Pre-financing
Article 42
1. In the case of a payment application for a pre-financing payment, the minimum requirements referred to in Article 41 are the following: (a) the national authorising officer has notified to the Commission the opening of the euro account concerned; (b) the accreditations delivered by the competent accrediting officer and the national authorising officer are in force and the conferral of management by the Commission remains valid; (c) the relevant financing agreement has entered into force. 2. Pre-financing payments shall represent a given percentage of the Community contribution to the programme concerned, as specified in Part II of this Regulation. In the event of multi-annual programmes, the pre-financing may be split between several financial years. 3. The total amount paid as pre-financing shall be reimbursed to the Commission if no payment application for the programme concerned is sent within 15 months of the date on which the Commission pays the first pre-financing amount. The Community contribution to the programme concerned shall not be affected by such reimbursement. 4. The total pre-financing amount shall be cleared at the latest when the programme is closed. Throughout the lifetime of the programme, the national authorising officer shall use the pre-financing payment only to pay the Community contribution to expenditure in compliance with this Regulation.