CCSI | 14 October 2024

After intra-EU BITs and the ECT, the EU needs to abandon extra-EU BITs—for legal, energy and climate policy, and political economy reasons

by Martin Dietrich Brauch, Stefan Mayr and Carl Frederick Luthin

Since 2020, the EU and its member states have adopted legal instruments to terminate intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). As a logical next step, they should focus on ending the 1,103 BITs in force between EU members and extra-EU partners. These extra-EU BITs risk undermining the autonomy of EU law, hinder EU energy and climate goals, and fail to establish balanced sustainable investment partnerships with third states, as envisaged by the European Commission.

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