Title
PARTNERSHIP AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT
Between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Armenia, of the other part
Preamble
THE KINGDOM OF BELGIUM,
THE KINGDOM OF DENMARK,
THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY,
THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC,
THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN,
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC,
IRELAND,
THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC,
THE GRAND DUCHY OF LUXEMBOURG,
THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS,
THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA,
THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC,
THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND,
THE KINGDOM OF SWEDEN,
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND,
Contracting Parties to the Treaty establishing the European Community, the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
Hereinafter referred to as Member States, and
THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY, THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY, AND THE EUROPEAN ATOMIC ENERGY COMMUNITY,
Hereinafter referred to as the Community,
Of the one part, and
THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA,
Of the other part,
CONSIDERING the links between the Community, its Member States and the Republic of Armenia and the common values that they share,
RECOGNISING that the Community and the Republic of Armenia wish to strengthen these links and to establish partnership and cooperation which would strengthen and widen the relations established in the past in particular by the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on trade and commercial and economic cooperation, signed on 18 December 1989,
CONSIDERING the commitment of the Community and its Member States and of the Republic of Armenia to strengthening the political and economic freedoms which constitute the very basis of the partnership,
CONSIDERING the commitment of the Parties to promote international peace and security, as well as the peaceful settlement of disputes and to cooperate to this end in the framework of the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
CONSIDERING the firm commitment of the Community and its Member States and of the Republic of Armenia to the full implementation of all principles and provisions contained in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), the Concluding Documents of the Madrid and Vienna Follow-up Meetings, the Document of the CSCE Bonn Conference on Economic Cooperation, the Charter of Paris for a New Europe and the CSCE Helsinki Document 1992 The Challenges of Change, and other fundamental documents of the OSCE,
RECOGNISING in that context that support of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia will contribute to safeguarding peace and stability in Europe,
CONVINCED of the paramount importance of the rule of law and respect for human rights, particularly those of persons belonging to minorities, the establishment of a multi-party system with free and democratic elections and economic liberalisation aimed at setting up a market economy,
BELIEVING that full implementation of this Partnership and Cooperation Agreement will both depend on and contribute to continuation and accomplishment of the political, economic and legal reforms in the Republic of Armenia, as well as the introduction of the factors necessary for cooperation, notably in the light of the conclusions of the CSCE Bonn Conference,
DESIROUS of encouraging the process of regional cooperation in the areas covered by this Agreement with the neighbouring countries in order to promote the prosperity and stability of the region and in particular initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation and mutual confidence among Independent States of the Transcaucasus region and other neighbouring States,
DESIROUS of establishing and developing regular political dialogue on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest,
RECOGNISING AND SUPPORTING the wish of the Republic of Armenia to establish close cooperation with European Institutions,
CONSIDERING the necessity of promoting investment in the Republic of Armenia, including in the energy sector, and in this context the importance attached by the Community and its Member States to equitable conditions for transit for export of energy products; confirming the attachment of the Community and its Member States and of the Republic of Armenia to the European Energy Charter, and to the full implementation of the Energy Charter Treaty and the Energy Charter Protocol on energy efficiency and related environmental aspects,
TAKING ACCOUNT of the Community's willingness to provide for economic cooperation and technical assistance as appropriate,
BEARING IN MIND the utility of the Agreement in favouring a gradual rapprochement between the Republic of Armenia and a wider area of cooperation in Europe and neighbouring regions and its progressive integration into the open international system,
CONSIDERING the commitment of the Parties to liberalise trade, in conformity with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules,
CONSCIOUS of the need to improve conditions affecting business and investment, and conditions in areas such as establishment of companies, labour, provision of services and capital movements,
WELCOMING AND RECOGNISING the importance of the Republic of Armenia's efforts, aimed at transition of its economy away from a state trading country with a centrally planned economy into a market economy,
CONVINCED that this Agreement will create a new climate for economic relations between the Parties and in particular for the development of trade and investment, which are essential to economic restructuring and technological modernisation,
DESIROUS of establishing close cooperation in the area of environment protection taking into account the interdependence existing between the Parties in this field,
RECOGNISING that cooperation for the prevention and control of illegal immigration constitutes one of the primary objectives of this Agreement,
DESIROUS of establishing cultural cooperation and improving the flow of information,
HAVE AGREED AS FOLLOWS:
Body
Article 1.
A partnership is hereby established between the Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Armenia, of the other part. The objectives of this partnership are:
To provide an appropriate framework for the political dialogue between the Parties allowing the development of political relations,
To support the Republic of Armenia's efforts to consolidate its democracy and to develop its economy and to complete the transition into a market economy,
To promote trade and investment and harmonious economic relations between the Parties and so to foster their sustainable economic development,
To provide a basis for legislative, economic, social, financial, civil scientific, technological and cultural cooperation.
