According to the country's minister for ecological transition, Spain has started the process of leaving the Energy Charter Treaty.
The process to lessen the pact's safeguards for fossil fuel projects, according to Teresa Ribera, has "not improved," she told POLITICO.
The 1994 treaty was established to safeguard financial investments in energy infrastructure in former Soviet Union nations. It offers extensive safeguards for investors against governmental interference.
These protections have been employed recently to bring legal action against nations for adopting climate-friendly policies, including limiting oil extraction and phase-outs of coal power.
The European Union has made amending the agreement to remove safeguards for fossil fuels a top goal. A proposal that came out of talks in June would have allowed the EU and UK to gradually remove its protections for fossil fuels, but the idea has drawn criticism from environmental organisations and certain EU nations.
For the past two years, Spain has threatened to quit unless the process produces significant reform.
Spain will now "certainly" pull out of the agreement, Ribera, who was in Prague for a meeting with EU energy ministers, has said in the text.
The treaty features a sunset provision, which states that any nation that withdraws shall be exposed to legal action for 20 years after doing so. Ribera declined to respond when asked if Spain felt it would be bound by this article. The lower chamber of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, decided to leave the Energy Charter Treaty last week. The Senate must now approve that measure.
