Energy Charter Treaty

61 Energy Charter Treaty (a) such restrictions shall not impair the rights granted under Article 14(1) to Investors of other Contracting Parties with respect to their Investments; (b) such restrictions do not affect Current Transactions; and (c) the Contracting Party ensures that Investments in its Area of the Investors of all other Contracting Parties are accorded, with respect to transfers, treatment no less favourable than that which it accords to Investments of Investors of any other Contracting Party or of any third state, whichever is the most favourable. (2) This Decision shall be subject to examination by the Charter Conference five years after entry into force of the Treaty, but not later than the date envisaged in Article 32(3). (3) No Contracting Party shall be eligible to apply such restrictions unless it is a Contracting Party which is a state that was a constituent part of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which has notified the provisional Secretariat in writing no later than 1 July 1995 that it elects to be eligible to apply restrictions in accordance with this Decision. 48 (4) For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this Decision shall derogate, as concerns Article 16, from the rights hereunder of a Contracting Party, its Investors or their Investments, or from the obligations of a Contracting Party. (5) For the purposes of this Decision: “Current Transactions” are current payments connected with the movement of goods, services or persons that are made in accordance with normal international practice, and do not include arrangements which materially constitute a combination of a current payment and a capital transaction, such as deferrals of payments and advances which is meant to circumvent respective legislation of the Limiting Party in the field.] 49 [CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT Having followed the long and difficult discussions on the Freedom of Transfers, I note that certain countries in transition have drawn attention to their interpretation of Decision No 3 which I think to be correct: the rights granted to Investors of other Contracting Parties under paragraph 1(a) of Decision No 3 do not preclude these countries from applying, without derogating from paragraphs 1(b) and (c), (2), (3) and (4) of that Decision, restrictions onmovement of capital made by their Investors.] 50 48 Editor’s note: a notification of the Russian Federation has been received by the provisional Secretariat on 29 June 1995. 49 Decision 3 with respect to the Energy Charter Treaty (Annex 2 to the Final Act of the European Energy Charter Conference). 50 Chairman’s Statement at Adoption Session on 17 December 1994.