ESTABLISHMENT

On 7 January 1999, the government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted a decision on the establishment of the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Agricultural Markets and Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as: the AAMRD) as a body within the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (MKGP).

The AAMRD was established following European models with the purpose of the implementation of the agricultural policy reform programmes and for the payment of funds within the pre-accession SAPARD programme..

After EU-accession, the independent implementation of agricultural policy has been replaced by the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The funds for its implementation are provided by the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF – European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund) that covers all EU budget expenditure in the field of agriculture. The fund bears full financial responsibility for the implementation of the common policy. From 1 May 2004, the AAMRD implements more than 100 measures of the common agricultural policy, which required the accreditation for the payment of EAGGF funds. The AAMRD was granted the accreditation on 19 October 2004, which represents the final stage in the process of the preparation and review of compliance with conditions laid down in the Decree on conditions for granting the accreditation of a paying agency for payment of EAGGF-Guarantee funds adopted by the Government of the RS in 2003.

The Agency is therefore fully accredited to implement the most complex procedures as regards the allocation of funds in the field of agriculture, food-processing industry and rural development. Besides implementing direct payments measures, measures of the Rural Development Plan of the RS 2004-2006, agricultural markets measures, rural development structural measures within 3rd Priority task of the Single Programming Document RS 2004-2006 and measures intended for the remedy of consequences of natural disasters, the Agency also implements two measures of the Financial Instrument for the Fisheries Guidance (FIFG - Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance).

TASKS OF THE AAMRD

The AAMRD is responsible for a thorough check of administrative and substantive adequacy of received applications and claims. Within the processing of applications it performs a number of controls that provide a basis for accounting of payments and determining the amounts to be paid in accordance with national and European legislation. The AAMRD ensures proper and timely payment of the approved funds to final beneficiaries and reports upon it to governmental and European institutions.

In accordance with the provisions of Regulation EC No. 885/2006 the AAMRD performs the following tasks:

• Authorisation of payments and/or calculation of the amount that is to be paid in accordance with EU regulations;
• Execution of payment and/or giving instructions to the Ministry of Finance for payment of approved funds to beneficiaries;
• Accounting for payments and/or recording of payments, and the preparation of periodic reviews of payments.

Basic tasks of the AAMRD are as follows:

• Implementation of agricultural structural policy and rural development policy measures;
• Set-up and implementation of integrated administrative and control system and direct payments in agriculture (IACS);
• Providing assistance and payments in case of natural disasters;
• Implementation of agricultural market price policy measures, collection of data for market information system in the field of milk, bovine and porcine meat, small cattle, eggs, vegetables, and set-up and implementation of market information system (MIS);
• Carrying out internal controls and internal audit.

LEGAL BASES   Legal bases for the operation of the AAMRD are acts, governmental decrees and implementing regulations (decrees and rules) issued by the minister, and instructions for work issued by the head of the AAMRD for internal use. Furthermore, the AAMRD operates on the basis of legislation, EU regulations and international agreements. The AAMRD functions as the first-instance body in the administrative procedures in the implementation of supports and other rights under the (common) agricultural policy measures. The AAMRD performs the processing of applications and decides upon their eligibility to financial aids provided by the agricultural policy measures.   More...