EFILA – at the heart of the TTIP beast (Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership)
Please support a demonstration to take place outside Senate House on 23rd Jan at 8.00am against the Inaugural Conference of EFILA ” European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration”
Is it acceptable that a group of legal firms pose as a think tank EFILA to “foster an objective debate about the current system of investment arbitration”. (Investor State Dispute Settlement – ISDS) when in fact they are simply are protecting their own financial interests and are little more than a lobbying group for the arbitration industry? Is it right they are allowed to use the University of London’s Senate House to mount their inaugural conference in order to give them a spurious academic legitimacy?
BACKGROUND
ISDS has come under increasing criticism and pressure from governments, political parties and civil society amounting to a wholesale backlash against ISDS culminating in the consultation by the EC which revealed overwhelming public opposition
“The consultation clearly shows that there is a huge scepticism against the ISDS instrument”, said Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade. This has led to the suspension of ISDS from the TTIP negotiations. But this does not mean it has been removed from ISDS rather the intention is to reformulate it and bring it back at a later point in the negotiations.
The EC made some changes to ISDS in CETA but while civil society organisation and a number of academics find that the EC reform proposals with regard to ISDS are far away from sufficiently addressing the flaws of the system, EFILA is of the opinion that the reform proposals go way too far.EFILA’s contribution to the debate rejects nearly all the modernising proposals put forward by the European Commission and seeks to maintain the status quo in practically every aspect. EFILA even goes further ” it may be more appropriate to combine financial compensation with the order to repeal the contested measure or modify the underlying law”
Founding members are key law firmsand individuals in the arbitration industry: White & Case, Luther, MannheimerSwartling, Linklaters, Shearman and Sterling, Herbert Smith Freehills and NautahDuthil and insurance company Achmea, (formerly Eureko).The members of the executive board all work for law firms known to be making large amounts of money with investment arbitration. (one case involved legal fees and expenses of more than US$ 79.6 million)Nikos Lavanos left his Dutch government position in August 2014 to join Global Investment Protection AG (GIP) and is the Secretary General of EFILA. “With Nikos Lavranos in our team we can offer investors hands-on knowledge on how to defend their assets against destructive government interventions“, explains GIP Managing Director Georg Hotar
PLEASE ADD YOUR VOICE TO PROTEST AGAINST EFILA AND ITS INAUGURAL CONFERENCE AT SENATE HOUSE MALET ST Friday Jan 23RD at 8.OOam to greet the delegates. Also at 1.15pm in their lunch break and to inform the general public and also students in the area. We are hoping to have a few nice musical surprises and speakers.