Toelichting bij COM(2025)565 - European Fund for economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture and rural, fisheries and maritime, prosperity and security for the period 2028-2034

Dit is een beperkte versie

U kijkt naar een beperkte versie van dit dossier in de EU Monitor.

dossier COM(2025)565 - European Fund for economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture and rural, fisheries and maritime, prosperity and ...
bron COM(2025)565 EN
datum 16-07-2025


1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal

Over the past years, EU funds with nationally pre-allocated envelopes have crucially supported the delivery of key EU objectives and EU common policies – from economic, territorial and social cohesion to ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, access to affordable food, support to the Common Fisheries Policy, or creating an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. Currently, there are several funds that are predominantly pre-allocated to Member States. Yet, the profound challenges our Union faces call for a reflection on how to improve their design to best deliver on our joint priorities.

While regional and territorial disparities have been substantially reduced, including by EU cohesion policies, 29% of EU citizens still live in regions with a GDP per capita below 75% of the EU average and about 135 million people live in places which, in the last two decades, have slowly fallen behind. The current divergent growth trajectories risk widening socio-economic gaps between and within Member States, notably between rural and urban areas.

At the same time, food security and nature protection sustain Europe’s quality of life with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) able to guarantee that 450 million Europeans have access to safe, high quality and diversified food products at affordable prices, while contributing to preserve vibrant rural areas and make significant progress towards sustainability. Yet, long-term risks for food security and the effects of climate change and environmental degradation put the agricultural sector under increasing pressure. In addition, farmers, fishers, rural and coastal areas are increasingly affected by unfair global competition, higher energy prices, a lack of younger farmers and fishers and difficulties in accessing capital. For example, despite the substantial support from the CAP, the agricultural income per worker remains volatile and significantly below the average wage in the EU economy (60% in 2023).

War, insecurity, poverty and a lack of opportunities have strengthened migration flows, and the weaponisation of migration at the EU borders has illustrated new forms of threats. At the same time, the global political and economic landscape poses challenges of unprecedented magnitude, with war still raging on the European continent and also in the neighbourhood.

While these are only a few of the many challenges faced by our Union, they show the need to improve the design of EU support to best deliver on our shared priorities and common policies and ensure that the EU budget continues to play a key role in supporting fair and inclusive growth, sustainable economic convergence, intergenerational fairness and security. In this regard, the 2024-2029 Political Guidelines of the Commission call for a strengthened, modernised cohesion and growth policy, aimed at reducing economic, social and territorial disparities, supporting employment and strengthening the competitiveness of the Union. The Mid-Term Review of Cohesion Policy already introduces flexibility and offers incentives to direct investments toward emerging challenges, while maintaining the key focus on reducing regional disparities. They also call for ensuring the fisheries sector to remain sustainable, competitive and resilient and with upholding a level playing field for the European fisheries chain. They pledge that European Oceans Pact will focus on boosting the blue economy and ensuring the good governance and sustainability of our oceans in all of their dimensions. They also call for a Common Agriculture Policy that is more targeted and finds the right balance between incentives, investment and regulation and ensures that farmers have a fair and sufficient income. More broadly, they also pledge to support measures to reinforce Europe’s defence and security and tackle migration, including effective protection of the EU external borders, as well as preparedness or the fight against climate change. On different occasions, EU Heads of State have called for increasing the resilience of EU agriculture to preserve food security in the long term, the value of vibrant rural communities, and the essential role of the CAP in that regard. Moreover, they called on the need to ensure a stable and predictable policy framework, including to accompany the farmers in tackling environmental and climate challenges.

The Commission Communication of 19 February 2025 entitled ‘A Vision for Agriculture and Food’ 6 sets out general principles for the CAP post-2027. Those principles include a CAP relying on objectives and targeted requirements, further responsibility and accountability for Member States on how they meet the CAP policy objectives, the essential role of the CAP in supporting and stabilising farmers income and attracting a future generation of farmers, a simpler and more targeted policy with a clearer balance between incentives and mandatory requirements, more flexibility for farmers and a shift from conditions to incentives.

