Article 6
1. Subject to Article 17, all revenue and expenditure shall be entered in full in the budget and in the accounts without any adjustment against each other. Total revenue shall cover total expenditure. 2. The financial year shall run from 1 January to 31 December. 3. Any budget contributions by the States referred to in Article 25 paid before the beginning of the financial year which they concern shall be credited to the budget for that financial year. 4. The expenditure of a financial year shall be entered in the accounts for that year on the basis of expenditure for which the financial controller received authorisation no later than 31 December and for which the corresponding payments were made by the accounting officer before the following 15 January. 5. The allotted appropriations may be used solely to cover expenditure properly entered into and paid under the financial year for which they were granted, save as otherwise provided in Article 7, and to cover the debts relating to preceding financial years for which no appropriation was carried forward.