Legal provisions of COM(2019)399 - Amending Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 in order to provide financial assistance to Member States to cover serious financial burden inflicted on them following a no-deal Brexit - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2019)399 - Amending Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 in order to provide financial assistance to Member States to cover serious financial ... |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2019)399  |
| date | September 4, 2019 |
Contents
Article 1
(1) Before Article 1, the following heading is inserted:
“TITLE I
SCOPE AND ELIGIBILITY”
(2) In Article 1 the following subparagraph is added:
“For the purpose of this Regulation, the notion of “major disasters” covers natural disasters as well as situations where serious financial burden is inflicted on a Member State as a direct consequence of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union without an agreement.”.
(3) The following new Articles 3a and 3b are inserted:
Article 3a
(2) The available appropriations for this goal shall be limited to half of the maximum available amount for the Fund intervention for the years 2019 and 2020.
(3) Such assistance shall cover a part of the additional public expenditure caused directly by the withdrawal without an agreement and incurred exclusively between the date of the withdrawal without an agreement and 31 December 2020 ("financial burden").
(4) A Member State shall be eligible to apply for assistance under this Article, if the financial burden it has suffered is estimated to be either over EUR 1 500 000 000 in 2011 prices, or more than 0.3 % of its GNI.
(5) Only Member States may apply for assistance from the Fund under this Article.
Article 3b
(1) Assistance provided under Article 3a shall cover only the financial burden borne by a Member State compared to the situation where an agreement between the Union and the United Kingdom would have been concluded. Such assistance may be used, for example, to provide support to businesses affected by the withdrawal without an agreement, including support to State aid measures for those businesses and related interventions; measures to preserve existing employment; and to ensure the functioning of border, customs, sanitary and phytosanitary controls, including additional personnel and infrastructure.(2) VAT shall not constitute eligible expenditure.
(3) The loss of the revenues by a Member State shall not constitute eligible expenditure.
(4) Technical assistance for management, monitoring, information and communication, complaint resolution, and control and auditing, shall not be eligible for a financial contribution from the Fund. Costs relating to the preparation and implementation of the operations mitigating financial burden, including costs relating to essential technical expertise, shall be eligible as part of project costs.
(5) Where revenue is generated from operations referred to in paragraph 1 with a financial contribution from the Fund, the total financial contribution from the Fund shall not exceed the total net financial burden borne by a Member State. A Member State shall include a statement to that effect in the report on the implementation of the financial contribution from the Fund pursuant to Article 8(3).
(6) Eligible expenditure can only relate to operations that are compatible with Union law, including State aid rules.”
(4) Before Article 4, the following headings are inserted:
“Title II
procedures
Chapter I
Natural disasters”
(5) Before Article 4 a, the following heading is inserted:
“Chapter II
Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union”
(6) Article 4a is replaced by the following:
“Article 4a
(1) The responsible national authorities of a Member State may submit a single application to the Commission for a financial contribution from the Fund in accordance with Article 3a by 30 April 2020 at the latest. The application shall include, as a minimum, all relevant information on the financial burden inflicted on that Member State. It shall describe the public measures taken in response to the withdrawal without an agreement specifying their net cost until 31 December 2020 and the reasons why they could not have been avoided through preparedness measures. It should also include the justification concerning direct effect of the withdrawal without an agreement.
(2) The Commission shall prepare guidance on how to access and implement the Fund effectively. The guidance shall provide detailed information on the preparation of the application, and the information to be submitted to the Commission, including on the evidence to be provided concerning the financial burden inflicted. The guidance shall be made public on the websites of the relevant Directorate Generals of the Commission and the Commission shall ensure its wider dissemination to the Member States.
(3) After 30 April 2020, the Commission shall assess on the basis of the information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, for all applications received, whether the conditions for mobilising the Fund are met in each case and shall determine the amounts of any possible financial contribution from the Fund within the limits of the financial resources available.
