Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006

Each Member State shall designate an information and communication officer to coordinate information and communication actions in relation to one or more Funds, including relevant programmes under the European territorial cooperation goal, and shall inform the Commission accordingly.

The information and communication officer shall be responsible for the coordination of the national network of Fund communicators, where such a network exists, the creation and maintenance of the website or website portal referred to in Annex XII and the provision of an overview of communication measures undertaken at Member State level.

Each managing authority shall designate one person to be responsible for information and communication at operational programme level and shall inform the Commission of those designated. Where appropriate, one person may be designated for several operational programmes.

Union networks comprising the members designated by Member States shall be set up by the Commission to ensure exchange of information on the results of the implementation of the communication strategies, the exchange of experience in implementing the information and communication measures, the exchange of good practices, and to enable joint planning or coordination of communication activities between the Member States and with the Commission where appropriate. The networks shall at least once a year debate and assess the effectiveness of the information and communication measures, and propose recommendations to enhance the outreach and impact of communication activities and to raise awareness about the results and added value of those activities.

The amount of the Funds allocated to technical assistance in a Member State shall be limited to 4 % of the total amount of the Funds allocated to operational programmes under the Investment for growth and jobs goal.

————— Without prejudice to paragraph 1, the allocation for technical assistance from a Fund shall not exceed 10 % of the total allocation of that Fund to operational programmes in a Member State under each category of region, where applicable, of the Investment for growth and jobs goal.

By way of derogation from Article 70(1) and (2), technical assistance operations may be implemented outside the programme area, but within the Union, provided that the operations are for the benefit of the operational programme, or, in the case of a technical assistance operational programme, for the other programmes concerned.

In the case of the Structural Funds, where the allocations referred to in paragraph 1 are used to support technical assistance operations altogether relating to more than one category of region, the expenditure relating to the operations may be implemented under a priority axis combining different categories of region and attributed on a pro rata basis taking into account either the respective allocations to the different categories of regions of the operational programme or the allocation under each category of region as a share of the total allocation to the Member State.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, where the total amount of the Funds allocated to a Member State under the Investment for growth and jobs goal does not exceed EUR 1 000 000 000 the amount allocated to technical assistance may increase up to 6 % of that total amount or EUR 50 000 000 , whichever is the lower.

Technical assistance shall take the form of a mono-fund priority axis within an operational programme or of a specific operational programme, or both.

The Commission decision adopting an operational programme shall fix the co-financing rate and the maximum amount of support from Funds for each priority axis. Where a priority axis concerns more than one category of regions or more than one Fund, the Commission decision shall, where necessary, fix the co-financing rate by category of region and Fund.

For each priority axis, the Commission decision shall set out whether the co-financing rate for the priority axis is to be applied to:

The co-financing rate at the level of each priority axis and, where relevant, by category of region and Fund, of operational programmes under the Investment for growth and jobs goal shall be no higher than:

The co-financing rate of the additional allocation in accordance with point (e) of Article 92(1) shall be no higher than 50 % for NUTS level 2 regions fulfilling the criteria laid down in Protocol No 6 to the 1994 Act of Accession.

The maximum co-financing rate under paragraph 3 at the level of a priority axis shall be increased by ten percentage points, where the whole of a priority axis is delivered through financial instruments, or through community-led local development.

The contribution from the Funds for each priority axis shall not be less than 20 % of the eligible public expenditure.

A separate priority axis with a co-financing rate of up to 100 % may be established within an operational programme to support operations implemented through financial instruments set up at Union level and managed directly or indirectly by the Commission. Where a separate priority axis is established for this purpose, the support under this axis may not be implemented by any other means.

A separate priority axis with a co-financing rate of up to 95 % may be established within an operational programme to support operations which fulfil all of the following conditions:

A separate priority axis promoting the socioeconomic integration of third country nationals with a co-financing rate of up to 100 % may be established within an operational programme. Such a priority axis may be entirely dedicated to operations addressing migratory challenges as a result of the military aggression by the Russian Federation, including the dedicated priority axis referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 98(4).

