contribution;

(b) as regards advances paid under Article 78(2) in the context of State aids, the total

expenditure paid as advance to the beneficiaries by the body granting the aid and the

corresponding public contribution."

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the

Official Journal of the European Union .

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels,

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President - - - - - - - The President

_______________________

ANNEX

"ANNEX V

Attachment to statement of expenditure: information on financial engineering instruments in the meaning of Art. 78(6) and advances paid to the beneficiaries under Article 78(2)

Operational Programme reference (CCI No): ................................................. Name of programme: ............................................................................ Date of provisional closure of accounts: ............................................................. Date of submission to the Commission: ................................................................

Financial engineering instruments in the meaning of the art. 78(6) (cumulative amounts):

Priority Axis Basis for calculating Community contribution (public or total) 2007-2015

Total amount of eligible expenditure declared in accordance with Art. 78(6) Corresponding public

contribution

Priority Axis 1

Priority Axis 2

Priority Axis 3

Total

Advances paid in the context of state aid (art. 78(2)) (cumulative amounts):

Priority Axis Basis for calculating Community contribution (public or total) 2007-2015

Total amount of eligible expenditure declared in accordance with Art. 78(2) Corresponding public

contribution

Priority Axis 1