On 8 June at 13:00-17:00, the State Chancellery and RGSL will host a panel discussion: Investment protection in the European Union after the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case C-284/16 “Slovak Republic vs Achmea BV”.
In its judgement, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the arbitration clause contained in Article 8 of the 1991 Netherlands-Slovakia bilateral investment treaty (BIT) has an adverse effect on the autonomy of the EU law, and is therefore incompatible with the EU law. The CJEU set the first precedent with respect to the incompatibility with EU law of arbitration clauses contained in intra-EU BITs. Although not binding upon investment treaty tribunals the CJEU’s ruling is likely to have far-reaching consequences for investor-state disputes under the 196 intra-EU BITs currently in force and may be the first step towards more profound changes affecting intra-EU investment treaty arbitration.
In order to discuss the impact of the ruling, participants of the panel discussion will review the following questions:
- The reach of the Achmea judgement;
- Impact on current cases under the intra-EU BITs and the European Energy Charter;
- Impact on the recognition and implementation of the intra-EU BIT’s arbitration rulings;
- Protection of the EU investors after the Achmea judgment;
- Anticipated action in regards to termination of the intra-EU BITs.
The panel include experts in public international law, foreign investment protection and EU law:
- Dr. Angelos Dimopoulos, Queen Marry University of London,
- Dr. Richard Happ, partner at the law office “Luther”,
- Barton Legum, partner at the law office “Dentons”, Paris office,
- Tomáš Lipták, Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic,
- Dr. Mārtiņš Paparinskis, University College London,
- Thomas Wiedmann, EU Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.
Dr. Ineta Ziemele, RGSL professor and the President of the Constitutional Court will open the panel discussion. She is also Latvia’s representative at the Permanent Court of Arbitration and a former Section President at the European Court of Human Rights. Dr. Ilze Dubava, lawyer at the State Chancellery and Dr. Inese Druviete, RGSL docent will be moderating the discussion.
Please, register: https://goo.gl/forms/mwdazwijAsIqEtX32