Member States shall ensure that management and control systems for operational programmes are set up in accordance with Articles 72, 73 and 74.

Member States shall prevent, detect and correct irregularities and shall recover amounts unduly paid, together with any interest on late payments.  They shall notify the Commission of irregularities that exceed EUR 10 000 in contribution from any of the Funds or the EMFF, and shall keep it informed of significant progress in related administrative and legal proceedings.

Member States shall ensure that no later than 31 December 2015, all exchanges of information between beneficiaries and a managing authority, a certifying authority, an audit authority and intermediate bodies can be carried out by means of electronic data exchange systems.

Paragraph 3 shall not apply to the EMFF.

Each Member State shall designate, for each operational programme, a national, regional or local public authority or body or a private body as managing authority. The same managing authority may be designated for more than one operational programme.

The Member State shall designate, for each operational programme, a national, regional or local public authority or body as a certifying authority, without prejudice to paragraph 3. The same certifying authority may be designated for more than one operational programme.

The Member State may designate for an operational programme a managing authority, which is a public authority or body, to carry out, in addition, the functions of the certifying authority.

The Member State shall designate, for each operational programme, a national, regional or local public authority or body, functionally independent from the managing authority and the certifying authority, as audit authority. The same audit authority may be designated for more than one operational programme.

In the case of the Funds and in the case of the EMFF, provided that the principle of separation of functions is respected, the managing authority, the certifying authority, where applicable, and the audit authority may be part of the same public authority or body.

The Member State may designate one or more intermediate bodies to carry out certain tasks of the managing or the certifying authority under the responsibility of that authority. The relevant arrangements between the managing authority or certifying authority and the intermediate bodies shall be formally recorded in writing.

The Member State or the managing authority may entrust the management of part of an operational programme to an intermediate body by way of an agreement in writing between the intermediate body and the Member State or managing authority (a 'global grant'). The intermediate body shall provide guarantees of its solvency and competence in the domain concerned, as well as of its administrative and financial management capacity.

The Member State may, at its own initiative, designate a coordinating body whose responsibility shall be to liaise with and provide information to the Commission, to coordinate activities of the other relevant designated bodies and to promote the harmonised application of applicable law.

The Member State shall lay down in writing rules governing its relationship with the managing authorities, certifying authorities and audit authorities, the relations between such authorities, and the relationship of such authorities with the Commission.

The Member State shall notify the Commission of the date and form of the designations, which shall be carried out at an appropriate level, of the managing authority and, where appropriate, of the certifying authority prior to the submission of the first application for interim payment to the Commission.

The designations referred to in paragraph 1 shall be based on a report and an opinion of an independent audit body that assesses the fulfilment by the authorities of the criteria relating to the internal control environment, risk management, management and control activities, and monitoring set out in Annex XIII. The independent audit body shall be the audit authority, or another public or private law body with the necessary audit capacity, which is independent of the managing authority and, where applicable, of the certifying authority, and which shall carry out its work taking account of internationally accepted audit standards. Where the independent audit body concludes that the part of the management and control system, concerning the managing authority or the certifying authority, is essentially the same as for the previous programming period, and that there is evidence, on the basis of audit work done in accordance with the relevant provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 and Council Regulation (EC) No 1198/2006 ([^E0030]), of their effective functioning during that period, it may conclude that the relevant criteria are fulfilled without carrying out additional audit work.

Where the total amount of support from the Funds to an operational programme exceeds EUR 250 000 000 or from the EMFF exceeds EUR 100 000 000 , the Commission may request, within one month of notification of the designations referred to in paragraph 1, the report and the opinion of the independent audit body referred to in paragraph 2 and the description of the functions and procedures in place for the managing authority or, where appropriate, the certifying authority. The Commission shall decide whether to request those documents on the basis of its risk assessment, taking into account information on significant changes in the functions and procedures of the managing authority or, where appropriate, the certifying authority compared to those in place for the previous programming period, and relevant evidence of their effective functioning.

Where the total amount of support from the Funds to an operational programme exceeds EUR 250 000 000 or from the EMFF exceeds EUR 100 000 000 and there are significant changes in the functions and procedures of the managing authority or, where appropriate, of the certifying authority compared to those in place for the previous programming period, the Member State may, at its own initiative, submit to the Commission, within two months of the notification of the designations referred to in paragraph 1, the documents referred to in paragraph 3. The Commission shall make observations on those documents within three months of their receipt.

Where existing audit and control results show that the designated authority no longer fulfils the criteria referred to in paragraph 2, the Member State shall, at an appropriate level, fix, according to the severity of the problem, a period of probation, during which the necessary remedial action shall be taken.

Where the designation of a managing authority or a certifying authority is ended, Member States shall designate, in accordance with the procedure provided for in paragraph 2, a new body, to take over the functions of the managing authority or of the certifying authority, and shall notify the Commission thereof.

The Commission shall, in order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Article, adopt implementing acts concerning the model for the report and opinion of the independent audit body and the description of the functions and procedures in place for the managing authority and, where appropriate, the certifying authority. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 150(3).

The managing authority shall be responsible for managing the operational programme in accordance with the principle of sound financial management.

As regards the management of the operational programme, the managing authority shall:

As regards the selection of operations, the managing authority shall:

As regards the financial management and control of the operational programme, the managing authority shall:

Verifications pursuant to point (a) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 shall include the following procedures:

On-the-spot verifications of individual operations pursuant to point (b) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 5 may be carried out on a sample basis.

Where the managing authority is also a beneficiary under the operational programme, arrangements for the verifications referred to in point (a) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 shall ensure adequate separation of functions.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 149, laying down rules specifying the information in relation to the data to be recorded and stored in computerised form within the monitoring system established under point (d) of paragraph 2 of this Article.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 149, laying down the detailed minimum requirements for the audit trail referred to in point (d) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article in respect of the accounting records to be maintained and the supporting documents to be held at the level of the certifying authority, managing authority, intermediate bodies and beneficiaries.

The Commission shall, in order to ensure uniform conditions on the implementation of this Article, adopt implementing acts concerning the model for the management declaration referred to in point (e) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 4 of this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 150(2).

The audit authority shall ensure that audits are carried out on the proper functioning of the management and control system of the operational programme and on an appropriate sample of operations on the basis of the declared expenditure. The declared expenditure shall be audited based on a representative sample and, as a general rule, on statistical sampling methods.

Where audits are carried out by a body other than the audit authority, the audit authority shall ensure that any such body has the necessary functional independence.

The audit authority shall ensure that audit work takes account of internationally accepted audit standards.

The audit authority shall, within eight months of adoption of an operational programme, prepare an audit strategy for performance of audits. The audit strategy shall set out the audit methodology, the sampling method for audits on operations and the planning of audits in relation to the current accounting year and the two subsequent accounting years. The audit strategy shall be updated annually from 2016 until and including 2024. Where a common management and control system applies to more than one operational programme, a single audit strategy may be prepared for the operational programmes concerned. The audit authority shall submit the audit strategy to the Commission upon request.

The audit authority shall draw up:

The Commission shall, in order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Article, adopt implementing acts laying down models for the audit strategy, the audit opinion and the control report. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 150(2).

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 149, to set out the scope and content of audits of operations and audits of the accounts and the methodology for the selection of the sample of operations referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 149, laying down detailed rules on the use of data collected during audits carried out by Commission officials or authorised Commission representatives.

The Commission shall cooperate with audit authorities to coordinate their audit plans and methods and shall immediately exchange with those authorities the results of audits carried out on management and control systems.

To facilitate this cooperation in cases where a Member State designates more than one audit authority, the Member State may designate a coordination body.

The Commission, the audit authorities and any coordination body shall meet on a regular basis and, as a general rule, at least once a year, unless otherwise agreed, to examine the annual control report, the audit opinion and the audit strategy, and to exchange views on issues relating to improvement of the management and control systems.

The Commission shall reimburse as interim payments 90 % of the amount resulting from applying the co-financing rate for each priority, laid down in the decision adopting the operational programme, to the eligible expenditure for the priority included in the payment application. The Commission shall determine the remaining amounts to be reimbursed as interim payments or to be recovered in accordance with Article 139.

The contribution from the Funds or the EMFF to a priority through the interim payments and payment of the final balance shall not be higher than:

By way of derogation from paragraph 2, the contribution from the Funds or the EMFF through payments of the final balance for each priority per Fund and per category of regions in the final accounting year shall not exceed, by more than 15 %, the contribution from the Funds or the EMFF for each priority per Fund and per category of regions as laid down in the decision of the Commission approving the operational programme. For the purposes of this paragraph, the additional special allocation for the outermost regions set out in Article 92(1), point (e), shall be considered part of the ERDF allocation to the category of regions of the outermost region concerned.

Payment applications shall include, for each priority:

Eligible expenditure included in a payment application shall be supported by receipted invoices or accounting documents of equivalent probative value, except for the forms of support referred to in points (b) to (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 67(1), Articles 68, 68a, 68b and 68c, Article 69(1) and Article 109 of this Regulation, and in Article 14 of the ESF Regulation. For those forms of support, the amounts included in a payment application shall be the costs calculated on the applicable basis.

In the case of State aid, the public contribution corresponding to the expenditure included in a payment application shall have been paid to the beneficiaries by the body granting the aid or, where Member States have decided that the beneficiary is the body granting the aid pursuant to point (10)(a) of Article 2, paid by the beneficiary to the body receiving the aid.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1 of this Article, in the case of State aid, the payment application may include advances paid to the beneficiary by the body granting the aid or, where Member States have decided that the beneficiary is the body granting the aid pursuant to point (10)(a) of Article 2, paid by the beneficiary to the body receiving the aid, under the following cumulative conditions:

Each payment application which includes advances of the type referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article shall separately disclose:

The Commission shall, in order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Article, adopt implementing acts laying down the model for payment applications. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 150(3).

Subject to the availability of funding from initial and annual pre-financing and interim payments, the managing authority shall ensure that a beneficiary receives the total amount of eligible public expenditure due in full and no later than 90 days from the date of submission of the payment claim by the beneficiary.

The payment deadline referred to in paragraph 1 may be interrupted by the managing authority in either of the following duly justified cases:

Member States which have not adopted the euro as their currency on the date of an application for payment shall convert the amounts of expenditure incurred in national currency into euro. Those amounts shall be converted into euro using the monthly accounting exchange rate of the Commission in the month during which the expenditure was registered in the accounts of the certifying authority of the operational programme concerned. The exchange rate shall be published electronically by the Commission each month.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the ETC Regulation may establish specific rules on the timing for conversion into euro.

When the euro becomes the currency of a Member State, the conversion procedure set out in paragraph 1 shall continue to apply to all expenditure recorded in the accounts by the certifying authority before the date of entry into force of the fixed conversion rate between the national currency and the euro.

The initial pre-financing amount shall be paid in instalments as follows:

An annual pre-financing amount shall be paid before 1 July in the years 2016 to 2023. It shall be a percentage of the amount of the support from the Funds and the EMFF for the whole programming period to the operational programme as follows:

When calculating the amount of initial pre-financing referred to in paragraph 1, the amount of support for the entire programming period shall exclude the amounts from the performance reserve which were initially allocated to the operational programme.

The certifying authority shall submit on a regular basis an application for interim payment in accordance with Article 131(1) covering amounts entered in its accounting system in the accounting year. However, the certifying authority, where it considers it to be necessary, may include such amounts in payment applications submitted in subsequent accounting years.

The certifying authority shall submit the final application for an interim payment by 31 July following the end of the previous accounting year and, in any event, before the first application for interim payment for the next accounting year.

The first application for interim payment shall not be made before the notification to the Commission of the designation of the managing authorities and certifying authorities in accordance with Article 124.

Interim payments shall not be made for an operational programme unless the annual implementation report has been sent to the Commission in accordance with the Fund-specific rules.

Subject to available funding, the Commission shall make the interim payment no later than 60 days after the date on which a payment application is registered with the Commission.

By way of derogation from paragraph 2, the deadline for the submission of the final application for an interim payment for the final accounting year shall be 31 July 2025. The last application for interim payment submitted by 31 July 2025 shall be deemed to be the final application for an interim payment for the final accounting year.

The Commission shall decommit any part of the amount in an operational programme that has not been used for payment of the initial and annual pre-financing and interim payments by 31 December of the third financial year following the year of budget commitment under the operational programme or for which a payment application drawn up in accordance with Article 131 has not been submitted in accordance with Article 135.

That part of commitments still open on 31 December 2023 shall be decommitted if any of the documents required under Article 141(1) has not been submitted to the Commission by the deadline set out in Article 141(1).

The accounts referred to in  point (a) of Article 63(5) and Article 63(6) of the Financial Regulation shall be submitted to the Commission for each operational programme. The accounts shall cover the accounting year and shall include at the level of each priority and, where applicable, fund and category of regions:

Where expenditure previously included in an application for interim payment for the accounting year is excluded by a Member State from its accounts due to an ongoing assessment of that expenditure's legality and regularity, any or all of that expenditure subsequently found to be legal and regular may be included in an application for interim payment relating to subsequent accounting years.

The Commission shall, in order to lay down uniform conditions for the implementation of this Article, adopt implementing acts setting out the model for the accounts referred to in this Article. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 150(3).

The Commission shall carry out an examination of the documents submitted by the Member State under Article 138. Upon request by the Commission, the Member State shall provide all necessary additional information to enable the Commission to determine whether the accounts are complete, accurate and true, by the deadline set out in Article 84.

The Commission shall accept the accounts where it is able to conclude that the accounts are complete, accurate and true. The Commission shall reach such a conclusion where the audit authority has provided an unqualified audit opinion regarding the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the accounts unless the Commission has specific evidence that the audit opinion on the accounts is unreliable.

The Commission shall inform the Member State by the deadline set out in Article 84 as to whether it is able to accept the accounts.

If, for reasons attributable to Member State, the Commission is unable to accept the accounts by the deadline set out in Article 84, the Commission shall notify the Member States specifying the reasons in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article and the actions which are required to be undertaken and the time period for their completion. At the end of the time period for the completion of those actions the Commission shall inform the Member State as to whether it is able to accept the accounts.

Issues related to legality and regularity of the underlying transactions concerning expenditure entered in the accounts shall not be taken into account for the purposes of acceptance of the accounts by the Commission. The procedure for examination and acceptance of the accounts shall not interrupt the treatment of applications for interim payments and shall not lead to suspension of payments, without prejudice to Articles 83 and 142.

On the basis of the accepted accounts, the Commission shall calculate the amount chargeable to the Funds and to the EMFF for the accounting year and the consequent adjustments in relation to the payments to the Member State. The Commission shall take into account:

After the calculation carried out under paragraph 6, the Commission shall clear the respective annual pre-financing and pay any additional amount due within 30 days of the acceptance of the accounts. Where there is an amount recoverable from the Member State, it shall be subject to a recovery order issued by the Commission which shall be executed, where possible, by offsetting against amounts due to the Member State under subsequent payments to the same operational programme.  Such recovery shall not constitute a financial correction and shall not reduce support from the Funds and the EMFF to the operational programme. The amount recovered shall constitute assigned revenue in accordance with Article 177(3) of the Financial Regulation.

Where, after applying the procedure set out in paragraph 4, the Commission is unable to accept the accounts, the Commission shall determine, on the basis of the available information and in accordance with paragraph 6,  the amount chargeable to the Funds and the EMFF for the accounting year, and shall inform the Member State. Where the Member State notifies the Commission of its agreement within two months of the transmission by the Commission of the information, paragraph 7 shall apply. In the absence of such agreement, the Commission shall adopt a decision, by means of implementing acts, setting out the amount chargeable to the Funds and the EMFF for the accounting year. Such decision shall not constitute a financial correction and shall not reduce support from the Funds and the EMFF to the operational programme. On the basis of the decision, the Commission shall apply the adjustments to the payments to the Member State in accordance with paragraph 7.

