Dr. Yamina Saheb:

Perhaps the Energy Charter Treaty made sense in the 1990s. However, when Russia withdrew in 2009 the treaty's raison d'êtredisappeared. That is why today the treaty does not make sense today. The EU and the energy sector do not need it. One of the main arguments made is that one of the treaty's benefits is to regulate trade and transit in the energy sector. However, this is already done in the World Trade Organization. The Energy Charter Treaty made sense at the time because we did not have the WTO, the energy community treaty and the various partnerships the EU has built since the 1990s. Today, the Energy Charter Treaty would be useful to us for our relations in respect of energy with Afghanistan, although it is not really a provider of energy to us; Australia, which was providing us with coal but withdrew from the treaty only recently and we no longer need because it is not important for our energy security; and Jordan, Mongolia and Yemen, which are not important for our energy security. These are the only countries which are not covered and with which we do not have any other agreement for our energy security. We have different kinds of agreement with all other countries that are parties to the Energy Charter Treaty. Russia, the main provider of fossil fuels to Europe, has joined the WTO and withdrawn from the treaty. Therefore, from an energy security perspective, the ECT does not make sense.

From the flow of investment perspective, with respect to investment in ECT contracting parties, we see that EU investors invest in EU counties and non-EU investors, namely, those from former Soviet Union republics, invest in those republics. The OECD has an explanation for that, which is set out in its studies relating to investment treaties and trade agreements as opposed to energy.

It is not the trade agreements and ISDS that attract investors in the first place; there are other factors that attract investors. In the EU's case, one of the explanations is the Single Market. Because EU countries are in the Single Market and operate under EU rules, there are EU investors investing in other EU countries. We do not see any risk when we invest in other EU countries because we are protected by the EU rules. Then, when you look at it from-----