02014R0514 — EN — 12.04.2022 — 002.001
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REGULATION (EU) No 514/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 April 2014 (OJ L 150 20.5.2014, p. 112) |
Amended by:
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Official Journal |
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No |
page |
date |
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REGULATION (EU) 2020/1543 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 October 2020 |
L 356 |
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26.10.2020 |
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REGULATION (EU) 2022/585 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 April 2022 |
L 112 |
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11.4.2022 |
REGULATION (EU) No 514/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 16 April 2014
laying down general provisions on the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and on the instrument for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1
Purpose and scope
This Regulation lays down general rules for the implementation of the Specific Regulations with regard to:
the financing of expenditure;
partnership, programming, reporting, monitoring and evaluation;
the management and control systems to be put in place by the Member States; and
the clearance of accounts.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
‘programming’ means the process of organisation, decision-making and financing in several stages intended to implement, on a multiannual basis, the joint action by the Union and the Member States to achieve the objectives of the Specific Regulations;
‘action’ means a project or group of projects selected by the Responsible Authority of the national programme concerned, or under its responsibility, contributing to the general and specific objectives pursued by the Specific Regulations;
‘Union action’ means a transnational action or action of particular interest to the Union as defined in the Specific Regulations;
‘project’ means the specific practical means deployed to implement all or a part of an action by a beneficiary of a Union contribution;
‘emergency assistance’ means a project or group of projects addressing an emergency situation as defined in the Specific Regulations;
‘beneficiary’ means the recipient of a Union contribution under a project, whether a public or private body, international organisation or the International Committee of the Red Cross (‘ICRC’), or the International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
CHAPTER II
PRINCIPLES OF ASSISTANCE
Article 3
General principles
The Commission and the Member States, together with the EEAS where appropriate, shall ensure that actions in and in relation to third countries are carried out in synergy and in coherence with other actions outside the Union supported through Union instruments. They shall, in particular, ensure that those actions:
are coherent with the Union’s external policy, respect the principle of policy coherence for development and are consistent with the strategic programming documents for the region or country in question;
focus on non-development-oriented measures;
serve the interests of the Union’s internal policies and are consistent with activities undertaken inside the Union.
Article 4
Compliance with Union and national law
Actions financed by the Specific Regulations shall comply with applicable Union and national law.
Article 5
Protection of the financial interests of the Union
CHAPTER III
FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNION ACTIONS, EMERGENCY AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Article 6
Implementation framework
Article 7
Emergency assistance
Article 8
Union actions and emergency assistance in or in relation to third countries
Where such actions are implemented directly, the following entities shall be allowed to submit grant applications:
Member States;
third countries, in duly justified cases where a grant is necessary to achieve the objectives of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations;
joint bodies set up by third countries and the Union or by Member States;
international organisations, including regional organisations, UN bodies, departments and missions, international financial institutions and development banks and institutions of international jurisdiction in so far as they contribute to the objectives of the Specific Regulation(s) concerned;
the ICRC and International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies;
non-governmental organisations established and registered in the Union and in the countries associated with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis;
Union agencies for emergency assistance.
Article 9
Technical assistance at the initiative of the Commission
The measures and activities referred to in paragraph 1 may include:
assistance for project preparation and appraisal;
support for institutional strengthening and administrative capacity building for the effective management of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations;
measures related to the analysis, management, monitoring, information exchange and implementation of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations, as well as measures relating to the implementation of control systems and technical and administrative assistance;
evaluations, expert reports, statistics and studies, including those of a general nature concerning the operation of the Specific Regulations;
actions to disseminate information, support networking, carry out communication activities, raise awareness and promote cooperation and exchanges of experience, including with third countries. To bring about greater efficiency in communication to the public at large and stronger synergies between the communication activities undertaken at the initiative of the Commission, the resources allocated to communication actions under this Regulation shall also contribute to covering the corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union, provided that those are related to the general objectives of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations;
the installation, updating, operation and interconnection of computerised systems for management, monitoring, audit, control and evaluation;
the design of a common framework for evaluation and monitoring, as well as a system of indicators, taking into account, where appropriate, national indicators;
actions to improve evaluation methods and the exchange of information on evaluation practices;
conferences, seminars, workshops and other common information and training measures on the implementation of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations for competent authorities and beneficiaries;
actions related to fraud detection and prevention;
actions related to audit.
CHAPTER IV
NATIONAL PROGRAMMES
SECTION 1
Programming and Implementation framework
Article 10
Programming
The objectives of the Specific Regulations shall be pursued within the framework of the multiannual programming for the period 2014-20, subject to a mid-term review in accordance with Article 15.
