Article 17 Discontinuation of the programme

Where none of the CBC partner countries has signed the relevant financing agreement before the date referred to in Article 8(2), the programme shall be discontinued.

European Regional Development Fund annual instalments already committed shall remain available for their normal lifetime, but they may be used only for activities that take place exclusively in the Member States concerned and contracted before the Commission discontinuation decision. The Managing Authority shall transmit to the Commission the final report within three months from the closure of the contracts and the latter shall proceed in conformity with paragraphs 2 and 3.

Where the programme cannot be implemented due to problems arising in relations between participating countries and in other duly justified cases, the Commission may decide to discontinue the programme before the expiry date of the period of execution at the request of the Joint Monitoring Committee or on its own initiative after having consulted the Joint Monitoring Committee.

Where the programme is discontinued, the Managing Authority shall transmit the final report within six months following the Commission's decision. After clearing the previous prefinancing payments, the Commission shall pay the final balance or, where appropriate, issue a recovery order. The Commission shall also de-commit the balance of commitments.

As an alternative, it may be decided to reduce the programme budget allocation in accordance with point (c) of Article 6(2).

In the cases referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, support from the European Regional Development Fund corresponding to annual instalments not yet committed or annual instalments committed and de-committed totally or partially during the same budgetary year, which have not been reallocated to another programme of the same category of external cooperation programmes shall be allocated to the internal cross-border cooperation programmes in accordance with Article 4 of Regulation (EU) No 1299/2013.

Support from Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 corresponding to annual instalments not yet committed or annual instalments committed and de-committed totally or partially during the same budgetary year shall be used to finance other programmes or projects eligible under Regulation (EU) No 232/2014.