Decentral implementation of EU investment policy: convergence, divergence and EU-plus
ENThe legal protection of investments around the globe is mainly influenced by a broad variety of international agreements, such as Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with investment chapters, specific Investment Protection Agreements (IPAs) as well as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). Within the EU, the past decades have shown fundamental changes in the way that negotiations and the conclusion of such agreements are carried out. The central approach with negotiations on an EU level has faced several problems, especially in light of the need for ratification by the Member States. Therefore, more room is given to a new decentral approach with negotiations of BITs by individual Member States being authorised by the European Commission. This calls for a comparison of EU agreements and Member States’ BITs with regard to procedural and substantive investment protection standards. As this comparative exercise will show, new Member States’ BITs are largely convergent with the EU’s international investment policy, but also leave limited room for divergence (following the old European gold standard) and an EU-plus approach.
