National programmes shall be submitted to a decommitment procedure established on the basis that where, by 15 February or, in the event that the Commission exceptionally extends the deadline for the submission of the request for payment in accordance with Article 44(1), 1 March of the year following the second year following that of the budget commitment, amounts linked to a commitment are not covered by the initial and annual pre-financing referred to in Article 35 and by a request for payment submitted in accordance with Article 44(1), those amounts shall be decommitted. For the purpose of the decommitment, the Commission shall calculate the amount by adding one sixth of the annual budget commitment related to the 2014 total amount contribution to each of the 2015-2020 budget commitments.

In respect of amounts corresponding to the additional allocations assigned to the national programmes in 2018, the budget commitment shall be effected in 2019. In respect of amounts corresponding to the additional allocations assigned to the national programmes in 2019, the budget commitment shall be effected in 2020.

By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the deadlines for decommitment shall not apply to the annual budget commitment related to the 2014 total annual contribution.

If the first annual budget commitment is related to the 2015 total annual contribution, by way of derogation from paragraph 1 the deadlines for decommitment shall not apply to the annual budget commitment related to the total annual contribution of 2015. In such cases, the Commission shall calculate the amount under paragraph 1 by adding one fifth of the annual budget commitment related to the 2015 total amount contribution to each of the 2016-20 budget commitments.

The commitment related to the last year of the period shall be decommitted in accordance with the rules followed for the closure of the programmes.

Any commitment still open on the latest date for expenditure to be eligible, as referred to in Article 17(3), and for which a payment request has not been made by the Responsible Authority within six months after that date shall be automatically decommitted.

The Member State shall send to the Commission information on the exceptions referred to in paragraph 1 by 31 January, in order for the amount to be declared by the end of the preceding year.

The part of the budget commitments for which a payment request has been made, but payment of which has been reduced or suspended by the Commission on 31 December of year N + 2, shall be disregarded in calculating the automatic decommitment.

Whenever there is a risk of application of decommitment under Article 50, the Commission shall inform the Member States as soon as possible.

On the basis of the information in its possession on 31 January, the Commission shall inform the Responsible Authority of the amount of the decommitment resulting from the information in its possession.

The Member State concerned shall have two months to agree to the amount to be decommitted or to submit its observations.

The Commission shall carry out the automatic decommitment no later than nine months after the last time-limit resulting from the application of paragraphs 1 to 3.

In the event of automatic decommitment, the contribution from the Union budget to the national programme concerned shall be reduced, for the year in question, by the amount automatically decommitted. The Union contribution in the financing plan will be reduced pro rata, unless the Member State produces a revised financing plan.