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On May 30, 2025, it will be one year since the EU Council officially approved the decision for the European Union and Euratom to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). In light of this, what can be expected going forward, and what forecasts can be made?

Recent developments around the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), with an increasing number of EU member states exiting the agreement, send a clear message: the traditional legal safeguards for international investments are no longer a given. This shift is especially critical for businesses operating in energy, infrastructure, and tech—sectors where projects are capital-intensive and exposed to political volatility.

What does this mean in practice? Investors and project owners need to rethink how they structure cross-border deals: look for alternative jurisdictions, rely on BITs outside the EU, explore political risk insurance, and—most importantly—move away from outdated assumptions about legal protection.