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Establishment of a Multilateral Investment Court

EU internal developments• September 2017

• Commission Recommendation for a Council Decision authorising the opening of negotiations for a Convention establishing a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes and draft negotiating directives

• Impact Assessment

• March 2018• Council adopts negotiating directives authorising the

Commission to open negotiations for a Convention establishing a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes

Commitment to transparency• All documents are available at:

https://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1608

• First negotiating directives to be published upon adoption : http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-12981-2017-ADD-1-DCL-1/en/pdf

UNCITRAL discussions and transparency

UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) commitment to transparency and openness.

• Participation open to all UN members and any interested party (international/regional organisations, civil society).

• Observer status.

• Meeting reports: https://uncitral.un.org/en/working_groups/3/investor-state

• Audio recordings: https://uncitral.un.org/en/audiorecordingstemporary

UNCITRAL WG III mandate and progress

CONCLUDED1st : November 2017 (Vienna) 2nd: April 2018 (NY)

CONCLUDED3rd: October 2018 (Vienna)

ONGOINGFrom 4th: April 2019 (NY)

Phase 1: Identification of concerns with ISDS

• Meetings: November 2017, April 2018.

• Concerns identified include :

• Duration and costs of proceedings

• Transparency

• Consistency of case law

• Limited review of ISDS decisions

• Appointment of arbitrators: transparency, double-hatting, limited pool, etc.

• Without prejudice to additional concerns that may continue to be raised.

Phase 2: Need for reform of ISDS• October 2018 meeting.

• Agreement in the WG that reform is desirable to address concerns: Lack of consistency, coherence, predictability and

correctness of ISDS decisions

Arbitrators and decision-makers

Cost and duration of cases

• Thematic discussion papers by the Secretariat.

• These concerns are without prejudice to additional concerns that will continue to be discussed (e.g. third-party funding).

Phase 3: Development of relevant solutions

• April 2019 and future meetings.

• On process: • Parallel tracks on structural / institutional and incremental

reform.• Inter-sessional meeting in Conakry, Guinea (September

2019).• Additional working week (January 2020).

• Substantive discussions.

UNCITRAL WG III next steps5th meeting: 14-18 October 2019

• Expectation is the WG will agree to discuss substantive issues and proceed as per the UNCITRAL Secretariat paper on reform options (https://undocs.org/en/A/CN.9/WG.III/WP.166).

• Relations to other international bodies (OECD, UNCTAD).

• Good involvement and active participation of delegations across continents. Importance of UNCITRAL Trust Fund (EU, DE, CH).

• Thematic inter-sessional meetings.

Submissions to UNCITRAL WG IIIEuropean Union and Member States on possible reform of ISDS available in all UN languages (January 2019):

Arabic: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/30/PDF/V1708830.pdf?OpenElement

Chinese: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/31/PDF/V1708831.pdf?OpenElement

English: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/32/PDF/V1708832.pdf?OpenElement

French: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/33/PDF/V1708833.pdf?OpenElement

Russian: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/34/PDF/V1708834.pdf?OpenElement

Spanish: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V17/088/35/PDF/V1708835.pdf?OpenElement

Submissions to UNCITRAL WG III• Other submissions by governments: Indonesia; Morocco;

Thailand; Chile, Israel, Mexico and Peru; Costa Rica; Brazil; Colombia; Turkey; Ecuador; South Africa; China; Korea; Bahrain; Mali; …

• UNCITRAL Secretariat thematic papers: Reform options, Code of Conduct, Advisory Centre, Appointment of tribunal members, Reflective loss, Third-party funding, …

• Academic Forum papers: Code of conduct, Shareholder claims, Selection and appointment, Third-party financing, Advisory centre. Available at : https://www.jus.uio.no/pluricourts/english/projects/leginvest/academic-forum/papers/concept-papers.html

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