{"id":5994,"date":"2019-04-23T06:48:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T11:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=5994"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:29:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:29:42","slug":"european-economic-and-social-committee-recommends-improvements-clarifications-for-mic-discussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2019\/04\/23\/european-economic-and-social-committee-recommends-improvements-clarifications-for-mic-discussions\/","title":{"rendered":"European Economic and Social Committee recommends improvements, clarifications for MIC discussions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has weighed in on the European Commission\u2019s recommendation for a European Council decision to launch negotiations on the proposed <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips76'>MIC<\/span>, supporting discussions on <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips43'>ISDS<\/span> reform while noting areas for improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The European Council <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2018\/04\/24\/council-of-the-european-union-adopts-negotiating-directives-eu-commission-to-negotiate-a-convention-establishing-a-multilateral-investment-court\/\">already gave its backing<\/a> last year to the Commission\u2019s recommendation for launching MIC negotiations with interested parties, and approved final negotiating directives.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the European Commission has continued consultations with stakeholders on the subject and has submitted its proposal to the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips3'>UNCITRAL<\/span> Working Group III process for multilateral ISDS reform ahead of its April 2019 meetings.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/PDF\/?uri=CELEX:52017AE6154&amp;from=EN\">EESC opinion<\/a>, issued on March 22, 2019, says that the committee \u201cwelcomes the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span> Commission\u2019s efforts towards a multilateral reform of ISDS under the auspices of UNCITRAL and considers it vital that the EU remains open to all approaches and ideas that have surfaced regarding ISDS reform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The EESC is a 350-member body that brings together \u201ceconomic and social interest groups\u201d from across the European Union\u2019s member states. Its role as a consultative body was established and reaffirmed in multiple EU treaties.<\/p>\n<p>The EESC \u201ccalls for an improved and more balanced invitation of stakeholders\u201d in that process, and stresses that there are still several key unanswered questions regarding the MIC proposal, including \u201cthe scope, the protection of public interest, accessibility and relations with domestic courts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the committee notes that there are additional options for addressing concerns over the current international investment regime. These include, for example, \u201cstrengthening the domestic judiciary; providing insurance to investors, such as through the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank; dispute prevention; more conciliatory forms of dispute settlement, such as mediation; investment promotion; and State-to-state Dispute Settlement.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips3','United Nations Commission on International Trade Law'); <\/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('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/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('.classtoolTips114','Sistema de Tribunales de Inversiones'); <\/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>The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has weighed in on the European Commission\u2019s recommendation for a European Council decision to launch negotiations on the proposed <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips76'>MIC<\/span>, supporting discussions on <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips43'>ISDS<\/span> reform while noting areas for improvement.<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('.classtoolTips76','multilateral investment court'); <\/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":[1926,1916,1985,1980,2008,1908],"class_list":["post-5994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-eu","tag-european-parliament","tag-investment-court-system-ics","tag-multilateral-investment-court-mic","tag-state-state-dispute-settlement","tag-uncitral"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994","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=5994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/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=5994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}