Video: Habeck: “The Energy Charter Treaty has proven to be an obstacle to change in the past”

STORY: (NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS WITHOUT SPEAKER TEXT) Robert Habeck (Die Grünen), Federal Minister of Economics on Wednesday in Berlin: “The Energy Charter Treaty has proven to be an obstacle to change in the past. It follows a logic that questions raises. That namely against state decisions, resolutions that are made and implemented by parliaments and governments, can be sued against the states before private arbitral tribunals. We experienced that with the German nuclear phase-out. And we experienced it with the coal phase-out in the Netherlands. In This is the wrong instrument at a time when the energy system is being transformed. And that is why it is right when it is said that the Energy Charter Treaty is set up and acts against the intention of the Paris Agreement on climate neutrality. We are on this decision not alone. Italy left a few years ago. France, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and d Luxembourg have also made decisions to withdraw.” // “We have a new German trade policy agenda. A trade policy agenda that contradicts the past: here are those who say free trade agreements are above everything else and they are great and they guarantee that things will progress economically. And here the others who say: Well, it’s not all that great, because what is defined as thresholds for trade there are actually rights that were fought for in election campaigns and created in social conflicts, environmental protection rights, climate protection rights or social standards. You can’t just dismiss them as non-tariff barriers to trade, as the saying goes. This contradiction, which has paralyzed Germany for years and has led to the largest economic power in Europe not being able to speak out on trade policy, has we have overcome them in such a way that the protected goods, climate protection or social standards, are not something that is added to trade policy , but integrated into trade policy. The aim of action is for the world and economies to become climate-neutral. And with that we have resolved a contradiction that paralyzed Germany, paralyzed trade policy and which now allows us to do so. I would say that we will do our utmost to ensure that we make progress in terms of trade policy and that we can conclude new agreements at this level with this requirement.”

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