Industry News

EU Study on ISDS

January 14 , 2015


    The European Union conducted a study that revealed the public is generally opposed to the investor-state dispute settlement system (ISDS) as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).  The study reviewed 150,000 public comments from March 2014 to July 2014.  The study found four specific areas that needed improvement, including “the protections of the right to regulate; the establishment and functioning of arbitral tribunals; the relationship between domestic judicial systems and ISDS; [and] the review of ISDS decisions through and appellate mechanism”.  The study found that “many respondents recognise the EU’s efforts to improve the investment protection system, but consider for various reasons that the approach is insufficient.”   The comments revealed that individuals wanted “stronger investor obligations” in regards to “social responsibilit[es].”

    The European Union is not currently in discussion with other nations over ISDS.  They are using this report to find a path that will benefit member nations.  The European Commission wrote, “The negotiations on investment in TTIP have been suspended and will only resume once the Commission has come to the assessment that its new proposals guarantee among other things that the jurisdiction of courts in the EU Member States will not be limited by special regimes for investor-to-state-disputes.”

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