Dr. Yamina Saheb:

I thank the committee for the invitation. The Energy Charter Treaty, ECT, is a multilateral agreement from the 1990s that has been ratified by all EU countries. As of today, there are 53 contracting parties, including the EU. Italy is the only EU country that has withdrawn from the treaty, having done so in 2016. The treaty protects foreign investment in energy production without distinguishing between environmentally harmful and environmentally friendly energy sources. Protection is given by means of private arbitration. This means that foreign investors - and, as a French citizen, I would be considered a foreign investor in the committee's country, Ireland, and vice versa- can sue governments for any changes in their energy policies or subsidies. As of today, there have been 143 investor-state dispute settlements under the Energy Charter Treaty, two thirds of which are related to changes in subsidies for renewable energy in Spain and Italy. The rest of these cases, which are outside the EU, mainly relate to fossil fuels.

What we have started to see, and what will accelerate with the implementation of the carbon or climate neutrality target, is investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, cases in EU countries in respect of the phasing out of fossil fuel. The Netherlands has been sued over the phasing out of coal power plants. Germany is to be sued again. It was sued in the past over its coal and nuclear phase-out. The German Government signed an agreement with investors to provide them with compensation. The compensation amounts to billions of euro if they do not sue the German Government using the Energy Charter Treaty. By January 2020, we estimated the value of stranded fossil fuel assets protected by the ECT to be €2.15 trillion, and we estimated the potential cost of ISDS cases related-----