Article Title I. General Principles
Article 2.
Respect for democracy, principles of international law and human rights as defined in particular in the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, as well as the principles of market economy, including those enunciated in the documents of the CSCE Bonn Conference, underpin the internal and external policies of the Parties and constitute essential elements of partnership and of this Agreement.
Article 3.
The Parties consider that it is essential for their future prosperity and stability that the Newly Independent States which have emerged from the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, hereinafter called Independent States, should maintain and develop cooperation among themselves in compliance with the principles of the Helsinki Final Act and with international law and in the spirit of good neighbourly relations and will make every effort to encourage this process.
Article 4.
The Parties shall as appropriate review changing circumstances in the Republic of Armenia, in particular regarding economic conditions there and implementation of market-oriented economic reforms. The Cooperation Council may make recommendations to the Parties concerning development of any part of this Agreement in the light of these circumstances.
Article Title II. Political Dialogue
Article 5.
A regular political dialogue shall be established between the Parties which they intend to develop and intensify. It shall accompany and consolidate the rapprochement between the Community and the Republic of Armenia, support the political and economic changes underway in that country and contribute to the establishment of new forms of cooperation. The political dialogue:
Will strengthen the links of the Republic of Armenia with the Community and its Member States, and thus with the community of democratic nations as a whole. The economic convergence achieved through this Agreement will lead to more intense political relations,
Will bring about an increasing convergence of positions on international issues of mutual concern thus increasing security and stability in the region and promoting the future development of the Independent States of the Transcaucasus,
Shall foresee that the Parties endeavour to cooperate on matters pertaining to the strengthening of stability and security in Europe, the observance of the principles of democracy, and the respect and promotion of human rights, particularly those of persons belonging to minorities and shall hold consultations, if necessary, on relevant matters.
Such dialogue may take place on a regional basis, with a view to contributing towards the resolution of regional conflicts and tensions.
Article 6.
At ministerial level, political dialogue shall take place within the Cooperation Council established in Article 78 and on other occasions by mutual agreement.
Article 7.
Other procedures and mechanisms for political dialogue shall be set up by the Parties, and in particular in the following forms:
Regular meetings at senior official level between representatives of the Community and its Member States on the one hand, and representatives of the Republic of Armenia on the other hand,
Taking full advantage of diplomatic channels between the Parties including appropriate contacts in the bilateral as well as the multilateral field, such as United Nations, OSCE meetings and elsewhere,
Any other means, including the possibility of expert meetings which would contribute to consolidating and developing this dialogue.
Article 8.
Political dialogue at parliamentary level shall take place within the framework of the Parliamentary Cooperation Committee established in Article 83.
Article Title IV. Provisions Affecting Business and Investment
Chapter I. Labour Conditions
Article 20.
1. Subject to the laws, conditions and procedures applicable in each Member State, the Community and the Member States shall endeavour to ensure that the treatment accorded to Armenian nationals legally employed in the territory of a Member State shall be free from any discrimination based on nationality, as regards working conditions, remuneration or dismissal, as compared to its own nationals.
2. Subject to the laws, conditions and procedures applicable in the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Armenia shall ensure that the treatment accorded to nationals of a Member State legally employed in the territory of the Republic of Armenia shall be free from any discrimination based on nationality, as regards working conditions, remuneration or dismissal, as compared to its own nationals.
Article 21. The Cooperation Council Shall Examine Which Improvements Can Be Made In Working Conditions for Business People
Consistent with the international commitments of the Parties, including those set out in the document of the CSCE Bonn Conference.
Article 22.
The Cooperation Council shall make recommendations for the implementation of Articles 20 and 21.
Chapter II. Conditions Affecting the Establishment and Operation of Companies
Article 23.
1. The Community and its Member States shall grant treatment no less favourable than that accorded to any third country for the establishment of Armenian companies as defined in Article 25(d).
2. Without prejudice to the reservations listed in Annex IV, the Community and its Member States shall grant to subsidiaries of Armenian companies established in their territories a treatment no less favourable than that granted to any Community companies, in respect of their operation.
3. The Community and its Member States shall grant to branches of Armenian companies established in their territories treatment no less favourable than that accorded to branches of companies of any third country, in respect of their operations.
4. The Republic of Armenia shall grant for the establishment of Community companies as defined in Article 25(d) treatment no less favourable than that accorded to Armenian companies or to any third-country companies, whichever is the better, and shall grant to subsidiaries and branches of Community companies established in its territory treatment no less favourable than that accorded to its own companies or branches or to any third-country company or branch, whichever is the better, in respect of their operations.
