Introduction: Why an Energy Charter? (ECT Special)
Article from: OGEL 5 (2004), in The Energy Charter Treaty
Introduction
The roots of the Energy Charter date back to a political initiative launched in Europe in the early 1990s, at a time when the end of the Cold War offered an unprecedented opportunity to overcome the previous economic divisions on the European continent. Nowhere were the prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between East and West clearer than in the energy sector. Russia and many of its neighbours were rich in energy resources but needed major investments to ensure their development, whilst the states of Western Europe had a strategic interest in diversifying their sources of energy ...