Statement from the Commission on clarifications discussed with Germany regarding investment protection in the context of the CETA agreement

The EU and Canada are trusted and like-minded partners that share the same goals when it comes to promoting open, sustainable and fair trade. Our EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) aims to support our common objective of climate protection. In this context, the European Commission has engaged in constructive discussions with the German Federal Government to prepare a text that clarifies certain provisions in CETA. The result of these technical discussions is a more precise definition of the concepts of ‘indirect expropriation’ and ‘fair and equitable treatment’ of investors. The aim is to ensure that the parties can regulate in the framework of climate, energy and health policies, inter alia, to achieve legitimate public objectives, while at the same time preventing the misuse of the investor to State dispute settlement mechanism by investors. The new draft text agreed by the Commission and the Federal Government provides legal certainty and it now needs to be supported by all other EU Member States. Once this is the case, we will consult our Canadian partners so that the new definitions can be adopted by the CETA Joint Committee as soon as possible.