More broadly, this 2028-2034 multi-annual financial framework is an opportunity to design a more policy-oriented, simpler, impactful and responsive budget to help Member States and their regions address priorities and challenges in the most effective, inclusive and efficient way, drawing on all the lessons learned from the current programmes. The Commission’s communication on ‘the road to the next MFF’ published on 11 February 2025 stressed in that respect the need to address ‘the complexities, weaknesses and rigidities that are currently present and maximise the impact of every euro it spends’ while guaranteeing the budget’s ability to respond to a changing reality.

Inhoudsopgave

1.

This proposal for a Regulation aims to respond to these various challenges by:


·ensuring better coherence between EU priorities and national and regional actions;

·achieving simplification and better value for money by building a simpler and more efficient delivery system;

·addressing emerging policy priorities by facilitating the reallocation resources to respond to new needs and unforeseen crises, without putting at risk the fulfilment of long-term objectives.

2.

To achieve these objectives, this initiative provides for the grouping of nationally pre-allocated envelopes under a Fund to:


·Simplify the current framework – moving from close to 540 programmes to 27 National and Regional Partnership Plans and one Interreg Plan, with a wide eligibility scope and a single set of rules, will reduce administrative costs at all levels, while facilitating access to funding for EU businesses, including SMEs, local authorities and project promoters and keeping the focus on reducing regional disparities. For the agricultural sector, this presents an evolution based on the most recent reform, which already and for the first time is based on strategic national plans and performance. Likewise, the new framework guarantees coherence by integrating the CAP interventions from the current two-funds structure under one single umbrella. Such alignment brings further flexibility and simplification.

·Provide a more integrated programming process, allowing a more differentiated and qualitative approach to deliver on EU priorities, tailored to each Member State’s national and regional challenges, moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Integrated programming will also enable stronger synergies between policies, for instance to empower Member States to address the challenges faced by rural and coastal areas in a more comprehensive manner, as well as with other EU spending programmes (e.g. the European Competitiveness Fund or the Connecting Europe Facility). In doing so, the Fund will also ensure continued support to those who need it the most, including least developed regions and farmers most in need with a strong focus on generational renewal.

·Ensure that the EU budget supports success, by providing Member States and regions with the necessary objectives to engage in an ambitious reform agenda, which will benefit the EU as a whole, and by guiding spending where it matters and can bring the highest EU added-value – notably by encouraging Member States and regions to select more projects with a high EU added-value than today, including cross-border and multi-country projects (in particular IPCEIs). Consistency will be ensured across the board, with better policy planning at all levels and a more efficient allocation of EU funds, where they can achieve the best results, as well as fostering stronger synergies between policies.

·Foster ownership at all levels, with a multi-level governance and a strong regional dimension, based on shared management and the partnership principle, ensuring support is focused on the needs of each Member State and its regions and sectors, as well as continuity and predictability for managing authorities and beneficiaries;

·Enable faster and better value for money, by linking the provision of funds to Member States to the progress achieved in the implementation of measures rather than the reimbursement of eligible costs;

·Enshrine strong safeguards to ensure respect of the Rule of Law and the effective application of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights throughout implementation.

·Encourage more flexibility and adaptability, with the progressive allocation of funds throughout the programming period, an easier revision of the plans, and a reserve at EU level (EU Facility) offering additional room to adjust to new priorities and crises.

An EU Facility will complement implementation at national and regional level. The EU Facility will support transnational and innovative projects, with a high EU added-value, which require additional coordination efforts at EU level. It will also provide technical support to Member States to effectively implement their National and Regional Partnership Plans. Furthermore, the Facility will help Member States in swiftly addressing urgent and specific needs as a response to a crisis situation such as a major national or regional natural disaster, and foster repair and recovery in view of increasing resilience following a crisis. It will also cater for uncertainty by providing the Union with additional room of manoeuvre to adjust to emerging priorities at Union level, which require a coordinated response.

