Proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 as regards the adjustment of annual pre-financing for the years 2021 to 2023

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Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 defines the common rules applicable to the ESI Funds. Based on the principle of shared management between the Commission and the Member States, this Regulation includes provisions for the programming process as well as arrangements for programme (including financial) management, monitoring, financial control and evaluation of projects.

Evidence shows that annual pre-financing paid to Member States for a given accounting year and cleared with the acceptance of accounts, results in annual recovery orders of a significant magnitude (for instance, €6.6 billion in 2017). This means in practice that payment credits are requested from Member States from payment appropriations in the Union's budget to pay to them annual pre-financing that a year later has to be recovered to a significant extent.

Therefore, to increase transparency and contribute to the predictability of budgetary planning and to a more stable and predictable payment profile, it is proposed that for the last three years of the current implementation period 2021-2023, which are overlapping with the next implementation period starting in 2021, the annual pre-financing is reduced to the necessary minimum.

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