Addendum - OGEL 3 (2012) - OGEL Ten Years Special Issue: Internationalisation of Energy Law
Published 26 May 2014
Energy Charter Treaty: Past, Present and Future
[Added to the special May 2014] On July 30, 2009, the then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed Government Order No. 1055-r discontinuing the provisional application by the Russian Federation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). On August 24, 2009, in accordance with Article 45 (3-a) of the Treaty, Russia notified in writing the depositary of the Energy Charter (the government of Portugal) of its intention not to become a Contracting Party to the ECT. Sixty days later, Russia ceased to be a party applying the ECT on a provisional basis. On October 19, 2009, it became (along with Australia, Iceland, and Norway) a country that has signed but not ratified the Treaty, i.e. made a step back, as it were, while remaining within the Treaty (as the Signatory of the ECT) and the Charter process nonetheless.
Is there a reasonable ground for this step and who wins from my country’s termination of the provisional application of the only multilateral interstate instrument protecting investments in the energy industry? In this paper the author examines the reasoning behind the Energy Charter developments in regard to the evolution of Russia’s position to the Energy Charter process and the Treaty, up to the moment of this country’s withdrawal from the ECT provisional application.
Footnotes omitted from this introduction.