In accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 on information measures relating to the common agricultural policy (CAP), the Commission presented a report on the operation of the system of paying agencies in the Union. This report summarises the results of the analysis of the competent authorities' reports received in June 2016 and possible further actions.
The Commission welcomes the steps taken by the certain Member States (Austria, Germany and Poland) to reduce the number of paying agencies.
In addition, the present situation does not indicate major issues as regards compliance with the accreditation criteria. For 66 paying agencies (out of 80 for which the reports were provided in 2016), the compliance with the accreditation criteria was rated as very high.
The review of the communications received from the competent authorities on continued supervision revealed in many cases that the supervision is not continuous. In other situations, the continued compliance report does not mentioned that ongoing continuous supervision or monitoring has taken place.
Following the analysis of the situation with the operation of the paying agency system in the EU in the agricultural sector, the Commission does not propose any modifications to the current legal acts concerning the set-up, numbers of and operations of the paying agencies.
It intends, however, to:
- initiate, despite the existence of a derogation for paying agencies that have been in existence before 20 December 2013, discussions with the Member States concerned to determine whether the structure put in place is appropriate and whether agencies with little or no expenditure should continue to exist;
- guarantee a follow-up, jointly with the relevant competent authorities, to ensure proper and regular supervision.