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2 - The European Union’s New International Investment Policy and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals

Integration as a Motor of Substantive Policy Change?

from Part I - Penetration and Diffusion of the Sustainable Development Goals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
J. Robert Basedow
Edited by
Cosimo Beverelli ,
Jürgen Kurtz  and
Damian Raess
Cosimo Beverelli
Affiliation:
World Trade Organization
Jürgen Kurtz
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
Damian Raess
Affiliation:
World Trade Institute, University of Bern
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Summary

This chapter assesses whether the EU’s recent empowerment to conclude international investment agreements has made these agreements more development-friendly. Focusing on the EU’s choice of partner countries, substantive protection and treatment provisions as well as procedural provisions on investor-to-state dispute settlement, the chapter finds that the EU’s international investment agreements (IIAs) have indeed become more development-friendly in comparison to the international investment agreements of EU member states. They strengthen state interests vis-à-vis investor interests. The chapter tests whether these policy changes are due to European law obligations applying to EU international investment agreements, increased politicisation of IIA policy-making in the context of EU’s Common Commercial Policy, or the aggregation of diverse member state preferences into a common European approach. It finds that politicisation and aggregation of member state preferences primarily fuelled policy changes while legal obligations played no significant role. From a theoretical perspective, the chapter lends support to rational choice institutionalism, which suggest that institutional changes affect policy substance.

Keywords

foreign direct investmentinvestor state dispute settlementEuropean UnionSustainable Development Goalsbilateral investment treatiesregulatory space
Type
Chapter
Information
International Trade, Investment, and the Sustainable Development Goals
World Trade Forum
 , pp. 50 - 75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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