Article 56.4 of Law 18/2014, of October 15, of approval of urgent measures for growth, competitiveness and efficiency, modifies the recast text of the Law of Ports of the State and the Merchant Navy, Adopted by Royal Decree-Law 2/2011 of 5 September, introducing a new Article 159 bispor the creation of the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility, which will be nourished by the contributions of State Ports and the Port Authorities in terms of loan.

The creation of this Fund, which falls within the legal personality funds regulated in Article 2.2 of Law 47/2003, of 26 November, General Budget, allows, together with other measures included In the indicated Law regarding the private participation in the financing of land access to the ports, to promote the participation of the harbour public agencies in the financing of the projects of road and rail connection, necessary to provide adequate accessibility to ports of general interest from the limit In order to improve the competitiveness of the general public transport networks, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the general public transport networks, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the common transport networks, the Commission will continue to work with the common transport networks. port facilities favouring the intermodal transport of road and rail freight and the sustainability of the transport system.

This Fund allows, without putting into question the framework of economic self-sufficiency that governs the Spanish harbour system of general interest nor the programming of the construction of new infrastructures of the sea side, attended the the current economic situation of that, the installed capacity in the system and the infrastructural needs previewed for the next few years, the contribution to the effort to alleviate the deficit of road and rail connections of the ports of general interest and the improvement of the general networks for the transport of goods, the It is not enough to make it more competitive and to make it more competitive and to attract higher levels of private investment. In short, the Fund is an instrument to accelerate the construction of land access to the ports, considering the proper connectivity of them as a strategic factor for the Spanish economy and its export capacity, as well as a key element in enhancing its role as a logistics platform for international maritime transport, taking into account its geostrategic position.

This royal decree aims at the regulatory development of article 159 bisde the recast text of the Law of State Ports and the Merchant Navy for which the Financial Fund for Terrestrial Accessibility is created. Port, in order to regulate the operation and implementation of the Fund's resources.

The rule consists of twelve items, a transitional arrangement, and four final provisions.

In the elaboration of this standard the Port Authorities have been consulted and the Ministry of Finance and Public Administrations have been requested to report.

In its virtue, on the proposal of the Minister of Public Works, with the prior approval of the Minister of Finance and Public Administrations, according to the State Council and after deliberation by the Council of Ministers at its meeting of the day 24 July 2015,

DISPONGO:

Article 1. Object.

The purpose of this royal decree is to regulate the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility, in accordance with the provisions of Article 159 (1) of the recast text of the Law of State Ports and the Navy. Mercante, approved by Royal Decree-Law 2/2011 of 5 September.

Article 2. Nature and purpose of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund.

1. The Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility falls within the legal personality funds regulated in Article 2.2 of Law 47/2003 of 26 November, General Budget and its purpose is the financing of works in the road and rail infrastructure necessary to provide adequate accessibility for ports of general interest from the current limit of their service area to the point of connection with the general open transport networks common use, as well as those associated with the improvement of the general common transport networks, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the intermodal transport of road and rail goods.

2. For these purposes, the existing limit of the service area shall be considered to be existing at the time prior to the affections of land made expressly and necessarily in order to be able to carry out the connection infrastructures described in the paragraph.

3. The concept of the improvement of the general common transport networks is considered to include connections and actions linked to dry ports and other intermodal logistics platforms, in which a public body is involved. port.

In this case, the participation of the port public bodies in the action in question will not be able to exceed the proportion corresponding to them in their ownership.

Article 3. Resources of the Fund.

The Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund will be nourished by the contributions which, with a loan nature, will be made by the port public bodies, which will have a mandatory or voluntary nature in terms of determine in Articles 4 and 5.

Article 4. System of compulsory contributions.

1. Ports of the State and the Port Authorities shall annually be made compulsory contributions to the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund.

2. The annual amount of the compulsory contribution payable for each port public body is set at a percentage of the amount of net profits resulting from the last approved annual accounts, once the Fund is excluded. Inter-port compensation received in that year corresponding to the ordinals 1. to 5. º of paragraph 5.b) of article 159 of the recast text of the Law of Ports of the State and of the Merchant Navy, the result by enajenations and casualties of the asset non-current, income from incorporation into the asset of financial expenses, transfer to results of capital grants, donations and legacies, the financial interest received on loans granted to the Fund and other results that are of an extraordinary nature. For this purpose, the economic contributions of the concessionaires for the financing of terrestrial connection infrastructures between the general common transport networks and the service area of the European Union shall not be considered as extraordinary revenue. the ports or improvements to those networks.