The acceptance of the accounts by the Commission, or a decision by the Commission under paragraph 8 of this Article, shall be without prejudice to the application of corrections under Articles 144 and 145.

Member States may replace irregular amounts which are detected after the submission of the accounts by making the corresponding adjustments in the accounts for the accounting year in which the irregularity is detected, without prejudice to Articles 144 and 145.

Without prejudice to the rules governing State aid,  the managing authority shall ensure that all supporting documents regarding expenditure supported by the Funds and the EMFF on operations for which the total eligible expenditure is less than EUR 1 000 000 , are made available to the Commission and the European Court of Auditors upon request for a period of three years from 31 December following the submission of the accounts in which the expenditure of the operation is included.

The managing authority shall inform beneficiaries of the start date of the period referred to in paragraph 1.

The documents shall be kept either in the form of the originals, or certified true copies of the originals, or on commonly accepted data carriers including electronic versions of original documents or documents existing in electronic version only.  Where documents are kept on commonly accepted data carriers in accordance with the procedure laid down in paragraph 5, no originals shall be required.

The documents shall be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data were collected or for which they are further processed.

The procedure for certification of conformity of documents held on commonly accepted data carriers with the original document shall be laid down by the national authorities and shall ensure that the versions held comply with national legal requirements and can be relied on for audit purposes.

Where documents exist in electronic form only, the computer systems used shall meet accepted security standards that ensure that the documents held comply with national legal requirements and can be relied on for audit purposes.

In addition to the documents referred to in Article 138, for the final accounting year from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, Member States shall submit a final implementation report for the operational programme or the last annual implementation report for the operational programme supported by the EMFF.

The final balance shall be paid no later than three months after the date of acceptance of accounts of the final accounting year or one month after the date of acceptance of the final implementation report, whichever date is later.

All or part of the interim payments at the level of priorities or operational programmes may be suspended by the Commission if one or more of the following conditions are met:

The Commission may decide, by means of implementing acts, to suspend all or part of interim payments, after having given the Member State the opportunity to present its observations.

The Commission shall end suspension of all or part of interim payments where the Member State has taken the necessary measures to enable the suspension to be lifted.

The Member States shall in the first instance be responsible for investigating irregularities and for making the financial corrections required and pursuing recoveries. In the case of a systemic irregularity, the Member State shall extend its investigation to cover all operations potentially affected.

Member States shall make the financial corrections required in connection with individual or systemic irregularities detected in operations or operational programmes. Financial corrections shall consist of cancelling all or part of the public contribution to an operation or operational programme. The Member States shall take into account the nature and gravity of the irregularities and the financial loss to the Funds or the EMFF and shall apply a proportionate correction.  Financial corrections shall be recorded in the accounts for the accounting year in which the cancellation is decided.

The contribution from the Funds or the EMFF cancelled in accordance with paragraph 2 may be reused by the Member State within the operational programme concerned, subject to paragraph 4.

The contribution cancelled in accordance with paragraph 2 may not be reused for any operation that was the subject of the correction or, where a financial correction is made for a systemic irregularity, for any operation affected by the systemic irregularity.

The Fund-specific rules for the EMFF may lay down specific bases for financial corrections by the Member States linked to non-compliance with rules applicable under the Common Fisheries Policy, which shall be proportionate, having regard to the nature, gravity, duration and recurrence of the non-compliance.

The Commission shall make financial corrections, by means of implementing acts, by cancelling all or part of the Union contribution to an operational programme in accordance with Article 85, where, after carrying out the necessary examination, it concludes that:

The Commission shall, when deciding on a correction under paragraph 1, respect the principle of proportionality by taking account of the nature and gravity of the irregularity and the extent and financial implications of the deficiencies in management and control systems found in the operational programme.

Where the Commission bases its position on reports of auditors other than those of its own services, it shall draw its own conclusions regarding the financial consequences after examining the measures taken by the Member State concerned under Article 143(2), the notifications sent under Article 122(2), and any replies from the Member State.