16. 7. 94 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 182/45 COMMISSION DECISION of 1 July 1994 setting up a conciliation procedure in the context of the clearance of the accounts of European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) Guarantee Section (94/442/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 of the Council of 21 April 1970 on the financing of the common agricultural policy ("), as last amended by Regu- lation (EEC) No 2048/88 (3), and in particular Article 5 (3) thereof, : Whereas it is intended to reform the clearance procedures for EAGGF Guarantee Section accounts and to submit to the Council a proposal for certain amendments to Regula- tion (EEC) No 729/70 whereby, in particular, before any decision is taken by the Commission to refuse financing by the Community of expenditure disbursed by the Member State, the two parties are to endeavour to con- ciliate their respective positions ; Whereas the rules in force concerning the clearance of accounts do not preclude the Commission from setting up conciliation machinery ; whereas a conciliation body should therefore be set up in order to permit a reconcilia- tion of the positions of the Commission and a Member State when these differ, and the detailed rules governing its operation should be established ; Whereas the Fund Committee has given a favourable opinion on the measures proposed in this Decision, HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION : Article 1 1. For the purposes of the clearance of EAGGF Guarantee Section accounts, a Conciliation Body, here- inafter referred to as the ‘Body’, is hereby set up in the Commission. Its tasks shall be: (a) to examine any matter referred to it by a Member State which, following inspections pursuant to Article () OJ No L 94, 28. 4. 1970, p. 13. () OJ No L 185, 15. 7. 1988, p. 1. 9 of Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 and bilateral discus- sion of the findings of such inspections, receives formal notification from the competent Commission departments, with reference to this Decision, of the conclusion that certain items of expenditure incurred by that Member State are not chargeable to the EAGGF Guarantee Section, () to try to reconcile the divergent positions of the Commission and the Member State concerned, and (c) at he end of its investigations, to draw up a report on the outcome of its efforts at reconciliation, making any remarks it deems useful should all or some of the points of dispute remain unresolved. 2.  For the purposes of the subsequent stages of the accounts clearance procedure : (a) the position of the Body shall be without prejudice to the Commission’s final decision on the clearance of the accounts and shall not affect the Member State’s right to institute proceedings under Article 173 of the Treaty ; (b) the fact of not referring a matter to the Body shall not be prejudicial to a Member State which receives notifi- cation from the Commission within the meaning of paragraph 1 (a). Article 2 1. A Member State must refer a matter to the Body within thirty working days of its receipt of notification as referred to in Article 1 (1) (a), by sending a reasoned request for conciliation to the Secretariat of the Concilia- tion Body, the address of which will be notified to the Member States through the EAGGF Committee. 2. A request for conciliation is admissible only where the financial adjustment recommended by the Commis- sion in respect of a budget heading: either, — exceeds ECU 0,5 million ; or — represents more than 25 % of the Member State’s total annual expenditure under the budget heading concerned.