This proposal is accompanied by the proposals for sector-specific Regulations, which set out specific conditions for the provision of Union support in policy areas covered by the Plans. This Union support will be provided under the Fund, in accordance with the rules governing that Fund as proposed in this Regulation.

• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area

The Fund will help better exploit synergies between the policies covered by the scope of this initiative and hence support their delivery. For example, by bringing cohesion policy, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy under a single programming approach, Member States will have a wider toolbox to address the challenges faced by farmers and communities in rural and coastal areas (e.g. infrastructure development; for services, digitalisation, access to water and energy infrastructure; skills development, generational renewal). Likewise, by bringing migration with cohesion under the same programming approach, Member States and regions will be better equipped to integrate migrants in the labour market while protecting their borders.

A simplified framework for nationally pre-allocated envelopes will make it easier to capitalise on synergies with other EU budget programmes, with the steering mechanism ensuring coherent programming without overlaps. Synergies will be particularly relevant with the European Competitiveness Fund InvestEU Instrument, the Connecting Europe Facility, the Erasmus+ programme, the programme for the Single Market, Customs, and cooperation between national authorities (SMP+), and the Global Europe Fund.

• Consistency with other Union policies

3.

The Fund will support and therefore deliver increased consistency with other Union policies, such as:


·the Commission Communication on implementation and simplification ‘A simpler and faster Europe’ 1 , which launches a new drive to speed up, simplify and improve EU policies and laws, make rules clearer and easier to understand and faster to implement.

·the Competitiveness Compass for the EU 2 , which calls for horizontal enablers such as removing barriers to the single market, deepening the capital markets through implementing reforms underpinning the savings and investments Union as well as simplifying the regulatory environment through a refocused EU budget. Having a simplified framework for nationally pre-allocated envelopes will allow in that respect to better exploit synergies with other instruments of the EU budget, including the European Competitiveness Fund and Horizon Europe.

·the Clean Industrial Deal 3 , which sets out a joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation and identifies the post-2027 MFF as a key enabler for the clean transition. As part of the Clean Industrial Deal, the Commission adopted the Action Plan for Affordable Energy 4 which aims to lower energy costs for all, accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, increase energy efficiency or energy crisis preparedness.

·The Commission Communication of 5 March 2025 on the Union of Skills 5 , which sets out the necessary actionable steps to equip people with the right skills and achieve more competitive and inclusive Europe.

·The “Vision for Agriculture and Food” 6 of 19 February 2025, which puts forward measures to ensure long-term competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the EU’s farming and food sector.

·Research and Innovation policy through the Ocean Pact Research and Innovation Strategy; and the Water Resilience Research & Innovation Strategy in a synergetic way.

·The White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 of 19 March 2025 which provides for a new approach to defence and identifies investment needs. It outlines key lines of action on how to safeguard Europe’s security, including through massive investments into defence and building up the readiness of the European defence industry.

·The Commission Communication of 5 March 2025 on Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector which sets out the necessary steps for the transition to zero-emission, connected and increasingly automated vehicles.

·The Commission Communication of 9 December 2020 on Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future sets out the necessary steps for European transport system’s path towards achieving sustainable, smart and resilient mobility.

·The Union of Equality and its related Strategies7 that aim at combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.The European ocean Pact of 5 June 2025 which sets out a comprehensive strategy to better protect the ocean, promote a thriving blue economy and support the well-being of people living in coastal areas.

·Communication on EU Preparedness Union Strategy to prevent and react to emerging threats and crises.

·The Omnibus packages adopted in the course of 2025 7 aiming for, i.a., simplification, consistency with other pieces of legislation, and reducing the number of data points. The Net Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials act, also from the perspective of tight permitting deadlines.

·The Commission Communication of 5 June 2025 on a European Water Resilience Strategy.

·The Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030 , established by Decision (EU) 2022/2481 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which sets the Union’s digital transformation objectives targets for 2030 and provides for a monitoring and cooperation mechanism based on national Digital Decade strategic roadmaps; the annual communications on the ‘State of the Digital Decade”, which evaluates the Union’s progress towards the 2030 digital targets and provides actionable recommendations for each Member State

·The Commission Communication on the AI Continent Action Plan.

·The Commission Communication of 19 March 2025 on the Savings and Investments Union 8 , which puts forward measures to create better investment opportunities for EU citizens and financing choices for EU companies, thereby making financial markets a horizontal enabler of the EU’s strategic objectives.

This initiative will also ensure consistency with the European Climate Law, as required by Article 6 i of Regulation (EU) 2021/1119.

2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY

• Legal basis

4.

EU action is justified by multiple legal bases reflecting the different policies supported by the Fund:


·Article 174 TFEU commits the EU to promote economic, social and territorial cohesion.

·Articles 176, 177 and 162 TFEU establish the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Social Fund respectively and define their respective objectives.

·Articles 38 and 42 i TFEU empowers the Union to define and implement a common agriculture policy (CAP) and common fisheries policy (CFP). Article 39 TFEU sets the objectives of the CAP, which include the increase of agricultural productivity, a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, stabilise markets, assure the availability of supplies and that these supplies reach consumers at reasonable prices. Article 42 TFEU enables the Union to determine the extent to which Union rules on competition and State aid apply to production and trade in agricultural products listed in Annex I to TFEU.

·Article 175 TFEU lists the Structural Funds, which shall support the achievement of economic, social and territorial cohesion – the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, Guidance Section; European Social Fund; European Regional Development Fund. Article 177 TFEU provides that “the European Parliament and the Council […] shall define the tasks, priority objectives and the organisation of the Structural Funds, which may involve grouping the Funds.”

• Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)

The objectives of the proposal cannot be achieved by Member States acting alone, as the challenges are of a cross-border nature, and not limited to single Member States or to a subset of Member States.

Nationally pre-allocated envelopes play a vital role in delivering on EU priorities across all Member States and regions. For instance, cohesion policy promotes integration and cooperation among Member States, helping reduce regional disparities within and between Member States. The Common Agricultural Policy ensures a level playing field among Member States and farmers in the single market, guaranteeing food security throughout the Union, enhancing the attractiveness of the sector also for young farmers and new entrants, and addressing challenges of a cross-border and global nature. The conservation of marine resources, being an EU exclusive competence, puts a responsibility on the Union in terms of policy making and financing. In the field of home affairs, EU funding is necessary to ensure a common approach and fostering cooperation in the Area of Freedom Security and Justice.

Funding at Union level is also necessary to support EU public goods that are insufficiently prioritised by Member States due, for instance, to market failures, but which bring high EU-wide benefits, such as cross-border projects or Important Projects of Common European Interest.

Addressing these challenges through nationally pre-allocated envelopes would provide added-value by creating ownership and ensuring that support takes into account the specific needs of each Member State and its regions. It would also help the EU achieve its policy objectives more efficiently by linking EU funding to reforms, thereby enhancing the EU’s leverage to encourage and assist Member States in overcoming institutional and regulatory obstacles that hinder the fulfilment of EU policy priorities. Reforms can also help to increase the positive impact of investments, hence increasing the value of each euro spent.

• Proportionality

In accordance with the principle of proportionality, the proposed Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives mentioned under section 1. The proposal specifically aims at furthering previous simplification efforts, by further unifying and consolidating rules, and ensuring a stronger focus on performance and flexibility to maximise the effectiveness and responsiveness of EU spending.

• Choice of the instrument

The most appropriate vehicle to operationalize the proposed framework is i.e. a regulation establishing a Fund with a broad eligibility scope and setting out the single set of rules governing the National and Regional Partnership Plans to be prepared by each Member State for the post-2027 period.

3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

• Stakeholder consultations

5.

The Commission actively engaged with stakeholders in the process of the initiative, notably through:


·dedicated events, such as the Citizens’ panel on the new European budget, the Annual Budget Conference, Tour d’Europe (a round of consultations carried out by the Commissioner for the Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration across Member States and regions), and;

·a dedicated Open Public Consultation (from 12 February to 7 May 2025).

