Control system for conditionality

1.   Member States shall set up a system in order to verify that the following categories of beneficiary comply with the obligations laid down in Title III, Chapter I, Section 2, of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115:
(a)
beneficiaries receiving direct payments under Title III, Chapter II, of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115;
(b)
beneficiaries receiving annual payments in accordance with Articles 70, 71 and 72 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115;
(c)
beneficiaries receiving support in accordance with Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) No 228/2013 or Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) No 229/2013.
2.   Member States applying Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 may set up a simplified control system:
(a)
for beneficiaries receiving payments under Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115; or
(b)
for small farmers, as determined by Member States pursuant to Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, not applying for such payments.
Where a Member State does not apply Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, it may set up a simplified control system for farmers with a maximum size of holding not exceeding 5 hectares of agricultural area declared in accordance with Article 69(1) of this Regulation.
3.   Member States may make use of their existing control systems and administration to ensure compliance with the rules on conditionality.
Those systems shall be compatible with the control systems referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.
4.   Member States shall conduct a yearly review of the control systems referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 in light of the results achieved.
5.   For the purposes of this Chapter, the following definitions apply:
(a)
‘requirement’ means each individual statutory management requirement under Union law referred to in Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 within a given legal act, differing in substance from any other requirements of the same legal act;
(b)
‘legal act’ means each of the individual directives and regulations referred to in Article 12 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115;
(c)
‘reoccurrence of non-compliance’ means non-compliance with the same requirement or standard more than once within a consecutive period of three calendar years, provided that the beneficiary has been informed of previous non-compliance and, where relevant, has had the possibility to take the necessary measures to remedy that previous non-compliance.
6.   In order to comply with their control obligations laid down in paragraphs 1 to 4, Member States:
(a)
shall include on-the-spot checks to verify the compliance of beneficiaries with the obligations laid down in Title III, Chapter I, Section 2, of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115;
(b)
may decide, depending on the requirements, standards, legal acts or areas of conditionality in question, to use the checks, including administrative checks, carried out under the control systems applicable to the respective requirement, standard, legal act or area of conditionality, provided the effectiveness of these checks is at least equal to the on-the-spot checks referred to in point (a);
(c)
may, where appropriate, make use of remote sensing or the area monitoring system or other relevant technologies assisting them to carry out the on-the-spot checks referred to in point (a);
(d)
shall establish the control sample for the on-the-spot checks referred to in point (a) to be carried out each year on the basis of a risk analysis that:
(i)
takes into account, and applies weighting factors to, farm structure, the inherent risk of non-compliance and, where applicable, participation of beneficiaries in the farm advisory services as referred to in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115,
(ii)
includes a random component, and
(iii)
provides the control sample to cover at least 1 % of the beneficiaries listed in paragraph 1 of this Article;
(e)
as regards the obligations of conditionality in relation to Council Directive 96/22/EC
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, shall consider the application of a specific sampling level of monitoring plans to fulfil the requirement of the minimum rate laid down in point (d) of this paragraph;
(f)
may decide, when using the simplified control system referred to in paragraph 2, to exclude from the on-the-spot checks referred to in point (a) of this paragraph the verification of compliance with the obligations referred in that point, where it can be demonstrated that cases of non-compliance by the beneficiaries concerned could not have significant consequences for the achievement of the objectives of the legal acts and standards concerned.