While Member States’ permanent representatives (Coreper) were supposed to discuss the revision of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) on Wednesday, 16 November, with the aim of reaching a common position, the topic was, in the end, withdrawn from the agenda due to persistent divisions among the delegations.
According to information gathered by EUROPE, further discussions were still needed before Member States would be able to agree on a text defining the EU’s position on adopting the agreement in principle on the modernisation of the ECT—an international treaty on protecting investments in the energy sector that has been in force since 1998.
This agreement—reached by the contracting parties to the ECT, including the EU, this past June—aims to bring the ECT more in line with changing energy and climate realities. It is generally expected to be adopted during the 33rd meeting of the Energy Charter Conference on 22–23 November (see EUROPE 12979/10).
With this in mind, the European Commission had provided the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU with a proposal for a decision according to which the EU would approve the agreement in principle (see EUROPE 13057/4).
Considering the agreement in principle to be insufficient in light of climate challenges, certain Member States are nevertheless opposed to the draft decision. Several of them (France, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands) have, for that matter, recently announced that they have decided to leave the ECT (see EUROPE 13062/14). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)