{"id":5841,"date":"2018-12-21T08:48:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T14:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=5841"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:29:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:29:19","slug":"european-union-signs-trade-and-investment-agreements-with-singapore-eu-japan-epa-to-enter-into-force-on-february-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2018\/12\/21\/european-union-signs-trade-and-investment-agreements-with-singapore-eu-japan-epa-to-enter-into-force-on-february-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"European Union signs trade and investment agreements with Singapore; EU\u2013Japan EPA to enter into force on February 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On October 19, 2018, <a href=\"http:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/doclib\/press\/index.cfm?id=1926&amp;title=EU-and-Singapore-forge-closer-economic-and-political-ties\">Singapore and the European Union signed<\/a> political and trade agreements as well as the <a href=\"http:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/doclib\/press\/index.cfm?id=961\"><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span>\u2013Singapore Investment Protection Agreement (IPA)<\/a>. The texts are intended to be building blocks toward similar <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips15'>ASEAN<\/span>\u2013EU agreements.<\/p>\n<p>The EU\u2013Singapore IPA is subject to <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/ALL\/?uri=CELEX:62015CV0002(01)\">Opinion 2\/15<\/a>\u00a0of the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips66'>ECJ<\/span>. On May 16, 2017, the court decided that the treaty fell within exclusive EU competence, except for certain provisions that fall within a competence shared between the EU and its member states. These include provisions on investment protection related to portfolio investment and on <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips43'>ISDS<\/span>. The IPA creates an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2015\/11\/26\/investment-court-system-proposed-by-european-commission\/\">Investment Court System<\/a>, following the EU proposal in its recent bilateral agreements.<\/p>\n<p>As a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2017\/06\/12\/ecj-rules-that-european-union-singapore-fta-requires-ratification-by-eu-member-states\/\">mixed agreement<\/a>, on the EU side, the IPA will require ratification the European Parliament as well as by national and regional parliaments of EU member states.<\/p>\n<p>On December 12, 2018, the <a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/press-release_IP-18-6749_en.htm\">European Parliament approved<\/a> the EU\u2013Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (JEEPA), following a similar decision by Japan\u2019s National Diet. Given that the JEEPA does not cover investment protection or ISDS, parliamentary ratification by both partners paves the way for its entry into force on February 1, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>EU\u2013Japan negotiations continue for a potential agreement on investment protection. In the proposed agreement, the European Union has also included a reformed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2015\/11\/26\/investment-court-system-proposed-by-european-commission\/\">Investment Court System<\/a> proposal and has stated that \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/press-release_MEMO-18-6784_en.htm\">it is clear that there can be no return to the old-style ISDS<\/a>.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips15','Association of Southeast Asian Nations'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips16','Asociaci\u00f3n de Naciones del Sudeste Asi\u00e1tico'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips32','International Institute for Sustainable Development<!--more-->'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips33','Institut international du d\u00e9veloppement durable'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips34','Instituto Internacional para el Desarrollo Sostenible'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips43','investor\u2013state dispute settlement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips58','soluci\u00f3n de controversias inversionista-Estado'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips60','Investment Treaty News'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips66','European Court of Justice'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips70','free trade agreement'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips76','multilateral investment court'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 19, 2018, Singapore and the European Union signed political and trade agreements as well as the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span>\u2013Singapore Investment Protection Agreement (IPA). <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips117','European Union'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1983,1938,1926,1985,2044,2055,2047],"class_list":["post-5841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-asean","tag-cjeu","tag-eu","tag-investment-court-system-ics","tag-japan","tag-jeepa","tag-singapore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}