(b) development of the legal and regulatory frameworks;
(c) promotion of integrated water management;
(d) capacity building in human resources, improvement in service standards, water management and institutional structures;
(e) encourage and facilitate EU-ESA partnerships, linkages, regional water partnerships and joint ventures between economic operators;
(f) technology development, transfer and applications, R&D, innovation, information exchange and networks;
(g) water pollution control, purification and conservation, wastewater treatment and sanitation; and
(h) promotion of sustainable irrigation schemes.
Article 51. Environment
1. The Parties recognise the importance of cooperation in the protection and sustainable management of the environment and implementation of trade-related environmental policies. The objectives in this area are to:
(a) protect, restore and conserve the environment and biodiversity: flora, fauna and microbial genetic resources, including their ecosystems;
(b) develop new ESA industries related to the environment; and
(c) reduce environmental degradation, including clean air and desertification. Areas of cooperation
2. Subject to the provisions of Article 36, the Parties agree to cooperate, including by facilitating support, in the following areas:
(a) support the implementation of international environmental agreements, conventions and treaties;
(b) strengthen and promote sustainable environmental management systems;
(c) sustainable utilisation of biodiversity, forestry and wildlife resources;
(d) reinforcing institutional and legal frameworks and the capacity to develop, implement, administer and enforce environmental laws, regulations, standards and policies;
(e) capacity building in human resources and institutional structures to comply with environmental and biodiversity requirements;
(f) encourage and facilitate EU-ESA partnerships, linkages and joint ventures between economic operators;
(g) mitigation of natural disasters, prevention of environmental disasters and the loss of biodiversity;
(h) technology development and adaptation, transfer and applications, R&D and innovation;
(i) protection and management of coastal and marine resources and domestic and wild indigenous biological resources;
(j) support the development of alternative environmentally friendly activities and livelihoods;
(k) support the production and facilitate trade of goods and services for which eco-labelling is important;
(l) exchange of information and networking on products and their requirements in terms of production process, transport, marketing and labelling;
(m) support the development of infrastructure facilities on environmentally-friendly products;
(n) integration of local communities in the management of biodiversity, forestry and wildlife resources;
(o) waste management and disposal of industrial and toxic wastes; and
(p) sustainable management of forests and similar mechanisms.
Article 52. Financial Undertakings
1. The EC Party shall put at the disposal of ESA financial assistance to contribute to implement the programmes and projects to be developed under the areas of cooperation identified in this Agreement and relevant chapters and under the detailed Development Matrix.
2. The Parties agree to establish adequate joint institutional arrangements to effectively monitor the implementation of the development cooperation of this Agreement. Such arrangements shall include the establishment of a Joint Development Committee.
3. The Parties agree that the institutional arrangements shall remain flexible to adapt to the evolving national and regional needs.
Chapter V. Areas for Future Negotiations
Article 53. Rendez-vous Clause
Building on the Cotonou Agreement and taking account of the progress made in the negotiations of a comprehensive EPA, the Parties agree to continue negotiations in accordance with Article 3 with a view to concluding a full and comprehensive EPA covering the following areas:
(a) customs and trade facilitation;
(b) outstanding trade and market access issues, including rules of origin and other related issues and trade defence measures, including outermost regions;
(c) technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures;
(d) trade in services;
(e) trade related issues namely:
(i) competition policy;
(ii) investment and private sector development;
(iii) trade, environment and sustainable development;
(iv) intellectual property rights;
(v) transparency in public procurement;
(f) agriculture;
(g) current payments and capital payments;
(h) development issues;
(i) cooperation and dialogue on good governance in the tax and judicial area;
(j) an elaborated dispute settlement mechanism, institutional arrangements; and
(k) any other areas that the Parties find necessary, including consultations under Article 12 of the Cotonou Agreement.
Chapter VI. Dispute Avoidance, Settlement, Institutional, General and Final Provisions
Title I. Dispute Avoidance and Settlement
Article 54. Consultations
1. The Parties shall endeavour to resolve any dispute concerning the interpretation and application of this Agreement by entering into consultations in good faith with the aim of reaching an agreed solution.