Stakeholder consultations struck a similar note to the conclusion of the impact assessment, highlighting as key features for the future funding framework the need for simplification, greater flexibility and the importance of ensuring support for all regions based on their specific needs rather than uniform allocations. Addressing structural disparities, including persisting social, economic, regional and territorial disparities, remains a top concern, as well as the need to enhance administrative capacity. Enhancing multilevel governance and stakeholder participation also emerged as a clear priority.

The concerns raised by stakeholders are addressed in the various simplification measures included in the Fund’s regulation as well as by the various rules governing the design and implementation of the Plans.

• Collection and use of expertise

The preparation of the impact assessment and the draft regulation by the Commission was based on a review of the available litterature as documented in the impact assessment report, e.g. based on EU budget programmes evaluations (mid-term and ex post), the spending review exercise, reports and documents from other EU institutions such as the European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors.

In particular, the analysis drew from the reflections of the high-level expert group on the future of cohesion policy, which was convened in 2024 and found that cohesion policy should operate in concert with other EU and national policies, as these are mutually dependent and must work together to reach their collective goals. It also collected evidence from the 2024 report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, which called for a CAP that i provides socio-economic support targeted to the farmers who need it most; i promotes positive environmental, social and animal welfare outcomes for society; and i invigorates enabling conditions for rural areas. It also called for a more proactive role of cohesion policy to support the attractiveness of rural areas and the CAP. Additional inputs on the future of the CAP were collected through dedicated meetings organised in the framework of existing EU stakeholders’ platforms and ad hoc technical workshops bringing together EU stakeholders and Member States.

• Impact assessment

The proposal was supported by an impact assessment, which examined options for the design of the plan, focusing on the delivery model – how payments are made – and on the management mode – how EU spending is implemented and overseen. Design features have an impact on the scope of the plans, which was examined in a second stage.


The impact assessment concluded that the preferred option for the design of the plans is a delivery model against pre-agreed objectives (Option B), under shared management (Option D). On the one hand, delivery against pre-agreed objectives ensures better coherence, value for money and accountability compared to a cost-based delivery model, since the specific results to be achieved are set out in advance. Providing financial support upon the fulfilment of milestones and targets further provides incentives to deliver on the implementation of agreed measures. Such a delivery model also provides a simpler framework for having reforms at Member States level and enables to further enhance coherence between EU and national/regional/local activities. On the other hand, shared management will cater best for the multi-level governance and strong regional dimension of the plans. It would also ensure simplicity for Member States and regions which could build on the structures already put in place for the management of EU funds with nationally pre-allocated envelopes and hence lead to lower adjustment costs for Member States’ authorities compared to direct management (except for the Social Climate Fund).

As for the scope of the plans, the impact assessment showed that having a plan per Member State would ensure more coherent, coordinated programming of pre-allocated envelopes, reflecting the different needs at national and regional level while ensuring support for EU priorities identified in the steering mechanism. The impact assessment concluded that a bigger scope of the plans as foreseen in Option 3b would bring the most policy coherence to the plans, allowing to capitalise on the synergies that exist between policies and removing existing overlaps.

All options are expected to reduce the administrative costs for Member States and regions – albeit to different extents. Option 1 would reduce the number of programmes from more than 400 to a plan for each Member State, while moving away from the two-step programming in cohesion policy to single programming based on a single set of rules, is also expected to reduce implementation delays – without prejudice to a strong multi-level governance and regional dimension. Option 2a would partially help better exploit the synergies with other EU policies such as cohesion but would reverse the strategic planning approach to the whole CAP that was introduced with the CAP Strategic Plans 2023-2027. It is expected to bring some further simplification given the similarities between the CAP and the Common Provisions Regulation, but with some adjustment costs for Member States’ authorities which would need to work under two different systems for the two CAP funds. The full integration of the CAP (Option 2b) would remedy this but the introduction of specific rules for the integration of area and animal-based interventions on which farmers directly rely for their livelihood would nevertheless remain necessary to preserve the integrity of the single market and fair competition between farmers. Overall, Options 2b and 3 were found to bring higher simplification gains and better policy synergies than Options 1 and 2a.

