After Poland and Spain, the Netherlands also intends to exit the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), according to a statement made by the Dutch Minister of Environment and Energy, Rob Jetten, on Tuesday 18 October in a speech to the Parliament.
“The European Commission’s mandate was to bring the ECT into line with the Paris Agreement. Despite the many modernisations that are now part of the negotiation outcome, we do not see how the ECT has been sufficiently aligned with the Paris Agreement”, Mr Jetten stressed.
His statement echoes criticism from many NGOs after an agreement in principle to modernise the treaty was reached on Friday 24 June (see EUROPE 12979/10).
This comes less than a week after a similar (unofficial) announcement by his Spanish counterpart, Teresa Ribera (see EUROPE 13042/11).
In both cases, it remains unclear what the next steps will be to make their decision effective and when the official exit date will be.
In Poland, a law to exit the treaty still needs to be approved by the Senate.
At this stage, Italy remains the only EU Member State to have left the ECT, in 2016. However, the country may be sued because of a clause in the treaty that allows investors to sue a state for 20 years after its withdrawal from the ECT for investments made before the date of exit from the treaty. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)