2. A Party shall seek consultations by means of a written request to the other Party, identifying the measure at issue and the provisions of the Agreement that it considers the measure not to be in conformity with.
3. Consultations shall be held within 40 days of the date of the submission of the request. The consultations shall be deemed concluded within 60 days of the date of the submission of the request, unless both Parties agree to continue consultations. The consultations shall remain confidential.
4. Consultations on matters of urgency, including those regarding perishable or seasonal goods shall be held within 15 days of the date of the submission of the request, and shall be deemed concluded within 30 days of the date of the submission of the request.
Article 55. Dispute Settlement
1. If consultations do not succeed in settling the dispute within the 60 days or 30 days referred to in Article 54, either Party may request settlement of the dispute by arbitration. To this end, each Party shall appoint an arbitrator within thirty days of the request for arbitration by notifying the other Party and the EPA Committee. The request for arbitration shall identify the measure at issue and the provisions of the Agreement that the complaining Party considers the measure not to be in conformity with. In the event of failure to do so, either Party may ask the Secretary General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration to appoint the second arbitrator.
2. The two arbitrators shall in turn appoint a third arbitrator within thirty days. In the event of failure to do so, either Party may ask the Secretary General of the Permanent Court of Arbitration to appoint the third arbitrator.
3. Unless the arbitrators decide otherwise, the procedure applied shall be laid down in the optional arbitration regulation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration for International Organisations and States. The arbitrators shall take a decision by majority vote within 90 days and in matters of urgency should endeavour to take a decision within 60 days.
4. Each Party to the dispute shall be bound to take the measures necessary to carry out the decision of the arbitrators.
5. Notwithstanding paragraph 1, the procedure set out in Article 98 of the Cotonou Agreement shall be applicable in the event of a dispute concerning development finance cooperation as provided for by the Cotonou Agreement.
Title II. General Exceptions
Article 56. General Exception Clause
Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination between the Parties where like conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international trade, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement by the EC Party, the ESA States or a Signatory ESA State of measures which:
(a) are necessary to protect public morals or to maintain public order and public security;
(b) are necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health;
(c) are necessary to secure compliance with laws or regulations which are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Agreement, including those relating to:
(i) the prevention of deceptive and fraudulent practices or to deal with the effects of a default on contracts;
(ii) the protection of the privacy of individuals in relation to the processing and dissemination of personal data and the protection of confidentiality of individual records and accounts;
(iii) safety;
(iv) customs enforcement; or
(v) protection of intellectual property rights.
(d) relate to the importation or exportation of gold or silver;
(e) are necessary to the protection of national treasures of artistic, historic or archaeological value;
(f) relate to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources if such measures are made effective in conjunction with restrictions on domestic production or consumption of goods, domestic supply or consumption of services and on domestic investors;
(g) relate to the products of prison labour; or
(h) are essential to the acquisition or distribution of products in general or local short supply, provided that any such measures shall be consistent with the principle that all parties are entitled to an equitable share of the international supply of such products, and that any such measures, which are inconsistent with the other provisions of this Agreement, shall be discontinued as soon as the conditions giving rise to them have ceased to exist.
Article 57. Security Exceptions
1. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed:
(a) to require the EC Party or a Signatory ESA State to furnish any information the disclosure of which it considers contrary to its essential security interests;
(b) to prevent the EC Party or a Signatory ESA State from taking any action which it considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests:
(i) relating to fissionable and fusionable materials or the materials from which they are derived;
(ii) relating to economic activities carried out directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying or provisioning a military establishment;
(iii) connected with the production of or trade in arms, munitions and war materials;
(iv) relating to government procurement indispensable for national security or for national defence purposes; or (v) taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations.
(c) to prevent the EC Party or a Signatory ESA State from taking any action in order to carry out obligations it has accepted for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.
2. The Parties shall inform each other to the fullest extent possible of measures taken under paragraphs 1(b) and (c) and of their termination.