Having one single envelope per Member State would ensure the efficient and flexible allocation of funding across policy areas, allowing Member States to address new priorities such as defence capabilities or preparedness. It would also make it easier to reallocate resources to respond to unforeseen challenges or shifting policy needs without needing to re-open the legislative framework. The impact assessment concluded that a bigger scope of the plans as foreseen in Option 3b would bring the most flexibility compared to the other two options.

• Regulatory fitness and simplification

While the proposed regulation does not correspond to a revision of existing legislation linked to the REFIT, the proposed initiative is fully in line with the REFIT objectives of simplification and reduction of red tape. Compared to the status quo (where EU funds with nationally pre-allocated envelopes are governed by separate fund-specific regulations and implemented through different programmes), this initiative would create one single rulebook for the implementation of nationally pre-allocated envelopes, through one single programming document per Member State – the National and Regional Partnership Plans.

The initiative is expected to result in a significant reduction of administrative burden and improved efficiency. Having one common set of rules is expect – over the short to medium term – to reduce costs for national/regional/local administrations as well as stakeholders. Bringing together different EU funds also provides the opportunity to increase synergies and flexibility in the use of EU resources, which is conducive to a better allocation of resources and a more efficient EU budget, with macroeconomic and society-wide benefits in the long term. The focus on EU priorities, while taking into account national and regional needs, is also expected to contribute to a more efficient use of EU resources.

While one-off adjustment costs are expected for national and regional authorities and beneficiaries (including businesses) to adjust to the new set-up, recurrent compliance and administrative costs are expected to be reduced compared to the status quo thanks to the simplification efforts.

• Fundamental rights

Alongside the Conditionality Regulation which will continue to apply to the whole of the EU budget, this Regulation includes strong safeguards to ensure that the funds are implemented in compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the principles of the rule of law, as set out in Article 2(a) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092. The inclusion in the future Plans of reforms linked, inter alia, to recommendations from the Rule of Law Report is also expected to enhance the protection of fundamental rights and strengthen compliance with the Charter.

4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS

The Commission’s proposal for a multi-annual financial framework sets out an amount of EUR 865 076 000 000 for the Fund for the period 2028-2034.

The Fund also makes available to Member States for the implementation of their Plans a total amount of loan support of EUR 150 000 000 000. The Commission should be able to contract borrowings on the financial markets in accordance with the diversified funding strategy.

Details on financial and staffing needs can be found in the Legislative Financial Digital Statement (LFDS).

5. OTHER ELEMENTS

• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements

This initiative will be monitored through the performance framework applicable for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework, which is set out in the proposal for a Regulation xx [performance regulation]. The performance framework provides for an implementation report during the implementation phase of the programme, as well as a retrospective evaluation to be carried out in accordance with Article 34 i of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509. The evaluation shall be conducted in accordance with the Commission's Better Regulation Guidelines and will be based on indicators relevant to the objectives of the Fund.

• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal

Title I – General provisions [Article 1 to 9]

The Fund brings together the European Funds with nationally pre-allocated envelopes and is established for the period 2028 to 2034. Article 2 defines general objectives which should be pursued through specific objectives grouped around five pillars (Article 3).

The Commission and the Member States should implement the National and Regional Partnership Plans and the Interreg Plan under shared management while the Commission may resort to direct, shared or indirect management when implementing the EU Facility (Article 5) and contributions from the Global Europe Instrument included in chapters supporting outermost regions’ cooperation may be implemented in shared or in indirect management.

Each Member State should organize and implement a comprehensive partnership for the National and Regional Partnership Plan and each chapter, in line with the principle of multi-level governance and bottom-up approach, to ensure a balanced representation of various partners (Article 6).

Article 7 defines the horizontal principles applicable to the Regulation, including the obligation for Member States to comply, in the implementation of the Fund, with the principles of the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European Union as well as the principle of non-discrimination and gender equality in line with Regulation (EU) 202X/XXXX [Performance Regulation]. They should also foster synergies and ensure effective coordination between the Fund and other Union programmes and instruments.

