The National Insurance (Germany) Order 1961

Part IV U.K. Transitional, Administrative and Final Provisions

Article 13

The competent authorities shall inform each other as soon as possible of—

(a) any measures taken by them for the application of the present Convention, and

(b) any changes made in their national legislation which affect the application of the Convention.

Article 14

(1) The competent authorities and the insurance authorities shall assist one another with regard to any matter relating to the application of the present Convention as if the matter were one affecting the application of their own national legislation.

(2) The competent authorities shall agree upon the measures necessary to implement the Convention.

Article 15

Where a beneficiary has received assistance from an assistance authority of one Contracting Party for a period for which be has qualified for unemployment benefit under the legislation of the other Party, the insurance authority of the latter Party, shall, under its own national legislation, withhold the amount paid in the form of assistance at the request of the assistance authority concerned. This provision, subject to such modifications as may be appropriate, shall apply also to any of the beneficiary's dependants who have received assistance.

Article 16

(1) Where the legislation of one Contracting Party provides that any document which is submitted to an insurance authority or other authority of that Party shall be exempt, wholly or partly, from legal dues or charges this exemption shall apply to documents submitted under the present Convention to the corresponding authority of the other Party.

(2) Documents issued in the territory of one Party and submitted under the Convention to an insurance authority of the other Party need not be authenticated if they bear the official stamp or seal of the issuing authority.

Article 17

(1) Any claim, notice or appeal, which should, for the purpose of the legislation of one Contracting Party, have been submitted to an insurance authority or other authority of that Party, shall be treated as if it had been submitted to the appropriate authority if it has been submitted to an authority of the other Party concerned with social security. The day on which the claim, notice or appeal is submitted to that authority shall be considered as the day of submission to the appropriate authority.

(2) In any such case, the authority to which the claim, notice or appeal has been submitted shall transmit it without delay to the appropriate authority of the other Party.

Article 18

For the purpose of applying the present Convention to particular cases, the insurance authorities may communicate directly with one another or with the person concerned, or with any representative of his, and, for this purpose, any letter may be written in the English or German language.

Article 19

Any document, presented for the purpose of the present Convention to the insurance authority of one Contracting Party or to any other authority of that Party concerned with social security, may be written in the official language of the other Party.

Article 20

(1) No provision of the present Convention shall confer any right to receive any payment of benefit for any period before the date of the entry into force of the Convention.

(2) The provisions of Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the present Convention shall apply also to events which occurred before the entry into force of the Convention.

Article 21

(1) Any dispute concerning the interpretation or application of the present Convention shall, as far as possible, be resolved by the competent authorities.

(2) If any such dispute cannot be resolved in this manner, it shall, at the request of either Party, be submitted to an arbitration tribunal.

(3) The arbitration tribunal shall consist of two members, one appointed, when occasion arises, by each Party, and a national of a third state chosen by the members as chairman. If one Party fails to appoint its member within sixty days of the request for arbitration by the other Party, or if the members fail to agree upon a chairman within sixty days after they have been appointed, either of the Parties may ask the President of the International Court of Justice to make the requisite appointment. In the event of the President being a national of either Party, or being prevented from making the appointment for any other reason, the Vice-President of the Court may be asked to make the requisite appointment.

(4) The decisions of the arbitration tribunal shall be by majority vote. Its decisions shall be final and binding. Each Party shall bear the expenses of its member. The remaining costs shall be borne equally by the two Parties. Apart from these provisions, the arbitration tribunal shall itself determine its rules of procedure

Article 22

The provisions of the present Convention shall not be deemed to modify those provisions of German legislation which restrict the right to be appointed to offices of the Federal Institute for Laibour Placing and Unemployment Insurance to persons who are entitled to be elected to the German Federal Parliament.

Article 23

In the event of the termination of the present Convention, a person who is receiving unemployment benefit by virtue of its provisions at the date of termination may continue to receive that benefit in accordance with those provisions.

Article 24

(1) The present Convention shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be exchanged in London as soon as possible.

(2) The Convention shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the month in which the instruments of ratification are exchanged.

Article 25

The present Convention shall remain in force for a period of one year from the date of its entry into force. Thereafter it shall continue in force from year to year unless it is denounced in writing three months before the expiry of any such yearly period.

In witness whereof the undersigned Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention.

Done in duplicate at Bonn this twentieth day of April, 1960, in the English and German languages, both texts being equally authoritative.