In a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron and the Presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, 77 scientists asked the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union to work towards a collective exit of Member States from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) on Tuesday 21 June, 3 days before a meeting of the ECT signatory parties to conclude the treaty revision process.
Launched in 2018, this process aims to modernise the ECT, which has been in force since 1998, to bring it more in line with today’s economic and energy reality.
This treaty has been widely criticised for impeding the energy transition (see EUROPE 12618/10).
In particular, they point to the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system, which allows a company to sue a treaty country in private arbitration tribunals if it believes that actions by that country’s government threaten its business.
As the scientists point out in their letter, the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change) report also notes that “numerous scholars have pointed to ISDS being able to be used by fossil-fuel companies to block national legislation aimed at phasing out the use of their assets”.
After receiving the endorsement of the Member States, the Commission had submitted a document presenting the revised EU negotiating position to the ECT Secretariat on 15 February 2021 (see EUROPE 12659/16).
However, the proposals in the paper do not convince the 77 scientists, as it “will maintain the protection of existing foreign investment in fossil fuels until 2030 and in gas power plants until 2040”.
For its part, the European Parliament will vote in 2 days’ time (Thursday 23) on a draft report calling on the Commission and the Member States to “start preparing their coordinated exit from the ECT”. This is a request already made by many MEPs and some Member States (see EUROPE 12918/12, 12658/6).
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/282 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)