N+3 (rule)

Budgetary commitments relating to the operational programmes are made per annual tranches. The N+3 rule foresees that a commitment made at year N has to be covered by the same amount of pre-financing and interim payment claims before 31 December N+3 (for example, a commitment made in 2014 has to be fully covered by pre-financing and payment claims before 31 December 2017). The amount not covered is de-committed, which means that the Member State loses the funding. The purpose of the rule is to ensure financial discipline in managing the EU funds by obliging the Member States to implement the projects in a dynamic manner and to avoid problems at the very end of the cycle.