30.4.2004 Official Journal of the European Union L 155/123 
 
  EN 
COMMISSION DECISION 
of 29 April 2004 
on the clearance of the accounts of Member States’ expenditure financed by the European 
Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), Guarantee Section, for the 2003 
financial year 
 
(notified under document number C(2004) 1699) 
 
(2004/451/EC) 
 
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty esta blishing the European Community, 
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 of 17 May 1999 on the financing of 
the common agricultural policy1, and in particular Article 7(3) thereof, 
After consulting the Fund Committee, 
Whereas: 
(1) Under Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No  1258/1999, the Commission, on the basis of 
the annual accounts submitted by the Member  States, accompanied by the information 
required for clearance and a certificate regarding the integrality, accuracy and veracity of the accounts transmitted and the reports established by the certification bodies, clears the 
accounts of the paying agencies referred to in Article 4(1) of that Regulation. 
(2) Pursuant to Article 7(1) of Commissi on Regulation (EC) No 296/96 of 16 February 
1996 on data to be transmitted by the Member States and the monthly booking of 
expenditure financed under the Guarantee Section of the European Agricultural 
Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
2, account is taken for the 2003 financial year 
of expenditure incurred by the Member  States between 16 October 2002 and 15 
October 2003. 
(3) The time limits granted to the Member States for the submission to the Commission of 
the documents referred to in Article 6(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) 1258/1999 and in 
Article 4(1) of Commission Regulation (E C) No 1663/95 of 7 July 1995 laying down 
detailed rules for the application of C ouncil Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 regarding 
                                                 
1 OJ L 160, 26.6.1999, p. 103. 
2 OJ L 39, 17.2.1996, p. 5. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2035/2003 (OJ L 302, 
20.11.2003, p. 6). 
    the procedure for the clearance of ac counts of the EAGGF Guarantee Section3, have 
expired. 
                                                 
3  OJ L 158, 8.7.1995, p. 6. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2025/2001 (OJ L 274, 
17.10.2001, p. 3).   
    (4) The Commission has checked the information submitted and communicated to the 
Member States before the 31 March 2004 the results of its verifications, along with the 
necessary amendments. 
(5) Under the first subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95, the 
accounts clearance decision referred to in Ar ticle 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 
must determine, without prejudice to decisi ons taken subsequently in accordance with 
Article 7(4) of the Regulation, the amount of  expenditure effected in each Member State 
during the financial year in question recognised as being chargeable to the EAGGF Guarantee Section, on the basis of the acco unts referred to in Article 6(1)(b) of 
Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999 and the reductions and suspensions of advances for the 
financial year concerned, including the reductions referred to in the second subparagraph 
of Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 296/96. Under Article 154 of Council Regulation 
(EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities
4, the outcome of the clearance 
decision, that is to say any discrepancy which may occur between the total expenditure 
booked to the accounts for a financial year pursuant to Article 151(1) and Article 152 
and the total expenditure taken into consideration by the Commission in this Decision, is 
to be booked, under a single article, as ad ditional expenditure or a reduction in 
expenditure. 
(6) For certain paying agencies, in the light of  the verifications made, the annual accounts 
and the accompanying documents permit the Commission to take a decision on the 
integrality, accuracy and veracity of the accounts submitted. Annex I lists the amounts 
cleared by Member State. The details of these amounts were described in the Summary 
Report that was presented to the Fund Committee at the same time as this Decision. 
(7) In the light of the verifications made, the information submitted by certain paying 
agencies requires additional inquiries and their accounts cannot be cleared in this 
Decision. Annex II lists the paying agencies concerned. 
(8) Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 296/ 96, in liaison with Article 14 of Council 
Regulation (EC) No 2040/2000 of 26 September 2000 on budgetary discipline5 lays 
down that advances against booking are to be reduced for expenditure effected by the 
Member States after the limits or deadlines laid down. However, under Article 4(3) of 
Regulation (EC) No 296/96, any overrun of deadlines during August, September and 
October is to be taken into account in the accounts clearance decision except where 
noted before the last decision of the financial year relating to advances. Some of the expenditure declared by cert ain Member States during th e abovementioned period and 
for the measures for which the Commission did not accept any extenuating 
circumstances was effected after the statutory limits or deadlines laid down. This 
Decision should therefore lay down the relevant reductions. A decision will be taken at a 
later date, in accordance with Article 7( 4) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999, 
definitively fixing the expenditure for which Community financing will not be granted 
regarding those reductions and any other expenditure which may be found to have been 
effected after the limits or deadlines laid down. 
                                                
 
4  OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. 
5  OJ L 244, 29.9.2000, p. 27. 
    (9) The Commission, in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 2040/2000 and 
Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 296/96, has already reduced or suspended a number 
of monthly advances on entry into the accounts of expenditure for the 2003 financial 
year and makes in this Decision the reductions laid down in Article 4(3) of Regulation 
(EC) No 296/96. In the light of the above, to avoid any premature or merely a temporary 
reimbursement of the amounts in question, they should not be recognised in this Decision, without prejudice to further examination under Article 7(4) of Regulation 
(EC) No 1258/1999. 
(10) The second subparagraph of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95 lays down that 
the amounts that are recoverable from, or payable to, each Member State, in accordance 
with the accounts clearance decision referr ed to in the first subparagraph, shall be 
determined by deducting advances paid during the financial year in question, i.e. 2003, 
from expenditure recognised for that year in accordance with the first subparagraph. Such amounts are to be deducted from, or added to, advances against expenditure from 
the second month following that in which the accounts clearance decision is taken. 
(11) In accordance with the final subparag raph of Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 
1258/1999 and Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1663/95, this Decision, adopted on 
the basis of accounting information, does not prejudice decisions taken subsequently by 
the Commission excluding from Community financing expenditure not effected in 
accordance with Community rules, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 
Article 1 
With the exception of the paying agencies referre d to in Article 2, the accounts of the paying 
agencies of the Member States concerning expenditure financed by the EAGGF Guarantee 
Section in respect of the 2003 financial year are hereby cleared. The amounts which are 
recoverable from, or payable to, each Member Stat e under this Decision are set out in Annex I. 
Article 2 
For the 2003 financial year, the accounts of the Member States’ paying agencies in respect of 
expenditure financed by the EAGGF Guarantee Section, shown in Annex II, are disjoined from 
this Decision and shall be the subject of a future clearance Decision. 
Article 3 
This Decision is addressed to the Member States. Done at Brussels, 29 April 2004. 
 For the Commission 
 Franz FISCHLER 
 Member of the Commission 
Clearance of the Paying Agencies' accounts
Financial year 2003
Amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State.
2003 - Expenditure for the Paying Agencies for 
which the accounts are 
cleared disjoined
= expenditure declared 
in the annual declaration= total of the 
expenditure in the 
monthly declarations
a b c=a+b d e=c+d f g=e-f
AT EUR 1,124,451,201.40 0.00 1,124,451,201.40 0.00 1,124,451,201.40 1,124,451,201.40 0.00
BE EUR 237,497,339.10 779,448,345.00 1,016,945,684.10 -17,989.43 1,016,927,694.67 1,016,959,814.40 -32,119.73
DE EUR 3,638,399,757.78 2,205,058,627.62 5,843,458,385.40 -332,346.61 5,843,126,038.79 5,843,311,780.61 -185,741.82DK DKK 9,059,266,023.37 0.00 9,059,266,023.37 -208,243.99 9,059,057,779.38 9,063,035,256.16 -3,977,476.78
ES EUR 6,336,591,210.57 137,287,053.64 6,473,878,264.21 -16,797,763.08 6,457,080,501.13 6,459,067,545.01 -1,987,043.88
FI EUR 874,403,549.78 0.00 874,403,549.78 -6,820.82 874,396,728.96 874,396,760.07 -31.11
FR EUR 723,538,916.23 9,700,476,244.99 10,424,015,161.22 -5,675,864.78 10,418,339,296.44 10,419,067,788.02 -728,491.58
GR EUR 2,765,731,520.20  2,765,731,520.20 -11,421,374.93 2,754,310,145.27 2,757,089,010.35 -2,778,865.08
IE EUR 1,945,784,292.92 0.00 1,945,784,292.92 -625,136.09 1,945,159,156.83 1,945,218,266.51 -59,109.68
IT EUR 5,377,271,645.37  5,377,271,645.37 -30,674,873.64 5,346,596,771.73 5,372,723,120.26 -26,126,348.53
LU EUR  44,329,012.92 44,329,012.92 -2,595,118.16 41,733,894.76 43,257,600.06 -1,523,705.30NL EUR 667,923,025.05 692,441,653.47 1,360,364,678.52 -1,296,238.97 1,359,068,439.55 1,359,713,294.61 -644,855.06PT EUR 104,748,359.56 744,898,191.57 849,646,551.13 -121,895.47 849,524,655.66 849,546,984.03 -22,328.37
SE SEK  7,905,426,575.41 7,905,426,575.41 5,834,913.34 7,911,261,488.75 7,911,261,488.75 0.00
UK GBP  2,650,898,429.77 2,650,898,429.77 -33,953,582.84 2,616,944,846.93 2,639,372,167.88 -22,427,320.95
(1) For the calculation of the amount to be recovered from or paid to the Member State the amount taken into account is, the total of the annual declaration 
for the expenditure cleared (col. a) or, the total of the monthly declarations for the expenditure disjoined (col. b)
(2) The reductions and suspensions are those taken into account in the advance system, to which are added in particular the correct ions
 for the non respect of payment deadlines established in August, September and October 2003Advances paid to the 
Member State for the 
financial yearAmount to be recovered 
from (-) or paid to (+) the 
Member StateMS Total a + b Reductions
and suspensions
for the
whole financial yearTotal including 
reductions and 
suspensions
L155-6a-EN.xls
Financial year 2003
List of Paying Agencies for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later 
clearance decisio n
Member
StatePaying Agency
Germany Bayern Umwelt
Germany Baden Württemberg
Germany BerlinGermany
Hamburg
Germany Bayern StMELF
Germany Niedersachsen
Belgium ALT
Belgium ALP
Belgium BIRB
Spain Navarra
 
France ONIC
France ONIOL
France FIRS
France CNASEA
France ONIFLHOR
France OFIVAL
France SDE
France ONIVINS
Luxembourg Ministere de l'Agriculture
The Netherlands HPA
The Netherlands LASER
Portugal INGA
United Kingdom RPA
United Kingdom DARD
United Kingdom SEERAD
United Kingdom FC
United Kingdom CCW
United Kingdom NAW
Sweden Swedish Board of AgricultureClearance of the Paying Agencies' accounts 
L155-6a-EN.xls