This Title establishes horizontal conditions regarding compliance with the rule of law and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and sets out the terms of their application (Articles 8 and 9).

Title II - Financial framework [Article 10 to 20]

The financial envelope of the Fund is EUR [xx] for the period 2028 to 2034, out of which EUR [xx] should be allocated to the Plans, EUR [xx] to the EU Facility and EUR [xx] to the Interreg Plan (Article 10).

The rules linked to the additional resources and the use of such to be made by a Member State to the provisioning of the budgetary guarantee, to the financing of the financial instrument or to any amounts of non-repayable support when combined with the budgetary guarantee or the financial instrument in a blending operation as are laid down in Article 11.

The Fund may support technical and administrative assistance at the initiative of the Commission for the implementation of the Plan and the Interreg Plan (Article 12). At the initiative of a Member State, the Fund may support actions necessary for the effective implementation of the Fund (Article 13).

The distribution of the funds across the Member States within the Fund will be made in accordance with Annex I. Member States will have flexibility through the implementation phase to be able to respond to crises and unforeseen circumstances (Article 14).

Article 14 defines the rules on budgetary commitments. Articles 15 and 16 describe the cases where the Commission should decommit any amount in a Plan and the Interreg Plan and the procedural steps in case of a decommitment. Member States should be able to receive pre-financing subject to the adoption of a Council implementing decision approving a Plan (Article 17).

Upon a request from a Member State, the Commission may grant the Member State concerned a loan for the implementation of its Plan (Article 18). Article 19 sets out the details of the loan agreement and the rules for the Commission’s empowerment to borrow the necessary funds on the financial markets or from financial institutions.

The minimum national contribution rate to the estimated costs of the measures of the Plan should be calculated based on Article 20.

Title III – National and Regional Partnership Plans [Article 21 to 25]

Each Member State should submit to the Commission a National and Regional Partnership Plan which should be prepared and implemented in cooperation with the partners (Article 21). The Plan should include the elements set out in Article 22 and Annex V. Upon positive assessment, the Commission should make a proposal for a Council implementing decision (Article 23).

During the implementation phase, the Member States may request a reasoned amendment of their National and Regional Partnership Plan, setting out the expected impact on the achievement of objectives (Article 24). The Member States should also submit amended plans as part of the mid-term review by 31 March 2031 (Article 25).

Title IV - EU Facility [Article 26 to 34]

The Regulation establishes the EU Facility to increase flexibility and cater for unforeseen crises. The Facility will cover Union actions and emerging challenges and priorities cushion (the ‘budget cushion’) (Article 26). The EU Facility may be implemented in the form of budgetary guarantees, financial instruments and blending operations (Article 27), or with participation of third countries (Article 28) or Support for activities in or in relation to third countries (Article 29) and other entities under direct and indirect management (Article 30). Article 31 lays down the objectives and actions to be supported and the respective procedural steps for Union actions. Article 32 sets out rules on expenditure related to public intervention measure under the Unity Safety Net and Article 33 specifies cases where the amount allocated to the budget cushion should be used. The Member States may request to amend their Plans in case of crisis situations (Article 34).

Title V – Common Agricultural Policy [Article 35 to 45]

Article 35 lists the types of interventions for which Union support is granted to pursue the objectives of the Common Agricultural Policy. Specific requirements for CAP interventions are specified in Article 36 and the rules on monitoring of agricultural resources in Article 37. Article 38 sets out rules on crisis payments to farmers following natural disasters, adverse climatic events and catastrophic events. Crop-specific payments for cotton are established in Article 39.

Member States should design the CAP interventions set out in this Regulation, Regulation (EU) 202X/XXXX [CAP Regulation] and Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 in accordance with Article 40 [WTO] and Annex XVII [WTO Annex] (Article 40). Article 41 outlines the rules on the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on oilseeds between the European Economic Community and the United States of America.

