STUDENT Energy Group EVENT // Talk with Dr Urban RUSNÁK, Secretary General of the Energy Charter Secretariat

On Monday, 7 December 2020, at 15:00, the College of Europe "Energy Group", supported by the European Energy Policy Chair, invites you to a talk with the Secretary-General of the Energy Charter Secretariat, Dr Urban RUSNÁK, about the ongoing negotiations on the “modernization of the Energy Charter Treaty”.

The talk’s format consists of a presentation made by Dr RUSNÁK on the process of the treaty’s modernization and updates thereof (15-20 minutes), followed by a Q&A session.  

The event is open for all College of Europe students, as well as for the wider public.

To attend, please use the registration form below.

Contact person: hassan.khalife [at] coleurope.eu or eloise.couffon [at] coleurope.eu

Background: 

The Energy Charter Treaty (“ECT”) is a multilateral investment treaty targeting investments in the energy sector. The ECT mainly aims to protect investment, trade of materials and products, transit and dispute settlement in the energy sector. In December 1994, the European Union (“EU”) signed the ECT, which entered into force in the EU in April 1998. 

Most of the ECT’s provisions have not been revised since the 1990s. Given the recent trends of revisiting investment protection provisions included in international agreements, the Energy Charter Secretariat has proposed an ECT modernization. A list of topics for the ECT modernization was approved during the Energy Charter Ministerial Conference of 27 November 2018. Such list included inter alia the issue of sustainable development in energy investments.

On 15 July 2019, the European Council mandated the European Commission to begin negotiations on the modernization of the ECT to take into account, among others, the sustainable development and climate goals.  On 6 November 2019, a specialized group (so-called Modernization Group), was established and mandated by the Energy Charter Conference with an aim to conclude expeditiously the negotiations. Three negotiation rounds were held so far, the first on 6-9 July 2020, the second on 8-11 September 2020, and the third on 3-6 November 2020.

The mandate for negotiations on modernization of the ECT envisages that in December 2020 the Energy Charter Conference “should take stock of the progress made”. The upcoming Energy Charter Conference is scheduled on 16-17 December 2020 under the Chairmanship of Azerbaijan.

On 18 December 2020, the Modernization Group will convene to set the agenda for the 2021 negotiations to be held in 2021.