News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
The European Court of Justice declared in a judgment on Thursday (2 September) that the investor-state arbitration system under the Energy Charter Treaty is not applicable within the European Union. This effectively puts an end to ECT arbitration within the EU and will significantly increase the pressure on the ongoing …
The European Commission is planning to propose a mechanism to investors based in the EU that would at least partially compensate for the loss of investment protection guarantees included in bilateral investment treaties signed in an era before Central and Eastern European member states joined the European Union.
The European Court of Justice’s Advocate General Szpunar opined that the investor-state arbitration system under the Energy Charter Treaty is not applicable within the European Union. This will further increase the pressure on the ongoing ECT modernisation process and might very well herald the end of the ECT within the EU.
The latest round of negotiations among the member states of the UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS reforms held last week (8-12 February 2021) revealed increasing diversity rather than more unity among the parties on the future of investor-state dispute settlement and EU-sponsored plans for a multilateral court system. The …
The European Union and Canada agreed on joint rules for their planned Investment Court System which is to become part of CETA. Any such court won’t see the light for a long time, but its rules reflect EU ambitions in other areas, namely hopes for a multilateral investment court and …
The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is of limited scope compared to other recent trade and investment agreements concluded by the European Union, writes Nikos Lavranos. The deal essentially focuses on investment facilitation and transparency rather than investment protection.
Nikos Lavranos analyses the EU UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement’s much-discussed level playing field, governance and dispute settlement provisions, with a related detour via climate change and energy.
The EU said it prevailed in its first bilateral FTA panel case against Ukraine in a dispute relating to Ukraine’s export ban on certain wood products, but the ruling also leaves Ukraine room to keep some restrictions. The ruling and the case prove that rules-based resolution of trade disputes remains …
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, alongside the CPTPP, is a powerful counterexample to ongoing global decline in rules-based trade. If these agreements deliver what they promise, its members, including China, will gain more economic and political influence across the world, writes Nikos Lavranos.
A special notification mechanism for breaches of labour and environmental provisions could end up being the ‘magic trick’ that sways the Dutch parliament to ratify the EU’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada, reports Nikos Lavranos.
