Article 1 
The Agreement for scientific and technological cooperation between the European Community and the Federative Republic of Brazil is hereby approved on behalf of the Community. The text of the Agreement is attached to this Decision ( 2 ) .
Article 2 
The President of the Council shall, acting on behalf of the Community, give the notification provided for in Article XII of the Agreement.
Article I Purpose
The Parties shall encourage, develop and facilitate cooperative activities in areas of common interest by carrying out and supporting scientific and technological research and development activities.
Article II Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement: (a) ‘cooperative activity’ means any activity which the Parties undertake or support, pursuant to this Agreement, including joint research; (b) ‘information’ means scientific or technical data, and research and development results or methods stemming from joint research and any other data deemed necessary by the participants to cooperative activities, including, as necessary, by the Parties themselves; (c) ‘intellectual property’ shall have the meaning defined in Article 2 of the Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organisation, signed at Stockholm on 14 July 1967; (d) ‘joint research’ means research, technological development or demonstration projects that are implemented with or without financial support from one or both Parties and that involve collaboration between participants from both Brazil and the Community. ‘Demonstration projects’ are projects aimed at demonstrating the viability of new technologies which offer a potential economic advantage but which cannot be directly commercialised. The Parties shall keep each other regularly informed on activities regarded as joint research activities under Article VI; (e) ‘participant’ or ‘research entities’ means any person or group of persons, research institute or any other legal entity or undertaking established in Brazil or in the Community involved in cooperative activities, including the Parties themselves.
Article III Principles
Cooperative activities shall be conducted on the basis of the following principles: (a) mutual benefit based on an overall balance of advantages; (b) reciprocal access to the activities of research and technological development undertaken by each Party; (c) timely exchange of information which may affect cooperative activities; (d) appropriate protection of intellectual property rights.
Article IV Cooperative activity areas
Cooperation under this Agreement may cover all the areas of mutual interest in which both Parties are implementing or supporting research and technological development activities (hereinafter referred to as RTD), in accordance with Article VI(3)(b). Such activities shall be designed to promote the advancement of science, industrial competitiveness, and economic and social development, with emphasis on the following areas: — biotechnology, — information and communication technologies, — bioinformatics, — space, — micro- and nanotechnologies, — materials research, — clean technologies, — management and sustainable use of environmental resources, — biosafety, — health and medicine, — aeronautics, — metrology, standardisation and conformity assessment, and — human sciences.
Article V Cooperation arrangements and cooperative activities
1. The Parties shall encourage: (a) the participation of research entities in the cooperative activities covered by this Agreement, in accordance with their own internal policies and regulations, with a view to providing comparable opportunities for participation in their scientific research and technological development activities and making good use of the benefits thereof; (b) reciprocal access to the activities promoted by each Party under current national programmes or policies. 2. Cooperative activities may take the following forms: (a) joint RTD projects; (b) visits and exchanges of scientists, researchers and technical experts; (c) joint organisation of scientific seminars, conferences, symposia and workshops, as well as the participation of experts in those activities; (d) concerted actions such as the pooling of RTD projects already implemented in accordance with the procedures applicable to the RTD programmes of each Party and scientific networks; (e) exchange and sharing of equipment and materials; (f) exchanges of information on practices, laws, regulations and programmes relevant to cooperation under this Agreement, including information on policy in the field of science and technology; (g) any other arrangements recommended by the Steering Committee to be established pursuant to Article VI, which are deemed compliant with the policies and procedures applicable in both Parties. 3. Joint RTD projects shall be carried out only after the participants have concluded a Joint Technology Management Plan, as indicated in the Annex to this Agreement.
Article VI Coordination and implementation of cooperative activities
1. The coordination and expediting of cooperative activities under this Agreement shall be accomplished on behalf of the Community by the services of the European Commission and on behalf of Brazil by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting as executive agents. 2. The executive agents shall establish a Steering Committee on scientific and technical cooperation which shall be responsible for the management of this Agreement. The committee shall be made up of official representatives of each Party, and shall draw up its own rules of procedure. 3. The duties of the Steering Committee shall include: (a) proposing and supporting cooperative activities under this Agreement, in accordance with Article V; (b) indicating, for the following year, pursuant to Article V(1)(b), among the potential sectors for RTD cooperation, those priority sectors or subsectors of mutual interest in which cooperation is sought; (c) proposing the pooling of projects of mutual interest or complementary projects to researchers in both Parties; (d) making recommendations pursuant to Article V(2)(g); (e) advising the Parties on ways to enhance and improve cooperation consistent with the principles set out in this Agreement; (f) reviewing the efficient implementation and functioning of this Agreement; (g) providing an annual report to the Parties on the status, the level reached and the effectiveness of cooperation undertaken under this Agreement. This report shall be transmitted to the Joint Committee established under the Framework Cooperation Agreement concluded between the Parties on 29 June 1992. 4. The Steering Committee, which reports to the Joint Committee, shall, as a general rule, meet annually, preferably before the meeting of the Joint Committee, according to a schedule agreed jointly in advance. The meetings should be held alternately in the Community and in Brazil. Extraordinary meetings may be held at the request of either Party. 5. The costs incurred by representatives in attending the Steering Committee meetings shall be borne by the Party they represent.
Article VII Funding
Cooperative activities shall be subject to the availability of sufficient funds and to the applicable laws, regulations, policies and programmes of the Parties. The costs incurred by the participants in cooperative activities shall not, as a general rule, be settled by the transfer of funds from one Party to the other.
Article VIII Entry of personnel and equipment
1. Each Party shall take all appropriate steps and use its best efforts, within the laws and regulations applicable in the territories of each Party, to facilitate entry to, sojourn in, and exit from its territory, of persons, material, data and equipment related to or used in cooperative activities developed by the Parties under the provisions of this Agreement, which shall be granted exemptions from taxes and customs duties, pursuant to the legislative and regulatory provisions applicable in the territories of each Party. 2. Where the specific cooperation arrangements of one Party provide for financial aid to be granted to the participants of the other Party, the grants, financial contributions or similar given by one Party to the participants of the other Party in support of these activities shall be given tax and customs exemptions, pursuant to the legislation applicable in the territories of each Party.
Article IX Intellectual property
Matters of intellectual property arising under this Agreement shall be handled in accordance with the Annex which forms an integral part of this Agreement.
Article X Community activities in favour of developing countries
This Agreement shall not affect the participation of Brazil, as a developing country, in Community activities in the field of research for development.
Article XI Territorial application
This Agreement shall apply, on the one hand to the territories in which the Treaty establishing the European Community is applied and under the conditions laid down in that Treaty, and on the other hand to the territory of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
Article XII Entry into force, termination and dispute settlement
1. This Agreement shall enter into force on the date on which both parties have notified each other in writing that the respective internal procedures necessary for it to enter into force have been completed. 2. This Agreement shall initially be valid for a period of five years and may be renewed by agreement between the Parties after evaluation during the penultimate year of each subsequent renewal period. 3. This Agreement may be amended by agreement of the Parties. Amendments shall enter into force under the same conditions as those mentioned in paragraph 1. 4. This Agreement may be terminated at any time by either Party upon six months’ written notice to the other Party sent through diplomatic channels. The expiry or termination of this Agreement shall not affect the validity or duration of any joint research projects in progress under it, or any specific rights and obligations which have accrued in compliance with the Annex. 5. All questions or disputes related to the interpretation or implementation of this Agreement shall be settled by agreement between the Parties. Done at Brasilia, on the nineteenth day of January in the year two thousand and four, in two originals, in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, all versions being equally authentic. In the event of a difference in interpretation between any of these languages, the English text shall take precedence.