The Inter-Port Compensation Fund Distribution Committee, in its role as administrator of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund, will establish for each financial year the percentage of benefits to to provide, which may not exceed 50% of the same or less than 25%, unless the holder of the Ministry of Public Works establishes a lower percentage. The contribution rate will be halved for the extra-island Port Authorities.

3. By way of derogation from paragraph 2, no annual contribution to the Fund shall be made to the port public bodies which end the last financial year with a wiggle fund, which has been reduced in the amount of the contributions. mandatory non-disbursements after deduction of outstanding payments to compensate in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 4 of this Article, which, in addition to the "Other financial assets" chapter of the non-current balance sheet asset, excluding the contributions to the Fund disbursed outstanding, whether negative or less than 150 per One hundred of the amount they would be required to contribute.

4. The port public authorities may compensate for the compulsory contributions the disbursement of which is required by the payments made, as well as those provided for in the budget for the disbursement of the contribution, after deduction of the contributions. grants associated with them, corresponding to investments and capital contributions in those works which are financed from the Fund or, without being financed by the Fund, fulfil their requirements and purpose, provided that they are in the relevant budget and have been approved for compensation by the Committee Distribution of the Interharbour Compensation Fund. At the end of the financial year, compensation shall be adjusted, where appropriate, on the basis of the payments actually made, resulting in the balance resulting from the following or successive disbursements.

5. Compulsory contributions shall be payable from one January of the financial year to which they correspond, for a period of five years. For these purposes, in the budgets of the port public bodies with compulsory and non-compensable commitments for payment outstanding, a sufficient fund of manoeuvre will be envisaged to deal with them when they are required to implement the agreements adopted by the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund.

6. The amounts for which the disbursement is required annually to the port public bodies shall be determined taking into account the financing needs of the Fund, taking into account the voluntary contributions received, after the possible alternative destinations for these resources and other port policy objectives, and will be transferred by those within three months of their requirement.

If the financial needs of the Fund in each financial year were lower than the total of the mandatory and non-compensable contributions for that year plus the outstanding balance of previous financial years, the amount to (a) to be paid by the whole of the port public bodies shall be apportioned in proportion to the amount of their commitments, taking into account, where appropriate, the compensation. In this case, each port public body will be required to the amount corresponding to it, imputed to the exercises due in order of seniority, starting with the oldest one.

7. The amounts received by the Fund in respect of compulsory contributions shall have a period of amortisation of 20 years, with three years of absence, from its disbursement and with linear amortisation. These amounts shall be payable in favour of the port public authorities for a variable interest, reviewable every six months, which shall be regarded as an effective interest rate for accounting purposes. The reference interest rate, for each period, shall be the weighted average volume of the issue of the average rate of placement interest in the six-month term debt issues made by the Treasury of the Kingdom of Spain in the six months. months prior to such review. Alternatively, they shall bear a fixed rate referred to the average yield on Treasury bonds with an equivalent maturity or closer to the repayment term of the contributions. Interest shall be paid semi-annually.

8. The amortised amounts corresponding to contributions which have at the time the nature of the compulsory contribution to the Fund shall be made available by the public port authorities for the purpose of their implementation.

Article 5. Voluntary contributions scheme.

1. Ports of the State and the Harbour Authorities will be able to make additional contributions to the Fund, which will also have the character of loan. The annual amount of the same shall be determined, respectively, by the Board of Directors of the State Ports and by the Boards of Directors of the Port Authorities according to their treasury surpluses. These decisions will be adopted in advance of the agreement of the Company Plan and, in the case of Ports of State, to the elaboration of the annual consolidated budgets and programs.

2. Ports of the State and the Fund itself, subject to express authorization in terms of the corresponding State General Budget Law, and, where appropriate, with the authorization provided for in Article 111 of Law 47/2003, of 26 of November, General Budget, will be able to carry out financial operations in order to anticipate resources to it. The service of this debt shall have a preferential character for the Fund on the repayment of the contributions received.

3. The voluntary contributions will have a three-year period of absence, and a variable interest, reviewable every six months, which will be considered as an effective interest rate for accounting purposes, and referred to the interest rate of Treasury Letters with Six months ' maturity plus fifty basis points, payable semi-annually. Alternatively, they shall bear a fixed rate referred to the average yield on Treasury bonds with an equivalent maturity or closer to the repayment term of the contributions.

4. The voluntary contributions will be formalized in a loan agreement, that the president of the Ports of the State will subscribe, as president of the Distribution Committee of the Interharbour Compensation Fund, and that of the Harbour Authority representation of the same. In the event that the voluntary contribution is made by Ports of the State, the contract shall be signed on behalf of that public body by its Director of Resources and Audit.

5. The voluntary contributions will require for the effectiveness of the acceptance by the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund.

