MEPs chose to water down the Commission's proposal that would have allowed it to review national bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and, if warranted, withdraw its authorization from them.

The report adopted in the Parliament is very close to the version that emerged from the International Trade Committee. Parliament's amendments generally aim to weaken the power of the Commission in both its power to review BITs and in the reasons it can cite to withdraw authorization from them.

The Commission has proposed a regulation that would require all Member States to notify the Commission of all of their BITs, in exchange for which they would be authorised to maintain these agreements in force. After reviewing these treaties, the Commission could then withdraw this authorization, if the BIT in question conflicts with EU law, overlaps with an EU investment agreement with the same country, or conflicts with EU investment policy more generally. Reviews of BITs would no longer be mandatory, and only happen under stricter circumstances. Moreover, the deadline by which the Commission needs to inform Parliament of the results of the review process was also extended from five to ten years after the entry into force of the regulation.

Unless the Member States fully accept the Parliament's version, the regulation will go into a second reading. Parliament's vote sets the stage for negotiations with Council to begin shortly.