AGEA: Agenzia per erogazioni in agricoltura (Italian Paying Agency)

Presentation of the Italian system

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National law 99/2004 has given AGEA the role of:

Authority for the coordination of the controls in agriculture

Responsible for the management of the SIAN (National Agriculture Information System enforcing nat. law 173/99) and IACS and the integration of the territorial, graphical and transactional data bases of the agricultural sector Within this framework AGEA guarantees the:

Definition of the standards for the full compliance with the SIAN’s infrastructure;

Realization of the utilities for the interoperability, exchange and cooperation among the different Administrations with the data bases

of the SIAN.

AGEA’s mission

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A modification of Italian Constitutional law of 2001 gave Italy’s Regional authorities (and Autonomous Provinces) specific administrative and legislative powers in the context of management of local agricultural policy

Functions previously performed by a single national paying agency, i.e. AGEA, have been decentralized since 2002 and transferred to individual regions. In this regard, the latter have gradually designated their own paying agencies (PA) as laid down in Legislative Decree No. 165/99. To date, there are eleven accredited paying agencies in Italy.

Functions previously performed by a single national paying agency, i.e. AGEA, have been decentralized since 2002 and transferred to individual regions. In this regard, the latter have gradually designated their own paying agencies (PA) as laid down in Legislative Decree No. 165/99. To date, there are eleven accredited paying agencies in Italy.

Paying Agencies framework

AGEA as Coordination Body

The responsibilities of AGEA as Coordination Body are:

• Allocate the funds to the Paying Agencies taking into account the needs and expenditure forecasts made by the PA themselves;

• Report to the EU on all the payments made by the different PA in accordance with the procedures, formats and deadlines required by Community legislation;

• Take care of the relations with the European Commission on matters pertaining to the management of funds EAGF – EAFRD looking after the respect of the terms of payment;

• Promote the harmonization of the application of Community legislation, monitoring the compliance and the timing of the procedures implemented by the different PA;

• Express technical and legal advice for the accreditation of paying agencies ensuring that the organization and structures are consistent and compliant with EU regulations.

AGEA as Paying Agency is responsible of:

• management of public storage of agricultural products;• supply of food to the benefit of the most deprived people; • programs for the improvement of the quality of agricultural products;• provision of food supply to other counties under the framework of EU

economic cooperation.

AGEA operates then under the principle of subsidiariety on behalf of the local (regional) Public Administration not having yet established their own Paying Agency.

AGEA as Paying Agency

•The italian IACS system is managed by AGEA on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and is part of the the SIAN (Italian Agricultural Information System).• •It includes services for all the different departments of the administration: agricultural, forestry, fisheries, land control, food safety.

• 7.000 Bill. € of aids to farmers provided each year

• 2.000.000 farms managed

• 20.000 users for more than 150 different administrations;

• Agreements with Central and Local P.A. (Finance, Health, Census, INPS) for data and services exchange;

• 5.000 counters to citizens by central or local offices

Italian IACS: Some figures

SINTechnical body of AGEA

Paying Agencies CAA

Centers for assistance to farmersIACS Management (IT)

SubsidiesFarm's Registry

LPIS upgrade (refresh project)Ont the Spot Controls

• Eligibility (LPIS) Field 5%

Cross Compliance (GA EC) Cross Compliance (SMR)

Entitelments Registry

Support to farmers

Formation and maintainance of - - Farm's registry

Documents conservationFilling of application

Internet transmission of information

AGEA

Pre-checkedapplications

Pre-checkedapplications

Cross checks by IACSPayments procedures

Debtor's registryPaymentsExecution

PaymentsExecution

Certified holdingsCertified holdings

General IACS workflow

The Centers for Assistance to Farmers (CAA) take care of all the duties required by national law 99/2004 for the upkeep of electronic farm's registry as defined in the procedures handbook drawn up by AGEA with special regard to:

Recording of sole representation mandate countersigned by the farmer

Acquisition and maintainance of all the documents required for farm's regstry formation and managament either electronic or as physical archive

Recording of the basic information (personal details) and farm's assets (land properties, buildings, machinery and production components) required by the implementation of electronic farm's registry

Maintainance of the physical archives and of the farmer's acceptance documentation of the entire content of the electronic farm's registry

Management of inconsistencies and certification by means of a specific check-list of the carrying out of all the cross checks and of the completeness of the documentation required by the farm's registry 8

CAA's activities

The “representative mandate” is the contract between the CAA and the farmer and legitimate it, only within the requirements of farm's registry, to:

carry out controls over the farm in order to guarantee the accuracy of information acquired

access the system (SIAN), on its associated farmer's information only in order of the management of the documentation on the basis of the rules defined by AGEA coordination body

The activities carried out by the CAA are to be compliant to CE Reg. 1663/95 ensuring: a clear separation of roles and inherent responsabilities the compliance with the written procedures the application of the requested check-list The respect of suitable levels of security when accessing the information

system

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CAA's committments

CAA's activities scheme

Farm

Animals in the Livestock Registry

Land properties at theCadastre

Business information atChamber of commerce

Main office and legal representative at

Tax registry

declares

Paying Agency systemThe system of the Paying

Agency extracts information from external system in orde

to:

1. gather information2.execute cross checks

Integrates or modify its information / solve the

inconsistencies

Manages the certified Farm's registry

Manages declared information of farmers

Farm's Registry

Shows all the information regarding the farm and/or the existing inconsistencies

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SIN is a company, established with the AGEA’s board of director resolution on the 2005 November 25th. AGEA owns 100% of the share capital, whose for the 49% has been temporally transferred to a private partner selected with an European open tender

SIN realize services for the public administrations; with his organization “address, manage, control and monitor” the services provided by the private partner

The private partner is formed by a temporary grouping of enterprises (RTI): Almaviva s.p.a., Sofiter – Società terziario avanzato S.p.A., Agriconsulting S.p.A., Cooprogetti Società cooperativa, IBM Italia S.p.A., Auselda AED Group S.p.A., Agrifuturo – Società cooperativa a mutualità prevalente, Telespazio S.p.A.

The mission of SIN