The Secretary General Dr. Urban Rusnák opened the meeting that was chaired by Mr Parviz Garibzade from Azerbaijan. Director Mr Steivan Defilla, gave his welcome remarks to delegates. 

Dr. Matteo Barra, Investment Expert at the Secretariat, introduced the revised guidelines that will strengthen the Energy Charter energy investment country reports towards transparency, investment promotion and dissemination of Energy Charter activities. In addition, the Secretariat proposed the concept of an annual flagship publication for the risk assessment of energy investments in cooperation with other international organisations and financial institutions such as UNCTAD, the World Bank (the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) and the International Monetary Fund.

Mr. Andreas Xeonofontos, Energy Charter Research Fellow, presented the Energy Charter country review of the Republic of Cyprus, and Dr. Barra illustrated the policy recommendations for the domestic investment and energy policy, including the liberalization of the power sector, the development of the domestic gas market, the development of the upstream sector, the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency. 

The Secretariat reported on the update of the Energy Charter Blue Book, the transparency register of exceptions to the establishment and treatment of energy investments. Dr. Alejandro Carballo, Legal Counsel of the Secretariat, illustrated the legal status of the Supplementary Treaty and the history of its negotiations between 1995 and 2003, inviting the delegates to consider the opportunity of resuming the negotiations in the light of the recent debates energy market access. 

As usual, considerable attention was paid to investment promotion and protection. Dr. Carballo, presented the draft guidelines on investment mediation prepared by the Secretariat together with International Mediation Institute (IMI), International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). Dr. Barra, commented the updated statistics on investment arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty. Mrs. Elisabeth Tuerk, Chief of the International Investment Agreements Section at UNCTAD, reported on joint activities by UNCTAD and the Energy Charter (training programme, investment report, investment forum and expert meetings) and on the 2015 Investment Policy Framework providing concrete guidelines for a domestic and international investment policy that balances public interest and investors’ needs. Mr. N. Jansen Calamita, Director of the Investment Treaty Forum, illustrated the conclusions of the 2015 industry survey “Risk and Return Foreign Direct Investment and the Rule of Law” on what is the added value of international investment agreements and how seriously they are considered by corporate decision makers.

The Secretariat opened the discussion on Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) investments. Mrs. Adriana Viloria, trainee at the Energy Charter, presented a legal and policy analysis of CCS investment and whether they should be notified as energy efficiency investments. 

Mrs. Han Wang, energy expert seconded by the National Energy Administration of China to the Secretariat, presented a preliminary report on energy investments in China.

Mr. Patrick Larkin, Energy Charter Senior Advisor, introduced the draft Terms of Reference for the establishment of an ad hoc Task Force on energy cooperation in favour of island states. 

Finally Mr. Defilla, item illustrated proposed Energy Charter activities to support achievements of UN Sustainable Development Goals.