5 MARCH 1999. - An Act to approve the Agreement between the Belgian Economic Union and the Government of Ukraine concerning the mutual encouragement and protection of investments, signed in Kiev on 20 May 1996 (1) (2) (3)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. The Agreement between the Belgian European Union and the Government of Ukraine concerning the mutual encouragement and protection of investments, made in Kiev on 20 May 1996, will come out its full and full effect.
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal to the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 5 March 1999.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
E. DERYCKE
Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of Economy and Telecommunications, in charge of Foreign Trade,
E. DI RUPO
Seen and sealed the state seal,
Minister of Justice,
T. VAN PARYS
____
Notes
(1) Session 1997-1998.
Senate:
Documents. - Bill, tabled on 30 September 1998, No. 1-1103/1.
Session 1998-1999.
Documents. - Report, no. 1-1103/2. - Text adopted by the Commission, No. 1-1103/3.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of 17 December 1998. - Vote, meeting of 17 December 1998.
Chamber:
Documents. - Text adopted by the Senate, No. 49-1892/1. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 49-1892/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, meeting of 27 January 1998. - Vote, meeting of 28 January 1999.
(2) Decree of the Walloon Region of 9 April 1998 (Moniteur belge of 22 April 1998 pp. 12330-12331); Flemish Region Decree of 17 July 2000 (Belgian Monitor of 11 August 2000, p. 27551); Order of the Brussels-Capital Region of 20 November 1997 (Belgian Monitor of 14 January 1998, p. 872).
(3) The exchange of instruments of ratification took place on 27 June 2001.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 13 of the Agreement, the Agreement shall enter into force on 27 July 2001.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE BELGO-LUXEMURG ECONOMIC UNION, on the one hand AND THE GOVERNMENT OF UKRAINE, on the other hand ON THE RECIPROCAL PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF INVESTMENTS
The Governement of the Kingdom of Belgium, acting both in its own name and in the name of the Government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg,
by virtue of existing agreements,
the Government of the Region of Wallonia,
the Government of the Region of Flanders,
and the Government of the Region of Brussels-Capital, on the one hand and the Governement of Ukraine on the other hand,
(hereinafter referred to as the " Contracting Parties"),
desiring to strengthen thier economic cooperation by creating favourable conditions for investments by national of one Contracting Party in the territory of the other Contracting Party,
have agreed als folows :
Article 1
DEFINITIONS
For the purposes of this Agreement :
1. The term « investors » shall mean :
a) the « nationals », i.e. any natural person who, according the legislation of Ukraine, of the Kingdom of Belgium, or of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg, is considered as a citizen of Ukraine, of the Kingdom of Belgium or of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg respectively;
b) the « companies », i.e. any legal person constituted in accordance with the legislationpg Ukraine, of the Kingdom of Belgium or of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg and having its registered office in the territory of Ukraine, of the Kingdom of Belgium or of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg respectively.
2. The term "investments" shall mean any kind assets and any idrect of indrect contribution in cash, in kind of in services, invested of reinvested in any sector of economic activity.
The following shall more particularly, though not exclusively, be considered as investments for the purpose of this Agreement:
a) movable and immovable property as wellas any other rights in rem, such as mortgages, links, pledges, usufruct and similar rights;
(b) shares, corporate rights and any other kind of shareholding, including minority of indirect ones, in companies constituted in the territory of one Contracting Party;
(c) bonds, claims to money and to any performance having an economic value;
(d) copyrights, industrial property rights, technical processes, trade names and good will;
e) concessions granted under public law or under contract, including consessions to explore, develop, extract of exploit natural resources.
Changes in the legal form in which assets and capital have been invested or reinvested shall not affect their designation as "investments" for the purpose of this Agreement.
3. The term "incomes" shall mean the proceeds of an investment and shall include in particular not exclusively, profits, interests, capital increases, dividends, royalties and payments.
4. The term « territory » shall apply with respect to the territory of Ukraine, to the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium, to the teritory of the Gand-Duchy of Luxemburg, as well as to the maritime areas, i.e. the marine and unterwater areas which extend beyond the territorial water, of the States concerned and upon which the latter exercise, in accordance with international law, their sovereign rights and their jurisdiction for the purpose of exploring, exploiting and preserving natural resources.
Article 2
PROMOTION OF INVESTMENTS
1. Each Contracting Party shall promote investment in its territory by investors of the other Contracting Party and shall accept such investments in accordance with its legislation.
2. In particular, each Contracting Party shall authorize the conclusion and fulfilment of licence contracts and commercial, administrative of technical assistance agreements, as far as these activities are in connection with such investments.
Article 3
PROTECTION OF INVESTMENTS
1. All investments, whether direct or indirect, made by investors of one Contracting Party shall enjoy a fair and equitable treatment in the territory of the other Contracting Party.
2. Except for measures required to maintain public order, such investments shall enjoy continuous protection and security, i.e. excluding any unjustified or discriminatory measure which could hinder, either in law or in practice, the management, maintainnce, use, prossession or liquidation thereof.
3. The treatment and protection referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall at least be equal to those enjoyed by investors of a State and shall in no case be less favourable than those recognized international law.
4. However, such treatment and protection shall not cover the privileges granted by one Contracting Party to the investors of the investors of a third State pursuant to its participation in or association with a free trade zone, a customs union, a common market or any other form of regional economic organization.
Article 4
DEPRIVATION AND LIMITATION OF OWNERSHIP
1. Each contracting Party undertakes not to adopt any measure of expropriation or nationalization or any other measure having the effect of directly of indirectly disossessing the investors of the orther Contracting Party of their investments in its territory.
2. If reasons of public purpose, security or national interest require a derogation from the provisions of paragraph 1, the following conditions shall be complied with:
(a) the measures shall be taken under due process of law;
(b) the measures shall be neither discriminatory, nor contrary to any specific commitments;
(c) the measures shall be accompanied by provisions for the payment of a adequate and effective compensation.
3. Such compensation shall amount to the actual value of the invesstments on the day before the measures were taken or became public.
Such compensation shall be paid in the currency of the State of which the investor is a national or in any other convertible currency. It shall be paid without delay and shall be freely transferable. It shall bear interest at the normal commercial rate from the date of the determination of its amount until the date of its payment.
4. Investors of one Contracting Party whose investments suffer losses owing to war or other armed conflict, revolution, a state of national emergency or revolt in the territory of the other Contacting Party shall be granted by the latter Contracting Party a treatment, as regards restitution, indemnification, compensation or other settlement, at least equal to that which the latter Contracting Party grants to the investors of the words favoured nation.
5. In respect of matters dealt with in this Article, each Contracting Party shall grant to the investors of the other Contracting Party a treatment which shall at least be equal to that granted in its territory to the investors of the most favoured nation. This treatment shall in no case be less favourable than that recognized unter international law.
Article 5
TRANSFERS
1. Each Contracting Party shall grant to investors of the other Contracting Party the free transfer of all payments relating to an investments, including more particularly:
(a) amounts necessary for establishing, maintaining or expanding the investment;
(b) amounts necessary for payments under a contract, including amounts necessary for repayment of loans, royalties and other payments resulting from licences, franchises, concessions and other similar rights, as well as salaries of expatriate personnel;
(c) proceeds from investments;
(d) proceeds from the ottal of partial liquidation of the investment, including capital gains or inceases in the invested capital;
(e) compensation paid pusuant to Article 4.
2. The nationals of each Contracting Party who have been authorized to work in the territory of the other Contracting Party in connection with an investment shall also be permitted to transfer an approriate portion of their earnings to their country of origin.
3. Transfers shall be made in a freely convertible currency at the rate applicable on the day transfers are made to cash transactions in the currency used.
4. Each Contracting Party shall issue the autorizations required to ensure that the transfers can be made without undue delay, with no other expenses than the usual taxes and costs.
5. The guarantees referred to in this article shall at least be equal to those granted to the investors of the most favoures nation.
Article 6
SUBROGATION
1. If one Contracting Party or any public institution of this Party country compensation to its own investors pursuant to a guarantee providing coverage for an investment, the other Contracting Party shall recognize that the former Contracting Party or public institution concerned is subrogated into the rights of the investors.
2. As far as transfered rights are concerned, the other Contracting Party shall be entitle to invoke against the insurer who is subrogated into the rights of the indemnified investors the obligations of the latter under law or contract.
Article 7
APPLICABLE REGULATIONS
If an issue relating to investments is covered both by this Agreement and by the national legislation of one Contracting Party or by international conventions, existing or to be subscribed to by the Parties in the future, the investors of the other Contracting Party shall entitled to avail themselves of the provisions that are the most favourable to them.
Article 8
SPECIFIC AGREEMENTS
1. Investments made pursuant to a specific agreement concluded between one Contracting Party and investors of the other Party shall be covered by the provisions of this Agreement and by those of the specific agreement.
