The Committee on Regional Development adopted the
report by Danuta Maria HUBNER (EPP, PL) on the proposal for a
regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending
Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as regards certain provisions
relating to financial management for certain Member States
experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect
to their financial stability. It recommended that the European
Parliament’s position at first reading, under the ordinary
legislative procedure, should be to amend the Commission proposal.
The amendments are the result of negotiations between the committee
members and the Council. The main amendments are as
follows:
Derogation: the
derogation permitting the increase of interim payments will be
granted upon the written request of
a Member State meeting one of the conditions
mentioned in the text. The request shall be submitted within two
months of the entry into force of the regulation or within two
months from the date on which a Member State meets
the conditions.
It is added that the temporary increase in interim
payments should also be considered in the context of the budgetary
restraints facing all Member States, which should be reflected
appropriately in the EU budget. In addition, since the main
purpose of the mechanism is to address specific current
difficulties, its application should be limited in
time. Therefore application of the mechanism should start
on 1 January 2010 and its duration should be limited until the
end of 31 December 2013. The derogation shall cease to be
valid for statements of expenditure submitted after 31 December
2013.
Justification of the request for
derogation: the amended text states
that  in its request submitted to the Commission, the Member
State shall justify the necessity of the derogation by providing
information necessary to establish:

the unavailability of resources for the national
counterpart through data on its macroeconomic and fiscal situation;
and that an increase of payments referred to in paragraph 2 is
necessary to safeguard the continuation of the implementation of
operational programmes;
that the problems persist even if the maximum ceilings
applicable to co-financing rates of Annex III are used;
reference to a Council Decision or other legal act,
which justifies that the Member State falls under any of the points
of eligibility as stated in the draft regulation, as well as the
concrete starting date from which the financial assistance was made
available to the Member State.

The Commission will have 30 days from the day of
submission of the request to raise any objection against the
correctness of the information submitted. If the Commission
does not raise any objection,
the Member State request for the derogation shall be
considered as justified. However, if the Commission decides to
object to the Member State's request, the Commission
shall adopt a decision, by means of an implementing act, on this
and shall give the reasons.
Intended use of the derogation: the Member State request shall also
detail the intended use of the derogation, and give
information about complementary measures foreseen in order to
concentrate the funds on competitiveness, growth and employment,
including, where appropriate, a modification of the
operational programmes.
The text further states that in the context of the
strategic reporting in accordance with the terms of the Regulation,
the Member States shall provide the Commission with
appropriate information on the use of the derogation
showing how the increased amount of support has contributed to
promote competitiveness, growth and jobs in
the Member State concerned. This information shall
be taken into account by the Commission in the preparation of the
strategic report.
Retroactive application:
the Regulation shall apply retroactively to the following Member
States: in case
of Ireland, Greece and Portugal with
effect from the day when the financial assistance was
made available to these Member States and in case
of Hungary, Latvia and Romania from 1
January 2010.
Lastly, the committee notes that as a result of the
increase in interim payments, the required national counterpart
will be reduced accordingly. Due to the temporary nature
of the increase and in order to maintain the
original co-financing rates as the reference point for
calculation of the temporarily increased amounts, the changes
resulting from application of the mechanism will not be reflected
in the financial plan included in the operational
programme. However, operational programmes may need to
be updated in order to concentrate the funds on competitiveness,
growth and employment an in order to align their targets and
objectives with the decrease of total funding available.