During the last week of March, the Committee on the Constitution and Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) approved several international agreements, which have been already signed by Brazil. After their approval by the CCJ, those agreements will still be forwarded to the House Floor. If approved in that instance, they will be sent to Senate, and, after their approval there, remitted to the President of the Republic, for his ratifying.

Airspace cooperation with Russia
On Tuesday (24), CCJ approved the Legislative Decree 1143/08, which deals with the agreement with Russia for the extension of the cooperation in the airspace area, so as to develop new technologies and use the Alcântara Launch Center (MA) to test and launch rockets and satellites.

Closed in Brasília, in December 2006, that agreement allows the two-way sharing of technologies, and therefore is called “Mutual Protection of Technologies Associated to the Cooperation in the Exploitation and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space”.

The first cooperation targets the technical revision of the Brazilian Satellite Launch Vehicle (VLS 1), and the development of its third stage, with liquid fuel. That new vehicle, called Alfa, inaugurates a new family of launch vehicles of the series called “Cruzeiro do Sul”.

For the rapporteur on the Bill, Deputy Flávio Dino (PCdoB-MA), that agreement allows the development of Brazilian space technology, a strategic sector for National Defense. “Russia has distinguished itself, since the second half of last century, as a great power in such technologies, and offers excellent conditions to being a strong ally in our search for scientific development”, he said.

The agreement, which had its origin in a message from the Executive Power (MSC 292/07), has already been approved by the Committees on Foreign Relations and National Defense; and on Science and Technology, Communication and Computer Science.

The first report on the agreement, from Deputy Átila Lins (PMDB-AM), stresses that any amendment in the agreements on the Alcântara Center or on the Brazilian Space Program needs to be approved by the Congress.

For Lins, the agreement with Russia has a better wording than the one with the United States, proposed in 2000, also on the Alcântara Launching Center. He reminded that the agreement with the US (PDC 1446/01), which is still being processed, entitled North-Americans to rights and technology, while Brazil would only have obligations.

Labor agreement between Brazil and Great Britain
On Thursday (26), CCJ approved the Legislative Decree 667/08, which deals with the Agreement on the Exchange of Notes, signed by Brazil, Great Britain and North Ireland. That agreement was closed in Brasília, in March 2007, and will enable dependants of diplomatic and consular personnel of both countries to exert paid labor.

The bill, also approved by the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense will allow dependants of servants in Brazilian embassies and consulates to work abroad. By recommending that approval, the rapporteur of CCJ, Deputy Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ), affirmed that that measure indirectly contributes to the professional satisfaction of consular and diplomatic personnel, because they frequently sacrifice their family’s happiness by preventing them to build a professional career, because of their itinerant activities.

Antarctic Treaty
Also on the 26th, CCJ approved the establishment of the Secretariat on the Antarctic Treaty, authorized by an agreement closed during a meeting in Madrid in 2003, held by the countries which joined it. The secretariat stared to operate in 2004, in Buenos Aires.

The approved text at the Chamber (Legislative-Decree Bill 564/08) details the operation and features of the secretariat, and defines its functions, budget, legal character, privileges and immunities. Its rapporteur, Bonifácio de Andrada (PSDB-MG), presented a favorable rapport to that bill.

In the message from the Executive, which forwarded the agreement’s text to the Congress, the Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, explained that the secretariat has an “exclusively administrative character”, and assists the consulting meetings on the treaty, in addition to facilitating the information exchange among countries.

That treaty was signed, in 1959, by 12 countries which claimed for the possession of parts of the continent of Antarctica. They committed to waive their claims for an indefinite period of time, allowing the scientific exploration of that continent in an international cooperation regime, only for peaceful goals.

More than 30 countries have already joined that treaty, signed by Brazil in 1975. In 1984, Brazil inaugurated the Comandante Ferraz Research Station.

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Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda