1. The Contracting Parties recognize the growing importance of certain areas, such as services and investments. In their efforts to gradually develop and broaden their cooperation, in particular in the context of the European integration, they will cooperate with the aim of achieving a progressive liberalization and mutual opening of their markets for investments and trade in services, taking into account relevant provisions of the General Agreement on Trade and Services.
2. The Contracting Parties will discuss in the Joint Committee this cooperation with the aim of developing and deepening of their relations governed in this Article.
Chapter IV. Institutional and Final Provisions
Article 33. The Joint Committee
1. A Joint Committee is hereby established in which each Contracting Party shall be represented. The Joint Committee shall be composed of five members for each Contracting Party.
2. The Joint Committee shall be responsible for the administration of this Agreement and shall ensure its proper implementation.
3. For the purpose of the proper implementation of this Agreement, the Contracting Parties shall exchange information and, upon request of any Contracting Party, shall hold consultations within the Joint Committee. The Joint Committee shall keep under review the possibility of further removal of the obstacles to trade between the Contracting Parties.
4. The Joint Committee may take decisions in the cases provided for in this Agreement. On other matters the Joint Committee may make recommendations.
5. The decisions taken by the Joint Committee will be subject to approval by the Contracting Parties in accordance with their internal legislation.
Article 34. Procedures of the Joint Committee
1. For the proper implementation of this Agreement, the Joint Committee shall meet whenever necessary, but at least once a year. Each Contracting Party may request a meeting to be held.
2. The Joint Committee shall act by common agreement.
3. If a representative of a Contracting Party in the Joint Committee has accepted a decision, under reservation, subject to the fulfillment of internal legal requirements, the decision shall enter into force, if no later date is contained therein, on the date of the receipt of a written notification as to the fulfillment of such requirements.
4. The Joint Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure, which shall, inter alia, contain provisions for convening meetings and for the designation of the Chair person and its term of office.
5. The Joint Committee may decide to set up such subcommittees and working groups, as it deems necessary to assist it in accomplishing its tasks.
Article 35. Security Exceptions
Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent a Contracting Party from taking any measure, which it considers necessary:
a) to prevent the disclosure of information contrary to its essential security interests;
b) for the protection of its essential security interests or for the implementation of international obligations or national policies:
- Relating to the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of war, provided that such measures do not impair the conditions of competition in respect of products not intended for specifically military purposes, and to such traffic in other goods, materials and services as is carried on directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying a military establishment; or
- Relating to the non-proliferation of biological and chemical weapons, nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; or
- Taken in time of war or other serious international tension, constituting threat of war.
Article 36. Fulfillment of Obligations
1. The Contracting Parties shall take all necessary measures to ensure the achievement of the objectives and the fulfillment of the obligations under this Agreement.
2. If any Contracting Party considers that the other Contracting Party has failed to fulfill an obligation under this Agreement, the Contracting Party concerned may take the appropriate measures under the conditions and in accordance with the procedures laid down in Article 23 of this Agreement.
Article 37. Evolutionary Clause
Where a Contracting Party considers that it would be useful in the interest of the economies of the Contracting Parties to develop and deepen the relations established by this Agreement by extending them to fields not covered thereby, it shall submit a reasoned request to the other Contracting Party. The Contracting Parties may instruct the Joint Committee to examine such request and, where appropriate, make recommendations to them, particularly with a view to opening negotiations.
Article 38. Annexes and Protocols
Annexes and Protocols to this Agreement are an integral part of it. The Joint Committee may decide to amend the Annexes and Protocols to this Agreement, which are subject to the internal legal procedures of the Contracting Parties.
Article 39. Amendments
Amendments to this Agreement shall enter into force in accordance with procedure stipulated in Article 41 of this Agreement.
Article 40. Entry Into Force
This Agreement is subject to the ratification. It enters into force on the first day of the second month following the date of receiving of the second of the written notes, with which the Contracting Parties notify each other through diplomatic channels that they have ratified this Agreement.
Article 41. Validity and Withdrawal
1. The Agreement is concluded for an unlimited period of time.
2. Each Contracting Party to this Agreement may withdraw there from, by means of a written notification to the other Contracting Party. The termination shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month following the date on which the notification was received by the other Contracting Party.
3. The Contracting Parties agree, that in case of accession of one of the Contracting Parties to the EU, this Agreement will be terminated on the day before the date of the accession of the respective Contracting Party to the EU, without successive compensations for the other Contracting Party.
Conclusion
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized thereto, have signed the present Agreement.
DONE at..... this 13th day of November in two originals in Serbian, Albanian and English language, each of these being equally authentic. In case of divergence the English text shall prevail.
For the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
For the Republic of Albania