8. 6.95 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 125/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1287/95 of 22 May 1995 amending Regulation (EEC) No 729/70 on the financing of the common agricultural policy THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 43 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia- ment (3), Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors (3, Whereas the responsibility for checking EAGGF Guarantee Section expenditure lies, in the first place, with the Member States, which designate the authorities and bodies empowered to effect expenditure; whereas the Member States must carry out this task fully and effec- tively ; whereas the Commission, being responsible for implementing the Community budget, must verify the conditions under which payments and checks have been made ; whereas the Commission can only finance expen- diture where those conditions offer all necessary guaran- tees regarding compliance with Community rules; whereas in a decentralized system of management of Community expenditure, it is essential that the Commis- sion, as the institution responsible for funding, is entitled and enabled to carry out all checks on the management of expenditure it considers necessary and that there should be full and effective transparency and mutual assistance between the Member States and the Commission ; Whereas, during the clearance of accounts, the Commis- sion is able to determine within a reasonable time the total expenditure to be entered against the Guarantee Section in the general account only if it has satisfactory assurance that the national controls are adequate and transparent and that the paying agencies verify the lega- lity and regularity of the payment requests which they execute ; whereas provision should therefore be made for the accreditation of paying agencies by Member States ; () OJ No C 284, 12. 10. 1994, p. 1. () OJ No C 89, 10. 4. 1995. () OJ No C 383, 31. 12. 1994, p. 1. whereas in order to ensure consistency in the standards required for accreditation in the Member States, the Commission provides guidance on the criteria to be applied ; whereas, for that purpose, it should be stipulated that only expenditure effected by paying agencies accre- dited by the Member States should be financed ; whereas, moreover, in order to ensure the transparency of national controls, in particular as regards authorization, validation and payment procedures, the number of authorities and bodies to which these responsibilities are delegated should, where appropriate, be restricted taking account of the constitutional arrangements of each Member State ; ‘Whereas decentralized management of Community funds, in particular following reform of the common agricultural policy, leads to the designation of several paying agen- cies ; whereas, therefore, where a Member State accredits more than one paying agency, it must designate a single contact body to ensure consistency in the management of the funds, to provide liaison between the Commission and the various accredited paying agencies and to ensure that the information requested by the Commission concerning the operations of several paying agencies is made rapidly available ; Whereas the time limit for the clearance of accounts deci- sion must be shortened ; whereas, therefore, information technology must be used as fully as possible for pro- ducing the information to be sent to the Commission ; whereas, when carrying out checks, the Commission must have full and immediate access to information on expen- diture held in both documents and electronic files; Whereas a single annual decision for the clearance of accounts creates numerous difficulties in that, for a given financial year, in respect of all measures covered by the Guarantee Section of the EAGGF and in all the Member States, it fulfils simultaneously an accounting objective and a recognition that expenditure has been effected in accordance with Community rules ; whereas considerable time lags accompany the taking of this single decision, which is nevertheless subject to reservations and disjunc- tions ; whereas it is accordingly necessary to separate the