4. The Committee of Ambassadors shall account for its actions to the Council of Ministers particularly in matters which have been the subject of delegation of powers. It shall also submit to the Council of Ministers any pertinent proposal and such resolutions, recommendations or opinions as it may deem necessary or consider appropriate.
5. The Committee of Ambassadors shall supervise the work of all the committees and all other bodies or working groups, whether standing or ad hoc, established or provided for by or under this Convention and submit periodical reports to the Council of Ministers.
Article 78.
The office of Chairman of the Committee of Ambassadors shall be held alternately by a representative of a Member State designated by the Community and a representative of an ACP State designated by the ACP States.
The Committee of Ambassadors shall lay down its rules of procedure which shall be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval.
Article 79.
The secretariat duties and other work necessary for the functioning of the Council of Ministers and the Committee of Ambassadors or other joint bodies shall be carried out on a basis of parity and in accordance with the conditions laid down in the rules of procedure of the Council of Ministers.
Article 80.
1. The Consultative Assembly shall be composed on a basis of parity of members of the Assembly on the side of the Community and of the representatives designated by the ACP States on the other.
2. The Consultative Assembly shall appoint its Bureau and shall adopt its own rules of procedure.
3. The Consultative Assembly shall meet at least once a year.
4. Each year, the Council of Ministers shall submit a report on its activities to the Consultative Assembly.
5. The Consultative Assembly may set up ad hoc consultative committees to undertake such specific activities as it may determine.
6. The Consultative Assembly may adopt resolutions on matters concerning or covered by this Convention.
Article 81.
1. Any dispute which arises between one or more Member States or the Community on the one hand, and one or more ACP States on the other, concerning the interpretation or the application of this Convention may be placed before the Council of Ministers.
2. Where circumstances permit, and subject to the Council of Ministers being informed, so that any parties concerned may assert their rights, the Contracting Parties may have recourse to a good offices procedure.
3. If the Council of Ministers fails to settle the dispute at its next meeting, either Party may notify the other of the appointment of an arbitrator, the other Party must then appoint a second arbitrator within two months. For the application of this procedure, the Community and the Member States shall be deemed to be one Party to the dispute.
The Council of Ministers shall appoint a third arbitrator.
The decisions of the arbitrators shall be taken by majority vote.
Each Party to the dispute must take the measures required for the implementation of the arbitrators' decision.
Article 82.
The operating expenses of the Institutions under this Convention shall be defrayed in accordance with the terms set out in Protocol No 4 to this Convention.
Article 83.
The privileges and immunities for the purpose of this Convention shall be as laid down in Protocol No 5 to this Convention.
Title VII. General and Final Provisions
Article 84.
No treaty, convention, agreement or arrangement of any kind between one or more Member States and one or more ACP States may impede the implementation of this Convention.
Article 85.
1. This Convention shall apply to the European territories to which the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community applies, in accordance with the conditions set out in that Treaty, on the one hand, and to the territories of the ACP States on the other.
2. Title I of this Convention shall also apply to the relations between the French Overseas Departments and the ACP States.
Article 86.
1. As regards the Community, this Convention shall be validly concluded by a decision of the Council of the European Communities taken in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty and notified to the Parties.
It will be ratified by the Signatory States in conformity with their respective constitutional requirements.
2. The instruments of ratification and the act of notification of the conclusion of the Convention shall be deposited, as concerns the ACP States, with the Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities and, as concerns the Community and its Member States, with the Secretariat of the ACP States. The Secretariats shall forthwith give notice thereof to the Signatory States and the Community.
Article 87.
1. This Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date of deposit of the instruments of ratification of the Member States and of at least two thirds of the ACP States, and of the act of notification of the conclusion of the Convention by the Community.
