France leads calls on EU to quit energy treaty – FT
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Financial Times – France is leading calls so the EU calls quits an international energy treaty that gives multinationals the power to sue governments, with critics calling the agreement a serious legal roadblock to Europe’s ambitious climate targets.
The Financial Times explains that the ECT is an international agreement dating from the mid-1990s that established a framework for cross-border co-operation in the energy industry, adding that the charter has faced growing criticism since the EU last year promised to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, requiring decarbonisation and a shift away from fossil fuels among its 27 member states.
The report refers to Spain as being among the countries affected, facing dozens of litigation cases by companies under the ECT in the past decade after carrying out wide-ranging energy reforms. Madrid has backed calls for the EU to quit the charter. Germany is also being sued over its decision to end nuclear power generation, with Swedish utility Vattenfall demanding compensation over the phaseout. Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Latvia have also faced legal action under the treaty.
