Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the United Nations Convention on transparency in treaty-based investor-state arbitration

Traditionally, investor-state dispute settlement has been conducted on the basis of commercial arbitration rules, which do not provide for transparency. Greater transparency in investor-state dispute settlement is an important objective, as it aims at providing maximum access of the public to documents and hearings, as well as allowing interested third parties to make submissions. This is important as Investor-State dispute settlement may concern disputes raising questions relating to public policies or impact public finances.

The Commission has since 2010 focussed on improving transparency for investor-state dispute settlement. This was explicitly requested by the European Parliament in its resolution on the future European Investment Policy. At the same time as ensuring that future EU agreements provide for a high degree of transparency, the Commission has been instrumental in pushing in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) for global transparency rules for investor-state dispute settlement and to develop mechanisms to apply these improved transparency rules to the 3,000 existing investment treaties.

The present proposal delivers on the policy objectives set in 2010 and the European Parliament’s request of 2011, demonstrates the Commission’s determination to reform and improve the investor-state dispute settlement system as a whole and is tangible proof of the benefits of a common EU external investment policy – such a result would have been highly unlikely without such a common EU external investment policy.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)20: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:020:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)21: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the United Nations Convention on transparency in treaty-based investor-state arbitration http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2015:021:FIN

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