argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: State aid - Compensation - Recognition

The decision of the E.U. Court for having declared the incompetence of the European Commission which had rejected the compensation from part of Romania of Swedish investors judging it to be an illegitimate form of state aid. The recognition of the right to reparation took place when Romania was already a Member State of the European Union. Brussels can put under the lens the compensation of tax breaks subject to an agreement between two European States decided by arbitration award after the accession of the Member State obliged to pay. And even if the regime from which the recognition of the sums derives was implemented and canceled before this accession. At the center of the story is the agreement of 29 May 2002 between the Kingdom of Sweden and Romania for the conclusion of the bilateral investment treaty for the promotion and mutual protection of investments. In 2005, as part of the negotiations for Romania’s accession to the Union (which took place on 1 January 2007), the Romanian government abolished a national tax incentive scheme in favor of certain investors from disadvantaged regions. And some Swedish investors believed Romania had violated its obligation to ensure fair and equitable treatment of their investments and called for the establishment of an arbitral tribunal in order to obtain damages. The arbitration award adopted in 2013 condemned Romania to pay Swedish investors approximately 178 million euros. For the Court, State aid in the form of compensation was granted at the time of the abrogation of the tax regime and not at the time of recognition of the right to obtain it which, as mentioned, only took place in 2013. when the competence of the Commission was fully operational towards Romania.