The European Union Investment Arbitration Regime and Local Governments: The Need for a Synchronization of Efforts

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-85
Author(s):  
Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko

Problem setting. The rapid development of public relations determines the use of information technology in all spheres of life, including in the field of public administration. There is no doubt about the need to introduce elements of e-government into everyday life, as it improves the lives of ordinary citizens, increases trust in public authorities and local governments, reduces the time spent on businesses and individuals needed to receive services. Analysis of recent research. The issue of providing digital social services was paid attention to by, V.P Kohan, M.M. Petrova, N.M. Terletska, D.I. Rusnak, V.L. Polar, V.V. Ripples. The formation of an appropriate mechanism for the digital provision of social administrative services in Ukraine remains unresolved. Target of research. The article is to define the tasks for the formation of the administrative and legal mechanism and the use of digitalization in the provision of social administrative services. Article’s main body. New online services are being introduced on the territory of Ukraine, which enable consumers to receive it remotely. In our opinion, in the future, these services should simplify the procedure for accessing them, given the subjects who are primarily interested in using them, and expand the scope of their provision: from informing the consumer to receiving the result. But these tasks can be accomplished only with the proper financial and material support of local governments, including the poorest financially united territorial communities. In addition, local governments should be required to retain technical specialists and consultants who will provide software and hardware for the provision of administrative social services and eliminate the inability of certain segments of the population to use high-tech digital services. These tasks should be attributed to those that require constant monitoring of their implementation and improvement of their mechanism. Features of the regime of social services are that: 1) their list is not defined by law, so it is more determined by the subjects – recipients of services; 2) socialization of services involves the organization of simplified access of citizens to administrative services; 3) the mechanism for providing accessible social services must ensure the protection of personal data of service recipients. Conclusions and prospects for the development. The unification of types of social administrative services and mechanisms of their provision with similar services provided in the countries of the European Union may be key to Ukraine’s progress towards a single digital space with the European Union.


Author(s):  
Julie A. Ewald ◽  
Robin J.A. Sharp ◽  
Pedro Beja ◽  
Robert Kenward

In order to design TESS, it was necessary to determine how and what information is utilized across Europe when decisions affecting the environment are made at present, and which systems now in place appear to be working in terms of environmental protection and conservation. The authors used a Pan-European survey to determine not only which systems are currently in place but also what further information is needed by national and local governments as well as stakeholders. Results from this survey, together with published information from previous projects, the European Union and the United Nations, were collated into a database for further analysis. Here, the authors describe both the Pan-European survey methodology and also the database.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eirik Bjorge

This article questions whether the law of the European Union (eu) can impose jurisdictional constraints on so-called intra-eu investment arbitration proceedings. Would an arbitral tribunal hearing an intra-eu case under either a bilateral investment treaty (bit) or under the Energy Charter Treaty (ect) have to declare itself incompetent to conduct the case proceedings owing to the operation of eu law? This article subjects that proposition to criticism, finding that, for a number of reasons, connected either with the drafting of the bit or the ect or the operation of general principles of international law, it does not withstand scrutiny. An arbitral tribunal seized of a treaty claim under a bit or the ect cannot rely on eu law to negate rights expressly granted under the instrument providing for its jurisdiction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-177
Author(s):  
Sahra Arif

The Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) found that arbitration clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BITS) between Member States of the European Union are incompatible with European Union law. Following this, Member States attempted to invoke this judgment in relation to similar intra-EU arbitrations under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Tribunals established under the ECT have however generally rejected the applicability of the Achmea judgement. While the EU Commission and the majority of Member States concluded that this judgment also precludes intra-EU ect arbitrations, a few Member States held the opposite view. The future of intra-EU ECT arbitrations therefore seems fragile in the least. A closer analysis of the decisions of ECT Tribunals, and the relationship between obligations under European Union law and international law however argues that the future of such intra-EU ECT arbitrations is not as fragile as it may seem.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13595
Author(s):  
Renata Anisiewicz