Article 11
Subsidiary and proportionate intervention
Article 12
Partnership
Article 13
Policy dialogue
Article 14
Preparation and approval of national programmes
Each proposed national programme shall cover the financial years of the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020, and shall consist of the following elements:
a description of the baseline situation in the Member State, completed with the necessary factual information to assess the requirements correctly;
an analysis of requirements in the Member State and the national objectives designed to meet those requirements during the period covered by the programme;
an appropriate strategy identifying the objectives to be pursued with the support of the Union budget, with targets for their achievement, an indicative time-table and examples of actions envisaged to meet those objectives;
a description of how the objectives of the Specific Regulations are covered;
the mechanisms that ensure coordination between the instruments established by the Specific Regulations and other Union and national instruments;
information on the monitoring and evaluation framework to be put in place and the indicators to be used to measure progress in the implementation of the objectives pursued in relation to the baseline situation in the Member State;
implementing provisions for the national programme containing the identification of the competent authorities, and a summary description of the envisaged management and control system;
a summary description of the approach chosen for the implementation of the partnership principle laid down in Article 12;
a draft financing plan indicatively broken down by each financial year of the period, including an indication of technical assistance expenditure;
the mechanisms and methods to be used to publicise the national programme.
Before approving a proposed national programme, the Commission shall examine:
its consistency with the objectives of the Specific Regulations and the outcome of the policy dialogue referred to in Article 13(1);
the distribution of Union funding between objectives in the light of the requirements of the Specific Regulations and, where relevant, the justification for any deviation from the minimum shares set in the Specific Regulations;
the relevance of the objectives, targets, indicators, the time-table and examples of actions envisaged in the proposed national programme in the light of the strategy proposed by Member States;
the relevance of the implementing provisions referred to in point (g) of paragraph 2 in the light of the actions envisaged;
the compliance of the proposed programme with Union law;
the complementarity with support provided by other Union funds, including the European Social Fund;
where applicable under a Specific Regulation, for objectives and examples of actions in or in relation to third countries, coherence with the principles and general objectives of the Union’s external action and foreign policy related to the country or region concerned.
Article 15
Mid-term review
Article 16
Financing structure
Article 17
General principles of eligibility
In accordance with the Specific Regulations, for expenditure to be eligible, it must be:
within the scope of the Specific Regulations and their objectives;
needed to carry out the activities covered by the project concerned;
reasonable and comply with the principles of sound financial management, in particular value for money and cost-effectiveness.
Article 18
Eligible expenditure
Eligible expenditure may be reimbursed in the following ways:
reimbursement of eligible costs actually incurred and paid, together with, where applicable, depreciation;
standard scales of unit costs;
lump sums;
flat-rate financing determined by the application of a percentage to one or more defined categories of costs.
The amounts referred to in points (b), (c) and (d) of paragraph 1 shall be established in one of the following ways:
a fair, equitable and verifiable calculation method based on:
statistical data or other objective information;
the verified historical data of individual beneficiaries; or
the application of the usual cost accounting practices of individual beneficiaries;
in accordance with the rules for application of corresponding scale of unit costs, lump sums and flat rates applicable in Union policies for a similar type of project and beneficiary;
in accordance with the rules for application of corresponding scale of unit costs, lump sums and flat rates applied under schemes for grants funded entirely by the Member State concerned for a similar type of project and beneficiary.
Where the implementation of a project gives rise to indirect costs, they may be calculated as a flat rate in one of the following ways:
a flat rate of up to 25 % of eligible direct costs, provided that the rate is calculated on the basis of a fair, equitable and verifiable calculation method or a method applied under schemes for grants funded entirely by the Member State concerned for a similar type of project and beneficiary;
a flat rate of up to 15 % of eligible direct staff costs without there being a requirement for the Member State concerned to perform a calculation to determine the applicable rate;
a flat rate applied to eligible direct costs based on existing methods and corresponding rates, applicable in Union policies for a similar type of project and beneficiary.
Depreciation costs may be considered as eligible where the following conditions are met:
the eligibility rules of the national programme allow for it;
the amount of the expenditure is duly justified by supporting documents having equivalent probative value to invoices for eligible costs where reimbursed in the form referred to in point (a) of paragraph 1;
the costs relate exclusively to the period of support for the project;
support from the Union budget has not contributed towards the acquisition of the depreciated assets.
Article 19
Ineligible expenditure
The following costs shall not be eligible for a contribution from the Union budget under the Specific Regulations:
interest on debt;
the purchase of land not built upon;
the purchase of land built upon, where the land is necessary for the implementation of the project, in an amount exceeding 10 % of the total eligible expenditure for the project concerned;
value added tax (VAT), except where it is non-recoverable under national VAT law.
