As the sixth round of talks to modernise the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) began on Tuesday 6 July, two leaked documents show a lack of real progress in the negotiations between the contracting parties, much to the dismay of the European Commission and some EU Member States, who want to bring the ECT more into line with the European Green Deal.
“The atmosphere was constructive, but progress was limited, especially on energy issues”, one of the documents reads.
These are actually reports from two different Member States on the EU Council’s Energy Expert Group meeting on 6 June, where the Commission reported on the fifth round of negotiations.
“No substantial progress has been made on the definition of economic activity in the energy sector”, the documents further state, referring to a section of the ECT on the types of energy infrastructure covered by the Treaty.
Negotiating on behalf of the EU, the Commission had proposed to the other contracting parties of the ECT that this section be revised, after difficult negotiations with the EU Member States (see EUROPE 12659/14, 12646/7, 12655/6).
But only six contracting parties spoke out on the issue during the fifth round of negotiations, and none of them “had a final official position, with the exception of Kazakhstan, which openly rejected the proposal”, the leaked documents reveal.
And it went on: “After two hours of negotiations, it was clear that the EU proposal did not have enough support. None of the larger contracting parties were prepared to support the EU proposal in its current form”.
According to these documents, France also reiterated its request “for an EU exit plan” (from the treaty) (see EUROPE 12658/6).
While Spain has already expressed a similar position, the leaked documents indicate that Poland would also like to “concretely study the option of a coordinated EU exit”.
Faced with the lack of progress, activists from various environmental NGOs gathered outside the EU Commission and EU Council headquarters on 6 July to call on the EU and Member State governments to exit the treaty by COP26 (November 2021).
They hung a sword of Damocles over caricatures of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte “to show the threat of the treaty to climate action”.
See the leaked documents: https://bit.ly/36iBEu6 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)