Area: Cohesion
Competent authority: SVRK
EZU URL: .nan
Initiative ID: 1040
Initiative accepted and completed: '2020-11-02'
Initiative classified in EZU: .nan
Initiative forwarded in response: '2020-06-04'
Initiative published: '2020-06-04'
Initiative submitted: '2020-06-04'
Response from the competent authority: "Reply from the Government Office for Development\
  \ and European Cohesion Policy:The following is the reply to the initiative for\
  \ action received by the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion\
  \ Policy (hereinafter referred to as the \"GEDP\") in its capacity as the managing\
  \ authority and addresses the issue of inconsistent practice in the implementation\
  \ of the provision of the fifth paragraph of Article 29 of the Treaty on the Functioning\
  \ of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as \"the Treaty\"). 29/15, 36/16,\
  \ 58/16, 69/16 - corrected, (5) The intermediate body or the implementing body shall\
  \ check the completeness and correctness of the payment application in accordance\
  \ with the second, third and fourth paragraphs of this Article within 30 days of\
  \ receipt of a complete payment application and, in the case of a supplemented payment\
  \ application, within 90 days at the latest. If the intermediate body or the implementing\
  \ body, as the case may be, does not reject the application, it shall issue an order\
  \ for payment of the funds from the national budget.     The petition alleges that\
  \ the above-mentioned provision has been implemented in such a way that the 90-day\
  \ time limit is, in some places, regarded as a regular time limit for the examination\
  \ of the application, and that, between the expiry of the time limit of 30 days\
  \ from the date of submission of the application and the expiry of the 90-day time\
  \ limit, the beneficiaries are left in a state of uncertainty as to the completeness\
  \ and validity of the application for payment submitted, as well as as as to the\
  \ expected date of the transfer of funds:\r\n- Article 32 of the Law on the Implementation\
  \ of the Budgets of the Republic of Slovenia for 2020 and 2021 (Official Journal\
  \ of the Republic of Slovenia, No 75/19 and 61/20 - ZDLGPE; hereinafter: ZIPRS2021)\
  \ defines the payment deadline for the payment of all commitments as 30 days for\
  \ direct users and 30 days at most for indirect users after the receipt of the document\
  \ which is the basis for the payment,\r\n- taking into account the specific nature\
  \ of the treatment of the payment claim as a document in connection with the receipt\
  \ of which payment of the co-financing of eligible expenditure is made and of its\
  \ constituent parts, it is necessary to recognise the need to conceive of the starting\
  \ point of the time limit within which the authority is to treat the payment claim,\
  \ take a decision on it and issue a payment order as from the moment when the payment\
  \ claim is capable of being treated in accordance with the rules of cohesion policy,\
  \ i.e. from the moment of its completeness; the time limit for the application of\
  \ the time limit for the submission of the payment claim is set out in the relevant\
  \ rules. It is only when a payment claim is complete that the Managing Authority\
  \ is able to establish, in the light of Article 32 of the RIPRS2021 , that the authority\
  \ has the document which forms the basis for substantive examination and payment\
  \ orders. In pursuit of the objective laid down in Article 32 of the RIPRD2021,\
  \ i.e. the liquidity of the beneficiaries, the overall time limit for processing\
  \ a payment claim and issuing a payment order in case of its completeness, correctness\
  \ and substantiation, or for rejecting a claim, has been set at 90 days in the EAGF\
  \ Regulation, thus indirectly forcing the authorities to be more efficient in the\
  \ preparation and processing of payment claims and in the carrying out of administrative\
  \ checks and other related tasks in case of the need to complete a payment claim.\
  \ Taking into account the problems raised by the petitioner, we suggest that, where\
  \ appropriate, you include in the co-financing contracts concluded with beneficiaries\
  \ or in the instructions of the intermediate body, provisions that would specify:\r\
  \ni. the time limit for processing payment claims as a 30-day time limit,\r\nii.\
  \ the procedure to be followed by the intermediate body in the event of incompleteness\
  \ of a payment claim,\r\niii. the time limit within which the beneficiary should\
  \ submit a supplementary payment claim,\r\niv. the time limit within which the authority\
  \ is required to give a decision on the duly completed application,\r\nWe suggest\
  \ that, by introducing such provisions in the co-financing contracts or in the instructions\
  \ of the intermediate body, you define the time limits for the processing of payment\
  \ claims in a specific and predictable manner, while, as defined above, primarily\
  \ pursuing the implementation of the 30-day time limit for the substantive processing\
  \ of a complete payment claim and the effectiveness of calling on the beneficiaries\
  \ to rectify errors or incompletenesses where they are found. If possible, set shorter\
  \ payment deadlines in accordance with Article 32(3) of the IPRS2021."
Text file: 1040.txt
Title: Payment of European Cohesion Policy payment claims
URL: https://www.stopbirokraciji.gov.si/pobuda/?st=1040
