PART SEVEN: FINAL PROVISIONS

Article FINPROV.1: Territorial scope

1. This Agreement applies to:

(a) the territories to which the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community are applicable, and under the conditions laid down in those Treaties; and

(b) the territory of the United Kingdom.

2. This Agreement also applies to the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Isle of Man to the extent set out in Heading Five [Fisheries] and Article OTH.9 [Geographical application] of Heading Six [Other provisions] of Part Two of this Agreement.

3. This Agreement shall neither apply to Gibraltar nor have any effects in that territory.

4. This Agreement does not apply to the overseas territories having special relations with the United Kingdom: Anguilla; Bermuda; British Antarctic Territory; British Indian Ocean Territory; British Virgin Islands; Cayman Islands; Falkland Islands; Montserrat; Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands; Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Article FINPROV.2: Relationship with other agreements

This Agreement and any supplementing agreement apply without prejudice to any earlier bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom of the one part and the Union and the European Atomic Energy Community of the other part. The Parties reaffirm their obligations to implement any such Agreement.

Article FINPROV.3: Review

The Parties shall jointly review the implementation of this Agreement and supplementing agreements and any matters related thereto five years after the entry into force of this Agreement and every five years thereafter.

Article FINPROV.6: Classified information and sensitive non-classified information

Nothing in this Agreement or in any supplementing agreement shall be construed as requiring a Party to make available classified information.

Classified information or material provided by or exchanged between the Parties under this Agreement or any supplementing agreement shall be handled and protected in compliance with the Agreement on security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information and any implementing arrangement concluded under it.

The Parties shall agree upon handling instructions to ensure the protection of sensitive non-classified information exchanged between them.

Article FINPROV.7: Integral parts of this Agreement

1. The Protocols, Annexes, Appendices and footnotes to this Agreement shall form an integral part of this Agreement.

2. Each of the Annexes to this Agreement, including its appendices, shall form an integral part of the Section, Chapter, Title, Heading or Protocol that refers to that Annex or to which reference is made in that Annex. For greater certainty:

 

[index to annexes ommitted]

Article FINPROV.8: Termination

Either Party may terminate this Agreement by written notification through diplomatic channels. This Agreement and any supplementing agreement shall cease to be in force on the first day of the twelfth month following the date of notification.

Article FINPROV.9: Authentic texts

This Agreement shall be drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish languages. By 30 April 2021, all language versions of the Agreement shall be subject to a process of final legal revision. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, the process of final legal revision for the English version of the Agreement shall be finalised at the latest by the day referred to in Article FINPROV.11(1) [Entry into force and provisional application] if that day is earlier than 30 April 2021.

The language versions resulting from the above process of final legal revision shall replace ab initio the signed versions of the Agreement and shall be established as authentic and definitive by exchange of diplomatic notes between the Parties.

Article FINPROV.10: Future accessions to the Union

1. The Union shall notify the United Kingdom of any new request for accession of a third country to the Union.

2. During the negotiations between the Union and a third country regarding the accession of that country to the Union86, the Union shall endeavour to:

86 For greater certainty, paragraphs 2 to 9 apply in respect of negotiations between the Union and a third country for accession to the Union taking place after the entry into force of this Agreement, notwithstanding the fact a request for accession took place before the entry into force of this Agreement.

(a) on request of the United Kingdom and, to the extent possible, provide any information regarding any matter covered by this Agreement and any supplementing agreement; and

(b) take into account any concerns expressed by the United Kingdom.

3. The Partnership Council shall examine any effects of accession of a third country to the Union on this Agreement and any supplementing agreement sufficiently in advance of the date of such accession.

4. To the extent necessary, the United Kingdom and the Union shall, before the entry into force of the agreement on the accession of a third country to the Union:

(a) amend this Agreement or any supplementing agreement,

(b) put in place by decision of the Partnership Council any other necessary adjustments or transitional arrangements regarding this Agreement or any supplementing agreement;

(c) decide within the Partnership Council whether:

(i) to apply Article VSTV.1 [Visas for short visits] to the nationals of that third country; or

(ii) to establish transitional arrangements as regards Article VSTV.1 [Visas for short visits] in relation to that third country and its nationals once it accedes to the Union.

5. In the absence of a decision under point (c)(i) or (ii) of paragraph 4 by the entry into force of the agreement on the accession of the relevant third country to the Union, Article VSTV.1 [Visas for short visits] shall not apply to nationals of that third country.

6. In the event that the Partnership Council establishes transitional arrangements as referred to in point (c)(ii) of paragraph 4, it shall specify their duration. The Partnership Council may extend the duration of those transitional arrangements.

7. Before the expiry of the transitional arrangements referred to in point (c)(ii) of paragraph 4, the Partnership Council shall decide whether to apply Article VSTV.1 [Visas for short visits]to the nationals of that third country from the end of the transitional arrangements. In the absence of such a decision Article VSTV.1 [Visas for short visits] shall not apply in relation to the nationals of that third country from the end of the transitional arrangements.

8. Point (c) of paragraph 4, and paragraphs 5 to 7 are without prejudice to the Union’s prerogatives under its domestic legislation.

