1. Without prejudice to mandatory provisions of national laws, the statutes shall lay down rules for the allocation of the surplus for each financial year.

2. Where there is such a surplus, the statutes shall require the establishment of a legal reserve funded out of the surplus before any other allocation.

Until such time as the legal reserve is equal to the capital referred to in Article 3(2), the amount allocated to it may not be less than 15 % of the surplus for the financial year after deduction of any losses carried over.

3. Members leaving the SCE shall have no claim against the sums thus allocated to the legal reserve.