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18 JANVIER 1999. - An Act to approve the Agreement between the Belgian Economic Union and the Republic of Latvia concerning the mutual encouragement and protection of investments, signed in Brussels on 27 March 1996 (1) (2)

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 Economic Union and the Republic of Latvia concerning the mutual encouragement and protection of investments, signed in Brussels on 27 March 1996, will come out its full and full effect.
Promulgate this Act, order that it be put on the State Seal and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 18 January 1999.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
E. DERYCKE
Minister for Foreign Trade,
E. DI RUPO
Seal of the State Seal:
Minister of Justice,
T. VAN PARYS
Note
(1) Session 1997-1998
Senate:
Documents. - Bill tabled on 23 June 1998, No. 1-1036/1.
Session 1998-1999:
Documents. - Report, no. 1-1036/2. - Text adopted by the Commission, No. 1-1036/3.
Annales parlementaire . - Discussion, meeting of 18 November 1998. - Vote, meeting of 19 November 1998.
Chamber:
Documents. - Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 49-1830/1. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 49-1830/2.
Annales parliamentarians. . - Discussion, meeting of 3 December 1998. - Vote, meeting of 3 December 1998.
(2) Decree of the Walloon Region of 9 April 1998 (Moniteur belge of 22 April 1998, p. 12329); Flemish Region Decree of 19 December 1998 (Belgian Monitor of 9 February 1999, pp. 3691-3692); Order of the Brussels-Capital Region of 27 March 1997 (Belgian Monitor of 9 July 1997, p. 18269).

AGREEMENT BELGO-LUXEMBOURGEOISE ECONOMIC MEETING AND THE REPUBLIC OF LETTONIA CONCERNING ENCOURAGEMENT AND THE RECIPROVESTMENT PROTECTION
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BELGIUM ROYAUME
acting on behalf 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 THE REPUBLIC OF LETTONIA, on the other hand, (hereinafter referred to as "the Contracting Parties")
Desirous of strengthening their economic cooperation by creating favourable conditions for the realization of investments by investors of one of the Contracting Parties in the territory of the other Contracting Party,
AGAINST WHO ITS:
Article 1^er
Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement,
1. the term "investors" means:
(a) "nationals", that is, any natural person who has the status of a citizen of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the Republic of Latvia in accordance with Belgian, Luxembourg or Latvian legislation.
(b) "societies", i.e. any legal person consituated in accordance with Belgian, Luxembourg or Latvian legislation and having its head office in the territory of Belgium, Luxembourg or Latvia.
2. the term "investments" means any element of any asset and any direct or indirect contribution in cash, in kind or in services, invested or reinvested in any sector of economic activity, whatever it is.
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) receivables and rights to all benefits of economic value;
(d) copyright, industrial property rights, technical processes, names deposited, trade funds and know-how;
(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" means the amounts generated by an investment and, in particular, not exclusively, the profits, interests, capital increments, dividends, royalties or allowances.
4. the term "without delay" referred to in Article 4 (3) and Article 5 (3) means that a transfer is made for a period normally required by the international financial custom and not later, in any case, than no longer.
5. 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 the Republic of Latvia 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 their jurisdiction for the purposes of exploration, exploration and
Article 2
Investment promotion
1. Each Contracting Party shall encourage investment in its territory by investors from 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
Investment protection
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 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, a customs union, a common market or any other form of regional economic organization.
5. This Agreement does not extend to the privileges granted by one of the Contracting Parties to a third State under an agreement to avoid double taxation or any other tax agreement.
Article 4
Private and restrictive measures of ownership
1. Each of the Contracting Parties undertakes not to take any measures of expropriation or nationalization, nor any other measure whose effect is to directly or indirectly dispossess the investors of the other Contracting Party of the investments that are separate from their territory.
2. If public utility, security or national interest requirements warrant a derogation from paragraph 1, the 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 the allowances will be the real value of the investments on the day before the measures were 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 trading rate, after noante days, from the date of the fixing of its amount to that of its payment.
4. Investors of one of the Contracting Parties, whose investments would have suffered damage from war or any other armed conflict, revolution, state of national emergency or revolt in the territory of the other Contracting Party, will benefit, on the part of the latter, from a treatment that will not be less favourable than 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 investors of the other Contracting Party at least equal treatment to that which 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
Transfers
1. Each Contracting Party, in the territory of which investments have been made by investors of the other Contracting Party, grants these investors the free transfer of their liquid assets, including:
(a) income from investments including profits, interest, capital income, dividends, royalties;
(b) amounts required for the reimbursement of regularly contracted borrowings;
(c) the proceeds of debt collection, the total or partial liquidation of investments, including surplus-values or increases in the capital invested;
(d) compensation paid pursuant to section 4;
(e) royalties and other payments arising from licence fees and commercial, administrative or technical assistance.
2. Nationals of each of the Contracting Parties authorized to work for an approved investment in the territory of the other Contracting Party are also allowed to transfer an appropriate quotity of their remuneration to their countries of origin.
3. Each of the Contracting Parties shall delive the necessary authorizations to ensure without delay the execution of transfers, without any other charges than the usual fees and fees.
With regard to the issues dealt with in this Article, each Contracting Party shall grant to investors of the other Contracting Party a treatment that shall at least be equal to that granted in similar cases to investors of the most favoured nation.
4. The transfers referred to in this Article shall be effected at the exchange rates applicable to the date of the transfer and under the regulation of the exchanges in force in the State in which the investment was made.
5. These rates will in no way be less favourable than those granted to investors in the most-favoured nation, including by virtue of specific commitments, provided for in any agreements or arrangements made with respect to investment protection.
6. In all cases, the rates applied will be fair and fair.
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 of the indemnified investors have been transferred to the Contracting Party or to the public body concerned, as an insurer.
In the same way as investors, and within the limits of the rights so transferred, the insurer may, by subrogation, exercise and assert the rights of such investors and their claims.
The subrogation of rights also extends to the rights to transfer and arbitration referred to in Articles 5 and 9.
These rights may be exercised by the insurer within the limits of the quotity of the risk covered by the guarantee contract, and by the investor who is the beneficiary of the guarantee, within the limits of the quotity of the risk not covered by the contract.
2. With respect to the rights transferred, the other contracting party may apply to the insurer, which is subrogated in the rights of the indemnified investors, the obligations that are legally or contractually binding on the indemnified investors.
Article 7
Rules applicable
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 will be governed by the deposits 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
Settlement of investment disputes
1. Any investment dispute between an investor of one of the Contracting Parties and the other Contracting Party shall be notified in writing, together with a detailed aide-memoire, by the most diligent party.
To the extent possible, this dispute shall be settled amicably between the parties to the dispute and in default by conciliation between the Contracting Parties through diplomatic channels.
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 is subject 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 shall be submitted to the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (C.I.R.D.I.), for settlement by arbitration, created by "the Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States", open for signature in Washington 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 is subject to arbitration in accordance with the Regulation of the Supplementary Mechanism of IRC.R.D.I.
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 an award covering all or part of its losses pursuant to an insurance policy or the guarantee provided for in Article 6 of this Agreement.
5. The C.I.R.D.I. will decide on the basis of:
- the national 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;
- terms of the particular agreement that would have been reached on investment;
- principles of international law.
6. Arbitration awards are final and binding for the parties to the dispute. Each Contracting Party undertakes to enforce the awards in accordance with its national legislation.
Article 10
Most-favoured nation
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
Disputes between contracting parties on interpretation
or the application of this Agreement
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 Mixed Commission cannot resolve the dispute, it shall be submitted, at the request of either Contracting Party, to an arbitration procedure implemented, for each particular case, as follows:
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 resorter to 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
Previous investments
This Agreement shall also apply 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 the laws and regulations of the other Contracting Party.
However, it will not apply to investments made before 1^er January 1987, except for specific agreement between Contracting Parties.
Article 13
Entry into force and duration
1. Each Contracting Party shall notify the other of the fulfilment of the necessary constitutional procedures for the entry into force of this Agreement, which shall enter into force one month after the receipt of the final notification. This Agreement shall remain 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 expiration date of this Agreement shall remain subject to it for a period of twenty years from that date.
In faith, the undersigned representatives, duly authorized by their respective Governments, have signed this Agreement.
Done in Brussels on 27 March 1996, in two original copies, each in French, Dutch, English and Latvian. The English-language text will be credible in the event of a discrepancy of interpretation.
For the Belgian Economic Union:
For the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium acting on behalf of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
E. DERYCKE
For the Government of the Walloon Region:
Minister of International Relations,
J.P. GRAFE
For the Government of the Flemish Region:
The Minister-President,
L. VAN DEN BRANDE
For the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region
Minister of External Relations,
J. CHABERT
For the Government of the Republic of Latvia:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
V. BIRKAYS
In accordance with the provisions of article 13, the agreement entered into force on 4 April 1999.