Annex L. Open Skies Consultative Commission

Procedures and other provisions relating to the Open Skies Consultative Commission are established in this Annex pursuant to Article X of the Treaty.

1. The Open Skies Consultative Commission shall be composed of representatives designated by each State Party. Alternates, advisers and experts of a State Party may take part in the proceedings of the Open Skies Consultative Commission as deemed necessary by that State Party.

2. The initial session of the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall open within 60 days of the signature of the Treaty. The Chairman of the opening meeting shall be the representative of Canada.

3. The Open Skies Consultative Commission shall meet for no fewer than four regular sessions per calendar year unless it decides otherwise. Extraordinary sessions shall be convened at the request of one or more States Parties by the Chairman of the Open Skies Consultative Commission, who shall promptly inform all other States Parties of the request. Such sessions shall open no later than 15 days after receipt of such a request by the Chairman.

4. Sessions of the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall last no longer than four weeks, unless it decides otherwise.

5. States Parties shall assume in rotation, determined by alphabetical order in the French language, the chairmanship of the Open Skies Consultative Commission. Each Chairman shall serve from the opening of a session until the opening of the following session, unless otherwise agreed.

6. Representatives at meetings shall be seated in alphabetical order of the States Parties in the French language.

7. The working languages of the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall be English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

8. The proceedings of the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall be confidential, unless otherwise agreed. The Open Skies Consultative Commission may agree to make its proceedings or decisions public.

9. During the period of provisional application, and prior to 30 June 1992, the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall settle the distribution of costs arising under the Treaty. It shall also settle as soon as possible the scale of distribution for the common expenses associated with the operation of the Open Skies Consultative Commission.

10. During the period of provisional application of the Treaty the Open Skies Consultative Commission shall develop a document relating to notifications and reports required by the Treaty. Such document shall list all such notifications and reports and shall include appropriate formats as necessary.

11. The Open Skies Consultative Commission shall work out or revise, as necessary, its rules of procedure and working methods.

SECTION II. ANNUAL REVIEW OF ACTIVE QUOTAS

Procedures for the annual review of active quotas as foreseen in Article III, Section I, paragraph 7 of the Treaty shall be as follows:

1. States Parties wishing to modify all or part of the past year's distribution with respect to their active quota shall notify all other States Parties and the Open Skies Consultative Commission, by 1 October of each year, of those States Parties over which they wish to conduct their observation flights during the next calendar year. Such proposed modifications shall be considered by the States Parties during this review, according to the rules set forth in the following paragraphs of this Section.

2. If the requests for observation flights over the territory of any given State Party do not exceed its passive quota, then the distribution shall be established as requested, and presented to the Open Skies Consultative Commission for approval.

3. If the requests for observation flights over the territory of any given State Party exceed its passive quota, then the distribution shall be established by general agreement among the interested States Parties, and presented to the Open Skies Consultative Commission for approval.

SECTION III. EXTRAORDINARY OBSERVATION FLIGHTS

1. The Open Skies Consultative Commission shall consider requests from the bodies of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe authorized to deal with respect to conflict prevention and crisis management and from other relevant international organizations to facilitate the organization and conduct of extraordinary observation flights over the territory of a State Party with its consent.

2. The data resulting from such observation flights shall be made available to the bodies and organizations concerned.

3. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Treaty, States Parties may agree on a bilateral and voluntary basis to conduct observation flights over the territory of each other following the procedures regarding the conduct of observation flights. Unless otherwise agreed by the States Parties concerned, the data resulting from such observation flights shall be made available to the Open Skies Consultative Commission.

4. Observation flights conducted under the provisions of this Section shall not be counted against the active or passive quotas of the States Parties involved.

SECTION IV. ADDITIONAL FIELDS FOR THE USE OF THE OPEN SKIES REGIME

1. States Parties may raise for consideration in the Open Skies Consultative Commission proposals for the use of the Open Skies regime in additional specific fields, such as the environment.

2. The Open Skies Consultative Commission may take decisions on such proposals or, if necessary, may refer them to the first and subsequent conferences called to review the implementation of the Treaty, in accordance with the provisions of Article XVI, paragraph 3 of the Treaty.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorized, have signed this Treaty.

DONE at Helsinki, this twenty-fourth day of March, one thousand nine hundred-and ninety-two.