Article 6. Characteristics of the loans granted.

1. They will be eligible for the loans from the Financial Fund of Port Land Accessibility the port public bodies, for the financing of concrete projects that meet the objective and the requirements of the same established in this real decree.

2. The loans will be agreed by the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund, taking into account the Fund's multi-annual possibilities and availabilities and the selection of projects to be financed.

3. The Interport Compensation Fund Distribution Committee will approve the terms of the loans.

In any event, the duration of the loans may not exceed 20 years or the repayment term of the work financed, if it is lower; and may not have a period of absence of more than three years or the construction period of the works financed if it is lower than for these purposes shall be deemed to be completed at the time of signature of the act of provisional receipt of the works.

The interest rate will be variable and will be fixed every six months on the basis of the average cost, in the previous six months, of the unamortized contributions, both of a compulsory and voluntary nature, and of the financial instruments provided for in Article 5.2 received by the Fund; or, alternatively, a fixed rate referred to in the average yield on Treasury bonds with a maturity equivalent to the repayment term of the loans.

Interest will be payable semi-annually.

In the event of a delay of any payment, the loan agreement will provide for an interest in aggravated late payment.

4. In the event that the port public authority obtains some form of non-returnable contribution or subsidy to finance the works, the sum of the proceeds and the loans granted from the Fund may not exceed the amount of the budget for the award of the work plus the value of the expropriations that will be in charge.

In the case of works of improvement of general common transport networks which are financed wholly or partly through loans from the Fund, agreed with the competent body or entity for implementation through a convention, the amount of the loan shall not exceed the amount provided for such performance by the port public body.

The financing of works to improve the general public transport networks which have been financed by the Fund or which, without being financed by the Fund, have been approved by the Distribution Committee of the Interharbour Compensation Fund, will represent for the Harbour Authorities a wealth of patrimonial for the amount of the financing agreed in the corresponding convention.

5. The receiving port public lending bodies shall allocate any significant surplus in their operating funds, taking into account their multi-annual financial programming, to the early repayment of the loans received, this requirement is included in the loan agreement.

6. The loans granted will be formalized in a contract, that the president of the Ports of the State will subscribe, as president of the Distribution Committee of the Interharbour Compensation Fund, and that of the corresponding harbour public agency representation of the same. In the event that the recipient of the funding is State Ports, the contract shall be signed on behalf of that public body by its Director of Resources and Audit.

7. The receiving port public authorities may agree to the early repayment of the loans received without penalty. Early repayment shall be applied to all public port bodies in the proportion representing the amount of the outstanding loans of each of them over the total. In this case, the amount corresponding to each port public body will be charged to the exercises in which the disbursement was made in order of seniority, starting with the oldest one

Article 7. Requirements for access to Fund funding.

1. The economic contributions of the concessionaires resulting from the extensions of the concession periods for connection works or improvements to the general common transport networks provided for in Article 82.2, c2) and in the provision Transitional text of the text recast of the Law of Ports of the State and the Merchant Marine will be applied by the Harbour Authorities in advance to the request for financial assistance from the Fund. Only where there are no outstanding financial contributions or not sufficient financial contributions may be requested from the Fund.

2. Actions and projects which do not have economic and technical feasibility and those proposed by port public bodies which lack the financial capacity to pay interest and repay the loans may not be eligible for financing. from the Fund and from the compensation provided for in Article 4.4 of this royal decree. To this end, the proposing body shall provide the relevant feasibility study, which shall include a cost-benefit analysis, taking into account the actual and foreseeable demands for interconnection with the port and the actual and foreseeable traffic.

3. In order for the actions and projects proposed by the Port Authorities to be able to access this funding, they must have a favorable report from the State Ports.

4. The projects to be financed by the Fund, as well as those that allow the compensation of the obligatory contributions to it, must be included in the Plan of Enterprise of the Harbour Authority or in the budgets of Ports of the State.

Article 8. Procedure and criteria for the assessment of actions.

1. Projects shall be selected on an annual basis taking into account the present and multi-annual availability of the Fund and the mandatory contributions determined in accordance with Article 4.6.

Projects shall be ordered on the basis of transparent and previously established valuation criteria, in accordance with the provisions of the following paragraph. On the basis of the resulting management and taking into account the availabilities of the Fund, the projects to be financed shall be selected.

2. The Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund will evaluate and order the proposed operations using criteria that will have to be established with the favorable vote of State Ports.