2. Each Contracting Party undertakes to ensure at all times that the commitments it has entered into vis-a-vis investors of the other Contracting Party shall be observed.
Article 9
SETTLEMENT OF INVESTMENT DISPUTES
1. Any investment dispute between an investor of one Contracting Party and the other Contracting Party shall be notified in writing by the first party to take action. The notification shall be accompanied by a sufficiently detailed memorandum.
As far as possible, the Parties shall endeavour to settle the dipute through negotiations, if necessary bu seeking expert advice from a third party, or by conciliation betwee the Contracting Parties through diplomatic channels.
2. In the absence of an amicable settlement by direct agreement between the parties to the dispute or by conciliation through diplomatic channels within six months from the notification, the dispute shall be submitted, at the option of the investor, either to the competent jurisdiction of the State where the investment was made, or to international arbitration.
To this end, each Contracting Party agrees in advance and irrevocable to the settlement of any dispute by this type of arbitration. Such consent implies that both Parties waive the right to demand that all domestic administrative or judiciary remedies be exhausted.
3. In case of international arbitration, the dispute shall be submitted for settlement by arbitration to one of the hereinafter mentioned organizations, at the option of the investor :
- an ad hoc arbitral set up according to the arbitration rules laid down by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (U.N.C.I.T.R.A.L.);
- the International Centre for the Settelement of Investement Dsputes (I.C.S.I.D.), set up by the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and National of other States, opened for signature at Washington on March 18, 1965, when each State party to this Agreement has become a party to the said Convention.
As long as this reguirement is not met, each Contracting Party agrees that the dispute shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the Rules of the Additional Facility of the I.C.S.I.D.
- the Arbitral Court of the International chamaber of Commerce in Paris;
- the Arbitration Institute of the Chamber of Commerce in Stockholm.
4. At any stage of the arbitration proceedings or of the execution of an arbitral award, none of the Contracting Parties involved in a dispute shall be entitled to raise as an objection the fact that the investor who is the opposing party in the dispute has received compensation totally or partly covering his losse pursuant to an insurance policy or to the guarantee provided for in Article 6 of this Agreement.
5. The arbitral tribunal shall decide on the basis of the national law, including the rules relating to conflicts of law, of the Contracting Party involved in the dispute in whose territory the investment has been made, as well as on the basis of the provisions of this Agreement, of the terms of the specific agreement which may have been entered into regarding the investment, and of the principles of international law.
6. The artibral awards shall be final and binding on the parties to the dispute. Each Contracting Party undertakes to execute the awards in accordance with its national legislation.
Article 10
MOST FAVOURED NATION
In all matters relating to the treatment of investments the investors of each Contracting Party shall enjoy most-favoured-nation treatment in the territory of the other Party.
Article 11
DISPUTES BETWEEN THE CONTRACTING PARTIES RELATING TO THE INTERPRETATION OR APPLICATION OF THIS AGREEMENT
1. Any disputes relating to the interpretation or application of this Agreement shall be settled as far as possible through diplomatic channels.
2. In the absence of a settlement through diplomatic channels, the dispute shall be submitted to a joint commission consisting of representatives of the two Parties; this commission shall convene without undue delay at the request of the first party to take action.
3. If the joint commission cannot settle the dispute, the later shall be submitted, at the request of either Contracting Party, to an arbitration court set up as follows for each individual case:
Each Contracting Party shall appoint one arbitrator within a period of two months from the date on which either Contracting Party has informed the other Party of its intention to submit the dispute to arbitration. Within a periode of two months following their appointment, these two arbitrators shall appoint by mutual agreement a national of a third State as Chairman of the arbitration court.
If these time limits have been complied with, either Contracting Party shall request the President of the International Court of Justice to make the appointment(s).
If the President of the International Court of Justice is a national of either Contracting Party or of a State with which one of the Contracting Parties has no diplomatic relations or if, for any other reason, he cannot exercise this function, the Vice-President of the International Court of Justice shall be requested to make the appointment(s).
4. The court thus constituted shall determine its own rules of procedure. Its decision shall be taken a majority of the votes; they shall be final and binding on the Contracting Parties.
5. Each Contracting Party shall bear the cost resulting from the appointment of its arbitrator. The expenses in connection with the appointment of the third arbitrator and the administrative coasts of the court shall be borne equally by the Contracting Parties.
Article 12
FIRST INVESTMENTS
This Agreement shall also apply to investments made before its entry into force by investors of one Contracting Party in the territory of the other Contracting Party in accordance with the latter's laws and regulations.
