Article 10
The appropriations entered in the budget may be committed with effect from 1 January, once the budget has become definitive. However, as from 15 November of each year, routine administrative expenditure may be committed in advance against the appropriations provided for the following financial year. Such commitments may not exceed one quarter of the appropriations on the corresponding budget line for the current financial year. They may not relate to new expenditure whose principle has not yet been acknowledged in the last budget duly adopted. Moreover, expenditure which must be paid in advance, for example rents, may give rise to payments from 1 December onwards to be charged to the appropriations for the following financial year. If the budget has not been adopted at the beginning of the financial year, the system of provisional twelfths laid down in the general Financial Regulation shall apply mutatis mutandis .