Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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36. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he supports the proposal of the European Commissioner, Ms Cecilia Malmström, to the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, that the European Union should work towards the establishment of an international investment court and appellate mechanism, in place of the existing investor-state dispute settlements mechanism attached to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. [18382/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU Commission has been working over the last few months on a number of areas by way of follow-up to its public consultation on ISDS. These are: the protection of the right to regulate; the establishment and functioning of arbitral tribunals; the relationship between domestic judicial systems and Investor to State Dispute Settlement (ISDS); and the review of ISDS decisions for legal correctness through an appellate mechanism.

Last week, the EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, presented a concept paper to the EU Council of Ministers and to the EU Parliament’s International Trade Committee. The paper sets out ideas for reforming the current ISDS system, with the overall aim of creating a new modern system of investment arbitration. The ideas include strengthening governments' right to regulate, making arbitral tribunals operate more like traditional court systems with a clear code of conduct for arbitrators, and guaranteeing access to an appeals system. The idea of an eventual international investment court is a longer term prospect. The paper can be found at:

I welcome the comprehensive work by the EU Commission in following up on the views expressed by stakeholders, and the ideas it has set out in the concept paper, which I will be carefully considering.