Early termination of the programme
Article 44
1. In the cases described in Article 9(10)(c) and (d) of Regulation (EC) No 1638/2006 and in other duly justified cases, the Commission may decide to terminate the joint operational programme before the expiry date of the period of execution, at the request of the Joint Monitoring Committee or on its own initiative after having consulted the Joint Monitoring Committee. 2. In this case the Joint Managing Authority shall refer the request to the Commission and transmit the final report within the deadline of three months following the decision of the Commission. After clearing the previous pre-financing payments, the Commission shall pay the final balance or, where appropriate, issue the final recovery order vis-à-vis the Joint Managing Authority. The Commission shall also decommit the balance of commitments. 3. Where the programme is terminated because partner countries do not sign financing agreements within the required deadlines, budgetary allocations already committed to cross-border cooperation under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument under heading 1B of the Financial Perspective (Interinstitutional Agreement 2006/C 139/01) shall remain available for their normal lifetime but may be used only for activities which take place exclusively in the Member States concerned. The European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument allocations committed to the cross-border cooperation from heading 4 of the Financial Perspectives (Interinstitutional Agreement 2006/C 139/01) shall be decommitted. 4. If partner countries do not sign the financing agreement or the Commission decides to terminate the joint operational programme before the normal expiry date of the programme, the following procedure shall apply: (a) for the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument allocations for cross-border cooperation from heading 1B of the Financial Perspective (Interinstitutional Agreement 2006/C 139/01), the amounts earmarked for future annual commitments of the joint operational programme concerned shall be used within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in accordance with the procedures referred to in Article 9(10) of Regulation (EC) No 1638/2006; (b) for the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument allocations for cross-border cooperation from heading 4 of the Financial Perspectives (Interinstitutional Agreement 2006/C 139/01), the amounts earmarked for future annual commitments of the joint operational programme concerned shall be used to finance other programmes or projects eligible under Regulation (EC) No 1638/2006.