Management and financial control

1. Without prejudice to the Commission’s responsibility for implementing the general budget of the Union, Member States shall take responsibility for the management of measures supported by the EGF and for the financial control of the measures. They shall take at least the following steps:

verifying that management and control arrangements have been set up and are being implemented in such a way as to ensure that Union funds are being used efficiently and correctly, in accordance with the principle of sound financial management;

ensuring that the delivery of monitoring data is a mandatory requirement in contracts with bodies delivering the coordinated packages;

verifying that the financed measures have been properly carried out;

ensuring that expenditure funded is based on verifiable supporting documents, and is legal and regular;

preventing, detecting and correcting irregularities including fraud and recovering amounts unduly paid together with interest on late payments where appropriate.

The Member States shall report irregularities including fraud, as referred to in point (e) of the first subparagraph, to the Commission.

2. Member States shall ensure the legality and regularity of expenditure included in the accounts submitted to the Commission and shall take all required actions to prevent, detect and correct and report on irregularities, including fraud. Such actions shall include the collection of information about the beneficial owners of the recipients of funding in accordance with Annex XVII to the Common Provisions Regulation for 2021-2027. The rules related to the collection and processing of such data shall comply with applicable data protection rules. The Commission, OLAF and the Court of Auditors shall have the necessary access to that information.

3. For the purposes of Article 63(3) of the Financial Regulation, Member States shall identify bodies responsible for the management and control of the measures supported by the EGF. Those bodies shall provide the Commission with the information set out in Article 63(5), (6) and (7) of the Financial Regulation on the implementation of the financial contribution when submitting the final report referred to in Article 20(1) of this Regulation.

Where authorities designated in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 have provided sufficient guarantees that payments are legal and regular, and properly accounted for, the Member State concerned may notify to the Commission that those authorities are confirmed under this Regulation. On making such a notification, that Member State shall indicate which authorities are confirmed and their functions.

4. Member States shall make the required financial corrections where an irregularity is ascertained. The corrections made by the Member States shall consist of cancelling all or part of the financial contribution. The Member States shall recover any amount unduly paid as a result of an irregularity detected and repay that amount to the Commission. Where the amount is not repaid by the relevant Member State in the time allowed, default interest shall be due.

5. The Commission, in its responsibility for the implementation of the general budget of the Union, shall take every step necessary to verify that the actions financed are carried out in accordance with the principle of sound financial management. It is the responsibility of the Member State concerned to ensure that it has smoothly functioning management and control systems. The Commission shall satisfy itself that such systems are in place.

To that end, without prejudice to the powers of the Court of Auditors or the checks carried out by the Member State in accordance with national laws, regulations and administrative provisions, Commission officials or servants may carry out on-the-spot checks, including sample checks, on the measures financed by the EGF with a minimum notice of 12 working days. The Commission shall give notice to the Member State concerned with a view to obtaining all the assistance necessary. Officials or servants of the Member State concerned may take part in such checks.

6. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 25 in order to supplement point (e) of paragraph 1 of this Article by setting out the criteria for determining the cases of irregularity to be reported and the data to be provided.

7. In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Article, the Commission shall adopt an implementing act setting out the format to be used for reporting of irregularities.

That implementing act shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 26(2).

8. Member States shall ensure that all supporting documents regarding expenditure incurred are kept available for the Commission and the Court of Auditors for a period of three years following the winding-up of a financial contribution received from the EGF.

REGULATION (EU) 2021/691 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 28 April 2021 on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 ANNEX I ANNEX II