Article 58. Taxation
1. Nothing in this Agreement or in any arrangement adopted under this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the EC Party or a Signatory ESA State from distinguishing, in the application of the relevant provisions of their fiscal legislation, between taxpayers who are not in the same situation, in particular with regard to their place of residence or with regard to the place where their capital is invested.
2. Nothing in this Agreement or in any arrangement adopted under this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the adoption or enforcement of any measure aimed at preventing the avoidance or evasion of taxes pursuant to the tax provisions of agreements to avoid double taxation or other tax arrangements or domestic fiscal legislation.
3. Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the rights and obligations of the EC Party or a Signatory ESA State under any tax convention. In the event of any inconsistency between this Agreement and any such convention, that convention shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
Title III. Institutional, General and Final Provisions
Article 59. Relations between this Agreement and Comprehensive EPA
In case there is any inconsistency between the comprehensive EPA and this Interim Agreement, the comprehensive EPA shall prevail to the extent of such inconsistency.
Article 60. Outermost Regions of the European Community
1. Taking account of the geographical proximity of the outermost regions of the EC and the ESA States and in order to reinforce economic and social links between these regions and the ESA States, the Parties shall endeavour to facilitate cooperation in all areas covered by this Agreement as well as to build and improve on existing trade in goods and services, promote investment and encourage transport and communication links between the outermost regions and the ESA States.
2. The objectives enunciated in paragraph 1 shall also be pursued, wherever possible, through fostering the joint participation of the ESA States and the outermost regions in framework and specific programmes of the EC in areas covered by this Agreement.
3. The EC Party shall endeavour to ensure coordination between the different financial instruments of the EC's cohesion and development policies in order to foster cooperation between ESA States and the outermost regions of the EC in the areas covered by this Agreement.
4. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent the EC Party from applying existing measures aimed at addressing the structural social and economic situation of the outermost regions pursuant to Article 299(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
Article 61. Definition of the Parties and Fulfilment of Obligations
1. The Contracting Parties of this Agreement shall be the Union of Comoros, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of Seychelles, the Republic of Zambia and the Republic of Zimbabwe hereinafter referred to as the "ESA States", on the one part, and the EC or its Member States or the EC and its Member States within their respective areas of competence as derived from the Treaty establishing the European Community, and hereinafter referred to as the "EC Party", on the other part for which this Agreement has entered into force or is provisionally applied.
2. For the purposes of this Agreement, unless otherwise expressly provided, the ESA States agree to act collectively. In cases where individual action is provided for or required to exercise the rights and/or comply with obligations under this Agreement, reference is made to "Signatory ESA State".
3. The Parties or the Signatory ESA State(s) as the case may be shall adopt any general or specific measures required for them to fulfil their obligations under this Agreement and shall ensure that they comply with the objectives laid down in this Agreement.
4. A Signatory ESA State which is not subject to the rights and obligations set out in Chapter II shall nevertheless be subject to and enjoy the rights and obligations arising from other Chapters of this Agreement.
Article 62. Entry Into Force, Denunciation and Duration
1. This Agreement shall be signed, ratified or approved in accordance with the applicable constitutional or internal rules and procedures of the respective Parties.
2. This Agreement shall enter into force the first day of the first month following the deposit of the last instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval.
3. Notifications of ratification, acceptance or approval shall be sent to the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and to the Secretary General of the Common Ma
rket of the Eastern and Southern Africa, who shall be the depositories of this Agreement.
4. Pending entry into force of the Agreement, the EC Party and the Signatory ESA States agree to apply the provisions of this Agreement which fall within their respective competences ("provisional application"). This may be effected either by provisional application where possible or by ratification of this Agreement.
5. Provisional application shall be notified to the depositaries. This Agreement shall be applied provisionally 10 days after the last receipt of notification of provisional application from the EC or of ratification or provisional application from all Signatory ESA States listed in Annex II.
6. Notwithstanding paragraphs 2 and 4, the EC Party and Signatory ESA States may unilaterally take steps to apply the agreement, before provisional application, to the extent feasible.
7. The EC Party or a Signatory ESA State(s) may give written notice to the other of its intention to denounce this Agreement.
