歐盟國際投資協定政策的革新及其對中歐BIT談判的影響

The Re-Calibration of EU International Investment Agreement Policy and Its Impact on China—EU BIT Negotiation

歐盟綜合性國際投資政策的實施是近年國際投資法領域最重大的發展之一。2009年《里斯本條約》生效後，外國直接投資成為歐盟的專屬權能。依據新增加的權能，歐盟決定將國際投資協定的範圍擴至投資自由化條款、投資保護條款和可持續發展條款，逐步取代成員國締結的雙邊投資協定。《歐盟－－加拿大綜合經濟和貿易協定》和《歐盟－－新加坡自由貿易協定》是實施新政策後最先簽署的綜合性國際投資協定。相較於成員國雙邊投資協定，新的歐盟投資協定引入了諸多革新舉措，意在實現投資者利益和締約國公共利益的再平衡，增強投資爭端解決機制的合法性。中歐雙方晚近投資協定的實踐日益趨同，但在具體規則層面，仍然有不少差別。這些差別可能成為中歐投資協定談判中的焦點。

The launch of the EU comprehensive investment policy represents one of the most significant development in the area of international investment law in recent years. Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the scope of the EU’s exclusive competence has been extended to include competence by negotiating comprehensive investment agreements covering investment liberalization, investment protection and sustainable development. These agreements will gradually replace BITs signed by individual Member States. The freshly concluded CETA with Canada and FTA with Singapore are the first two products of the EU comprehensive investment policy. Compared to member State BITs, these two agreements substantially recalibrated investment protection provisions, with a view to rebalancing investors’ rights and host countries’ public interests and improving the legitimacy of ISDS regime. This suggests an ongoing trend of convergence between the EU and China on treaty practice. However, divergence remains deep on a variety of rules, which might be the key challenges to successfully negotiating a China—EU BIT.