In any case, the following criteria will be included:

(a) The annual indicative lines of action of the Fund decided by the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund.

b) The interest of the project for the Spanish port system as a whole.

c) The cost of the project, including the cost of the opportunity to finance or not the project, considering the existence of other alternative projects or alternative sources of funding, as well as cost-benefit analysis.

d) The possible financing of European funds or private co-financing.

e) The impact of the project on the competitiveness of the Spanish economy.

f) Any other relevant element that is considered to be of interest for the assessment and approval of the proposals.

Article 9. Fund Management.

1. The Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund will be administered by Ports of the State and the Port Authorities in accordance with the agreements adopted by the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund, regulated in the Article 159 of the recast text of the Law of Ports of the State and of the Merchant Navy, whose functions are expanded by empowering it to adopt the agreements of administration of the Financial Fund of Port Land Accessibility in the terms that set out in this royal decree.

2. The agreements of the Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund concerning the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility will be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the attendees.

Article 10. The budgetary, economic and financial, accounting and control arrangements for the Fund.

1. The budgetary, economic-financial, accounting and control regime of the Financial Fund for Port Land Accessibility will be the one foreseen for the funds lacking legal personality in Law 47/2003, of November 26, General Budget and its development provisions.

2. The Distribution Committee of the Inter-Port Compensation Fund shall approve annually, in accordance with Articles 64 and 65 of the General Budget Law, the operating and capital budgets and the action programme. The Fund will be referred to the Ministry of Public Works for processing in the form set out in Article 66 of the aforementioned law and integration into the General Budget of the State.

3. The accounts of the Fund shall be in accordance with the Resolution of 1 July 2011, of the General Intervention of the State Administration, approving the accounting rules relating to the funds lacking in legal personality to which it relates Article 2 (2) of the General Budget Law and the recording of the operations of such funds in the entities contributing to the administrative public sector.

4. The accountability shall be made to the Court of Auditors, through the General Intervention of the State Administration, as provided for in Chapter IV of Title V of Law 47/2003 of 26 November. The accounts shall be accompanied by the audit report in accordance with Articles 163 and 168 of the Law.

5. The formulation, the making available and the accountability correspond to the President of the Ports of the State. The Distribution Committee of the Interport Compensation Fund shall be the one to carry out the examination and, where appropriate, the approval of the audited accounts.

Article 11. Control mechanisms.

1. Ports of the State, by Resolution of its President, will establish for the management of the Financial Fund of Port Land Accessibility the mechanisms of internal control that it considers necessary in order to guarantee the safety of the assets, the reliability of financial information and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

2. In relation to the operations of financing that the Fund has with the Harbour Authorities, the Committee of Distribution of the Fund of Interharbour Compensation will be able to request from the Ports of the State the realization of how many controls consider precise to ensure the correct application of the loans granted to the implementation of the projects selected.

3. In any event, it will be mandatory to carry out a monitoring report at the end of each project in order to determine that the nature of the works carried out were likely to be financed from the loans granted by the Fund, the works carried out correspond to the projects selected by the Distribution Committee of the Interharbour Compensation Fund and that the amount of investments made and paid is not less than the amount of the loan granted.

The control report will be carried out by Ports of the State with respect to actions developed by the Port Authorities, and by the Inspection of the Ministry of Development in relation to those of State Ports.

In the event that the control report made determines that the amount of the investments made is less than the loan granted, harbour public body receiving the loan will proceed to the immediate amortization of the loan for the amount of the difference.

Article 12. Parliamentary control.

the State Ports will produce an individual report of the Fund annually, which will be incorporated into the management report provided for in Article 18.2 of the recast text of the Law of State Ports and the Merchant Navy, for its elevation to the General Courts.

Transitional disposition. Compensation for payments corresponding to works that meet the requirements and purpose of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund made prior to the entry into force of this royal decree.

The payments made in execution of works awarded after the entry into force of Royal Decree-Law 8/2014 of 4 July, of urgent measures for growth, competitiveness and efficiency, when they meet the requirements and the purpose of the Port Land Accessibility Financial Fund, may be compensated by the mandatory contributions approved for that Fund.

Final disposition first. Competence title.

This royal decree is issued in accordance with the provisions of Article 149.1.20. of the Spanish Constitution, which attributes to the State exclusive competence in matters of ports of general interest.

Final disposition second. Enabling regulatory development.

The holder of the Ministry of Public Works is enabled to dictate how many provisions and acts are necessary for the development of this royal decree.

Final disposition third. Start of operation of the Fund.

What is foreseen in this royal decree on the scheme of contributions to the Fund and its implementation will be effective once its first budget has been approved.

Final disposition fourth. Entry into force.

This royal decree will enter into force on the day following its publication in the "Official State Gazette".

Given in Madrid, on July 24, 2015.

FELIPE R.

The Minister of Development,

ANA MARIA PASTOR JULIAN