Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 614/2014 of 6 June 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 555/2008 as regards the application of certain support measures in the wine sector

‘2 Modifications in respect of support programmes shall not be submitted more than twice per financial year, by 1 March and 30 June, except in cases of emergency measures due to natural disasters. The modified programmes shall be submitted to the Commission with, where appropriate: (a) updated versions of the support programme in the form set out in Annex I and of the financial table in the form set out in Annex IV; (b) the reasons for the proposed changes. By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, the deadlines set out in that subparagraph do not apply in 2014 where the modifications of the programme follow the new rules introduced by Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council .

1 Member States shall lay down the application procedure, which shall in particular provide rules on: (a) verification of compliance with the requirements and criteria set out in Articles 5b and 5c; (b) deadlines for the presentation of application and for the examination of the suitability of each proposed action; (c) conclusion of contracts including possible standard forms, provision of securities and arrangements for the payment of advances; (d) evaluating any given supported action including the appropriate indicators.

2 Member States shall select the application in particular on the basis of the following criteria: (a) consistency between the strategies proposed and the objectives set; (b) the quality of the proposed measures; (c) their likely impact and success in raising consumers awareness about the Union system of protected designation of origin and protected geographical indications or about responsible consumption of wine and the risk associated with alcohol consumption; (d) assurances that any operator involved is effective and has access to the required technical capacity and that the cost of the measure which he plans to carry out himself is not in excess of the normal market rates.

3 Having examined the applications, Member States shall select those offering the best value for money. Preference shall be given to operations: (a) concerning several Member States; (b) concerning several administrative or wine regions; (c) concerning several protected designations of origin or protected geographical indications.

4 Two or more Member States may decide to select a joint promotion operation. They shall undertake to contribute to the financing and agree on administrative collaboration procedures to facilitate the monitoring, implementation and checking of the joint promotion operation.

5 Where Member States grant national aids for promotion, they shall communicate them in the relevant part of Annexes I, V, VII, VIII and VIIIc to this Regulation.’;

1 Support shall be paid once it is ascertained that either a single operation or all the operations covered by the support application, according to the choice made by the Member State for the management of the measure, have been implemented and controlled on the spot. Where support is normally payable only after implementation of all the operations, by way of derogation from the first subparagraph, support shall be paid for single operations implemented if the remaining operations could not be carried out due to force majeure or exceptional circumstances as referred to in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council . If checks show that an overall operation covered by the support application has not been fully implemented for reasons other than force majeure or exceptional circumstances as referred to in Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 and where support has been paid after single operations which are part of the overall operation covered by the support application, Member States shall decide to recover the aid paid.

2 Beneficiaries of support for innovation may request the payment of an advance from the competent paying agencies if this option is included in the national support programme. The amount of the advances shall not exceed 20 % of the public aid related to the investment in innovation, and its payment shall be subject to the establishment of a bank guarantee or an equivalent guarantee corresponding to 110 % of the amount of the advance. However, in the case of investments in innovation for which the individual decision to grant support is taken in the financial years 2014 or 2015, the amount of the advances may be increased up to 50 % of the public aid related to that investment. For the purposes of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2012 the obligation shall be to spend the total amount advanced in the implementation of the operation concerned two years after its payment. The guarantee shall be released when the competent paying agency establishes that the amount of actual expenditure corresponding to the public aid related to the innovation exceeds the amount of the advance.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.