Decision 2024/1645 - Position to be taken on behalf of Euratom in the Energy Charter Conference - Main contents

Official Journal

of the European Union

EN

L series

2024/1645

6.6.2024

The Energy Charter Treaty (the ‘Agreement’) was concluded by European Atomic Energy Community (‘the Euratom’) by means of Council and Commission Decision 98/181/EC, ECSC, Euratom (1) and entered into force on 16 April 1998.

In the absence of any substantial update of the Agreement since the 1990s, the Agreement became increasingly outdated.

In 2019, the Contracting Parties to the Agreement (the ‘Contracting Parties’) engaged in negotiations aimed at modernising the Agreement in order to bring it into alignment with the principles of the Paris Agreement adopted on 12 December 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the requirements of sustainable development and the fight against climate change, as well as with modern standards of investment protection.

During an ad hoc Conference on 24 June 2022, the Contracting Parties reached an agreement in principle on the modernised text of the Agreement, thus concluding the negotiations, without prejudice to the final assessment by the Contracting Parties. The negotiated outcome was meant to be adopted at the 33rd meeting of the Energy Charter Conference on 22 November 2022.

Pursuant to Article 34 of the Agreement, the Energy Charter Conference adopts texts of amendments to the Agreement and approves modifications of, and technical changes to, the Annexes to the Agreement.

The Energy Charter Conference is to adopt the proposed amendments to the Agreement and to approve (i) the proposed modifications and technical changes to the Annexes to the Agreement; (ii) the proposed changes to decisions, declarations and understandings; and (iii) the decision regarding the entry into force and provisional application of amendments to the Agreement and modifications and technical changes to its Annexes. It is expected that the Conference will retable the proposed amendments for adoption in the course of 2024.

In parallel to the present proposal, the Commission has tabled a proposal for a Council Decision on the withdrawal of Euratom from the Agreement that is to be adopted at the same time with this proposal.

It is appropriate for Euratom not to exercise its vote at the Energy Charter Conference voting on the proposed amendments to the Agreement and to establish the positions to be taken by the Member States that are Contracting Parties for matters falling under Euratom’s competence. This is without prejudice to the division of competences between the Euratom and the Member States and any future coordination after the withdrawal of Euratom from the Agreement.

The draft conference decisions on the modernisation of the Agreement provide that some amendments to the Agreement as well as the modifications and changes to the Annexes of the Agreement will apply provisionally as of a date to be determined by the Contracting Parties, unless a Contracting Party opts out by making a declaration to that effect within a specific deadline. The Euratom therefore should take a position on the provisional application of the modernised Agreement. Subject to the adoption of the modernised Agreement by the Energy Charter Conference, the Council, pursuant to Article 218(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,...