Article 20
Technical assistance at the initiative of the Member States
The measures referred to in paragraph 1 may include:
expenditure relating to the preparation, selection, appraisal, management and monitoring of the programme, actions or projects;
expenditure relating to audits and on-the-spot controls of actions or projects;
expenditure relating to evaluations of the programme, actions or projects;
expenditure relating to information, dissemination and transparency in relation to the programme, actions or projects, including expenditure resulting from the application of Article 53 and expenditure on campaigns to inform and raise awareness about the programme’s purpose, organised, inter alia, at a local level;
expenditure on the acquisition, installation and maintenance of computerised systems for the management, monitoring and evaluation of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations;
expenditure on meetings of monitoring committees and sub-committees relating to the implementation of actions; including the costs of experts and other participants in those committees and including third-country participants, where their presence is essential to the effective implementation of programmes, actions or projects;
expenditure for the reinforcement of the administrative capacity for the implementation of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations.
SECTION 2
Management and Control
Article 21
General principles of management and control systems
For the implementation of its national programme, each Member State shall set up management and control systems, which shall provide for:
a description of the functions of each authority involved in management and control, and the allocation of functions within each authority;
compliance with the principle of separation of functions between and within such authorities;
procedures for ensuring the correctness and regularity of expenditure declared;
computerised systems for accounting, for the storage and transmission of financial data and data on indicators, for monitoring and for reporting;
systems for reporting and monitoring where the Responsible Authority entrusts the execution of tasks to another body;
arrangements for auditing the functioning of the management and control systems;
systems and procedures to ensure an adequate audit trail;
the prevention, detection and correction of irregularities, including fraud, and the recovery of amounts unduly paid, together with any interest on late payments.
Article 22
Responsibilities under shared management
In accordance with the principle of shared management, Member States and the Commission shall be responsible for the management and control of national programmes in accordance with their respective responsibilities laid down in this Regulation and the Specific Regulations.
Article 23
Responsibilities of beneficiaries
Beneficiaries shall fully cooperate with the Commission and competent authorities when they carry out their functions and tasks in relation to this Regulation and the Specific Regulations.
Article 24
Responsibilities of Member States
Article 25
Competent authorities
For the purposes of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations, the competent authorities are:
a Responsible Authority: a public sector body of the Member State concerned, which is the designated body within the meaning of Article 59(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 and which shall be solely responsible for the proper management and control of the national programme and shall handle all communication with the Commission;
an Audit Authority: a national public authority or body, which is functionally independent of the Responsible Authority and which shall be responsible for issuing annually the opinion referred to in the second subparagraph of Article 59(5) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012;
where appropriate, one or more Delegated Authorities: any public or private body which carries out certain tasks of the responsible authority under the responsibility of the Responsible Authority.
Article 26
Designation of Responsible Authorities
To ensure the sound operation of this system, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 58 concerning:
minimum conditions for the designation of the Responsible Authorities with regard to the internal environment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring, as well as rules on the procedure for making and ending the designation;
rules relating to supervision and the procedure for reviewing the designation of Responsible Authorities;
the obligations of the Responsible Authorities as regards public intervention, as well as on the content of their management and control responsibilities.
Article 27
General principles on controls by Responsible Authorities
The Commission shall adopt, by way of implementing acts, the necessary rules aiming at achieving a uniform application of this Article. Those rules may in particular relate to the following:
the rules concerning administrative and on-the-spot controls including unannounced on-the-spot controls, to be conducted by the Responsible Authority with regard to compliance with obligations, commitments and eligibility rules resulting from the application of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations, including the rules relating to the period of time for which supporting documents should be kept;
the rules on the minimum level of on-the-spot controls necessary for an effective management of the risks, as well as the conditions under which Member States have to increase such controls, or may reduce them where the management and control systems function properly and the error rates are at an acceptable level;
the rules and methods on the reporting of the controls and verification carried out and their results.
Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 59(3).
Article 28
Payment to beneficiaries
Responsible Authorities shall ensure that the beneficiaries receive the total amount of the public support as quickly as possible and in full. No amount shall be deducted or withheld and no specific charge or other charge with equivalent effect shall be levied that would reduce those amounts for the beneficiaries.
