Article 26a Financial corrections by the Joint Managing AuthorityF1

The Joint Managing Authority shall in the first instance be responsible for preventing and investigating irregularities and for making the financial corrections required and pursuing recoveries.

The Joint Managing Authority shall make the financial corrections required in connection with individual irregularities detected in projects or technical assistance. Financial corrections shall consist of cancelling all or part of the Union contribution to a project or to technical assistance. The Joint Managing Authority shall take into account the nature and gravity of the irregularities and the financial loss and shall apply a proportionate financial correction. The criteria for establishing the level of financial correction to be applied and the criteria for applying flat rates or extrapolated financial correction may be those adopted in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 ^f1 , in particular Article 144, as well as those contained in the Commission Decision of 19 December 2013 ^f2 . Financial corrections shall be recorded in the annual accounts by the Joint Managing Authority for the accounting year in which the cancellation is decided.

The Union contribution cancelled in accordance with paragraph 1 may be reused within the concerned programme, subject to paragraph 3. The reallocation of these programme's resources shall comply, inter alia, with Articles 7, 13, 18 and 43.

The contribution cancelled in accordance with paragraph 1 may not be reused for the project that was the subject of a financial correction or for projects selected through calls for proposals.