Is the intention to have Member States negotiate on behalf of the European Union?
The assumption there is wrong. We have proposed a clause in the regulation, Article 9.2, which says we may ask our Member States to introduce certain standard clauses in future investment agreements. In the explanatory memorandum which accompanies the proposed regulation, we include some examples, such as termination clauses, transfer clauses (which is an issue which has been identified by the ECJ) and the possibility of introducing MFN clauses. Yet, that does not mean that we will automatically insist on having MFN clauses in every agreement. That said, one of the key concerns for the European Commission is discrimination among EU investors: the fact that some investors now have better treatment than others, and some have no treatment under BITs for the lack of BITs. This is the issue we want to deal with. The MFN provision is an interesting mechanism to deal with the problem, essentially by asking our Member States to request from their partner countries to extend the benefits of a B
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