Article 13
ENTRY INTO FORCE AND DURATION
1. This Agreement shall enter into force one month after the date of exchange of the instruments of ratification by the Contracting Parties. The Agreement shall remain inforce for a period of ten years.
Unless notice of termination is given by either Contracting Parties at least six months before the expiry of its period of validity, this Agreement shall be tacitly extended each time for a further period of ten years, it being understood that each Contracting Party reserves the right to terminate the Agreement by notification given at least six months before the date of expiry of the current period of validity.
2. Investments made prior to the date of termination of this Agreement shall be covered by this Agreement for a period of ten years from the date of termination.
In witness whereof, the untersigned representatives, duly authorized thereto by their respective Governements, have signed this Agreement.
Done at Kiev, this 20th day of May 1996, in two original copies, each in the French, Dutch, English and Ukrainian languages, al texts being equally authentic. The text in the English language shall preveil in case of difference of interpretation.
For the Belgo-Luxemburg Economic Union:
For the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, acting both in its own name and in the name of the Government of the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg :
For the Government of the Region of Wallonia:
For the Government of the Region of Flanders:
For the Government of the Region of Brussels-Capital:
For the Government of Ukraine:

AGREEMENT ENTER BELGO-LUXEMBOURGEOISE ECONOMIC UNION AND UKRAINE GOVERNMENT CONCERNING ENCOURAGEMENT AND THE RECIPROVESTMENT PROTECTION
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium,
acting both in his name and in the name of
Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,
under existing agreements,
The Government of the Walloon Region,
The Government of the Flemish Region
and the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, on the one hand,
and
The Government of Ukraine, on the other hand, (hereinafter referred to as the "Contracting Parties")
wishing to strengthen their economic cooperation by creating favourable conditions for the realization of investment by nationals of one of the Contracting Parties in the territory of the other Contracting Party,
agreed that:
Article 1^er
DEFINITIONS
For the purposes of this Agreement,
1. The term "investors" means:
(a) "nationals" that is, any natural person who, according to the laws of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or Ukraine is considered a citizen of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or Ukraine respectively;
(b) "societies", that is, any legal entity incorporated in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or Ukraine and having its head office in the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or Ukraine respectively.
2. The term "investments" means any assets or direct or indirect contributions to digital, in kind or in services, invested or reinvested in any sector of economic activity.
These include, but are not limited to, investments within the meaning of this Agreement:
(a) movable and immovable property and other real rights such as mortgages, privileges, leases, usufructs and similar rights;
(b) shares, social shares and all other forms of participation, whether minority or indirect, in companies incorporated in the territory of one of the Contracting Parties;
(c) obligations, receivables and rights to all benefits of economic value;
(d) copyright, industrial property rights, technical processes, names filed and the trade fund;
(e) concessions of public or contractual law, including those relating to the prospecting, cultivation, extraction or exploitation of natural resources.
No change in the legal form in which assets and capital have been invested or reinvested affects their investment qualification within the meaning of this Agreement.
3. The term "income" refers to amounts generated by an investment and, in particular, not exclusively, profits, interests, capital increments, dividends, royalties or allowances.
4. The term "territory" applies to the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium, to the territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and to the territory of Ukraine and to the maritime zones, that is, the marine and submarine zones, which extend beyond the territorial waters of the States concerned and on which they exercise, in accordance with international law, their sovereign rights and jurisdiction for the purposes of exploration, exploitation and natural resources.
Article 2
PROMOTION OF INVESTMENTS
1. Each Contracting Party shall encourage investment in its territory by investors of the other Contracting Party and admit such investments in accordance with its legislation.
2. In particular, each Contracting Party will authorize the conclusion and execution of licence contracts and trade, administrative or technical assistance agreements, provided that such activities have a relationship with investments.
Article 3
PROTECTION OF INVESTMENTS
1. All direct or indirect investments made by investors of one of the Contracting Parties shall enjoy fair and equitable treatment in the territory of the other Contracting Party.
2. Subject to the measures necessary for the maintenance of public order, such investments shall enjoy constant security and protection, excluding any unjustified or discriminatory measures that may hinder, in law or in fact, their management, maintenance, use, enjoyment or liquidation.
3. The treatment and protection defined in paragraphs 1^er and 2 are at least equal to those enjoyed by investors of a third State and are in no way less favourable than those recognized by international law.
