(1)

In accordance with Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 296/96 (2), the Commission is kept informed at regular intervals of expenditure incurred by the Member States. To avoid unnecessary notifications, provision should be made for this information to be sent every month without affecting the Member States' obligation to keep information drawn up on a weekly basis available to the Commission, so as to allow proper monitoring of expenditure.

(2)

Some of the information to be sent by the Member States should be sent electronically in digital form to enable the Commission to use it directly for accounts management. However, forwarding by other means must continue to be possible in justified cases.

(3)

To simplify and streamline administrative procedures, simultaneous forwarding of a copy of the information on paper should now only be required for the monthly summaries.

(4)

In practice, indicating certain quantities and areas in the detailed declarations submitted by the Member States is of little value for the monthly advances. As a result, that information should no longer be required.

(5)

Payments made by the Commission under the budget of the EAGGF Guarantee Section are exclusively in euro. The Member States may choose to make payments to beneficiaries in euro or in their national currency. However, the paying agencies of those Member States not participating in the euro making payments in national currency and in euro must keep separate accounts for the two currencies. To avoid converting these payments twice, the option of declaring amounts paid in euro in national currency should be abolished.

(6)

Where, on the basis of the declarations of expenditure received from the Member States, the total amount of advance commitments which could be authorised under Article 150(3) 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 (3) is more than half of all corresponding appropriations for the current financial year, the Commission is required to reduce those amounts. For the sake of sound management that reduction must be shared among all the Member States proportionally, on the basis of the declarations of expenditure received from them.

(7)

If the Community budget has not been adopted by the beginning of the financial year, the second subparagraph of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 provides that payments may be made monthly per chapter to a maximum of one twelfth of the allotted appropriations in the chapter in question of the preceding financial year. To allocate the available appropriations fairly among the Member States, provision should be made for advances to be granted in this case as a percentage, laid down for each chapter, of the declarations of expenditure submitted by each Member State and for the balance not used in a given month to be reallocated in Commission decisions on subsequent monthly payments.

(8)

As part of the reform of the CAP and the introduction of the single farm payment scheme, Member State compliance with the payment deadlines is vital to the proper application of the rules on financial discipline. Specific rules should therefore be laid down to help avoid, wherever possible, any risk of the annual appropriations available in the Community budget being exceeded.

(9)

For reasons of sound administration, where delays arise in sending supporting documents for payments made under Commission Regulation (EC) No 817/2004 of 29 April 2004 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 on support for rural development from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) (4), it must be made possible for payments by the Commission to the Member State relating to September to be held over to the following month.

(10)

Half of the expenditure relating to storage operations carried out in September is taken into account in respect of October and the balance in respect of November. To simplify management of the paying agencies' accounts, provision should be made for expenditure on these operations to be taken into account in full (100 %) in respect of October.

(11)

Rural development expenditure part-financed by the Community budget and the national budgets is declared at the latest in respect of the second month following payment to the beneficiaries. To harmonise the accounting rules applied in the field of the EAGGF Guarantee Section, provision should be made for this expenditure to be declared in respect of the month in which the payments were made to the beneficiaries.

(12)

Regulation (EC) No 296/96 should be amended accordingly.

(13)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the EAGGF Committee,

1.

Article 3 is amended as follows:

2.

Article 4 is amended as follows;

3.

Article 5(2) is replaced by the following:

4.

Article 7(1)(b) is deleted.