Activities of Emmanuel MAUREL related to 2021/2176(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the future of EU international investment policy
Amendments (16)
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas around 1 500 bilateral investment treaties ratified by the Member States before the Lisbon Treaty and including the old method of investor-state dispute settlement are still in place, including the Energy Charter Treaty;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas investment policy includes measures such as removing undue barriers to investment, monitoring the impact of foreign investment on strategic autonomy, national security and the real economy, and devising other tools to encourage and facilitate direct investment in sectors and places where it is needed the most; whereas most international investment agreements (IIAs) focus on investment protection, with or without investor-state adjudication; whereas, however, the conclusion of such agreements has never demonstrated a causal effect in terms of attractiveness for foreign direct investment;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that investment can and should have a positive impact on sustainable development; points out that inbound and outbound investments need to meet the needs of the real economystresses that meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and mitigating and adapting to climate change will require governments to have room for manoeuvre to regulate investments; points out that inbound and outbound investments need to meet the needs of the real economy; notes that investment protection agreements have the potential to limit the policies necessary to achieve these objectives; calls on the Commission to review the EU’s investment policy to ensure consistency with the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Points out that the definition of investment as codified in EU IIAs covers not only greenfield investments, but also financial instruments that can be held for purely speculative purposes or for the extraction of rent; calls on the Commission to restrict the scope of what is considered to be an ‘investment’ to investments that substantially commit capital and other resources over a minimum number of years, which seriously assess the risks and which effectively contribute to the development of the host country; stresses that this concept should not include rights attached to portfolio investments, shares, loans, bonds, public debt instruments or debt securities;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Points out that the definition of fair and equitable treatment under the current EU investment model is insufficiently precise and leaves too much room for interpretation by arbitrators, that investors can pursue governments as soon as they consider their policies to be ‘arbitrary’ or in breach of their ‘legitimate expectations’, and that governments are obliged to prove the ‘necessary’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ nature of their decisions and that they serve ‘legitimate’ purposes; calls, therefore, on the Commission not to include such terminology in its future international investment agreements;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that IIAs do not contain investor obligations; stresses that only foreign investors can launch investment cases against states; regrets the fact that having a case dismissed is the best possible outcome for respondent state, which gives greater protection to foreign investors than investors established in the European Union; regrets the fact that having a case dismissed is the best possible outcome for respondent states; points out that, under the investment court system, only investors can bring proceedings against states and that arbitrators’ fees are paid on a case basis, thereby maintaining the bias in favour of investors;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Underlines the fact that EU IIAs negotiated after 2009 still include sunset clauses which prevent easy termination; points out that Member States and the other contracting parties can agree to exclude or neutralise sunset clauses in investment agreements;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Emphasises that under both customary international law and international human rights law, individuals are required to seek redress before domestic courts before bringing international proceedings against the state for wrongful acts; regrets the fact that international investment law, by contrast, usually does not require the exhaustion of domestic remedies; calls on the Commission to incorporate in any draft reform the proposals of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law which aim to give priority to the exhaustion of domestic remedies;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Underlines that the considerable damages awarded by investment tribunals have imposed a significant financial burden on respondent states; points out that the use of valuation methods generally used by adjudicators is highly controversial owing to their very wide margin of discretion and reliance on highly complex and inherently speculative assumptions; invites the Commission to review the provisions governing compensation in EU IIAs by creating a set of binding rules preventing the use of the cash flow discounting method and limiting compensation to sunk costs;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to terminate or modernise any bilateral investment treaties that contain ISDS and which are not in line with the EU proposal for a Multilateral Investment Court, any treaties that contain protection standards beyond protection against direct expropriation, nationality- based discrimination or the gross denial of justice, and any treaties that protect fossil fuel investments;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to ensure that all of the Member States’ bilateral investment treaties are fully compatible with EU law; supportscalls on the Commission in strictly applying the conditions forto authorisinge only the negotiation, signature and conclusion of new agreements by Member Statesby the Member States of new agreements in line with EU investment policy and the judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU; encourages the Commission to open infringement procedures where Member States do not amend the old treaties in the light of current European legislation;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Stresses that international investment facilitation agreements should support investments which promote sustainable development and do not create incentives to cause damage to nature, the climate or society; regrets that the negotiations conducted by the EU at the WTO and with certain states to facilitate investment are insufficiently precise about the types of investment to be supported; calls on the Commission not to impose disciplinary conduct on host countries, but to favour instead a model based on cooperation and technical assistance; encourages the Commission to include measures to ensure that investments made through these agreements respect human rights and do not cause environmental damage, and to establish redress and compliance mechanisms in the case of violations; expects the new investment facilitation rules not to be subject to investor-to-state dispute resolution clauses;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Points out that the ECT is the most litigated investment agreement in the world today; welcomes efforts to modernise the ECT and the EU’s position to exclude protection for most fossil fuel investments; notes that investments considered ‘significantly harmful’ under the EU taxonomy would remain protected according to the EU’s position; underlines that amending the ECT requires unanimity of all contracting parties voting at the annual conferencregrets that ISDS remains unchanged in the ECT modernisation process; is concerned about its incompatibility with the case law of the Court of Justice; underlines that amending the ECT requires unanimity of all contracting parties voting at the annual conference; calls on the Commission to be consistent with its own investment policy by leaving the ECT, which includes this anachronistic ISDS clause;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. UNotes with great concern that the most ambitious outcome of the ECT modernisation would be to continue to protect existing investments in the coal, gas and oil sectors until at least 2030; urges the Commission to ensure that a revised ECT will immediately prohibit fossil fuel investors from suing contracting parties for pursuing policies to phase out fossil fuels in line with their commitments under the Paris Agreement; calls on the Commission and the Member States to start preparing a coordinated exit from the ECT with a view to formal submission to the Council in the event of the negotiating objectives not being achieved by June 2022;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Member States to adopt without delay the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the EU, of the UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor- State Arbitration; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support the entry into force of a binding international legal mechanism, currently being drawn up by the UN Human Rights Council, aimed at regulating the activities of transnational companies and firms;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the IIAs in force or being negotiated in order to develop an investment policy consistent with the objective of carbon neutrality, the Sustainable Development Goals and the strategic goals of the European Union;