Signature, ratification, acceptance, approval
1. This Convention shall be open for signature by the Member States of the Council of Europe and the European Community. It is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval. Instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.
2. No State party to the European Convention on the Protection of Animals during International Transport, opened for signature in Paris on 13 December 1968, may deposit its instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval unless it has already denounced the said Convention or denounces it simultaneously.
3. This Convention shall enter into force six months after the date on which four States have expressed their consent to be bound by this Convention in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraphs.
4. Whenever, in application of the preceding two paragraphs, the denunciation of the Convention of 13 December 1968 would not become effective simultaneously with the entry into force of this Convention, a Contracting State or the European Community may, when depositing its instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval, declare that it will continue to apply the Convention of 13 December 1968 until the entry into force of this Convention.
5. In respect of any signatory State or the European Community which subsequently expresses its consent to be bound by it, this Convention shall enter into force six months after the date of the deposit of the instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval.