[ad_1]
© Reuters. Brussels sees “inevitable” that the EU abandons the Energy Charter
Brussels, Feb 7 (.).- The European Commission assumes that it is “inevitable” that the EU abandon the Energy Charter Treaty after countries such as Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands have announced their departure individually and prevent the bloc from approving a modernized version of it, according to a document to which EFE has had access.
“An exit of the EU and Euroatom from the Energy Charter Treaty seems inevitable”, acknowledges the Community Executive in a text that it has shared with the Member States, despite the fact that the institution has publicly spoken out against abandoning the global pact
Brussels admits that “it does not seem feasible in the current circumstances” that the community club can adopt the modernized treaty due to the opposition of the countries that have decided to leave it and does not see any margin to “renegotiate the result of the modernization process”.
“At the same time, staying in an Energy Charter without modernizing is not an option either,” explains the European Commission, since the previous treaty “is not in line with the EU’s policy on investment protection of the Green Deal.”
In this context, the Community Executive sees “inevitable” that the EU has to also abandon this international treaty and states that the “most appropriate” option would be a “coordinated” exit of the EU, Euroatom and the Member States individually and “parallel”.
However, Brussels leaves the door open to another option, which would be for the EU to leave the Energy Charter but allow all those Member States that want to continue adhering to its provisions to remain in the updated treaty.
A third option handled by the community authorities would be to adopt the revised text of the Treaty and then undertake a “coordinated” exit from the EU and its partners, since the abandonment process “would take time.”
In any case, the Commission warns that those countries that opt out of the Energy Charter will be subject to a 20-year suspension clause, which means that it will have to continue to apply the provisions of the old treaty to new investments made by investors or other signatories to the Charter for two decades.
After learning about this internal document, the Ministry of Ecological Transition celebrated the “important turn” by Brussels towards a position that “Spain has been demanding since February 2021”, when it “alerted” the Commission of the “low ambition of the negotiations ” for the revision of the Charter.
The department led by Teresa Ribera sees it as “understandable” that the Community Executive has changed its position after Spain, Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Luxembourg have abandoned the Treaty.
Along these lines, the Ministry guarantees that Spain will work with the Commission and the rest of the bloc’s partners to “achieve a coordinated exit from the EU, Euratom and the Member States” in parallel to the domestic process to formalize the exit from Spain ” as soon as possible.”
(More information on the European Union at euroefe.euractiv.es)
[ad_2]