Article 29
Functions of the audit authority
Article 30
Cooperation with audit authorities
Article 31
Controls and audits by the Commission
The scope of the audits or controls may include, in particular:
the verification of the effective functioning of management and control systems in a national programme or a part thereof;
the compliance of administrative practices with Union rules;
the existence of the required supporting documents and their correlation with the actions supported under the national programmes;
the terms on which the actions have been undertaken and controlled;
an assessment of the sound financial management of actions and/or the national programme.
SECTION 3
Financial Management
Article 32
Budget commitments
Article 33
Common rules for payments
Article 34
Accumulation of initial pre-financing and annual balances
Article 35
Pre-financing arrangements
Article 36
Clearance of pre-financing
Article 37
Internal assignment of revenue
The following shall be regarded as internal assigned revenue within the meaning of Article 21 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012:
sums which, under Articles 45 and 47 of this Regulation, are paid to the Union budget, including interest;
sums which, following the closure of programmes under the preceding multiannual financial framework, are paid to the Union budget, including interest.
Article 38
Definition of the financial year
For the purpose of this Regulation, the financial year, as referred to in Article 59 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, shall cover expenditure paid and revenue received and entered into the accounts of the Responsible Authority in the period commencing on 16 October of year ‘N-1’ and ending on 15 October of year ‘N’.
Article 39
Payment of the annual balance
Article 40
Closure of the programme
Member States shall submit the following documents by 31 December 2024:
the information required for the last annual accounts, in accordance with Article 44(1);
a request for payment of the final balance; and
the final implementation report for the national programme as referred to in Article 54(1).
Article 41
Interruption of the payment deadline
The payment deadline following a request for payment may be interrupted by the authorising officer by delegation within the meaning of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 for a maximum period of six months, when at least one of the following conditions is met:
further to information provided by a national or Union audit body, there is clear evidence to suggest a significant deficiency in the functioning of the management and control system;
the authorising officer by delegation has to carry out additional verifications following information brought to his attention alerting him that expenditure in a payment request is linked to an irregularity having serious financial consequences;
one or more documents required under Article 44(1) were not submitted.
The Member State concerned may agree to an extension of the interruption period for an additional three months.
Article 42
Suspension of payments
All or part of the annual balance may be suspended by the Commission where:
there is a serious deficiency in the effective functioning of the management and control system of the national programme which has put at risk the Union contribution to the national programme, and for which corrective measures have not been taken;
expenditure in the annual accounts is linked to an irregularity having serious financial consequences which has not been corrected; or
the Member State has failed to take the necessary action to remedy the situation giving rise to an interruption under Article 41.
Article 43
Use of the euro
SECTION 4
Clearance of accounts and financial corrections
Article 44
Request for payment of the annual balance
Article 45
Annual clearance of accounts
Article 46
Financial corrections by Member States
Member States shall make the financial corrections required in connection with individual or systemic irregularities detected under the national programmes. Financial corrections shall consist of cancelling all or part of the contribution from the Union budget concerned. The Member States shall take into account the nature and gravity of the irregularities and the financial loss to the Union budget and shall apply a proportionate correction. Amounts cancelled and amounts recovered, as well as the interest thereon, shall be reallocated to the national programme concerned, excluding the amounts resulting from irregularities identified by the Court of Auditors and the Commission services, including OLAF. After the closure of the national programme, the Member State concerned shall refund the sums recovered to the Union budget.
Article 47
Conformity clearance and financial corrections by the Commission
A breach of applicable law shall lead to a financial correction only in relation to expenditure which has been declared to the Commission and where one of the following conditions is met:
the breach has affected the selection of a project under the national programme, or, in cases where, due to the nature of the breach, it is not possible to establish that impact, there is a substantiated risk that the breach has had such an effect;
the breach has affected the amount of expenditure declared for reimbursement by the Union budget, or in cases where, due to the nature of the breach, it is not possible to quantify its financial impact, but there is a substantiated risk that the breach has had such an effect.
Financing may not be refused for:
expenditure which is incurred by the Responsible Authority more than 36 months before the Commission notifies the Member State in writing of its findings;
expenditure on multiannual actions within the scope of the national programmes, where the final obligation on the beneficiary occurs more than 36 months before the Commission notifies the Member State in writing of its findings;
expenditure on actions in national programmes, other than those referred to in point (b), for which the payment or, as the case may be, the final payment, by the Responsible Authority, is made more than 36 months before the Commission notifies the Member State in writing of its findings.
Article 48
Obligations of Member States
A financial correction by the Commission shall not prejudice the Member State’s obligation to pursue recoveries under point (h) of Article 21 of this Regulation and to recover State aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU and under Article 14 of Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 ( 5 ).
