AGRÉMENT (Agrétation, Gradimento). - A term indicating, also in ecclesiastical diplomacy, the approval given by a government to the sending to it of a diplomatic agent. Since no State is obliged to maintain diplomatic relations with others, all the more can no State be obliged to receive, as a diplomatic agent, a person who is not acceptable to it. The sending State, therefore, before proceeding to appoint a diplomatic agent, takes care to ascertain (demande d'agrétation) that the person it intends to send is acceptable to the receiving State. This practice, which is generally observed as a rule of international courtesy, is also sanctioned in Art. 8, paragraph 1, of the Inter-American Convention of Havana on diplomatic agents. The case of refusal of the a. is not very rare (v. K. Strupp, Wörterbuch, I, 244; F. H. Geffcken, in von Holtzendorff's Handbuch des Völkerrechts, III, p. 632 ff.). The practice is generally followed only for heads of mission, and in the case of an ordinary mission it is not followed for chargés d'affaires.
In the ecclesiastical field, the Holy See, and on its behalf the Cardinal Secretary of State, asks governments for the a. for a new apostolic nuncio. On the other hand, the government of a given State asks the Holy See for the a. for a new ambassador or minister whom it intends to accredit to the Supreme Pontiff. In order to request the a., the Holy See may follow two different paths: the channel of the apostolic nunciature, entrusting the task of the request either to the apostolic nuncio, who, although recalled, is still in residence, or, if the nuncio has already left, to the interim chargé d'affaires; the good offices of the diplomatic representative accredited to the Holy See of that government to which the new nuncio is destined. Governments proceed in a similar way when they negotiate with the Holy See concerning the presentation of a new diplomat. If, moreover, diplomatic relations did not yet exist between the Holy See and that particular government, the request for the a. would take place directly between the Secretariat of State of His Holiness and the Foreign Ministry of that nation. Ordinarily the a. is not refused unless very serious reasons intervene, which, however, the government consulted is not strictly bound to disclose.