A Cooperation Council is hereby established to supervise the implementation of this Agreement. It shall meet regularly at ministerial level. It shall meet at intervals which it shall itself determine and at least once every two years. It shall examine any major issues arising within the framework of this Agreement and any other bilateral or international issues of mutual interest for the purpose of attaining the objectives of this Agreement. With the Parties’ agreement, the Cooperation Council may also make appropriate recommendations.
1. The Cooperation Council shall consist of members of the Council of the European Union and members of the Commission of the European Communities, on the one hand, and of members of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, on the other.
2. The Cooperation Council shall establish its rules of procedure.
3. The office of President of the Cooperation Council shall be held alternately by a representative of the Community and by a member of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan.
1. The Cooperation Council shall be assisted in the performance of its duties by a Cooperation Committee composed of representatives of the members of the Council of the European Union and of members of the Commission of the European Communities on the one hand and of representatives of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on the other, normally at senior civil servant level. The office of President of the Cooperation Committee shall be held alternately by the Community and by the Republic of Tajikistan.
In its rules of procedure the Cooperation Council shall lay down the duties of the Cooperation Committee, which shall include the preparation of meetings of the Cooperation Council, and how the Committee shall function.
2. The Cooperation Council may delegate any of its powers to the Cooperation Committee, which will ensure continuity between meetings of the Cooperation Council.
The Cooperation Council may decide to set up any other special committee or body that can assist it in carrying out its duties and shall determine the composition and duties of such committees or bodies and how they shall function.
When examining any issue arising within the framework of this Agreement in relation to a provision referring to an Article of one of the Agreements constituting the WTO, the Cooperation Council shall take into account to the greatest extent possible the interpretation that is generally given to the Article in question by the members of the WTO.
A Parliamentary Cooperation Committee is hereby established. It shall be a forum for members of the Tajik Parliament and the European Parliament to meet and exchange views, including on matters concerning political dialogue at parliamentary level. It shall meet at intervals which it shall itself determine.
1. The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee shall consist of members of the European Parliament, on the one hand, and of members of the Tajik Parliament, on the other.
2. The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee shall establish its rules of procedure.
3. The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee shall be presided in turn by the European Parliament and the Tajik Parliament respectively, in accordance with the provisions to be laid down in its rules of procedure.
The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee may request relevant information regarding the implementation of this Agreement from the Cooperation Council, which shall then supply the Committee with the requested information.
The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee shall be informed of the recommendations of the Cooperation Council.
The Parliamentary Cooperation Committee may make recommendations to the Cooperation Council.
1. Within the scope of this Agreement, each Party undertakes to ensure that natural and legal persons of the other Party have access free of discrimination in relation to its own nationals to the competent courts and administrative organs of the Parties to defend their individual rights and their property rights, including those concerning intellectual, industrial and commercial property.
2. Within the limits of their respective powers and competences, the Parties:
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shall encourage the adoption of arbitration for the settlement of disputes arising from commercial and cooperation transactions concluded by economic operators of the Community and those of the Republic of Tajikistan,
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agree that where a dispute is submitted to arbitration, each party to the dispute may, except where the rules of the arbitration centre chosen by the parties provide otherwise, choose its own arbitrator, irrespective of his nationality, and that the presiding third arbitrator or the sole arbitrator may be a citizen of a third country,
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shall recommend their economic operators to choose by mutual consent the law applicable to their contracts,
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shall encourage recourse to the arbitration rules elaborated by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (Uncitral) and to arbitration by any centre of a State signatory to the Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards done at New York on 10 June 1958.
Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent a Party, within the limits of its respective powers and competences, from taking any measures:
(a)
which it considers necessary to prevent the disclosure of information contrary to its essential security interests;
(b)
which relate to the production of, or trade in arms, munitions or war materials or to research, development or production indispensable for defence purposes, provided that such measures do not impair the conditions of competition in respect of products not intended for specifically military purposes;
(c)
which it considers essential to its own security in the event of serious internal disturbances affecting the maintenance of law and order, in time of war or serious international tension constituting threat of war or in order to carry out obligations it has accepted for the purpose of maintaining peace and international security;
(d)
which it considers necessary to respect its international obligations and commitments in the control of dual-use industrial goods and technology.
1. In the fields covered by this Agreement and without prejudice to any special provisions contained therein:
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the arrangements applied by the Republic of Tajikistan in respect of the Community shall not give rise to any discrimination between the Member States, their nationals or their companies or firms,
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the arrangements applied by the Community in respect of the Republic of Tajikistan shall not give rise to any discrimination between Tajik nationals, companies or firms.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 are without prejudice to the right of the Parties to apply the relevant provisions of their fiscal legislation to taxpayers who are not in identical situations as regards their place of residence.
1. Each of the Parties may refer to the Cooperation Council any dispute relating to the application or interpretation of this Agreement.
2. The Cooperation Council may settle the dispute by means of a recommendation.
3. If it is not possible to settle the dispute in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article, either Party may notify the other of the appointment of a conciliator; the other Party must then appoint a second conciliator within two months. For the application of this procedure, the Community and the Member States shall be deemed to be a single Party to the dispute.
The Cooperation Council shall appoint a third conciliator.
The conciliators’ recommendations shall be taken by majority vote. Such recommendations shall not be binding upon the Parties.
The Parties agree to consult each other promptly, through appropriate channels and at the request of either Party, on any matter concerning the interpretation or implementation of this Agreement and other relevant aspects of the relations between the Parties.
The provisions of this Article shall in no way affect, and are without prejudice to, Articles 12, 88 and 94.
The Cooperation Council may establish rules of procedure for the settlement of disputes.
The treatment granted to the Republic of Tajikistan under this Agreement shall in no case be more favourable than that granted by the Member States to each other.
For the purposes of this Agreement, the term ‘Parties’ shall mean the Republic of Tajikistan, on the one part, and the Community, or the Member States, or the Community and the Member States, in accordance with their respective powers, on the other part.
Insofar as matters covered by this Agreement are covered by the Energy Charter Treaty and Protocols thereto, such Treaty and Protocols shall upon entry into force apply to such matters but only to the extent that such application is provided for therein.
This Agreement is concluded for an initial period of ten years, after which time it shall be automatically renewed from year to year, provided that neither Party gives the other Party written notice of denunciation of this Agreement six months before it expires.
1. The Parties shall take any general or specific measures required to fulfil their obligations under this Agreement. They shall see to it that the objectives set out in this Agreement are attained.
2. If either Party considers that the other Party has failed to fulfil an obligation under this Agreement, it may take appropriate measures. Before so doing, except in cases of special urgency, it shall supply the Cooperation Council with all relevant information required for a thorough examination of the situation with a view to seeking a solution acceptable to the Parties.
In the selection of these measures, priority must be given to those which least disturb the functioning of this Agreement. These measures shall be notified immediately to the Cooperation Council if the other Party so requests.
Annexes I, II, III and IV together with the Protocol shall form an integral part of this Agreement.
This Agreement shall not, until equivalent rights have been achieved hereunder, affect rights assured to individuals and economic operators by existing Agreements binding one or more Member States, on the one hand, and the Republic of Tajikistan, on the other, except in areas falling within Community competence and without prejudice to the obligations of Member States resulting from this Agreement in areas falling within their competence.
This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand, to the territories in which the Treaties establishing the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community are applied and under the conditions laid down in those Treaties and, on the other hand, to the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan.
The Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union shall be the depositary of this Agreement.
The original of this Agreement, of which the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish and Tajik languages are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union.
This Agreement shall be approved by the Parties in accordance with their own procedures.
This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date on which the Parties notify the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union that the procedures referred to in the first subparagraph have been completed.
Upon its entry into force, and as far as relations between the Republic of Tajikistan and the Community are concerned, this Agreement shall replace the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on trade and economic and commercial cooperation signed in Brussels on 18 December 1989.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