8. Denunciation shall take effect one month after notification to the other Party.
9. This Agreement shall remain in force until the comprehensive EPA enters into force.
Article 63. Territorial Application
This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand, to the territories in which the Treaty establishing the European Community is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, and, on the other hand, to the territories of Signatory ESA States. References in this Agreement to "territory" shall be understood in this sense.
Article 64. EPa Committee
1. An EPA Committee is hereby established.
2. The EPA Committee shall be responsible for the administration of all matters under this Agreement, including development cooperation as provided for under Article 36 and for the fulfilment of any of the tasks mentioned in this Agreement.
3. The EPA Committee shall be composed of representatives of the Parties. Each Party determines the organisation of its representation.
4. The EPA Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure within three months of entry into force of the Interim Agreement.
Article 65. Relationships with other Agreements
1. Nothing in this Agreement shall prejudice the application of measures deemed appropriate as provided for under Articles 11b, 96 and 97 of the Cotonou Agreement and according to procedures set by these Articles.
2. In the case of any inconsistency between the provisions of this Agreement and the provisions of Title II of Part 3 of the Cotonou Agreement, with the exception of the development cooperation provisions contained therein, the provisions of this Agreement shall prevail.
3. The Parties acknowledge that some Signatory ESA States are not members of the WTO. Accordingly, references in this Agreement to WTO agreements (including the definitions provided therein) and WTO bodies or Committees shall not be construed as imposing on a Signatory ESA State that is not a member of the WTO any obligations arising from such WTO agreements or decisions of such bodies or Committees beyond the obligations expressly taken by such Signatory ESA State under this Agreement. Consequently, in the event of inconsistency between provisions of WTO agreements or decisions of WTO bodies or Committees on the one part and provisions of this Agreement, the latter shall always prevail in respect of Signatory ESA States who are not members of the WTO.
4. The Parties agree that nothing in this Agreement requires them or the Signatory ESA States to act in a manner inconsistent with their WTO obligations.
Article 66. Accession
1. Any of the following ESA States namely, the Republic of Djibouti, the State of Eritrea, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Malawi, the Republic of Sudan, may accede to this Agreement with the agreement of the Parties. This Agreement shall enter into force with respect to the acceding state in accordance with the applicable legal procedures of the EC Party and the ESA States and the acceding country. The EC shall endeavour to apply this Agreement to the acceding country as soon as possible.
2. Any request for accession to this Agreement made by a State in the ESA region not listed in paragraph 1 shall be presented to the EPA Committee for determination.
3. The EPA Committee may lay down the conditions and specific arrangements of the State referred to in paragraph 2 for its accession.
4. This Agreement shall enter into force in relation to an acceding state on the date its instrument of accession is deposited.
Article 67. Accession of New Member States to the European Union
1. The EPA Committee shall be advised of any request made by a third state to become a member of the EU. During the negotiations between the EU and the applicant State, the EC Party shall provide the ESA States with any relevant information and they in turn shall convey their concerns to the EC Party so that it can take them fully into account. The ESA States shall be notified by the EC Party of any accession to the EU.
2. Any new Member State of the EU shall accede to this Agreement from the date of its accession by means of a clause to that effect in the act of accession. If the act of accession to the EU does not provide for such automatic accession to this Agreement, the EU Member State concerned shall accede by depositing an act of accession with the two depositaries, which shall arrange for certified copies to be sent to the ESA States.
3. The Parties shall review the effects of the accession of new EU Member States on this Agreement. The EPA Committee may decide on any transitional or amending measures that might be necessary.
Article 68. Amendments
1. Any amendments to this Agreement shall be adopted by the EPA Committee and shall enter into force when ratified.
2. The EPA Committee shall adopt any transitional measures that may be required in respect of the amended provisions until they come into force.
Article 69. Authentic Texts
This Agreement is drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish languages, each of these texts being equally authentic.
Article 70. Annexes
The Annexes and Protocols to this Agreement shall form an integral part thereof and may be reviewed and or amended by the EPA Committee.
Conclusion
Done at Grand Baie on the twenty-ninth day of August in the year two thousand and nine.
FOR THE UNION OF COMOROS,