He assumes that it is an “obsolete” instrument, but rejects a solo march for the sake of legal certainty
MADRID, 25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The PP will defend on Thursday in Congress delaying Spain’s departure from the Energy Charter Treaty (TCE) that the Government wants to accelerate, because it is in favor of negotiating a coordinated withdrawal with the rest of the States of the European Union in order to guarantee “greater legal certainty”.
Specifically, the Popular Group will defend an amendment to the entirety presented to the Government’s complaint to the Lisbon Energy Charter Treaty of 1994, a multilateral agreement of which the majority of EU Member States and the European Community are part. of Atomic Energy (Euratom) and from which the Government wants to leave for not adapting to the objectives of the energy transition.
Although the PP shares the opinion of the European Parliament and believes that the Charter is an “obsolete instrument that does not serve the interests of the European Union”, it also remembers that the European Parliament believes that a “coordinated exit” with the rest of the Member States of the European Union to have “more strength in the withdrawal negotiations.”
“A coordinated withdrawal in conjunction with the rest of the countries of the Union would provide us with greater legal security as a country and would return us to European energy centrality, moving us away from the current exceptionalities,” justifies the PP in its amendment, collected by Europa Press.
But this is not the only reason why the Popular Group asks to postpone the departure of Spain. They also allege that the processing through the emergency procedure carried out by the Government “is not sufficiently substantiated.”
The Government justified the urgent procedure because the denunciations of the treaty take effect after a year and considered it appropriate to accelerate the procedures to leave “as soon as possible.” But the PP indicates that the provisions of the ECT relating to investments will continue to apply for 20 years once the treaty is denounced.
And one of the reasons why the Government wanted to withdraw from the Energy Charter was to avoid million-dollar claims from foreign investors in energy infrastructure that the treaty protects, especially related to fossil fuels. The Executive denounced that the Energy Charter is the legal basis for which 51 arbitrations have been filed against Spain for a value greater than 10,000 million euros.
However, the PP indicates that these arbitrations have occurred for violating article 10 of the treaty, relating to the promotion, protection and treatment of investments, through the premiums for renewable energies that were approved under the Government of José Luis. RodrÃguez Zapatero and that created “a bubble of great returns for investors.”
“The TCE has not protected investments in fossil fuels in Spain, but has protected large international funds due to the legal uncertainty promoted by the Government of Spain, mainly in 2010,” denounces the PP.
Spain is not the only country that wants to leave this treaty. And, 30 years after its signing, the agreement has provoked rejection by several Member States for not adapting to the objectives of the energy transition.
In addition to the European Parliament, the European Commission also requested the withdrawal of its respective members from the agreement last year and countries such as Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Luxembourg have already requested their departure.
