Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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62. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the European Union free trade agreements entered into since 2000 that have included dispute settlement mechanism based on the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in tabular form. [31967/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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63. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the European Union free trade agreements entered into since 2009 which include investor to state dispute settlement mechanisms in trade and investment agreements in tabular form. [31968/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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64. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of bilateral trade agreements entered into by EU member states since the late 1960s which contain provisions to protect investments and investor to state dispute settlement. [31969/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 62 to 64, inclusive, together.

A key feature of regional trade agreements, which comprise of customs unions, free trade agreements (“FTAs”), economic partnership agreements (“EPAs”), and bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”) is the provision for the settlement of disputes between the state parties concerning the interpretation and application of the agreements’ provisions.

Since the late 1960s, over 1400 bilateral investment agreements, or BITs, have been entered into by EU Member States which have contained provisions to protect investments.

The European Union has included dispute settlement mechanisms based on the WTO dispute settlement mechanism in all of its Trade Agreements since 2000. The Free Trade Agreements which have concluded with the provisions are as follows:

*Ecuador joined the EU-Columbia/Peru Free Trade Agreement on 11 November 2016.  The talks for a Trade Agreement were launched in January 2009 between the EU and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In July 2009, Ecuador suspended its participation in the talks. Negotiations for an EU-Colombia/Peru Free Trade Agreement were concluded in March 2010, with the Agreement being provisionally applied as of March 2013 with Peru and August 2013 with Colombia.  In January 2014 Ecuador formally resumed negotiations, and these concluded in July 2014.

Since 2009 the European Union has also included dispute settlement mechanisms for investment disputes in free trade agreements. These agreements are as follows;

In late 2015, the Commission proposed a new approach to investment protection based on an international Investment Court System (ICS), to replace the historic Investor State Dispute Settlement system. The new system is an independent investment court system, consisting of a permanent tribunal and an appeal tribunal competent to review decisions of the tribunal. Dispute settlement proceedings will be conducted in a transparent and impartial manner.  Provisions for the application of such a system have been included in more recent FTAs.

The ultimate aim of the European Commission is to establish a multilateral court, modelled on arbitrator panels currently operating under the WTO, and other Investment Tribunals.  It will build on the EU's approach on its bilateral FTAs and be a major departure from the system of investor-to-State dispute settlement (ISDS) based on ad hoc commercial arbitration.  The recently concluded EU-Canada trade agreement (CETA) and the EU-Vietnam trade agreement both contain a reference to the establishment of a permanent multilateral investment court. Work continues at EU level on this matter.