This international agreement, in force since 1998, protects investors from changes in energy policy. After Italy in 2016, Paris confirms the announcement made in October by Emmanuel Macron.
by Virginie Malingre (Brussels, European office)
From speech to acts. According to our information, confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France has just notified its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Energy Charter (TCE), this international agreement, in force since 1998, which protects investors from changes in energy policy States. President Emmanuel Macron had announced, on October 21, his intention to do so, arguing that it would be “in coherence with the Paris Agreement”, but neither the Elysée nor the government had no longer communicated on the subject since . This outing will be effective, as the text provides, one year after its notification, that is to say at 1 er January 2024.
France is the second country, among the 53 signatories of the TCE – the European Union (EU) and its member states, but also Japan, Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia or Kazakhstan – to take a such a decision. She joined Italy, which left it in 2016. In November, other EU member states, such as Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Spain, had reported their decision to do the same. We are now waiting for them to act.
“Survival clause”
The TCE, imagined after the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the Gulf War, aimed to secure the energy supply of the old continent. It allows investors in this sector to request, before a private arbitral tribunal, compensation to a state which, by redirecting its policy, would thus affect the profitability of their investments. Even if a country decides to withdraw, it remains subject to its obligations for twenty years – it is the “survival clause”. In theory, therefore, France cannot be abstracted before 2044.
Today, it constitutes an obstacle to the ambitions of countries that want to fight against global warming and is not compatible with the rhythm of decarbonation of the economy required by the Paris Agreement, as a Judged, in France, the High Council for the Climate on October 19. TCE defenders argue that it also concerns the renewable sector. Its detractors retort that it mainly has the consequence of altering the sovereignty of the countries signatory to the TCE in terms of energy policy.
In this context, the commission, which negotiates on behalf of the twenty-seven, had campaigned for a modernization of the treaty, rather than a coordinated outing, and given its agreement in principle, on June 24, to a project of reform which she had negotiated at length with the other states participating in the TCE. In the process, it was planned that the signatories of the text formally vote on November 22, a ballot for which unanimity is required. But the twenty -seven were divided and several countries – France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany – had inflicted a camouflet on the community executive, refusing to give it the necessary mandate. At the last moment, the vote had therefore been postponed and a new meeting should take place by April 2023.
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