4. However, this treatment and protection do not extend to the privileges granted by a Contracting Party to investors of a third State, by virtue of its participation or association in a free trade zone, customs union, common market or other forms of regional economic organizations.
Article 4
PRIVATIVE MEASURES AND PROPERTY RESTRICTIVES
1. Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes not to take any measures of expropriation or nationalization or any other measure whose effect is to directly or indirectly dispossess the investors of the other Contracting Party of their investments in its territory.
2. If public utility, security or national interest requirements warrant a derogation from paragraph 1^erthe following conditions must be met:
(a) measures shall be taken by law;
(b) they are neither discriminatory nor contrary to a specific commitment;
(c) they have provisions for the payment of adequate and effective compensation.
3. The amount of compensation will correspond to the actual value of the investments concerned on the eve of the day or the measures taken or made public.
Compensation shall be paid in the currency of the State to which the investor belongs or in any other convertible currency. They will be paid without delay and freely transferable. They will be of interest to the normal commercial rate from the date of their fixation to the date of their payment.
4. Investors of one of the Contracting Parties whose investments would have suffered damage from war or other armed conflict, revolution, state of national emergency or revolt in the territory of the other Contracting Party shall, on the part of the other Contracting Party, receive at least equal treatment to that granted to investors of the most-favoured nation in respect of restitution, compensation, compensation or other compensation.
5. For substances regulated by this Article, each Contracting Party shall grant to investors of the other Party at least equal treatment to that it reserves in its territory to investors of the most favoured nation. Such treatment would in no way be less favourable than that recognized by international law.
Article 5
TRANSFERTS
1. Each Contracting Party shall grant investors of the other Contracting Party the free transfer of all payments relating to an investment, including:
(a) amounts intended to establish, maintain or develop investment;
(b) amounts intended for the settlement of contractual obligations, including amounts necessary for the reimbursement of "borrows, royalties and other payments arising from licences, franchises, concessions and other similar rights, as well as the remuneration of expatriated personnel;
(c) Investment income;
(d) the proceeds of the total or partial liquidation of investments, including capital gains or increases;
(e) compensation paid pursuant to section 4.
2. Nationals of each of the Contracting Parties authorized to work for an investment in the territory of the other Contracting Party are also authorized to transfer an appropriate quotity of their remuneration to their countries of origin.
3. Transfers are made in a freely convertible currency, in the course applicable to cash transactions in the currency used.
4. Each of the Contracting Parties shall issue the necessary authorizations to ensure without delay the execution of transfers, without any other charges than the usual fees and fees.
5. The guarantees provided for in this article are at least equal to those granted to investors of the most favoured nation.
Article 6
SUBROGATION
1. If one of the Contracting Parties or a public body of the Contracting Party pays compensation to its own investors under a particular investment guarantee, the other Contracting Party recognizes that the rights and shares of investors are transferred to the Contracting Party or the public body concerned.
2. With respect to transferred rights, the other Contracting Party may apply to the insurer, which is subrogated in the rights of compensation investors, the obligations that are legally or contractually binding on the insurers.
Article 7
APPLICABLE REGLES
Where an investment issue is governed both by this Agreement and by the national legislation of one of the Contracting Parties or by existing international conventions or endorsed by the Parties in the future, investors of the other Contracting Party may avail themselves of the provisions that are most favourable to them.
Article 8
SPECIAL AGREEMENTS
1. Investments that have been the subject of a particular agreement between one of the Contracting Parties and investors of the other Party shall be governed by the provisions of this Agreement and those of that particular agreement.
2. Each of the Contracting Parties shall at any time ensure compliance with its commitments to investors of the other Contracting Party.
Article 9
REGULATIONS RELATING TO INVESTMENTS
1. Any investment dispute between an investor of one of the Contracting Parties and the other Contracting Party shall be notified in writing, accompanied by a sufficiently detailed aide-memoire on the part of the most diligent party.
To the extent possible, the parties will attempt to settle the dispute amicably by negotiation, by resorting to the expertise of a third party, or by conciliation between the Contracting Parties by diplomatic means.
2. In the absence of amicable settlement by direct arrangement between the parties to the dispute or by diplomatic conciliation within six months of its notification, the dispute shall be submitted, at the option of the investor, to the competent jurisdiction of the State where the investment has been made, or to international arbitration.
To this end, each Contracting Party shall give its early and irrevocable consent to any dispute being submitted to that arbitration. This consent implies that they do not demand the exhaustion of domestic administrative or judicial remedies.
