{"id":8433,"date":"2021-06-24T08:44:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T13:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cf.iisd.net\/itn\/?p=8433"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:31:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:31:46","slug":"european-energy-disputes-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2021\/06\/24\/european-energy-disputes-update\/","title":{"rendered":"European Energy Disputes Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2020\/06\/20\/eu-member-states-sign-agreement-to-terminate-intra-eu-bits-while-german-investor-brings-claim-against-the-netherlands-under-the-ect\/\">reported<\/a>, German-owned energy company Uniper put the Netherlands on notice of an investment dispute last year, following the announcement of the country\u2019s plan to phase out coal-burning power plants by 2030. Alongside RWE, another German energy company, Uniper made good on that threat earlier this year; both companies<a href=\"https:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/cases\/recent\"> initiated <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> claims<\/a> lodged under the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips67'>ECT<\/span> this spring.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the Netherlands has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iareporter.com\/articles\/breaking-the-netherlands-seeks-anti-arbitration-ruling-from-german-courts-with-respect-to-two-ect-based-icsid-proceedings\/\">reportedly<\/a> asked German courts to review the legal basis of these claims, on the grounds that the ECT dispute settlement mechanism contravenes <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips117'>EU<\/span> law, following the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips42'>CJEU<\/span>\u2019s <em>Achmea <\/em>decision.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note:<\/em> A longer discussion of Belgium\u2019s questioning of the ECT\u2019s legality under EU law can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2021\/03\/23\/the-uncertain-future-of-the-energy-charter-treaty-belgium-asks-the-european-court-of-justice-to-rule-on-the-compatibility-of-the-modernized-ect-with-eu-law-stefanie-schacherer\/\">here<\/a>. Moreover, in this issue, we argue that withdrawal from the ECT is an option worth considering.<\/p>\n<h3>Germany Reaches Settlement With Vattenfall in Long-Running Dispute Over Nuclear Phase-Out<\/h3>\n<p>Putting an end to a decade-long dispute, the government of Germany has agreed to compensate four major energy companies for its decision\u2014following the 2011 disaster in Japan\u2019s Fukushima nuclear plant\u2014to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Announced on March 5, 2021, the agreement sets out a payment totalling EUR 2.8 billion to Swedish-owned Vattenfall as well as several domestic companies and it settles all legal disputes with them.<\/p>\n<p>Vattenfall had, in 2021, initiated an international arbitration under the ECT before ICSID, claiming EUR 4.7 billion due to losses suffered from the nuclear energy phase-out.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, Germany\u2019s Constitutional Court ruled that the phase-out was lawful but that the companies affected should nevertheless be compensated. Vattenfall won a federal court case in November 2020, arguing the German Government failed to implement the 2016 decision. The ICSID proceedings hearing Vattenfall\u2019s claim against Germany were <a href=\"https:\/\/icsid.worldbank.org\/cases\/case-database\/case-detail?CaseNo=ARB\/12\/12\">suspended<\/a> on March 11, 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Vattenfall, which operated two nuclear power plants in Brunsb\u00fcttel and Kr\u00fcmmel in northern Germany, will be compensated EUR 1.43 billion, subject to taxation.<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/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('.classtoolTips42','Court of Justice of the European Union'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips60','Investment Treaty News'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips65','East African community'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips109','Corte de Justicia Europea'); <\/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>As we reported, German-owned energy company Uniper put the Netherlands on notice of an investment dispute last year, following the announcement of the country\u2019s plan to phase out coal-burning power plants by 2030. Alongside RWE, another German energy company, Uniper made good on that threat earlier this year; both companies initiated <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips18'>ICSID<\/span> claims lodged under the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips67'>ECT<\/span> this spring.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips18','International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips72','Investment Court System'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips100','investissement direct \u00e9tranger'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/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":[1907,1901,1919,1927],"class_list":["post-8433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ect","tag-isds","tag-energy","tag-intra-eu-bits"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433","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=8433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8433\/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=8433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}