As the second round of discussions on modernising the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) opened on Tuesday 8 September, a coalition of 93 MEPs and 46 national MPs called on EU Member States to ensure that provisions on investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) are removed from the treaty, or fundamentally limited.
According to these parliamentarians, the ISDS mechanism provided for in the treaty “protects foreign investment in fossil fuels”.
They therefore believe that the ECT now represents a “serious threat” for the EU’s climate neutrality by 2050 objective, and, more broadly, for the implementation of the Paris agreement.
The signatories also consider that the raison d’être of the Treaty - to promote long-term cooperation in the field of energy, with the aim in particular of developing the energy potential of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and ensuring the security of the EU’s energy supplies - has become “obsolete” since Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty in 2009.
If the provisions on the ISDS mechanism have not been thoroughly reformed by the end of the third round of negotiations scheduled for the autumn, the 139 parliamentarians call on the Member States “to explore pathways to jointly withdraw from the ECT by the end of 2020”.
See joint statement by MEPs: https://bit.ly/3jVKwuk (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)