CELEX: 32004D0451
Language: en
Date: 2004-04-29 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision 2004/451/EC 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

30.4.2004             EN                 Official Journal of the European Union           L 155/123
                                     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 establishing 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 Commission 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 (EC) No 1663/95 of 7 July 1995 laying down
         detailed rules for the application of Council 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).
 ---pagebreak---        the procedure for the clearance of accounts 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).
 ---pagebreak--- (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 Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1258/1999
        must determine, without prejudice to decisions 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 accounts 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 Communities4, 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 additional 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 certain Member States during the 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.
 ---pagebreak--- (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 referred 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 subparagraph 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 referred 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 State 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
 ---pagebreak---                                                                                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
                                                                                                        Reductions
                           cleared                  disjoined                                                                   Total including     Advances paid to the   Amount to be recovered
                                                                                                      and suspensions
        MS         = expenditure declared        = total of the               Total a + b                                       reductions and      Member State for the  from (-) or paid to (+) the
                                                                                                           for the
                                              expenditure in the                                                                 suspensions           financial year          Member State
                                                                                                    whole financial year
                 in the annual declaration 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                -185,741.82
        DK 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              -1,523,705.30
        NL 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                -644,855.06
        PT 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 corrections
                  for the non respect of payment deadlines established in August, September and October 2003
L155-6a-EN.xls
 ---pagebreak---                                    Clearance of the Paying Agencies' accounts
                                                  Financial year 2003
               List of Paying Agencies for which the accounts are disjoined and are subject of a later
                                                  clearance decision
                    Member
                                                                Paying Agency
                      State
                   Germany        Bayern Umwelt
                   Germany        Baden Württemberg
                   Germany        Berlin
                   Germany        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 Agriculture
L155-6a-EN.xls