The provisional Charter Conference and the Charter Conference provided for in the Treaty shall henceforth be responsible for making decisions on requests to sign the Concluding Document of the Hague Conference on the European Energy Charter and the European Energy Charter adopted thereby.

The technical changes to Annexes might for instance include, the listing of nonsignatories or of signatories that have evinced their intention not to ratify, or additions to Annexes N and VC. It is intended that the Secretariat would propose such changes to the Charter Conference when appropriate.

A signatory which does not apply the Amendment adopted on 24 April 1998 provisionally may at the time that it takes action to apply that Amendment, whether on a definitive or a provisional basis, notify the Secretariat in writing that until it is listed in Annexes BR and BRQ, it will apply the Amendment as if all items of Energy Materials and Products and of Energy-Related Equipment continued to be listed in Annexes EM I and EQ I.

The Amendment shall apply accordingly to such a signatory.

Any signatory may at any time withdraw the notification referred to above in writing to the Secretariat.

On the issue of future listing of countries on Annexes BR and BRQ, I conclude that all delegations are aware of the long standing positions of those delegations which like Australia, Hungary and Japan have repeatedly underlined that they support legally binding tariff commitments provided their commitments under the Energy Charter Treaty reflect their commitments in the WTO. This also reflects the position of other delegations, and there is a general acceptance among delegations that they will give positive consideration to that position at the time when the decision on legally binding tariff commitments is taken.

Editor's note: Document CC 124, point 6, of 24 May 1998 (not published). This Statement was read out by the Chairman to the Adoption Session on 24 April 1998 and also circulated in written form. This Statement, which reflected the outcome of informal consultations, replaced a draft Declaration on the issue of listing on Annexes BR and BRQ, the text of which was consequently deleted from the text for adoption.

In the case of a signatory, not a member of the WTO, which is listed in Annexes BR or BRQ or both, any concession offered formally in the process of its accession to the WTO with respect to Energy Materials or Products listed in Annex EM II or Energy-Related Equipment listed in Annex EQ II shall, for the purpose of this Article, be regarded as a commitment under the WTO.

A signatory which does not apply the Amendment adopted on 24 April 1998 provisionally may at the time that it takes action to apply that Amendment, whether on a definitive or a provisional basis, notify the Secretariat in writing that until it is listed in Annexes BR and BRQ, it will apply the Amendment as if all items of Energy Materials and Products and of Energy-Related Equipment continued to be listed in Annexes EM I and EQ I.

The Amendment shall apply accordingly to such a signatory.

Any signatory may at any time withdraw the notification referred to above in writing to the Secretariat.