The EU’s new “court” would judge investment disputes between parties inside and outside Europe. But what of investment disputes within Europe? That’s the subject of a separate power struggle.
Eurocrats have long argued that intra-EU investment treaties violate the single market principle by favoring certain investors. Most arbitrators reply, “Tough noogies.” Brussels insists that states must shred the nearly 200 intra-EU investment treaties. But the shredders are only humming in Denmark, Ireland and Italy. The commission has sued Austria, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden, and taken initial steps against the rest. Perhaps most aggressively, Brussels has ordered Romania not to pay the $250 million awarded by arbitrators to intra-EU investors in the 2014 ruling of Micula v. Romania.
