MEMORANDUM ON COOPERATION BETWEEN THE FEDERAL ANTIMONOPOLY SERVICE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE OFFICE FOR THE PROTECTION OF COMPETITION OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation and the Office for the Protection of Competition of the Czech Republic hereinafter referred to as Parties,



expressing a wish to develop and strengthen cooperation in the sphere of competition policy,



hereby declare:



1. The Parties wish to provide:



a) in the field of exchange of legislation, informational and methodical materials:



the other Party with the texts of the laws and other legislation on the principle issues of the Party's activities;

the other Party with methodical recommendations on the principle issues of the Party's activities;

the other Party with statistic and information data on the Party's and its regional offices' activities.



All the materials should be transferred in English subject to the confidentiality rules of the Parties' legislation



b) in the field of providing methodical assistance, exchange of research results and holding consultations:



rendering of methodical assistance at the request of the Parties;

rendering consulting assistance at the request of the Parties;

exchange of materials concerning the supervision, analysis and control over the commodity markets;

exchange of statistic data on the Parties' activities.



The information exchange should not infringe the confidentiality rules according to the Parties' legislation.



c) in the field of attracting specialists of the other Party to take part in the training process and study visits aimed at experience exchange:



The Parties wish to annually exchange study visits of their specialists (e.g. two specialists for the period up to 5 days). The Parties shall coordinate the date of commencement, duration and the programme of a study visit with sufficient advance in such a way that the up-to-date possibilities of the receiving Party were taken into account.



d) in the field of holding bilateral symposia, conferences and seminars:



invitation of representatives of Parties to participate in symposia, conferences and seminars on competition policy organized by the Parties.



2. In case of need and subject to the confidentiality rules the Parties wish to:



in compliance with the Parties' legislation provide each other with publicly accessible information on the economic entities acting on the territory of one of the Parties, if this activity may negatively affect the competition on the commodity markets of the other Party;

in compliance with the Parties' legislation provide each other with publicly accessible information on cases of anticompetitive practices of the third countries' economic entities with the aim of preventing such infringements on the Parties' territories.

in compliance with the Parties' legislation render assistance in investigation of the cases of anticompetitive practices of the Parties' economic entities; the protection of confidential information of such entities, particulary of their business secret, must not be affected.



Provision of information should be carried out on the base of a request submitted by one of the Parties, which should include the purpose of the information use, description of the case circumstances with attachment of all relevant documents. The Parties shall use the received information with the purposes stated in the request only.



The requested information is provided within the time agreed by both Parties, but not later than within forty five days (45) from the date the request has been received. The Party, which receives the request, should inform the other Party on circumstances, which could cause nonobservance of the given period of providing the information.



3. The Parties wish to hold the meetings of the Heads of the Authorities not less than once a year with the purpose to determine the prospects of development of the bilateral cooperation and the issues of the mutual interest.



The date and the place of these meetings shall be discussed in each certain case.



4. All the expenses, including but not limited to travel expenses, transportation, food, accommodation, translation, related to the visits of the specialists, participation of the specialists in different events and meetings shall be covered by the sending Party.



5. In case of need the Parties should hold additional consultations on the issues of the present Memorandum and the Agreement on cooperation implementation.



6. The present Memorandum shall not be considered as an international treaty and does not establish any rights or obligations for the Parties, which are regulated by international law.



Signed in Moscow, on 31 of May 2007, in two copies, each in Russian, Czech and English. In the case of controversies in interpreting of the text of the present Memorandum the text in English shall be used.



On behalf of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation

I. Artemyev, Head



On behalf of the Office for the Protection of Competition of the Czech Republic

M. Pecina, Chairman