The German coalition government has agreed to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty and abstain in the upcoming European Council vote intended to allow the European Union to adopt ECT reform outcomes at the Energy Charter Conference on November 22nd. This was communicated by the leader of German Greens in the European Parliament, Katharina Dröge via Twitter.
Her deputy Andreas Audretsch also tweeted the compromise text in full, which reveals that Germany intends to abstain in the European Council. “We applaud the German decision to leave this toxic treaty behind. An EU withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty has become inevitable.
The Union cannot remain in an agreement that all of its largest members reject as an obstacle to climate policies. EU Member States must now refuse to give green light to Energy Charter Treaty reform at the upcoming Council vote.
Attempting ratification would cost too much time and is bound to fail anyway. The European Commission shouldn’t waste anymore time and initiate a coordinated withdrawal immediately.” said Cornelia Maarfield, Trade and Investment Policy Expert at Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe. The German decision follows similar announcements from Poland, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Slovenia, who all said they will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty.
Italy already withdrew in 2016. The question is now whether there will be a qualified majority in favour of adopting ECT reform outcomes at the European Council of Ministers. If not, the European Union will not be able to adopt the reform outcomes at an upcoming Energy Charter Conference in Mongolia on 22 November.
Image: Stefan Kaminski (photography), Katharina Dröge (full rights of use) – ticket:2014112010014874, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/…
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