On 11 May 2017 the Energy Charter Secretariat held an interactive seminar on investment mediation to provide government officials with a practical understanding of the key issues involved in investment mediation with foreign investors and with relevant advice on how to deal with potential obstacles. The seminar gathered government officials from 15 countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, as well as the European Union.
The Seminar was opened by Alejandro Carballo, the General Counsel of the Secretariat, who introduced and explained the recently adopted International Energy Charter Investment Mediation Guide. After a fruitful exchange of experiences among the government officials, Wolf von Kumberg, ArbDB Chambers, explained how mediation was perceived from the investor’s side.
Mark Appel, Chair of the IMI Investor-State Mediation Task Force, moved to discuss how to assess, propose and prepare for mediation, while James South, CEDR Director of Training, focused on the particularities of conducting the mediation. Hernando Otero, Adjunct Prof. and Fellow at the Washington College of Law, explained which were the most common perceived obstacles within the governments and how they could be effectively addressed.
Finally, Frauke Nitschke, Team Leader / Legal Counsel at ICSID, gave a practical overview and some advice regarding ICSID conciliation process.
Further efforts to promote investment mediation as an useful tool to amicable settle investment disputes will continue with the upcoming accreditation training for investment mediators co-organised by the Secretariat with ICSID, IMI and CEDR in Washington DC in June.
