(1)

Pursuant to Article 6(1)(e) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 Member States’ accredited paying agencies are to ensure that documents in respect to payments made by them are accessible and kept in a manner which ensures their completeness, validity and legibility over time. In order to reflect the evolution in information and communication technology which makes it possible to store aid claim supporting documents in electronic form, in a secure and cost-effective way, Member States should be allowed to store aid claim support documents electronically rather than in paper form. Member State should be able to use that option where national law permits the use of electronic documents as evidence of the underlying transactions in national court proceedings. Electronic documents should be protected in line with international information security standards in the same way as other information held by the paying agency in accordance with Commission Regulation (EC) No 885/2006 (2), in order to ensure that they are available to Commission scrutiny as required, in a form which exactly reflects the original paper documents.

(2)

According to Article 31(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 if expenditure has been incurred in a way that has infringed Union rules, the Commission is to decide what amounts are to be excluded from Union financing. In the interest of the effectiveness and efficiency of the conformity clearance procedure, it should be possible for the Commission not to pursue cases where the findings of its inquiry lead to conclude that the presumed maximum amounts concerned would not exceed EUR 50 000 and 10 % of the relevant expenditure.

(3)

In order to ensure that the procedure for executing decisions taken pursuant to Articles 30 and 31 of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005, in the area of EAFRD, is effective and transparent, it is necessary to ensure that the Member State concerned is in a position to take the financial effects of such decisions into account when submitting its declaration of expenditure referred to in Article 27 of that Regulation.

(4)

Having regard to the possibility that a Member State may experience severe financial difficulties caused by a serious deterioration in the international economic environment, the Commission should have the possibility to defer deductions from Union financing of expenditure which have been incurred in a way that has infringed Union rules, if the Member State concerned so requests. Deferral of deductions for a period not exceeding 18 months should also be granted to those Member States which so request while being subject to financial assistance in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 332/2002 of 18 February 2002 establishing a facility providing medium-term financial assistance for Member States’ balances of payments (3), Council Regulation (EU) No 407/2010 of 11 May 2010 establishing a European financial stabilisation mechanism (4), the European Financial Stability Facility Framework Agreement signed on 7 June 2010 and the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism signed on 11 July 2011. The Member State benefiting from a deferral decision shall ensure that the deficiencies which have been the reasons for the deductions and which still persist at the time of the decision are being remedied on the basis of an action plan, established in consultation with the Commission, with clear progress indicators. If a Member State benefiting from such a deferral fails to remedy the deficiencies in accordance with the action plan and, thus, exposes the Union budget to additional financial risks, the Commission should revoke its decision deferring the date for the execution of the deductions while respecting the principle of proportionality.

(5)

Regulation (EC) No 885/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(6)

The Committee on the Agricultural Funds has not given an opinion within the time limit set by its President,

(1)

in Article 9, the following paragraph 5 is added:

(2)

in Article 10(2), the second sentence of the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The Commission shall deduct that amount from or add it to the first payment for which the declaration of expenditure is submitted by the Member State after the decision pursuant to Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 has been adopted.’;

(3)

Article 11 is amended as follows: