A Declarative is a procedure that is to be executed when a specific exception or condition occurs based on the SKIP3 skips three lines before the next line Statement. Declarative sections shall be grouped at the beginning of the procedure division preceded by the keyword DECLARATIVES and followed by the keywords END DECLARATIVES.

The sections specified between the keywords DECLARATIVES and END DECLARATIVES constitute the declarative portion of a source element. All other sections in a source element constitute the nondeclarative portion.