9. For greater certainty, without prejudice to point (c) of paragraph 4 and paragraphs 5 to 7, this Agreement shall apply in relation to a new Member State of the Union from the date of accession of that new Member State to the Union.

Article FINPROV.10A: Interim provision for transmission of personal data to the United Kingdom

1. For the duration of the specified period, transmission of personal data from the Union to the United Kingdom shall not be considered as transfer to a third country under Union law, provided that the data protection legislation of the United Kingdom on 31 December 2020, as it is saved and incorporated into United Kingdom law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and as modified by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 201987 (“the applicable data protection regime”), applies and provided that the United Kingdom does not exercise the designated powers without the agreement of the Union within the Partnership Council.

2. Subject to paragraphs 3 to 11, paragraph 1 shall also apply in respect of transfers of personal data from Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Kingdom of Norway to the United Kingdom during the specified period made under Union law as applied in those states by the Agreement on the European Economic Area done at Porto on 2 May 1992, for so long as paragraph 1 applies to transfers of personal data from the Union to the United Kingdom, provided that those states notify both Parties in writing of their express acceptance to apply this provision.

3. In this Article, the “designated powers” means the powers:

(a) to make regulations pursuant to sections 17A, 17C and 74A of the UK Data Protection Act 2018;
(b) to issue a new document specifying standard data protection clauses pursuant to section 119A of the UK Data Protection Act 2018;
(c) to approve a new draft code of conduct pursuant to Article 40(5) of the UK GDPR, other than a code of conduct which cannot be relied on to provide appropriate safeguards for transfers of personal data to a third country under Article 46(2)(e) of the UK GDPR;
(d) to approve new certification mechanisms pursuant to Article 42(5) of the UK GDPR, other than certification mechanisms which cannot be relied on to provide appropriate safeguards for transfers of personal data to a third country under Article 46(2)(f) of the UK GDPR;
(e) to approve new binding corporate rules pursuant to Article 47 of the UK GDPR;
(f) to authorise new contractual clauses referred to in Article 46(3)(a) of the UK GDPR; or
(g) to authorise new administrative arrangements referred to in Article 46(3)(b) of the UK GDPR.

4. The “specified period” begins on the date of entry into force of this Agreement and, subject to paragraph 5, ends:

(a) on the date on which adequacy decisions in relation to the UK are adopted by the European Commission under Article 36(3) of Directive (EU) 2016/680 and under Article 45(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, or
(b) on the date four months after the specified period begins, which period shall be extended by two further months unless one of the Parties objects;

whichever is earlier.

5. Subject to paragraphs 6 and 7, if, during the specified period, the United Kingdom amends the applicable data protection regime or exercises the designated powers without the agreement of the Union within the Partnership Council, the specified period shall end on the date on which the powers are exercised or the amendment comes into force.

87 As amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.

6. The references to exercising the designated powers in paragraphs 1 and 5 do not include the exercise of such powers the effect of which is limited to alignment with the relevant Union data protection law.

7. Anything that would otherwise be an amendment to the applicable data protection regime which is:

(a) made with the agreement of the Union within the Partnership Council; or
(b) limited to alignment with the relevant Union data protection law;

shall not be treated as an amendment to the applicable data protection regime for the purposes of paragraph 5 and instead should be treated as being part of the applicable data protection regime for the purposes of paragraph 1.

8. For the purposes of paragraphs 1, 5 and 7, “the agreement of the Union within the Partnership Council” means:

(a) a decision of the Partnership Council as described in paragraph 11; or
(b) deemed agreement as described in paragraph 10.

9. Where the United Kingdom notifies the Union that it proposes to exercise the designated powers or proposes to amend the applicable data protection regime, either party may request, within five working days, a meeting of the Partnership Council which must take place within two weeks of such request.

10. If no such meeting is requested, the Union is deemed to have given agreement to such exercise or amendment during the specified period.

11. If such a meeting is requested, at that meeting the Partnership Council shall consider the proposed exercise or amendment and may adopt a decision stating that it agrees to the exercise or amendment during the specified period.

12. The United Kingdom shall, as far as is reasonably possible, notify the Union when, during the specified period, it enters into a new instrument which can be relied on to transfer personal data to a third country under Article 46(2)(a) of the UK GDPR or section 75(1)(a) of the UK Data Protection Act 2018 during the specified period. Following a notification by the United Kingdom under this paragraph, the Union may request a meeting of the Partnership Council to discuss the relevant instrument.

13. Title I [Dispute Settlement] of Part Six does not apply in respect of disputes regarding the interpretation and application of this Article.

Article FINPROV.11: Entry into force and provisional application

1. This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the month following that in which both Parties have notified each other that they have completed their respective internal requirements and procedures for establishing their consent to be bound.

2. The Parties agree to provisionally apply this Agreement from 1 January 2021 provided that prior to that date they have notified each other that their respective internal requirements and procedures necessary for provisional application have been completed. Provisional application shall cease on one of the following dates, whichever is the earliest:

(a) 28 February 2021 or another date as decided by the Partnership Council; or
(b) the day referred to in paragraph 1.

3. As from the date from which this Agreement is provisionally applied, the Parties shall understand references in this Agreement to “the date of entry into force of this Agreement” or to “the entry into force of this Agreement” as references to the date from which this Agreement is provisionally applied.