Invitation to Comment: European Commission Investment Dispute Resolution Policy

Comments Period ends 15 March 2017

This is to invite members of the Mediation, Conflict Management and Dispute Resolution Community to participate in the European Commission (EC) consultation on investment dispute resolution policy.

As you may be aware, in 2014 the IMI Investor-State Mediation Taskforce submitted comments for the last public consultation on this topic launched by the Commission.  The Taskforce looks forward to updating those comments.

It would be good of course for the EC to hear from a wide variety of commentators. When crafting your response to the EC please do consider the argument for mediation as an integral part of any mature dispute resolution process. And, in any case, please send a copy of your response to Taskforce Chair Mark Appel appelm@appeldisputeresolution.com and Taskforce Secretary Conrad Daly ccd45@cornell.edu as your comments will inform our further efforts.

A description of the EC consultation process taken from the PLI Arbitration newsletter follows for information:

EC commences new public consultation on multilateral reform of investment dispute resolution

The European Commission (EC) has launched a new public consultation on the EU’s investment dispute resolution policy and the options for multilateral reform, including the possible establishment of a permanent multilateral investment court.

Following a public consultation on the reform of EU investment policy in 2014, the EC published a Concept Paper in May 2015 on potential improvements to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP), which included the suggestion of a permanent multilateral investment court (see Legal updates, EC launch public consultation on investor protection in EU-US trade dealandCecilia Malmström publishes concept paper on reform of ISDS in the TTIP). In September 2015, the EC put forward a proposal for a new investment court system to replace the existing ISDS provisions in all ongoing and future trade and investment negotiations between the EU and other states (seeLegal update, European Commission proposes Investment Court System for EU trade agreements). In August 2016, the EC published an Inception Impact Assessment on a proposal for a Council Decision authorising the EC to negotiate a Convention to establish a multilateral investment court (see Legal update, European Commission publishes impact assessment on multilateral investment court). This new public consultation, which includes a detailed questionnaire seeking views on the options for a multilateral investment court, should be read in light of, and will feed into, the Impact Assessment report.

The EC has requested that the questionnaires be completed by 15 March 2017.

Source: European Commission: Questionnaire on options for a multilateral reform of investment dispute resolution.

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