The Agreement on Succession Issues was signed in Vienna on 29 June 2001, at the Hofburg Palace, by the five successor States of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia — Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia — in seven originals in the English language. One copy is retained by the High Representative; depositary: the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It is not the General Framework Agreement for Peace of 1995, nor Security Council Resolution 1022, which the preamble invokes.

Article 1: “SFRY” means the former federation. Article 2: each successor State shall prevent loss, damage or destruction to archives, State property and assets in which another has an interest. Article 3, at framework level: Annexes A–G cover movable and immovable property, diplomatic and consular properties, financial assets and liabilities, archives, pensions, other rights, interests and liabilities, and private property and acquired rights. Shares and a division handbook are not transcribed.

Article 4: a Standing Joint Committee of senior representatives shall monitor implementation. Article 5: differences of interpretation shall be discussed among the States concerned, then referred to an independent person, to the Committee, or, for terms, to an expert appointed by agreement or by the President of the OSCE Court of Conciliation. Article 7: the Agreement finally settles mutual rights and obligations on the succession issues it covers. Article 10: no reservations may be made.

Article 11: ratification, instruments lodged with the Depositary. Article 12: it enters into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifth instrument. UNTC: 2 June 2004. Certain provisions, including in the Annexes, shall be provisionally applied from signature. Article 13: registration with the United Nations under Article 102 of the Charter. The preamble also confirms the 10 April 2001 decision on assets at the Bank for International Settlements, appended, without transcribing amounts.

Cover: the Hofburg on Heldenplatz, the conference venue; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Agreement on Succession Issues (UNTC XXIX-1).