Article 49
Repayment
SECTION 5
Decommitment
Article 50
Principles
In respect of amounts corresponding to the additional allocations assigned to the national programmes in 2018, the budget commitment shall be effected in 2019. In respect of amounts corresponding to the additional allocations assigned to the national programmes in 2019, the budget commitment shall be effected in 2020.
Article 51
Exceptions to decommitment
The amount concerned by decommitment shall be reduced by the amounts that the Responsible Authority has not been able to declare to the Commission because of:
actions suspended by legal proceedings or by an administrative appeal having suspensive effect; or
reasons of force majeure seriously affecting the implementation of all or part of the national programme. Responsible Authorities claiming force majeure shall demonstrate the direct consequences of the force majeure on the implementation of all or part of the national programme.
The reduction may be requested once if the suspension or force majeure lasted up to one year. If the suspension or force majeure lasted more than one year, the reduction may be requested several times, corresponding to the duration of the force majeure or the number of years between the date of the legal or administrative decision suspending the implementation of the action and the date of the final legal or administrative decision.
Article 52
Procedure
CHAPTER V
INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION, MONITORING, EVALUATION AND REPORTING
Article 53
Information and publicity
Member States and Responsible Authorities shall be responsible for:
a website or a website portal providing information on and access to the national programmes in that Member State;
informing potential beneficiaries about funding opportunities under the national programmes;
publicising to Union citizens the role and achievements of the Specific Regulations, through information and communication actions on the results and impact of the national programmes.
Article 54
Implementation reports
Annual implementation reports shall set out information on:
the implementation of the national programme by reference to the financial data and the indicators;
any significant issues which affect the performance of the national programme.
In the light of the mid-term review as referred to in Article 15, the annual implementation report submitted in 2017 shall set out and assess:
the information referred to in paragraph 2;
the progress towards achieving the objectives in the national programmes pursued with the contribution from the Union budget;
the involvement of relevant partners as referred to in Article 12.
Article 55
The common monitoring and evaluation framework
Article 56
Evaluation of national programmes by Member States
Article 57
Evaluation reports by the Member States and the Commission
In accordance with the common monitoring and evaluation framework, the Member States shall submit to the Commission:
an interim evaluation report on the implementation of actions and progress towards achieving the objectives of their national programmes by 31 December 2017;
an ex-post evaluation report on the effects of actions under their national programmes by 31 December 2024.
On the basis of the reports referred to in paragraph 1, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the European Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions:
an interim evaluation report on the implementation of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations at the level of the Union by 30 June 2018. That interim evaluation report shall include an assessment of the mid-term review carried out in accordance with this Regulation and the Specific Regulations;
an ex-post evaluation report on the effects of this Regulation and the Specific Regulations, following the closure of the national programmes, by 30 June 2025.
The ex-post evaluation of the Commission shall also examine the impact of the Specific Regulations on the development of the area of freedom, security and justice in terms of their contribution to the following objectives:
the development of a common culture of border security, law enforcement cooperation and crisis management;
the effective management of migration flows into the Union;
the development of the Common European Asylum System;
the fair and equal treatment of third-country nationals;
solidarity and cooperation between Member States in addressing migration and internal security issues;
a common approach by the Union on migration and security towards third countries.
CHAPTER VI
FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 58
Exercise of the delegation
Article 59
Committee Procedure
Where the committee delivers no opinion, the Commission shall not adopt the draft implementing act, except for Articles 14(4), 24(5), 45(2), 47(6) and 53(5) of this Regulation.
Article 60
Review
The European Parliament and the Council shall, on the basis of a proposal from the Commission, review this Regulation by 30 June 2020.
Article 61
Entry into force and application
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 1 January 2014.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in the Member States in accordance with the Treaties.
( 1 ) Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, amending Council Decision 2008/381/EC and repealing Decisions No 573/2007/EC and No 575/2007/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Decision 2007/435/EC (see page 168 of this Official Journal).
( 2 ) Regulation (EU) No 513/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 establishing, as part of the Internal Security Fund, the instrument for financial support for police cooperation, preventing and combating crime, and crisis management and repealing Council Decision 2007/125/JHA (see page 93 of this Official Journal).
( 3 ) Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 September 2013 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Regulation (Euratom) No 1074/1999 (OJ L 248, 18.9.2013, p. 1).
( 4 ) Council Regulation (Euratom, EC) No 2185/96 of 11 November 1996 concerning on-the-spot checks and inspections carried out by the Commission in order to protect the European Communities’ financial interests against fraud and other irregularities (OJ L 292, 15.11.1996, p. 2).
( 5 ) Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 of 22 March 1999 laying down detailed rules for the application of Article 108 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (OJ L 83, 27.3.1999, p. 1).