(4) Assistance from the Fund shall be awarded to the Member States meeting the eligibility criteria, taking into account the thresholds specified in Article 3a(4), at a rate of up to 5% of the inflicted financial burden, and within the limits of the budget available. In the event that the budget available should prove insufficient, the aid rate shall be proportionately reduced.
(5) Where the Commission has concluded that the conditions as set out in Article 3a are met for providing a financial contribution from the Fund, it shall without delay submit to the European Parliament and the Council the necessary proposals to mobilise the Fund and to authorise the corresponding appropriations. Those proposals shall include:
(a)all available information, as referred to in paragraph 1;
(b)all other relevant information in the possession of the Commission;
(c)evidence demonstrating that the conditions of Article 3a are fulfilled;
(d)a justification of the amounts proposed.
(6) The decision to mobilise the Fund shall be taken jointly by the European Parliament and the Council as soon as possible after the submission of the proposal by the Commission. The Commission, on the one hand, and the European Parliament and the Council, on the other hand, shall endeavour to minimise the time taken to mobilise the Fund.
(7) Once the appropriations are made available by the European Parliament and the Council, the Commission shall adopt a decision, by means of an implementing act, awarding the financial contribution from the Fund and shall pay that financial contribution immediately and in a single instalment to the beneficiary State. If an advance has been paid pursuant to Article 4b, only the balance shall be paid.”.
(7) After Article 4a, the following heading and a new Article 4b are inserted:
“Chapter III
Common provisions”
“Article 4b
(1) When submitting an application for a financial contribution from the Fund to the Commission, for a damage caused by a natural disaster, a Member State may request the payment of an advance. The Commission shall make a preliminary assessment of whether the application fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 4(1) and verify the availability of budgetary resources. Where those conditions are fulfilled and sufficient resources are available, the Commission may adopt a decision, by means of an implementing act, awarding the advance and pay it out without delay before the decision referred to in Article 4(4) has been taken. The payment of an advance shall be made without prejudice to the final decision on the mobilisation of the Fund.
(2) When submitting an application for a financial contribution from the Fund to the Commission for serious financial burden caused by the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union without an agreement, a Member State may request the payment of an advance. The Commission shall make a preliminary assessment of whether the application fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 4a(1) and verify the availability of budgetary resources. Where those conditions are fulfilled and sufficient resources are available, the Commission may adopt a decision, by means of an implementing act, awarding the advance and pay it out without delay before the decision referred to in Article 4a(7) has been taken. The payment of an advance shall be made without prejudice to the final decision on the mobilisation of the Fund.
(3) The amount of an advance shall not exceed 25% of the amount of the financial contribution anticipated and shall in no case exceed EUR 100 000 000. Once the definitive amount of the financial contribution has been determined, the Commission shall take into account the sum of the advance prior to the balance of the financial contribution being paid. The Commission shall recover unduly paid advances.
(4) Any repayment due to be made to the general budget of the Union shall be effected before the due date indicated in the order for recovery drawn up in accordance with the Article 101 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council 12 . The due date shall be the last day of the second month following the issue of the order.
(5) When adopting the draft general budget of the Union for a given financial year, the Commission shall, where necessary in order to ensure the timely availability of budgetary resources, propose to the European Parliament and the Council to mobilise the Fund in an amount up to a maximum of EUR 100 000 000 for the payment of advances and propose to enter the corresponding appropriations into the general budget of the Union. The budgetary arrangements shall comply with the ceilings referred to in Article 10(1) of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 13 .”.
(8) After Article 9, the following heading is inserted:
“Title III
final provisions”
Article 2
This Regulation shall enter into force on the […] day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.It shall apply from the day following that on which the Treaties cease to apply to the United Kingdom pursuant to Article 50(3) TEU.
However, this Regulation shall not apply if a withdrawal agreement concluded with the United Kingdom in accordance with Article 50(2) TEU has entered into force by the date referred to in the second paragraph of this Article.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.