Artikel 20 Bestimmungen für die Zahlungen, die Aussetzung und die Kündigung von Vereinbarungen zur Mittelzuweisung

Payments of financial allocations under this Article to the Member State shall be made upon achievement of the relevant agreed milestones and targets indicated in the Plan, as approved in accordance with Article 17, and subject to the availability of funding. Upon such achievement, the Member State shall submit to the Commission a duly reasoned payment request. The Member State shall submit such payment requests to the Commission once or twice a year, by 31 July or by 31 December.

Upon receiving a payment request from a Member State, the Commission shall assess whether the relevant milestones and targets set out in the Commission decision referred to in Article 17 have been satisfactorily achieved. The satisfactory achievement of milestones and targets shall presuppose that measures related to previously satisfactorily achieved milestones and targets have not been reversed by the Member State concerned.

Where the Commission makes a positive assessment of an individual payment request, it shall adopt an individual decision authorising the disbursement of the financial allocation in accordance with Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046, subject to the availability of funding and ensuring the equal treatment of Member States. The Commission shall adopt the individual decision not earlier than two months and not later than three months after the relevant deadline for submission of the payment request in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article.

Where, as a result of the assessment referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article, the Commission establishes that the milestones and targets set out in the Commission decision referred to in Article 17 have not been satisfactorily achieved, the payment of the part of the financial allocation proportional to the unachieved target or milestone shall be suspended. The Member State may present its observations within one month of the communication of the Commission’s assessment.

By way of derogation from Article 116(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046, the payment deadline shall start running from the date of the communication of the Commission’s decision authorising the disbursement of the financial allocation to the Member State concerned pursuant to paragraph 3 of this Article, or from the date of the communication of the lifting of a suspension pursuant to paragraph 4, second subparagraph, of this Article.

Where the milestones and targets have not been satisfactorily achieved within a period of nine months from the suspension referred to in paragraph 4, first subparagraph, the Commission shall reduce the amount of the financial allocation proportionately after having given the Member State the possibility to present its observations within two months from the communication of its conclusions as to the achievement of the milestones and targets.

Where, within 15 months from the date of the conclusion of relevant agreements referred to in Article 19, no tangible progress has been made in respect of any relevant milestones and targets by the Member State, the Commission shall terminate those agreements and shall decommit the amount of the financial allocation without prejudice to Article 14(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046. The Commission shall take a decision on the termination of those agreements after having given the Member State the possibility to present its observations within a period of two months of the communication of the assessment by the Commission that no tangible progress has been made.

All payments shall be made by 31 December 2033.

By way of derogation from Article 116 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 and paragraph 5 of this Article, if, in a given round of payment requests as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the revenue assigned to the Fund in accordance with Article 30d(4) of Directive 2003/87/EC is not sufficient to cover the submitted payment requests, the Commission shall pay the Member States on a pro-rata basis determined as a share of the payment availabilities to the total approved payments. In the following round of payment requests, the Commission shall give priority to those Member States with delayed payments from the previous round of payment requests, and only later to the newly submitted payment requests.

By way of derogation from Article 12(4), point (c), of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 and without prejudice to Article 30d(4), sixth subparagraph, of Directive 2003/87/EC, the Commission shall allocate to Member States the amounts corresponding to any appropriations that are unused by 31 December 2033 in accordance with the rules for distribution of allowances defined under Article 30d(5) of Directive 2003/87/EC in order to achieve the objectives referred to in Article 3 of this Regulation.