52By adopting, as has been stated in paragraph 45 of the present judgment, a general rule under which, as is clear from Article 73a of the Financial Regulation, debts owed to the European Union by third parties are time-barred after a period of five years, the EU legislature intended to confer on any debtors of the EU a guarantee that, after that period, in principle, in accordance with the requirements of legal certainty and protection of legitimate expectations, they cannot be subject to measures to recover such debts, in respect of which they are then exempted from proving that they are not its debtors.
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