Article 24.
1. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 97, the provisions of Article 23 shall not apply to air transport, inland waterways transport and maritime transport.
2. However, in respect of activities, as indicated below, undertaken by shipping agencies for the provision of services to international maritime transport, including intermodal transport operations involving a sea-leg, each Party shall permit the companies of the other Party to have a commercial presence in its territory in the form of subsidiaries or branches, under conditions of establishment and operation no less favourable than those accorded to its own companies or to subsidiaries or branches of companies of any third country, whichever are the better, and this in conformity with the legislation and regulations applicable in each Party.
3. Such activities include but are not limited to:
(a) marketing and sales of maritime transport and related services through direct contact with customers, from quotation to invoicing, whether these services are operated or offered by the service supplier itself or by service suppliers with which the service seller has established standing business arrangements;
(b) purchase and use, on their own account or on behalf of their customers (and the resale to their customers) of any transport and related services, including inward transport services by any mode, particularly inland waterways, road and rail, necessary for the supply of an integrated service;
(c) preparation of documentation concerning transport documents, customs documents, or other documents related to the origin and character of the goods transported;
(d) provision of business information by any means, including computerised information systems and electronic data interchange (subject to any non-discriminatory restrictions concerning telecommunications);
(e) setting up of any business arrangement, including participation in the company's stock and the appointment of personnel recruited locally (or, in the case of foreign personnel, subject to the relevant provisions of this Agreement), with any locally established shipping agency;
(f) acting on behalf of the companies, inter alia in organising the call of the vessel or taking over cargoes when required.
Article 25.
For the purpose of this Agreement:
(a) a Community company or an Armenian company 1 respectively shall mean a company set up in accordance with the laws of a Member State or of the Republic of Armenia respectively and having its registered office or central administration, or principal place of business in the territory of the Community or the Republic of Armenia respectively. However, should the company, set up in accordance with the laws of a Member State or the Republic of Armenia respectively, have only its registered office in the territory of the Community or the Republic of Armenia respectively, the company shall be considered a Community or Armenian company respectively if its operations possess a real and continuous link with the economy of one of the Member States or the Republic of Armenia respectively;
(b) subsidiary of a company shall mean a company which is effectively controlled by the first company;
(c) branch of a company shall mean a place of business not having legal personality which has the appearance of permanency, such as the extension of a parent body, has a management and is materially equipped to negotiate business with third parties so that the latter, although knowing that there will if necessary be a legal link with the parent body, the head office of which is abroad, do not have to deal directly with such parent body but may transact business at the place of business constituting the extension;
(d) establishment shall mean the right of Community or Armenian companies as referred to in point (a), to take up economic activities by means of the setting up of subsidiaries and branches in the Republic of Armenia or in the Community respectively;
(e) operation shall mean the pursuit of economic activities;
(f) economic activities shall mean activities of an industrial, commercial and professional character.
With regard to international maritime transport, including intermodal operations involving a sea-leg, nationals of the Member States or of the Republic of Armenia established outside the Community or the Republic of Armenia respectively, and shipping companies established outside the Community or the Republic of Armenia and controlled by nationals of a Member State or Armenian nationals respectively, shall also be beneficiaries of the provisions of this Chapter and Chapter III if their vessels are registered in that Member State or in the Republic of Armenia respectively in accordance with their respective legislation.
Article 26. 1
1. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Agreement, a Party shall not be prevented from taking measures for prudential reasons, including for the protection of investors, depositors, policy holders or persons to whom a fiduciary duty is owed by a financial service supplier, or to ensure the integrity and stability of the financial system. Where such measures do not conform with the provisions of this Agreement, they shall not be used as a means of avoiding the obligations of a Party under this Agreement.
2. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as requiring a Party to disclose information relating to the affairs and accounts of individual customers or any confidential or proprietary information in the possession of public entities.
3. For the purpose of this Agreement, financial services shall mean those activities described in Annex III.
Article 27.
The provisions of this Agreement shall not prejudice the application by each Party of any measure necessary to prevent the circumvention of its measures concerning third-country access to its market, through the provisions of this Agreement.
Article 28.
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Chapter I of this Title, a Community company or an Armenian company established in the territory of the Republic of Armenia or the Community respectively shall be entitled to employ, or have employed by one of its subsidiaries or branches, in accordance with the legislation in force in the host country of establishment, in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and the Community respectively, employees who are nationals of Community Member States and the Republic of Armenia respectively, provided that such employees are key personnel as defined in paragraph 2, and that they are employed exclusively by companies, or branches. The residence and work permits of such employees shall only cover the period of such employment.
