This report is part of the activities carried out by the Energy Charter Secretariat in 2016-2017 aimed at preparing the groundwork on policy options for eliminating barriers to the establishment of energy investments. It contributes to these activities by answering the research questions: what are the international legal instruments available for removing barriers to the establishment of energy investments? What is the current practice of negotiating pre-investment obligations? What are the challenges in negotiating a new binding instrument in the energy sector and what lessons can be learnt from past experiences? What are the opportunities for negotiating a non-binding instrument?
This report has been prepared by Ms. Maiko Meguro who was a research fellow at the Secretariat and a former deputy director of Economic Partnership Division, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan. She was an officer in charge of the investment and service chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), the Japan-Turkey EPA, and also other Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). She is currently on sabbatical from the Government of Japan, and based at University of Amsterdam. The report was prepared in cooperation with Mr. Matteo Barra who was a Senior Investment Expert at the Energy Charter Secretariat.