20 Years of the Energy Charter Treaty

Distinguished secretaries-general, ladies and gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to speak to you today, in the presence of so many distinguished colleagues and in the wonderful premises of the World Bank, about the nearly two decades that have elapsed since the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was signed on 17 December 1994.2 Much has happened during that time, both within the Energy Charter constituency and beyond, and the world today is very different from the world of two decades ago. Personally, I feel humbled, as well as honoured, to be addressing you today because I know that many colleagues here have been associated with the Energy Charter for longer than I have and are at least as well qualified as I am to talk about it. Nonetheless, I have spent some time, during my seven years as General Counsel to the Energy Charter Secretariat, thinking about the achievements and the potential of the ECT, and I have actively continued my interest in the Treaty, both intellectually and professionally, following my return to private practice. I think that if you were to ask the average intelligent and energy-focused (but not specifically informed) lawyer about the ECT, he or she would probably say: ‘That’s the treaty that Russia doesn’t want to sign because it requires third-party access to gas pipelines’ or, possibly, ‘That’s the treaty that Russia doesn’t want to sign because of the Yukos case’. Those who have made the Treaty a specific focus of their career know, of course, that these statements are misconceptions from a legal viewpoint, although, politically and in the court of public opinion, they may carry a lot of weight. However, I think it is important at this time to ask: first, what the ECT has achieved; second, what it has not (or not yet) achieved and why; and, finally, what needs to happen in order that it might achieve more.