3. In the event of recourse to international arbitration, the dispute is submitted to one of the following arbitration bodies, at the investor's choice:
an ad hoc arbitration tribunal, established under the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL);
at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (IRDI), established by "the Convention for the Settlement of Disputes relating to Investments between States and Nationals of Other States", opened for signature in Washington, D.C., on 18 March 1965, when each State Party to this Agreement shall be a member of it. As long as this condition is not fulfilled, each Contracting Party agrees that the dispute be submitted to arbitration in accordance with the ICSID Supplementary Mechanism Regulations;
to the Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris;
at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
If the arbitration procedure is introduced at the initiative of a Contracting Party, the Contracting Party shall, in writing, invite the investor concerned to express his or her choice with respect to the arbitration body that must be seized of the dispute.
4. None of the Contracting Parties, a party to a dispute, shall raise any objection, at any stage of the arbitration proceedings or the execution of an arbitration award, as the investor, an opposing party to the dispute, would have received compensation covering all or part of its losses in the execution of an insurance policy or the guarantee provided for in Article 6 of this Agreement.
5. The arbitral tribunal shall rule on the basis of the domestic law of the Contracting Party party to the dispute in the territory of which the investment is located, including the rules relating to conflicts of laws, the provisions of this Agreement, the terms of the particular agreement that would have been reached with respect to the investment, as well as the principles of international law.
6. Arbitration awards are defined and mandatory for the parties to the dispute. Each Contracting Party undertakes to enforce the awards in accordance with its national legislation.
Article 10
NATION LA PLUS FAVORITES
For all matters relating to the processing of investments, investors from each of the Contracting Parties shall, on the territory of the other Party, benefit from the treatment of the most favoured nation.
Article 11
DIFFERENDS OF INTERPRETATION OR APPLIANCE WITH THE CONTRACTING PARTIES
1. Any dispute relating to the interpretation or application of this Agreement shall be resolved, if possible, by diplomatic means.
2. If the dispute is not resolved by diplomatic means, the dispute shall be submitted to a joint commission composed of representatives of the two Parties; the Party shall meet at the request of the most diligent and without undue delay.
3. If the joint commission cannot resolve the dispute, it shall be submitted, at the request of either of the Contracting Parties, to an arbitration procedure implemented, for each particular case in the following manner:
Each Contracting Party shall designate an arbitrator within two months of the date on which one of the Contracting Parties has indicated to the other of its intention to submit the dispute to arbitration. Within two months of their designation, the two arbitrators shall jointly designate a third State national who shall be president of the College of Arbitrators.
If these deadlines have not been observed, either Contracting Party shall invite the President of the International Court of Justice to proceed with the appointment of the arbitrator or non-designated arbitrators.
If the President of the International Court of Justice is a national of either Contracting Party or of a State with which one or the other Contracting Party does not maintain diplomatic relations, or if, for another reason, the Vice-President of the International Court of Justice shall be invited to make such appointment.
4. The college will set its own rules of procedure. Its decisions shall be taken by a majority vote; they shall be final and binding for Contracting Parties.
5. Each Contracting Party shall bear the costs associated with the designation of its arbitrator. The disbursements inherent in the designation of the third arbitrator and the operating costs of the college shall be borne by the Contracting Parties equally.
Article 12
INVESTMENTS
This Agreement also applies to investments made, prior to its entry into force, by investors of one of the Contracting Parties in the territory of the other Contracting Party in accordance with its laws and regulations.
Article 13
BACKGROUND AND DURE
1. This Agreement shall enter into force one month from the date on which the Contracting Parties have exchanged their instruments of ratification.
It remains in force for a period of ten years.
Unless one of the Contracting Parties denounces it at least six months before the expiry of its validity period, it shall be automatically renewed for a further period of ten years, each Contracting Party reserves the right to denounce it by a notification introduced at least six months before the expiration date of the current validity period.
2. The investments made prior to the expiry date of this Agreement shall remain subject to it for a period of ten years from that date.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned representatives, duly authorized by their respective Governments, have signed this Agreement.
Done in Kiev on 20 May 1996, in two original copies, each in French, Dutch, English and Ukrainian, all texts being equally authentic. The English-language text will be credible in the event of a discrepancy of interpretation.
FOR BELGO-LUXEMBOURGEOISE ECONOMIC UNION:
For the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium acting on behalf of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:
For the Government of the Walloon Region:
For the Government of the Flemish Region:
For the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region:
FOR UKRAINE GOVERNMENT