ECIPE Seminar: Whither Investment Protection in EU Policy?

While the issue is subject to controversy now that the EU is negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States, the European Union needs a policy for investment protection with many countries. Even if the debate now has become ideological, there are several lessons to be drawn from the history of investor-state disputes, including recent cases such as the one between Repsol and Argentina. The European Commission has signalled ambitions to reform some aspects of investment protection that exist in the Bilateral Investment Treaties that member states previously have signed. What should be the direction of these reforms?