INVESTMENT REGULATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

Introduction: The article presents a review of investment regulation in the European Union free trade agreements. Investment is of great importance for the European Union as it contributes to the development and competitiveness of European enterprises. Until recently, issues related to investment, were not included in the EU free trade agreements, being regulated on the international level. However, the situation has changed after the Lisbon Treaty entered into force and the EU was given the right to make decisions in the field of investment policy, which is part of its commercial policy,. The free trade agreements have become a major tool for the regulation of investment relations of the European Union with third countries. The author examines which regimes and guarantees can be provided by the European Union in such agreements in relation to foreign investors and investments.The article presents the analysis of investment provisions in several EU agreements concluded with third countries. Moreover, the author deals with the issue of settlement of disputes between investors and States in the EU free trade agreements, in particular, with the new mechanism in the context of two trade agreements of the European Union: Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the US and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada.Materials and methods: the methodological basis of the research consists of general scientific and special methods of cognition of legal phenomena and processes in the field of international trade law: the method of systemic structural analysis; method of synthesis of the socio-legal phenomena; the comparative legal method, formal logical method; statistical method. Results: the analysis reveales that for a long period of time the agreements of the European Union on free trade with third countries did not contain mechanisms for the protection of foreign investments. Such a mechanism is proposed in several agreements made after 2010, including the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement concluded between the EU and Canada in October 2016. It represents a fundamentally new approach to the resolution of investment disputes between parties in which the special system of investment courts instead of the current mechanism of «investor- to-state» dispute settlement. The new system provides a number of innovations, including the introduction of appellate court and mediation, selection of judges, among whom there will be citizens of both parties to the agreement.This new system has both advantages and disadvantages, which are primarily associated with providing investors with broader powers in this matter.Discussion and Conclusions: the use of a new mechanism of investment dispute settlement in EU agreements on free trade is substantiated; its main advantages and disadvantages are analyzed; the possibility of incorporating such systems in subsequent bilateral or multilateral trade agreements, including the Transatlantic trade and investment partnership between the EU and the USA is discussed and substantiated.

European Union, USA, Canada, Transatlantic trade and investment partnership, Comprehensive economic trade agreement, free trade agreements, foreign investments, investor-to-state dispute settlement, investment court system

1. European Commission Concept paper «Investment in TTIP and beyond - the path for reform. Enhancing the right to regulate and moving from current ad hoc arbitration towards an Investment Court», published on 5 May 2015.

2. European Commission draft text TTIP-investment. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: trade in services, investment and e-commerce.

3. European Commission Investment Court System press-release of 16.09.2015: «Commission proposes new Investment Court System for TTIP and other EU trade and investment negotiations».

4. European Commission staff working document. Report Online public consultation on investment protection and investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP). Brussels, 13.1.2015 (2015) 3 final.

5. ISDC: What’s in a name? // CBA-ABC National magazine, № 5, September, 2015.

6. Бирюкова О.В. Модели участия стран в региональных торговых соглашениях в области услуг // Российский внешнеэкономический вестник. № 4. 2014.

7. Интервью с вице-президентом по европейским делам торговой палаты СШа // Сайт торговой палаты США. 25.02.2016.

8. Исполинов А. Европейский Союз и реформа инвестарбитража: вынужденная жертва или дымовая завеса? // Закон.ру. № 4. 2015.

9. Консолидированный текст Всеобъемлющего торгово-экономического соглашения // Официальный сайт Директората по торговле европейской комиссии.

10. Натов Н.А. Европейский Союз и иностранные инвестиции: некоторые вопросы, возникшие после принятия ЕС новой Директивы от 12.12.2012 г. // Чешский ежегодник по международному праву «Способы регулирования внешней торговли». часть IV, 2013 год.

11. Никитин В.В. Трансграничные инвестиционные договоры в СШа. адаптация Россией правового регулирования // Инновации и инвестиции, №1, 2014 год.

12. Сайт Генерального Директората по торговле европейской Комиссии.

13. Сайт статистической службы ЕС Евростат.

14. Текcт Североамериканского соглашения о свободной торговле // Официальный сайт НАФТА.

15. Франц Д., Забродин А. ЕС идет на американский рынок через Канаду: новый судебный механизм открывает Европе двери в свободную торговлю // Независимая газета. 02.03.2016.

16. Юнкер призвал страны Евросоюза поддержать пакт о ЗСТ с Канадой // Сайт РИа-новости. 04.09.2016.

17. Сардарян Г.Т. Влияние органов ЕС на процесс регионализации в Итальянской республике // Право и управление. XXI век. 2014. № 2.

18. Субочев В.В. Законные интересы и принципы права: аспекты взаимосвязи // Философия права. 2007. № 2.

19. Малько А.В., Субочев В.В., Шериев A.M. Cубъективные права, свободы и законные интересы как самостоятельные объекты охраны и защиты // Правовая политика и правовая жизнь. 2008. № 1.