2. Key personnel of the abovementioned companies herein referred to as organisations are intra-corporate transferees as defined in (c) in the following categories, provided that the organisation is a legal person and that the persons concerned have been employed by it or have been partners in it (other than majority shareholders), for at least the year immediately preceding such movement:
(a) persons working in a senior position with an organisation, who primarily direct the management of the establishment, receiving general supervision or direction principally from the board of directors or stockholders of the business or their equivalent, including:
Directing the establishment or a department or subdivision of the establishment,
Supervising and controlling the work of other supervisory, professional or managerial employees,
Having the authority personally to hire and fire or recommend hiring, firing or other personnel actions;
(b) persons working within an organisation who possess uncommon knowledge essential to the establishment's service, research equipment, techniques or management. The assessment of such knowledge may reflect, apart from knowledge specific to the establishment, a high level of qualification referring to a type of work or trade requiring specific technical knowledge, including membership of an accredited profession;
(c) an intra-corporate transferee is defined as a natural person working within an organisation in the territory of a Party, and being temporarily transferred in the context of pursuit of economic activities in the territory of the other Party; the organisation concerned must have its principal place of business in the territory of a Party and the transfer be to
9. An establishment (branch, subsidiary) of that organisation, effectively pursuing like economic activities in the territory of the other Party.
Article 29.
1. The Parties shall use their best endeavours to avoid taking any measures or actions which render the conditions for the establishment and operation of each other's companies more restrictive than the situation existing on the day preceding the date of signature of this Agreement.
2. The provisions of this Article are without prejudice to those of Article 37: the situations covered by such Article 37 shall be solely governed by its provisions to the exclusion of any other.
3. Acting in the spirit of partnership and cooperation and in the light of the provisions of Article 43 the Government of the Republic of Armenia shall inform the Community of its intentions to submit new legislation or adopt new regulations which may render the conditions for the establishment or operation in the Republic of Armenia of subsidiaries and branches of Community companies more restrictive than the situation existing on the day preceding the date of signature of this Agreement. The Community may request the Republic of Armenia to communicate the drafts of such legislation or regulations and to enter into consultations about those drafts.
4. Where new legislation or regulations introduced in the Republic of Armenia would result in rendering the conditions for operation of subsidiaries and branches of Community companies established in the Republic of Armenia more restrictive than the situation existing on the day of signature of this Agreement, such respective legislation or regulations shall not apply during three years following the entry into force of the relevant act to those subsidiaries and branches already established in the Republic of Armenia at the time of entry into force of the relevant act.
Chapter III. Cross-border Supply of Services between the Community and the Republic of Armenia
Article 30.
1. The Parties undertake in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter to take the necessary steps to allow progressively the supply of services by Community or Armenian companies which are established in a Party other than that of the person for whom the services are intended taking into account the development of the service sectors in the Parties.
2. The Cooperation Council shall make recommendations for the implementation of paragraph 1.
Article 31.
The Parties shall cooperate with the aim of developing a market-oriented service sector in the Republic of Armenia.
Article 32.
1. The Parties undertake to apply effectively the principle of unrestricted access to the international maritime market and traffic on a commercial basis:
(a) the above provision does not prejudice the rights and obligations arising from the United Nations Convention on a Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, as applicable to one or other Party to this Agreement. Non-conference lines will be free to operate in competition with a conference as long as they adhere to the principle of fair competition on a commercial basis;
(b) the Parties affirm their commitment to a freely competitive environment as being an essential feature of the dry and liquid bulk trade.
2. In applying the principles of paragraph 1, the Parties shall:
(a) not apply, as from the entry into force of this Agreement, any cargo sharing provisions of bilateral agreements between any Member States of the Community and the former Soviet Union;
(b) not introduce cargo sharing clauses into future bilateral agreements with third countries, other than in those exceptional circumstances where liner shipping companies from one or other Party to this Agreement would not otherwise have an effective opportunity to ply for trade to and from the third country concerned;
(c) prohibit cargo sharing arrangements in future bilateral agreements concerning dry and liquid bulk trade;
(d) abolish upon entry into force of this Agreement, all unilateral measures, administrative, technical and other obstacles which could have restrictive or discriminatory effects on the free supply of services in international maritime transport.
3. Each party shall grant, inter alia, no less favourable treatment, for the ships operated by nationals or companies of the other Party, than that accorded to a Party's own ships, with regard to access to ports open to international trade, the use of infrastructure and auxiliary maritime services of the ports, as well as related fees and charges, customs facilities and the assignment of berths and facilities for loading and unloading.
4. Nationals and companies of the Community providing international maritime transport services shall be free to provide international sea-river services in the inland waterways of the Republic of Armenia and vice versa.