Article 1
Open ↗Regulation (EC) No 951/2007 is amended as follows: (1) in Article 27, paragraph 5 is replaced by the following: ‘5. The Joint Managing Authority shall exercise due diligence to ensure reimbursement within one year of the issuing of the recovery order. In particular, it shall ensure that the claim is certain, of a fixed amount and due. Where the Joint Managing Authority is planning to waive recovery of an established debt, it shall ensure that the waiver is in order and complies with the principles of sound financial management and proportionality. The waiver decision must be substantiated and submitted to the Commission and the Joint Monitoring Committee for prior approval. Based on appropriate instructions of the Commission, the prior approval of the Commission may not be required’; (2) Article 43 is amended as follows: (a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: ‘1. The period of execution of each joint operational programme shall start at the earliest at the date of the adoption of the joint operational programme by the Commission and end at the latest 36 months after the submission of the final report.’; (b) point (c) of paragraph 2 is replaced by the following: ‘(c) a financial closure phase for the joint operational programme including the financial closure of all contracts concluded as part of the programme, the ex post evaluation of the programme, the submission of the final report, and the final payment or final recovery by the Commission. This phase shall end at the latest 36 months after the submission of the final report.’; (3) in Article 46, the following paragraph 3 is added: ‘3. Where the Joint Managing Authority has not been able to declare to the Commission final amounts because of: (a) projects suspended by a legal proceeding or by an administrative appeal having suspensory effect; or (b) reasons of force majeure seriously affecting the implementation of all or part of the programme; the ending date of the execution period as set in paragraph 1 of Article 43 shall not apply to part of the programme concerned by points (a) or (b) of this paragraph’.