Jordanian Government Decides to Accede to the Energy Charter Treaty - From http://www.encharter.org/

From: http://www.encharter.org/index.php?id=21&id_article=605&L=0 Publication of 05/02/2015

Jordanian Government Decides to Accede to the Energy Charter Treaty

Energy Charter Deputy Secretary General Amb. Selim Kuneralp visited Amman (Jordan) on 3-5 February 2015. During this visit, Amb. Kuneralp held meetings with the Chairman and members of the Energy Committee of the Jordanian Parliament, the Secretaries General of the Ministries of Energy and Planning, the Director General of the Foreign Ministry and the Managing Director of the National Electric Power Company.

In the course of these meetings, Amb. Kuneralp reviewed with his counterparts the progress which the Jordanian authorities are making towards acceding to the Energy Charter Treaty, as well as the advantages of membership in the organisation for Jordan.

Jordan has been an observer to the Energy Charter since 2007. The country has completed its accession reports and has been invited to accede to the legally-binding Treaty by the Energy Charter Conference, the organisation's top governing and decision-making body. Once Jordan's parliamentary procedures are completed, the country will deposit its instrument of ratification with the government of Portugal – the depository of the Energy Charter Treaty. The Treaty will enter into force for Jordan and the country will become the 55th ECT member ninety days after this procedure is completed, in accordance with ECT Article 44(2).

Comment by Nikolai Sosa Rebelo – Law-and-Arbitration-Blog

The Energy Charter provides the foundations of international regulation about the energy sector with the intention to encourage the investments in renewable sources of energy. Therefore, this treaty has many types of provisions on this topic. The signing States are submitted to the rules created by the charter. But how this relates to our blog? Well, there is a big relationship between the Energy Charter and arbitration. The preferred method of dispute resolution is the amicably negotiated resolution; however, if that procedure fails to obtain the solution, the treaty provides that the arbitration is the way to do so. This is very important to encourage the investments in renewable energy sources, because it secures the enforcement of the rules of the treaty in an independent tribunal. Thus, Jordanian Government is entering in the group of countries that are agreeing to resolve investments disputes in energy investments by arbitration, unless the law of the country provides exceptions to the unconditional submission to the arbitration agreement of the treaty. In that case, the Jordanian government needs to provide a written statement of policies, practices and conditions to the Secretariat of the Energy Charter. According to the Article 26 of the Energy Charter Treaty, the investor may choose arbitration or the local courts to settle their disputes with the Government of the host country and the host country should agree with the procedure chosen by the counterparty.