The Luxembourg government has decided to exit the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an international trade and investment agreement concluded in the early 1990s to protect investments in the energy sector, Luxembourg’s Minister of Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, announced on Friday 18 November.
Luxembourg thus joins six other EU Member States (Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Slovenia and Germany). Italy, on the other hand, officially left the ECT in 2016.
Like these countries, Luxembourg considers that the process of modernising the treaty has not produced a sufficient result in terms of its climate ambitions.
“Even if the modernization of the Energy Charter Treaty leads to some progress, the treaty is still not compatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement, as it continues to protect investments in fossil and nuclear energies”, said Turmes.
Member States divided
The Luxembourg government’s decision comes on the very day of a meeting of Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) to define the EU’s position on the agreement in principle on the revision of the ECT.
The agreement was reached between the ECT contracting parties, including the EU, last June and is expected to be submitted for approval at the Energy Charter Conference on 22 November.
In preparation for this meeting, the Czech Presidency of the Council submitted a text proposal according to which the EU’s position would be to “raise no objections” to the adoption of the agreement in principle.
However, some Member States are critical of this proposal. France, Germany and Belgium have already announced that they will abstain if the text as it stands is put to a vote in the EU Council (see EUROPE 13065/3).
At the time of going to press, the outcome of the ambassadors’ meeting remained uncertain. EUROPE will continue to follow this story. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)