depending on a risk assessment made. 

30.2. The financial guarantee shall be provided on the letterhead of the financial institution using the template provided in Annex VI. 

30.3. Should the financial guarantee cease to be valid and the Consultant fail to re-validate it, the Contracting Authority may either make deductions from future payments due to the Consultant under the Contract up to the total of the payments already made, or terminate the Contract if in the opinion of the Contracting Authority such deduction is impracticable. 

30.4. If the contract is terminated for any reason whatsoever, the financial guarantee may be invoked forthwith in order to repay any balance still owed to the Contracting Authority by the Consultant, and the guarantor shall not delay payment or raise objection for any reason whatever. 

30.5. For fee-based contracts, any existing financial guarantee shall be released when the pre- financing is reimbursed in accordance with Article 29.1. 

30.6. For global price contracts, the financial guarantee must remain in force until the final payment has been made. 

## ARTICLE 31. RECOVERY OF DEBTS FROM THE CONSULTANT 

31.1. The Consultant shall repay any amounts paid in excess of the final amount due to the Contracting Authority before the deadline indicated in the debit note which is 45 days from the issuing of that note. 

31.2. Should the Consultant fail to make repayment within the above deadline; the Contracting Authority may increase the amounts due by adding interest: 

(a) at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its main refinancing transactions in euro, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, where payments are in euro, 

(b) at the rediscount rate applied by the central bank of the beneficiary country if payments are in the currency of that country, 

on the first day of the month in which the deadline expired, plus seven percentage points. The late- payment interest shall apply to the time which elapses between the date of the payment deadline, and the date on which the Consultant’s account is debited. Any partial payments shall cover the interest thus established. 

31.3. Amounts to be repaid to the Contracting Authority may be offset against amounts of any kind due to the Consultant. This shall not affect the right of the Consultant and the Contracting Authority to agree on repayment by instalments. 

31.4. Bank charges arising from the repayment of amounts due to the Contracting Authority shall be borne entirely by the Consultant. 

31.5. Where necessary the European Union may as a donor subrogate itself to the Contracting Authority. 

## ARTICLE 32. REVISION OF PRICES 

Unless otherwise stipulated in the special conditions, the global price of a global price contract and the fee rates of a fee-based contract shall not be revised. 

## ARTICLE 33. PAYMENT TO THIRD PARTIES 

33.1. All orders for payments to third parties may be carried out only after an assignment made in accordance with Article 3. 

33.2. Notification of beneficiaries of assignment shall be the sole responsibility of the Consultant. 

33.3. In the event of a legally binding attachment of the property of the Consultant affecting payments due to it under the contract and without prejudice to the time limit laid down in Article 29, the Contracting Authority shall have 60 days, starting from the day when it receives notification of the definitive lifting of the obstacle to payment, to resume payments to the Consultant. 

