CIAO DATE: 02/2013
January 2013
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
The Lisbon Treaty endowed the European Union (EU) with the exclusive competence to conclude agreements on foreign direct investment (FDI). Given the economic power and relevance of the Union in the FDI field, a new hallmark could thunder through the world of investment arbitration as we know it. The latest example of this kind is the proposal for a regulation highlighting the Union’s desire to establish solutions explicitly tailored to its needs -- solutions not necessarily compatible with the mechanisms international investors are used to under modern bilateral investment treaties (BITs).
Resource link: Trying to change the rules for responding to arbitration unilaterally: The proposed new framework for investor-state dispute settlement for the EU [PDF]