Round up of Q1 2019 activities

The first quarter of 2019 has been very busy indeed. Here are some highlights.

On 31 January EFILA hosted its 4th Annual Conference in London. More than 100 participants attended the conference. The keynote speaker was Colin Brown of DG Trade focusing on the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC). As Secretary General of EFILA I am particularly proud that we organized yet again another excellent conference.

Also in January, I was (together with Gerard Meijer) part of the Bon Bini trade mission to Curacao where we participated in a panel and gave a guest lecture at the University of Curacao. For both events, we discussed the benefits of Dutch BITs for Curacao and advised Curacao to ensure that it maintains the application of the Dutch BITs – even though some of them will be terminated due to the Achmea judgment and pressure by the EU.

In March, I started to advise a Dutch law firm on new BIT case, representing the investor.

In the first week of April, I attended the UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS reforms representing EFILA. It was an interesting week and the negotiations will continue in Vienna next autumn.

On 8 April the Wall Street Journal published an excellent and well-balanced piece on why foreign investors still need BITs when they invest in Europe. The article contains the following quote: “The high number of cases against EU member states is a clear evidence of the backsliding of the rule-of-law level in those countries” said Nikos Lavranos, a Dutch lawyer for international investment disputes. “The EU institutions failed to effectively address this development even after 15 years of EU membership”.

Finally, I also wrote the following blogposts:

SAVE the DATE! The Dutch Arbitration Association Investment Arbitration Committee will organize an event on 21 May regarding the new Dutch model BIT tekst. Click here for more information & registration.