2. Any ACP State which has not completed the procedures set out in Article 86 by the date of the entry into force of this Convention as specified in paragraph 1 may do so only within the twelve months following such entry into force and shall be able to proceed with these procedures only during the twelve months following such entry into force, unless before the expiry of this period it gives notice to the Council of Ministers of its intention to complete these procedures not later than six months after this period and on condition that it undertakes the deposit of its instrument of ratification within the same time-limit.
3. As regards those ACP States which have not completed the procedures set out in Article 86 by the date of entry into force of this Convention as specified in paragraph 1, this Convention shall become applicable on the first day of the second month following the completion of the said procedures.
4. Signatory ACP States which ratify this Convention in accordance with the conditions laid down in paragraph 2 shall recognize the validity of all measures taken in implementation of this Convention between the date of its entry into force and the date when its provisions become applicable to them. Subject to any extension which may be granted to them by the Council of Ministers they shall, not later than six months following the completion of the procedures referred to in Article 86, carry out all the obligations which devolve upon them under the terms of this Convention or of implementing decisions adopted by the Council of Ministers.
5. The rules of procedure of the Institutions set up under this Convention shalt lay down whether and under what conditions the representatives of Signatory States which, on the date of entry into force of this Convention have not yet completed the procedures referred to in Article 86, shall sit in those Institutions as observers. The arrangements thus adopted shall be effective only until the date on which this Convention becomes applicable to these States; such arrangements shall in any case cease to apply on the date on which, pursuant to paragraph 2, the State concerned may no Jonger ratify the Convention.
Article 88.
1. The Council of Ministers shall be informed of any request by any State for membership of, or association with, the Community.
2. The Council of Ministers shall be informed of any request made by any State wishing to become a member of an economic grouping composed of ACP States.
Article 89.
1. Any request for accession to this Convention by a country or ter- ritory to which Part Four of the Treaty applies, and which becomes independent, shall be referred to the Council of Ministers.
With the approval of the Council of Ministers, the country in question shall accede to this Convention by depositing an instrument of accession with the Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities which shall transmit a certified copy to the Secretariat of the ACP States and shall give notice thereof to the Signatory States.
2. That State shall then enjoy the same rights and be subject to the same obligations as the ACP States. Such accession shall not adversely affect the advantages accruing to the ACP States signatory to this Convention from the provisions on financial and technical co-operation and on the stabilization of export earnings.
Article 90.
Any request for accession to this Convention submitted by a State whose economic structure and production are comparable with those of the ACP States shall require approval by the Council of Ministers. The State concerned may accede to this Convention by concluding an agreement with the Community.
That State shall then enjoy the same rights and be subject to the same obligations as the ACP States.
The Agreement may however stipulate the date on which certain of these rights and obligations shall become applicable to that State.
Such accession shall not, however, adversely affect the advantages accruing to the ACP States signatory to this Convention from the provisions on financial and technical co-operation, the stabilization of export earnings and industrial co-operation.
Article 91.
This Convention shall expire after a period of five years from the date of its signature, namely 1 March 1980.
Eighteen months before the end of this period the Contracting Parties shall enter into negotiations in order to examine what provisions shall subsequently govern relations between the Community and its Member States and the ACP States.
The Council of Ministers shall adopt any transitional measures that may be required until the new Convention comes into force.
Article 92.
This Convention may be denounced by the Community in respect of each ACP State and by each ACP State in respect of the Community, upon six months' notice.
Article 93.
The Protocols annexed to this Convention shall form an integral part thereof.
Article 94.
This Convention, drawn up in two copies in the Danish, Dutch, English, French, German and Italian languages, all texts being equally authentic, shall be deposited in the archives of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Communities and the Secretariat of the ACP States which shall both transmit a certified copy to the Government of each of the Signatory States.
