Responsibility offsets should be introduced as a secondary level solidarity measure, pursuant to which the responsibility for examining an application is transferred to the contributing Member State, depending on whether or not the relocation pledges reach certain thresholds as set out in this Regulation. In certain circumstances, in order to provide sufficient predictability for the benefitting Member States, the application of responsibility offsets becomes mandatory. Contributions to solidarity through responsibility offsets should be counted as part of the mandatory fair share of the contributing Member State. A system of guarantees should be established, to avoid to the extent possible, incentives for irregular migration into the Union, unauthorised movements of third-country nationals and stateless persons between Member States and to support the smooth functioning of the rules for determining responsibility for examining applications for international protection. Where the application of the responsibility offsets becomes mandatory, a contributing Member State that has pledged relocations and has no applications for international protection for which the benefitting Member State has been determined as responsible to offset remains bound to implement its relocation pledge.