Prize
Article 14
1. The Commission may award a pecuniary prize in honour of Melina Mercouri (‘the prize’) to a designated city, subject to the funding made available under the relevant multiannual financial framework. The legal and financial aspects of the prize shall be dealt with in the framework of the respective Union programmes supporting culture. 2. The prize money shall be paid by the end of March of the year of the title, provided that the designated city concerned continues to honour the commitments it made at the application stage, complies with the criteria and takes into account the recommendations contained in the selection and monitoring reports. The commitments made at the application stage shall be deemed to have been honoured by the designated city where no substantial change has been made to the programme and the strategy between the application stage and the year of the title, in particular where: (a) the budget has been maintained at a level capable of delivering a high-quality cultural programme in line with the application and the criteria; (b) the independence of the artistic team has been appropriately respected; (c) the European dimension has remained sufficiently strong in the final version of the cultural programme; (d) the marketing and communication strategy and the communication material used by the designated city clearly reflects the fact that the action is a Union action; (e) the plans for the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the title on the designated city are in place.