Conclusion
FINAL ACT
The Pleinipotentiaries of
His Majesty the King of the Belgians,
Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark,
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany,
The President of the French Republic,
The President of Ireland,
The President of the italian Republic,
His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg,
Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands,
Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
Contracting Parties to the Treaty establishing the European Econ- omic Community signed at Rome on 25 March 1975 (hereinafter called the "Treaty"), whose States are hereinafter called "Member States";
and the Council of the European Communities, of the one part, and
The Head of State of the Bahamas,
The Head of State of Barbados,
The President of the Republic of Botswana,
The President of the Republic of Burundi,
The President of the United Republic of Cameroon,
The President of the Central African Republic,
The President of the People's Republic of the Congo,
The President of the Republic of the Ivory Coast,
The President of the Republic of Dahomey,
The President of the Provisional Administrative Military Council, President of the Government of Ethiopia,
Her Majesty the Queen of Fiji,
The President of the Gabonese Republic,
The President of the Republic of the Gambia,
The President of the National Redemption Council of the Republic of Ghana,
The Head of State of Grenada,
The President of the Republic of Guinea,
The President of the Council of State of Guinea Bissau,
The President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea,
The President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana,
The President of the Republic of Upper Volta,
The Head of State of Jamaica,
The President of the Republic of Kenya,
The King of the Kingdom of Lesotho,
The President of the Republic of Liberia,
The Preisdent of the Republic of Malawi,
The Head of State and of Government of the Malagasy Republic,
The President of the Military Council of National Liberation of Mali, Head of State, President of the Government,
Her Majesty the Queen of Mauritius,
The President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania,
The President of the Republic of Niger,
The Head of the Federal Military Government of Nigeria,
The President of the Republic of Rwanda,
The President of the Republic of Senegal,
The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone,
The President of the Somali Democratic Republic, President of the Supreme Revolutionary Council,
The President of the Democratic Republic of the Sudan,
The King of the Kingdom of Swaziland,
The President of the United Republic of Tanzania,
The President of the Republic of Chad,
The President of the Republic of Togo,
The Head of State of Tonga,
The Head of State of Trinidad and Tobago,
The President of the Republic of Uganda,
The Head of State of Western Samoa,
The President of the Republic of Zaire,
The President of the Republic of Zambia,
of the other part,
meeting at Lome this twenty-eighth day of February in the year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-five for the purpose of signing the ACP-EEC Convention of Lome, have adopted the following texts:
The ACP-EEC Convention of Lome,
and the following Protocols and Declaration:
Protocol No 1 concerning the definition of the concept of "originating products" and methods of administrative cooperation
Protocol No 2 on the application of financial and technical co-operation
Protocol No 3 on ACP sugar
Protocol No 4 on the operating expenditure of the Institutions
Protocol No 5 on privileges and immunities
Protocol No 6 on bananas
Protocol No 7 on rum
Joint declaration on fishing activities.
The Plenipotentiaries of the Member States and the Plenipotentiaries of the ACP States have also adopted the text of the Agreement on products within the province of the European Coal and Steel Community.
The Plenipotentiaries of the Member States and of the Community and the Plenipotentiaries of the ACP States have also adopted the texts of the Declarations listed below and annexed to this Final Act:
1. Joint declaration on the presentation of the Convention to GATT (Annex I)
2. Joint declaration on Article 11 (4) of the Convention (Annex II)
3. Joint declaration on Article 59 (6) of the Convention (Annex III)
4. Joint declaration on Article 60 of the Convention (Annex IV)
5. Joint declaration on representation of regional economic groupings (Annex V)
6. Joint declaration on Article 89 of the Convention (Annex VI)
7. Joint declaration on Article 4 (1) of Protocol No 2 (Annex VII)
8. Joint declaration on Article 20 (c) of Protocol No 2 (Annex VIII)
9. Joint declaration on Article 22 of Protocol No 2 (Annex IX)
10. Joint declaration on Article 23 of Protocol No 2 (Annex X)
11. Joint declaration on Article 26 of Protocol No 2 (Annex XI)
12. Joint declaration on trade between the European Economic Community and Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (Annex XII)
13. Joint declaration concerning possible requests for participation in Protocol No 3 (Annex XIII)