News and analysis on trade policy in Europe
Thursday, January 21, 2021
This week has seen two ‘strategic’ initiatives: the launch of a new paper on EU-US relations and the upgrading of EU-ASEAN relations post RCEP. Here other developments of potential interest. Dombrovksis talks to French Senate – Paris CETA ratification date unclear Nobody knows yet when the French government will put …
Following one week of intense talks in Vienna and online, the reform process of international investor-to-state dispute settlement currently held under the umbrella of the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law’s Working Group III is moving nearer the endgame.
In an interview with Borderlex, the Energy Charter Treaty’s secretary-general Urban Rusnák said: “In one or two years I expect to have a new Energy Charter Treaty as complement to the Paris climate agreement.“
The European Union and China have been negotiating a bilateral investment agreement for seven years. Are they anywhere close to concluding a deal? It is not yet entirely clear how mature the negotiations are with China nor how close the parties to having close-to-consolidated treaty language ready for politicians to …
Ahead of a meeting of the Energy Charter Treaty members next week, the European Union has published its proposals in the form of legal to modernise what some called the WTO of energy. Discussions on modernising the ECT, an agreement that dates back to the early 1990s, have been …
It’s been quite a week, with the World Trade Organization’s chief resigning on Thursday, adding another twist to the ongoing drama in the world trading system. But other news have been drowned in the process. A selection below. Hogan wants to move fast to replace WTO’s Azevêdo The European Union’s …
Twenty-three governments have signed a previously leaked agreement terminating bilateral investment treaties known as BITs signed between themselves in a time when some of them were not yet members of the European Union. The move follows on the famous Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in …
The secretariats of ICSID and UNCITRAL released a draft Code of Conduct for Arbitrators in investor-state disputes. This is the first concrete result of ongoing international investor-state dispute settlement reform efforts at the UN Commission for International Trade and Investment Law.
On 24 October 2019 the European Commission announced that the EU member states had reached agreement on a plurilateral treaty for the termination of all ca. 190 intra-EU bilateral investment treaties or BITs. This agreement marks the culmination of the European Commission’s efforts over the past decade to eliminate intra-EU …
The process of ending intra-European Union bilateral investment treaties has created much bitterness and resentment between the European Commission and member states as well as among EU capitals. It is now coming to an end although a big battle still lies in an Energy Charter Treaty context. The long-standing internal …
