International cooperation
The Parties undertake to render each other mutual assistance in order to implement this Convention. The Parties shall afford each other, in accordance with the provisions of relevant international instruments on international cooperation in criminal or administrative matters and with their domestic law, the widest measure of cooperation in investigations and judicial proceedings relating to criminal or administrative offences established in accordance with this Convention.
Multilateral consultations
1. The Parties shall, within two years from the entry into force of this Convention and every two years thereafter, and, in any event, whenever a Party so requests, hold multilateral consultations within the Council of Europe to examine the application of this Convention and the advisability of extending or revising any of its provisions, in particular as regards the definitions under Article 2. These consultations shall take place at meetings convened by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
2. Each Party may be represented at multilateral consultation meetings by one or more delegates. Each Party shall have the right to vote. Each State Party to this Convention shall have one vote. Concerning questions within its competence, the European Community shall exercise its right to vote and cast a number of votes equal to the number of its member States that are Parties to the Convention. The European Community shall not exercise its right to vote when the vote concerns a question which does not fall within its competence.
3. Any State referred to in Article 12, paragraph 1, or the European Community, which is not a Party to this Convention, may be represented in the consultation meetings by an observer.
4. After each consultation, the Parties shall forward to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe a report on the consultation and on the functioning of the Convention, including, if it is considered necessary, proposals for the amendment of the Convention.
5. Subject to the provisions of this Convention, the Parties shall lay down rules of procedure for the consultation meetings.
Amendments
1. Any Party may propose amendments to this Convention.
2. Any proposal for amendment shall be notified to the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe who shall communicate it to the member States of the Council of Europe, to the other States Party to the European Cultural Convention, to the European Community and to any non-member State which has acceded to or has been invited to accede to this Convention in accordance with the provisions of Article 13.
3. Any amendment proposed in accordance with the provisions of the previous paragraph shall be examined, within six months from the date on which it is communicated by the Secretary-General, at a multilateral consultation meeting, where that amendment can be adopted by a majority of two-thirds of the States which have ratified the Convention.
4. The text adopted by the multilateral consultation meeting shall be submitted to the Committee of Ministers for approval. Once it has been approved, the text of the amendment shall be forwarded to the Parties for acceptance.
5. All amendments shall enter into force on the 30th day after all the Parties have informed the Secretary-General of their acceptance thereof.
6. On the basis of a recommendation by a multilateral consultation meeting, the Committee of Ministers may decide, by the majority provided for in Article 20(d) of the Statute of the Council of Europe and by the unanimous vote of the representatives of the Parties entitled to sit on the Committee, that a particular amendment shall enter into force following the expiry of a period of two years after the date on which it has been forwarded for acceptance, unless a Party has notified the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe of an objection to its entry into force. Should such an objection be notified, the amendment shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the date on which the Party to the Convention which has notified the objection has deposited its instrument of acceptance with the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
7. If an amendment has been approved by the Committee of Ministers, but has not yet entered into force in accordance with paragraph 5 or 6 above, a State or the European Community may not express their consent to be bound by the Convention without accepting at the same time the amendment.
Relationship with other conventions or agreements
1. This Convention does not affect the rights and undertakings derived from international multilateral conventions concerning special matters.
2. The Parties to the Convention may conclude bilateral or multilateral agreements with one another on the matters dealt with in this Convention, for purposes of supplementing or strengthening its provisions or facilitating the application of the principles embodied in it.
3. If two or more Parties have already concluded an agreement or treaty in respect of a subject which is dealt with in this Convention or otherwise have established their relations in respect of that subject, they shall be entitled to apply that agreement or treaty or to regulate those relations accordingly, in lieu of the present Convention, if it facilitates international cooperation.
4. In their mutual relations, Parties which are members of the European Community shall apply Community rules and shall not therefore apply the rules arising from this Convention except in so far as there is no Community rule governing the particular subject concerned.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