The aim of this work is to study the conditions for developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem of regional tourism at the external border of the European Union, in Poland, and its contact points with two non-Union countries (Belarus, Ukraine). The research used a literature review, qualitative and quantitative analyses of the conditions for the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems, interviews with local ecosystem actors and the author’s own observations. The eastern border of Poland (formerly with the USSR) created a barrier to the socio-economic development of adjacent regions. Their peripheral nature has allowed preserving their precious nature value and multicultural heritage. Currently, this preservation constitutes grounds for sustainably developing the region’s tourism. The primary actors of the tourism-based entrepreneurial ecosystem are local governments, public institutions, non-governmental organisations and entrepreneurs. An impetus for activities thereof was granted by Poland’s accession to the EU and its access to Union funds, which has reinforced tourism infrastructure by contributing to the establishment of new tourism enterprises. Furthermore, the development of tourism in the region could also be favoured by the close neighbourhood of as many as two other countries; however, and unfortunately, the border is still a barrier. Apart from the lack of infrastructure allowing borders crossings, political instability in neighbouring countries—made explicitly visible at the border with Belarus in 2021—threatens border-driven tourism by restricting tourism entrepreneurship, especially in those activities based on the access to the border.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 866
Author(s):  
Ibon Hualde López ◽  
Victoria Sánchez Pos

  Resumen: El pasado mes de marzo el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea abrió una vía favo­rable para España al declarar, mediante la sentencia resolutoria de una petición de decisión prejudicial planteada por el Tribunal de casación alemán, que la cláusula de arbitraje incluida en el Tratado para el Fomento y la Protección Recíprocos de las Inversiones celebrado en 1991 entre el Reino de los Países Bajos y la República Federal Checa y Eslovaca (TBI) no es compatible con el Derecho de la Unión Europea. El presente trabajo tiene por objeto realizar un análisis de la mencionada sentencia, recaída el 6 de marzo de 2018, con el objetivo de valorar su incidencia en el arbitraje de inversión en nuestro país.Palabras clave: Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea, petición de decisión prejudicial, arbitra­je de inversión, cláusula de arbitraje, Derecho de la Unión Europea.Abstract: This past March, the European Union Court of Justice provided a favorable opening for Spain when it held (by its judgement on a request for a preliminary ruling submitted by the German Court of Cassation) that the arbitration clause which had been included in the “Treaty on the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments” signed in 1991 between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (BIT) was not compatible with European Union law. This paper aims at analyzing the above-mentioned judgment, which was issued on 6 March 2018 (Case C-284/16), assessing its impact on investment arbitration in our country.Keywords: European Union Court of Justice, request for a preliminary ruling, investment arbitra­tion, arbitration clause, European Union Law. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Robert Basedow

Abstract The Energy Charter Treaty is the most frequently used investment treaty worldwide to launch investment arbitration against host states. The vast majority of disputes is of intra-European Union nature in that they involve an EU investor as claimant and an European Union member state as respondent. The recent Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union may thus have ramifications for the Energy Charter Treaty. The judgment has triggered a heated legal and political debate within the European Union over the future of intra-European Union investment arbitration. In the context of this debate, the European Commission claimed that the application of the Energy Charter Treaty in intra-European Union investment disputes is based on an incorrect interpretation of this treaty. This article critically assesses the Commission’s statement by evaluating the travaux préparatoires of the Energy Charter Treaty as a supplementary means of interpretation. It finds that the European Union member states and the European Commission in all likelihood opted for a mixed ratification for legal reasons rather than to ensure its intra-European Union applicability. Indeed, the EU initially pushed for a disconnection clause to prevent the application of the Energy Charter Treaty in intra-European Union relations but dropped this request during the negotiations. At least from a historical perspective then, the Commission’s claim that the Energy Charter Treaty is not meant to apply in intra-European Union relations is inaccurate in that the European Union consciously accepted this possibility.


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