At the EU ‘Energy’ Council on Thursday 30 May, the European energy ministers approved the proposal for coordinated withdrawal of the EU and Euratom from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) and the proposal to approve the modernisation of the ECT at the next Energy Charter Conference.
The Belgian Minister for Energy, Tinne Van der Straeten, welcomed this decision, which was “a commitment of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council” and marks the end of a stalemate in negotiations that will have lasted more than a year and a half.
The first pillar of this agreement is the coordinated withdrawal of the EU and Euratom from the ECT (see EUROPE 13366/9), while the second pillar focuses on the position that the EU (and Euratom) will adopt at the next Energy Charter Conference in the autumn by not opposing the modernisation of the Treaty (see EUROPE 13414/21). This will enable the ECT to be brought into line with the principles of the Paris Agreement before the Union fully withdraws from it, but it will also allow Member States that want to remain contracting parties to do so in a modernised Treaty.
Both decisions came into force on the same day. The withdrawal will take effect one year after receipt of the notification by the depositary of the Treaty, which will take place in June, before the end of the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council.
To see the texts adopted: https://aeur.eu/f/cfj ; https://aeur.eu/f/cfk ; https://aeur.eu/f/cfl ; https://aeur.eu/f/cfm (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)