The national delegations of the Member States exchanged views with the European Commission on speeding up the negotiations on the modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), on Thursday 14 January, at a meeting of the EU Council’s Energy Working Group.
According to our information, the Commission (which has been given a mandate to negotiate on behalf of the EU) has thus presented to the delegations its suggestions to complete its initial proposal of May 2020 to modernise the Treaty and ensure that it is aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement (see EUROPE 12587/3).
“There is need for political and technical fine-tuning”, a source told us.
The Commission document is said to focus in particular on the definition of economic activities in the Treaty (see EUROPE 12591/17).
The aim, we are told, is to finalise this document by 15 February so that it can be approved by the Member States before 2 March, the date on which the fourth round of negotiations with the other signatory parties to the ECT (see EUROPE 12629/15) begins. To meet this goal, a second meeting between the Commission and the Energy Working Group is scheduled for 19 January.
A coordinated exit from the ECT?
During the meeting, the French and Spanish delegations, supported by several Member States such as Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria, reportedly took the floor to stress the importance of aligning the ECT with the EU’s climate objectives.
In addition, France and Spain are said to have asked to consider the possibility of a coordinated EU exit from the ECT (the Commission and all Member States except Italy are signatories to the Treaty), if the negotiations do not lead to a satisfactory agreement.
Last 22 December, the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, had moreover announced on Twitter that she had sent a joint letter to the Commission with her colleagues Bruno Le Maire, Franck Riester and Clément Beaune calling on it to “study” this option.
According to one source, pressure on the Commission and Member States to seriously consider the possibility of a coordinated withdrawal is gradually increasing: “It’s a snowball that is starting to roll, slowly”.
Responding to requests from national and European MPs (see EUROPE 12594/11), the Commission had announced twice, at the end of 2020, that it was not excluding this option, even if it favoured the current path of a revision of the ECT (see EUROPE 12615/35, 12592/22). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)