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(SAA Article 119)
An Interim Committee is hereby established which shall supervise the application and implementation of this Agreement. It shall meet at an appropriate level at regular intervals and when circumstances require. It shall examine any major issues arising within the framework of this Agreement and any other bilateral or international issues of mutual interest.
(SAA Article 120)
1. The Interim Committee shall consist of the members of the Council of the European Union and members of the European Commission, on the one hand, and of members of the Government of Serbia on the other. 2. The Interim Committee shall establish its rules of procedure. 3. The members of the Interim Committee may arrange to be represented, in accordance with the conditions to be laid down in its rules of procedure. 4. The Interim Committee shall be chaired in turn by a representative of the Community and a representative of Serbia, in accordance with the provisions to be laid down in its rules of procedure. 5. In matters that concern it, the European Investment Bank shall take part, as an observer, in the work of the Interim Committee.
(SAA Article 121)
The Interim Committee shall, for the purpose of attaining the objectives of this Agreement, have the power to take decisions within the scope of this Agreement in the cases provided for therein. The decisions taken shall be binding on the Parties, which shall take the measures necessary to implement the decisions taken. The Interim Committee may also make appropriate recommendations. It shall draw up its decisions and recommendations by agreement between the Parties.
(SAA Article 123)
The Interim Committee may create subcommittees.
(SAA Article 126)
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.
(SAA Article 127)
Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent a Party 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.
(SAA Article 128)
1. In the fields covered by this Agreement and without prejudice to any special provisions contained therein: (a) the arrangements applied by Serbia in respect of the Community shall not give rise to any discrimination between the Member States, their nationals, companies or firms; (b) the arrangements applied by the Community in respect of Serbia shall not give rise to any discrimination between nationals of Serbia as well as between Serbian companies or firms. 2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall be 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.
(SAA Article 129)
1. The Parties shall take any general or specific measures required to fulfil their obligations under this Agreement. They shall ensure that the objectives set out in this Agreement are attained. 2. The Parties agree to consult promptly through appropriate channels at the request of either Party to discuss any matter concerning the interpretation or implementation of this Agreement and other relevant aspects of the relations between the Parties. 3. Each Party shall refer to the Interim Committee any dispute relating to the application or interpretation of this Agreement. In that case, Article 50 and, as the case may be, Protocol 6 shall apply. The Interim Committee may settle the dispute by means of a binding decision. 4. 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 Interim Committee 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 measures, priority must be given to those which least disturb the functioning of this Agreement. These measures shall be notified immediately to the Interim Committee and shall be the subject of consultations if the other Party so requests within the Interim Committee or any other body set up on the basis of Article 46. 5. The provisions of paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 shall in no way affect and are without prejudice to Articles 17, 25, 26, 27, 31 and Protocol 3 (Definition of the concept of originating products and methods of administrative cooperation).
(SAA Article 130)
1. When a dispute arises between the Parties concerning the interpretation or the implementation of this Agreement, any Party shall notify to the other Party and the Interim Committee a formal request that the matter in dispute be resolved. Where a Party considers that a measure adopted by the other Party, or a failure of the other Party to act, constitutes a breach of its obligations under this Agreement, the formal request that the dispute be resolved shall give the reasons for this opinion and indicate, as the case may be, that the Party may adopt measures as provided for in Article 49, paragraph 4. 2. The Parties shall endeavour to resolve the dispute by entering into good faith consultations within the Interim Committee and other bodies as provided in paragraph 3, with the aim of reaching as soon as possible a mutually acceptable solution. 3. The Parties shall provide the Interim Committee with all relevant information required for a thorough examination of the situation. As long as the dispute is not resolved, it shall be discussed at every meeting of the Interim Committee, unless the arbitration procedure as provided for in Protocol 6 has been initiated. A dispute shall be deemed to be resolved when the Interim Committee has taken a binding decision to settle the matter as provided for in Article 49, paragraph 3, or when it has declared that there is no dispute anymore. Consultations on a dispute can also be held at any meeting of the Interim Committee or any other relevant committee or body set up on the basis of Article 45, as agreed between the Parties or at the request of any of the Parties. Consultations may also be held in writing. All information disclosed during the consultations shall remain confidential. 4. For matters within the scope of application of Protocol 6, any Party may submit the matter in dispute for settlement through arbitration in accordance with that Protocol, when the Parties have failed to resolve the dispute within two months after the initiation of the dispute settlement procedure in accordance with paragraph 1.
(SAA Article 131)
This Agreement shall not, until equivalent rights for individuals and economic operators have been achieved under this Agreement, affect rights ensured to them through existing Agreements binding one or more Member States, on the one hand, and Serbia, on the other.
(SAA Article 17)
1. Serbia should foster its cooperation and conclude a Convention on regional cooperation with any country candidate for accession to the European Union in any of the fields of cooperation covered by this Agreement. Such Convention should aim gradually to align bilateral relations between Serbia and that country with the relevant part of the relations between the Community and its Member States and that country. 2. Serbia shall start negotiations with Turkey which has established a customs union with the Community with a view to concluding, on a mutually advantageous basis, an Agreement establishing a free trade area between the two Parties in accordance with Article XXIV of the GATT 1994. These negotiations should be opened as soon as possible, with a view to concluding such Agreement before the end of the transitional period referred to in Article 3(1).
(SAA Article 132)
Protocols 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and Annexes I to V and VI shall form an integral part of this Agreement.
This Agreement shall be applicable until the entry into force of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement signed in Luxembourg on 29 April 2008. Either Party may denounce this Agreement by notifying the other Party. This Agreement shall terminate six months after the date of such notification. Either Party may suspend this Agreement, with immediate effect, in the event of the non-compliance by the other Party of one of the essential elements of this Agreement.
(SAA Article 134)
For the purposes of this Agreement, the term ‘Parties’ shall mean the Community, of the one part, and the Republic of Serbia, of the other part.
(SAA Article 135)
This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand, to the territories in which the EC Treaty is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, and to the territory of Serbia on the other. This Agreement shall not apply in Kosovo which is at present under international administration pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999. This is without prejudice to the current status of Kosovo or the determination of its final status under that Resolution.
(SAA Article 136)
The Secretary General of the Council of the European Union shall be the depository of this Agreement.
(SAA Article 137)
This Agreement shall be drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, English, French, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Finnish, Swedish and Serbian languages, each text being equally authentic.
(SAA Article 138)
The Parties shall approve this Agreement 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 each other that the procedures referred to in paragraph 1 have been completed. In the event of the procedures referred to in paragraph 1 not being completed in time to allow for its entry into force on 1 July 2008, this Agreement shall provisionally apply as from that date.
Articles on this page are reproduced verbatim from official open data. See the attribution line.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.