Article 12 Availability of the Instrument

The Instrument shall only become available after all Member States have contributed to the Instrument in accordance with Article 11 for an amount representing at least 25 per cent of the maximum amount referred to in Article 5, provided that the relative shares of contributions of each Member State of the overall amount of Member States’ contributions correspond to the relative shares of Member States in the total gross national income of the Union, as resulting from column (1) of Table 3 of Part A (‘Introduction and financing of the general budget’) of the revenue part of the budget for 2020 set out in the general budget of the Union for the financial year 2020, as adopted on 27 November 2019^f1.

The Commission shall inform the Council when the Instrument becomes available.

The period of availability of the Instrument during which a decision referred to in Article 6(1) may be adopted shall end on 31 December 2022.

Where the Commission concludes in the report referred to in Article 14 that the severe economic disturbance caused by the COVID-19 outbreak affecting the financing of measures referred to in Article 1 continues to exist, the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, may decide to extend the period of availability of the Instrument, each time for an additional period of six months.