Articles 42-45 set out rules on support for the smaller Aegean islands, including the scope and common requirements, specific supply arrangements, support for local agricultural products and related control and penalties.

Title VI Outermost regions [Article 46 to 48]

The Regulation provides that Member States concerned shall implement measures to address challenges that each of their outermost regions is facing, fulfilling the objectives set out in Article 46. The Regulation lays down rules regarding the specific supply arrangements for the agricultural products listed in Annex I TFEU (Article 47) and support for local agricultural products (Article 48).

Title VII – Governance of the plan [Article 49 to 57]

Member States should identify for the Plan one or more managing authorities, one or more paying agencies and one or more audit authorities (Article 49) which should fulfil key requirements set in Annex IV. If the Member State identifies more than one managing authority it should set up a coordinating authority. The Regulation defines the functions of the coordinating authority (Article 50), of the managing authority (Article 51), of the paying agency (Article 52), of the audit authority (Article 53).

Member States should set up one or more monitoring committees for one or more chapters of the Plan. If more than one monitoring committee is set up, the Member State should also establish a coordinating committee to ensure the overview and monitoring of the implementation (Article 54). Article 55 defines the composition and Article 56 the functions of the monitoring committee. Article 57 defines the objectives of the EU and national CAP Network.

Title VIII - Management and financial rules [Article 58 to 70]

The Regulation specifies the appropriate measures to protect the financial interest of the Union and compliance with the applicable law (Article 58). The Member States should submit to the Commission by 15 February of each year following 2028 the assurance package (Article 59). The Regulation also outlines the responsibilities of the Commission (Article 60), defines the single audit approach (Article 61). Article 62 sets up the control system for farm stewardship and common fisheries policy. The Regulation sets out the responsibilities of the Commission and the Member States regarding the data collection and recording (Article 63) and transparency (Article 64).

The Regulation lays down rules on payments, including submission and assessment of payment applications (Article 65), time limits and interruption of the payments’ deadline (Article 66), suspension of payments (Article 67), financial corrections by the Commission (Article 68) and durability and reversal (Article 69) and Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) (Article 70).

Title IX - Specific type of support [Article 71 to 79]

The Regulation stipulates the rules for when the Member States wish to include in their Plans existing or newly created financial instruments implemented directly by, or under the responsibility of, the managing authority (Article 71). It also stipulates the tasks linked to management verifications and audits of financial instruments (Article 72). Article 73 sets out the rules on management verifications and audits for ex-ante assessed entities as beneficiaries.

Member States should support local cooperation initiatives (Article 74), including integrated territorial and urban development in their Plans (Article 75), community-led local development (Article 76), support under LEADER (Article 77).

Article 78 sets out rules on the use of simplified form of support towards the beneficiaries.

Member States may support measures where the underlying operation(s) consist(s) of the second phase of an operation already selected and started under Regulation (EU) No 2021/1060 if the relevant conditions are met (Article 79).

Title XII – Social Climate Fund and Modernisation Fund [Article 80 to 83]

Given the significant overlaps in terms of e.g., policy objectives, and the implementation timeline, the Social Climate Plans should be integrated as separate chapters of the Plans from 2028 onwards. Articles 80 and 81 set out the procedural rules, accompanied by the amendments of Regulation (EU) 2023/955. To enhance synergies and consistency, Member States benefitting from support under the Modernisation Fund will aim to ensure consistency between the investments financed within their NRP Plans and those presented to the Investment Committee of the Modernisation Fund (Article 82). Article 83 sets out amendments to Regulation (EU) 2023/955.

Title XIII – Institutional and final provisions [Article 84 to 90].

The Regulation contains provisions related to the rules applying to undertakings, state aid rules and potential derogation from these rules (Articles 84-85).

The Regulation confers the power on the Commission to adopt delegated acts for an indeterminate period from the entry into force of this Regulation (Articles 86 and 87).

The rules on the committee procedure are established in Article 88.

The provisions on shared management under the Financial Regulation are amended to adapt them to the delivery model of this Regulation (Article 89).